Sports - Current Affairs for December, 2016

India’s Test captain Virat Kohli was on 27 Dec 2016 named Cricket Australia’s ODI team of the year.

He was earlier picked as Captain of the ICC ODI team of the year.

Cricket Australia stated Kohli played 10 ODIs in 2016

He scored back to back centuries against Australia in Jan 2016 and 154 against New Zealand.

Currently, he averages an incredible 90.10 in 59 successful run chases for India.

Cricket Australia’s ODI Team of Year:

• Virat Kohli (India, Captain)
• David Warner (Australia)
• Quinton de Kock (South Africa, Wicket Keeper)
• Steve Smith (Australia)
• Babar Azam (Pakistan)
• Mitchell Marsh (Australia)
• Jos Buttler (England)
• Jasprit Bumrah (India)
• Imran Tahir (South Africa)

Know More About Virat Kohli


• He is a right handed batsman.
• Ranked 8^th in 2016 ESPN list of famous athletes.
• Debuted in 2016.
• Captained the U-19 team to victory in the 2008 World Cup in Malaysia.
• Made ODI debut at age 19 and test debut in 2011.
• Ranked number 1 in ICC ranking for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013.
• Won the Man of the Tournament in ICC T20 in 2014 and 2016.
• Only batsman in the world to average more than 50 across all game formats.

Samit Gohel broke a 117 year old record in first class cricket.

A Ranji player from Gujarat, he scored 359 runs not out in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

He was able to set a world record with 45 boundaries and one six in 723 balls.

Samit remained not out in his team’s score of 641, which was the highest first-class score for team Gujarat.

With this score, Gujarat was able to enter into the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy.

Samit, 26, registered the highest first-class 359 while carrying the bat in a match against Odisha at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

With his score, he also broke the first-class record held by an Englishman, Bobby Abel.

Surrey’s Bobby Abel scored 357 against Somerset way back in 1899 at the Oval.

While Hanif Mohammed’s score of 499 remains the highest score by an opener in first-class cricket.

Other Records Set by Samit Gohel

• Highest score carrying the bat in first-class cricket
• Highest second-innings score in first-class cricket
• Longest innings by minutes in first-class cricket
• Joint 4th highest score of the Ranji Trophy

Meghalaya will be hosting the 2022 National Games which will coincide with the state's 50 years of statehood.

The state has pledged INR 5 crores as the bid amount for the game.

Meghalaya is set to become the the third NE state after Manipur and Assam to host the National Games.

The news was announced on 27 December 2016 in the meeting of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) meeting held in Chennai.

The IOA accepted Meghalaya's bid to host the National Games overshadowing four other bidders, which were Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

Following the successful South Asian Game co-hosted by Shillong and Guwhati in 2016, thiis marks the first National Games for the NE state.

Next national games will be hosted in Goa in November 2017.

Know More About National Games

• Comprises various sports disciplines.
• Sportsmen from different states of India participate against each other.
• Country's first few Olympic Games, later called National Games were held in: Delhi, Lahore, Allahabad, Patiala, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay.
• In 1924, the provision Indian Olympic Association came up.
• In Feb 1924, the Indian Olympic Games was held in Delhi.
• The aim was to select the Indian competitors for the upcoming Olympics.
• Now these games are held every two years.
• Called National Games since the 1940 9th Game in 1940, the 2015 Nationla Games were held In Kerala.
• Sachin Tendulkar was goodwill ambassador for the games.

Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri on 25^th Dec 2016 won the title of USD 10,000 ITF Hong Kong F4 Futures.

It was the first singles trophy of the season & 11^th title on the ITF Pro Circuit.

India’s third seed defeated tournament’s number 2, Shintaro Imai of Japan 6-4,7-5.

With the win, the world number 534 takes away USD1440 in prize money along with 18 ATP ranking points.

Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Taipei and Pak Long Yeung from Hong Kong defeated Hong Kong’s Karan

Rastogi and Jack Wong to win the doubles title 5-7, 6-3, 10-4.

Bhambri is an Indian professional tennis player and former Junior No. 1.

A winner of the 2009 Australian Open Junior Championship, he is the first Indian to seal victory in the junior Australian Open Title.

He is also the 4th Indian to ever capture a junior singles Grand Slam championship title.

Know More About ITF

• ITF Men's Circuit is a series of professional tennis tournaments held internationally.
• Organised by - International Tennis Federation.
• The 2016 ITF Men's Circuit is a 2016 edition of the second tier tour for men's professional tennis.
• Award money ranges from USD 10,000 to 25,000.

Ravichandran Ashwin on 22^nd Dec 2016 won the coveted Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.

Ashwin was chosen for the award after being adjudged the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year.

With this, he became the second Indian player after Rahul Dravid to bag the two prestigious prizes in the same year.

Ace cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar won the prestigious award in 2010.

Other recipients of the trophy include Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mitchell Johnson and others.

Ravichandran Ashwin: Know More

• Right handed batsman.
• Right arm off break bowler.
• Plays for Rising Pune Supergiants in IPL.
• Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler to reach the 50,100, 150 and 200 wicket mark in Test - cricket.
• He is the only bowler in recent times to bowl the carrom ball, besides Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka.

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy: Know More


• Cricket trophy awarded by ICC.
• Winner is chosen world player of the year.
• It was named after former West Indies cricket captain Sir Garfield Sobers.
• Cricketer’s name was chosen by a panel comprising Richie Benaud, Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Holding.
• Trophy was first awarded in 2004 to Rahul Dravid.
• International crystal manufacturer Swarowski has handcrafted the trophy.
• Trophy features a red crystal cricket ball studded with 4200 Swarowksi crystal chantons, which rests on a brass hand extended from the gold plated base.
• In 2015, the trophy was awarded to cricketer Steven Smith.

Shiva Keshavan, a Winter Olympian from India, has won the gold medal at the Asian Luge Championship on 23rd Dec, 2016. He survived an injury to clinch the gold at the championship in Nagano,

Keshavan dominated the event, finishing the 2 heat race, in 1:39:962 seconds, 103.4 km/hr was his top speed in the race.

Tanaka Shohei of Japan clinched the silver medal in the event with a combined time of 1:44.874 seconds. His top speed was 124.6 km/hr.

Bronze medal went to Chinese Taipei’s Lien Te-An. He completed the race in 45,120 with a top speed of 126.3 km/hr.

It is an annual Luge competition for Asian countries and it came into existence in 1998.

Competition is held in different formats, namely men and women single events and men’s double events.

All editions of the competition are held by Spiral bobsleigh luge and skeleton track at Nagano, Japan.

Apart from this, earlier in 2016, he was forced to withdraw his nomination from the 2016 World Championships

As per reports, he will participate in the 2017 World Championship that will be held in Innsbruck, Austria.

He will compete on the World Cup circuit in the lead up to the qualification process for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea.

Know More About Shiva Keshavan

• 5 time Olympian.
• Indian representative to compete in luge at Winter Olympic Games
• Born: Aug 25, 1981.
• He set a new Asian speed record at 134.3 km/h (83.5 mph) after beating the previous record of 131.9 km/h (82.0 mph).
• He won gold medal in Asia Cup 2011 at Nagano in Japan.
• In 2012, he set a new Asian track record at 49.590 seconds.

Shri, Praful Patel, President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), announced on 21 December 2016 that Jeje Lalpekhlua has been nominated as the 2016 AIFF Player of the Year.

The announcement was made at the AIFF Annual General Body Meeting held at the AIFF Football House in New Delhi.

Sasmita Malik was chosen for the 2016 AIFF Woman Footballer of the Year.

Also, AIFF selected Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Uvena Fernandes for the 2016 AIFF Award for Special Recognition awards.

The former is the first Indian to feature in a Europa League fixture. He represented Stabaek FC in the Europa League.

Uvena is the first Indian Official to officiate in a World Cup final match.

The 2016 AIFF Emerging Player of the Year went to Rowllin Borges, whereas Sanju was selected for the 2016 AIFF Emerging Women Footballer of the Year award.

The Punjab Football Association was honoured with the 2016 AIFF Award for Best Grassroots Programme.

The 2016 AIFF Award for long-time contribution to Indian Football was conferred on Nike.

Pranjal Banerjee from the Indian Football Association won the 2016 AIFF Award for Best Referee.

Joseph Tony was selected for the 2016 AIFF Award for Best Assistant Referee.


About All India Football Federation

• AIFF manages football in India.
• Oversees the Indian national football team and the I-League
• Founded in: 1937
• FIFA Affilitation in 1948.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin on 21st Dec 2016 topped the ICC Test rankings.

This marks the second time 2 Indian players have topped the ICC rankings. In 1974, left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi and leg-spinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar were ranked one and two in the rankings, respectively.

Jadeja’s 10 wicket victory against England in the 20th Dec Test match in Chennai made him achieve second position in rankings. Performance earned him 66 points.

Ashwin topped the rankings.

Also, Jadeja gained one place in the recent rankings to reach a career-best third rank in the list of all-rounders, which is also led by Ashwin.

MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) on 20 December 2016 granted full membership to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) at a meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.

The recently-formed BFI was voted to office in September 2016, which ended four years of administrative logjam in the sports.

AIBA is the sole worldwide governing body for the sport of boxing in all its forms.

It is a non-profit international organisation that succeeded the former Fédération Internationale de Boxe Amateur in 1946.

It has 196 Member Federations and works on behalf of all levels of boxing to reinvigorate the sport’s grass roots, develop youth and elite boxing.

Its vision for boxing also embraces and adheres to the spirit and values of the Olympic Movement and has been led by President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu since 2006.

BFI

• Affiliation: Sports Ministry, India
• Awaiting recognition from: IOA
• In 2012, the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) was suspended and later terminated for possible manipulation in elections.
• The IABF made way for Boxing India in 2014 which lost a no confidence motion moved by state units in 2015.
• BFI was formed in September 2016 following elections conducted in the presence of observers from the International Boxing Association and the Union Sports Ministry.

For the first time, a Sikh has secured a place at Pakistan’s national cricket academy.

Mahinder Pal Singh, who hails from Nankana Sahib in Lahore, is among the list of top 30 emerging cricketers in the country, according to news reports.

Pakistan’s cricket team has many Hindus and Christians. But the cricketing history has seen only 7 non Muslim cricketers representing the country.

Singh is the first Pakistani Sikh and the 8th non Muslim to represent Pakistan.

Know About the Pakistan Cricket Board

• Sport: Cricket
• Jurisdiction: Pakistan
• Abbreviation: PCB
• Founded: 1948
• Affiliation: International Cricket Council
• Affiliation date: 28 July 1952
• Headquarters: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
• Chairman: Shahryar Khan

Indian cricketer Karun Nair on 19^th Dec 2016 scored a triple century in the first innings of the 5th and final match against England.

The venue was the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

With this, he became the second Indian batsman to score a triple century in tests.

Earlier, Virendra Sehwag scored two triple centuries in test matches.

Nair’s unbeaten 303 helped India to score 759/7 scores and led India to a margin of 282 runs over England.

England scored 477 runs in the first innings of the match.

The Triple Century

• Scored by 26 different batsman on 30 different occasions.
• Triple centuries were scored by 8 of the 10 cricket playing nations in test.
• No cricketer from Zimbabwe or Bangladesh has scored a triple century
• First cricketer to score triple century: Andy Sandham (England).
• He scored the triple century against West Indies in 1930s.

Veteran political leader Sharad Pawar tendered his resignation from the president’s post of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), in Mumbai on 17th Dec.

The former ICC and BCCI president is one of the biggest names in BCCI administration and he has stepped down adhering to the age-cap of 70 years prescribed by the Lodha panel.

He was also stating that he is “hurt” by the perception that people stick around in BCCI as it is “lucrative”.

Pawar was in his second innings as president of the MCA after being elected last year for a two-year term. He had been MCA’s president between 2001-02 and 2010-11.

Pawar also noted the development that happened in the game around the country during his stint as the president of the Cricket Board.

During his tenure as ICC Chief, India successfully conducted the 2011 World Cup in India.

Mumbai Cricket Association

• MCA is the governing body for cricket in Mumbai.
• It also administers surrounding regions like Navi Mumbai and Thane.
• Association was established in 1930.
• It has a constitution.
• The Mumbai cricket team is the team for The Mumbai cricket association in the Ranji Trophy.
• The team has won over 41 titles, the most recent being in 2015-16.
• The Mumbai Cricket Association does not have a system of individual membership.
• It has 350 ordinary members and 25 Associate members which are affiliated to the Association.

Max Verstappen rounded off a remarkable 2016 by breaking the Formula 1 record for the most successful overtaking manoeuvres in a single season.

The Dutch driver, who became the youngest ever F1 winner when he won the Spanish Grand Prix on his first appearance for Red Bull, made 78 passing moves during 2016, as per the data calculated by Pirelli.

The Italian tyre company clarified that this was the highest number since records were first collated back in 1983 and explained how the overtaking moves were calculated.

Verstappen was Voted 2016 Personality of the Year at the FIA end of season awards.

He had also made the most overtakes during 2015, his rookie year in F1, with 49 successful moves for Toro Rosso.

Know About Max Verstappen:

• Full name: Max Emilian Verstappen
• Born 30 September 1997
• Nationality: Belgian-Dutch. racing driver who competes under the Dutch flag in Formula One
• Team: Red Bull Racing.
• Aged 17 years, 166 days
• Youngest driver to compete in Formula 1 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix for Scuderia Toro Rosso.
• Youngest driver to lead a lap during a Formula One Grand Prix.
• Youngest driver to set the fastest lap during a Formula One Grand Prix.
• Youngest driver to secure a podium.
• Youngest Formula One Grand Prix winner.

Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu won Badminton World Federation (BWF) Most Improved Player of the Year award at the Players’ Reception and Gala Dinner in Dubai .

Sindhu, who lost to Carolina Marin in the finals of the womens’ singles in the summer games, won her first Superseries title in China in November.

The shuttler also reached the final of Hong Kong open and qualified for her maiden Superseries Finals.

Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei won the BWF Male Player of the Year award.

Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi won the BWF Female Player of the Year award.

About PV Sindhu:

• Full name: Pusarla Venkata Sindhu
• Born 5 July 1995
• First Indian woman to win Olympic Silver medal and second to win a medal after Saina Nehwal in badminton
• Broke into top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17.
• In 2013, she became the first ever Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the Badminton World Championships.
• In March 2015, she became the youngest recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) highlighted 5 top players as the first Integrity Ambassadors to promote clean, fair and honourable sport.

India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal is one of them.

Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Viktor Axelsen, Saina and Japan’s Women’s Doubles pair, Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi were the others.

She became the only female player from India and the overall second Indian player after Prakash Padukone to attain this feat of being World Number 1 in BWF rankings.

She has represented India three times in Olympics, winning bronze in the second appearance.

Know About Saina Nehwal:

• BornL 17 March 1990
• She is a professional badminton singles player from India.
• Nehwal, the former world no. 1, has maintained her world ranking in the top ten since 2009.
• Won over twenty international titles, which include ten Superseries titles.
• In 2015 she was able to attain the world no. 1 ranking.

India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani on 12 December 2016 won the World Billiards title.

To win the title, he defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 6-3 in the summit clash held in Bengaluru.

For Advani, it was the 11th world billiards champion title in his over 15-year long international billiards career.

In early 2016, he won the Asian 6-Red snooker title in May and a bronze medal at the IBSF World snooker championship in December.

Pankaj Advani is the leading player in the world to win world titles in all formats of snooker and billiards. So far, he won 16 titles in both the formats.

Major Titles of Pankaj Advanvi

• World Billiards Championship title for 8 times viz., 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
• IBSF World Snooker Champion in 2003 and 2015.
• World Team Billiards Championship in 2014.
• Gold medals in 2006 and 2010 Asian Games that were held in Doha and Guangzhou respectively.
• Asian Billiards Championship for 5 times and Australian Open in 2008.
• 24 titles at the national level in various formats of the game.
• Awarded Padma Shri (2009) and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2006.

AB De Villiers resigned from South Africa's Test captaincy with immediate effect on 12 December 2016.

He also endorsed Faf du Plessis’s name to take over his role permanently, which was confirmed by Cricket South Africa.

He led the Proteas in two Test matches against England, before injury forced him to miss the series against New Zealand and Australia.

De Villiers, who stepped down as the captain of South African Cricket team, was appointed to the post in January 2016 succeeding Hashim Amla, who resigned from the position.

Katinka Hosszu closed a week of dominance at the Short Course World Swimming Championships on 11th Dec by clinching her seventh gold medal of the meet.

The Hungarian swimming star, popularly known as the "Iron Lady" surged to victory in the 100m butterfly to cap a superb campaign at the championships in Windsor, Ontario.

She clocked 55.12sec, taking gold ahead of Kelsi Worrell of the United States (55.22) and Japan's Rikako Ikee 55.64.

27-year-old Hosszu had already stamped her class on the championships with wins in the 100m, 200m and 400m medley as well as the 200m butterfly and 100m and 200m backstrokes.

Hosszu also lit up the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with three gold medals.

Portuguese football ace Cristiano Ronaldo has won the esteemed 2016 Ballon d'Or award.

The decision was announced by France Football magazine in Ballon d'Or ceremony on 12 December 2016.

This is Ronaldo’s fourth Ballon d'Or award.

He won his first award in 2008, the same year in which he won the FIFA World Player of the Year.

He subsequently won the 2013 and 2014 honours as well.

In 2015, he was beaten by Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo won by a good margin. Messi came second followed by France’s Antoine Griezmann in the third position. Luis Suarez and Neymar also made it into the top 5.

This is the third major honour for the footballer this year.

His club, Real Madrid won the UEFA Champions League 2016 and his national team Portugal won the UEFA Euro 2016.

This was the 9th year in a row that either Messi or Ronaldo won the prestigious honour. The last player to win the award before their domination began was Kaka in 2007.

Know About the Ballon d'Or Award

• Annual association football award.
• Presented by French magazine France Football.
• Voting is done by sports journalists.
• Ballon d’Or was merged with FIFA World Player of the Year in 2010.
• Considered the most prestigious honour in football.
• Messi won the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or.
• Award was reintroduced in 2016.
• FIFA introduced the Best FIFA Football Awards.

India is all set to host its first ever ITTF World Tour event here from February 16-19, 2017. The USD 120000 tournament also the biggest in terms of prize money outside the World Championships bracket.

India last hosted an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) event of this stature before the 2010 Commonwealth Games here that offered USD 100, 000 prize money.

Back in 2010, the India Open was part of the ITTF Pro Tour which made way for the World Tour, starting from 2012.

The 2017 World Tour travels to only 12 countries excluding the Grand Finals.

India is part of the six regular World Tour events on the calendar while the other six fall in the platinum category.

Nico Rosberg made the announcement that he was retiring days after attaining his lifetime ambition by winning his first world championship with Mercedes.

Rosberg will leave with a record of 23 wins in 206 races and only the second son of a champion to take the title. He followed in footsteps of 1982 winner and father Keke.

Nico announced his retirement from Formula One on 2nd Dec 2016 after grabbing his first ever F1 World Champion title at the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi.

The 31-year-old player beat his Mercedes team mate and 3 time champion Lewis Hamilton by five points.

This is the first time a reigning world champion has decided to quit the sport.

In 1993, Alain Prost announced his retirement after winning his 4th driver’s title.

Highlights of Nico Rosberg’s Accomplishments

• Son of former F1 world champion Keke Rosberg who won the title in 1982.
• He won the 2005 GP2 series for French motor racing team ART.
• FI debut: Bahrain Grand Prix in 2006 for Williams
• 2010: Joined Mercedes
• Number of F1 wins: 23
• Formula one pole positions: 30
• Fourth driver in the history of Formula to win the Monaco Grand Prix thrice in a row.
• Also the fourth to have 7 consecutive Grand Prix wins.

Awards won by Rosberg


• Lorenzo Bandini Trophy- 2011
• FIA Pole Trophy- 2014
• DHL Fastest Lap

Indian women players maintained their supremacy in the Asia Cup by beating arch rivals Pakistan for their sixth title in as many editions on 4th Dec, 2016.

Veteran Mithali Raj who was removed as T20 Captain before the start of the tournament played well with an unbeaten 73 to guide India for 5 in 20 overs.

They had lost the T20 world cup to Pakistan.

In 2012, India lifted the Asian Cup title after defeating Pakistan in the final.

The current captain of the Indian cricket team is Harmanpreet Kaur.

India’s Mukesh Kumar became the oldest golfer to win an Asian Tour title when he won the Panasonic Open.

The 51-year-old Mukesh has won 123 PGTI titles under his belt, turned in a two-under 70 in the final round to total 10-under 206 to claim the trophy. This was his first on the Asian Tour.

India dominated the top half of the leaderboard.

The second position was shared by Jyoti Randhawa and Rashid Khan.

Sprinter Usain Bolt won an unprecedented sixth IAAF male athlete of the year award on 2nd Dec 2016.

Ethiopian Almaz Ayana received the female award after record setting 10000m gold in Rio.

Bolt previously won in the years – 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013.

He was rewarded for a top performance that saw him claim 3 gold medals (100, 200 and 4x100m relay) at Rio Olympics for the third consecutive Games

The 30-year-old dominated the 100m in 9.81 sec and came back four days later with 19.78 sec victory in the 200m to secure a third straight Olympic title over both distances, making this the first record of its kind.

He also led Jamaica to victory in the 4x100m in 37.27 sec, the fourth fastest of all times.

His 9.81 sec gold medal winning performance in Rio was the second fastest in the world and 19.78 sec in the 200m the third fastest.

Bolt ended his season unbeaten in six individual finals, making history as the first athlete to win 3 consecutive Olympic triples.

Bolt competed against British sprinter Mo Farah (who attained the Olympic double double in the 5000m and 10000m) and South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk ( known for Olympic gold medal winning run in the 400m beating Michael Johnson)

Know Ethiopian Female Sprinter Almaz Ayana

• Age: 25 years
• She claimed the prize after smashing the 10,000m world record
• She also was the 5000m champion in 2015.
• Rome: 14:12:59 run which the second fastest performance of all times
• Ethiopian Olympic Trials: 30:07:00 run, fastest ever debut over the distance for 10,000m.
• Rio: World record of 29:17:45 for a 10,000m run.

Senior civil servant Praveen Mahajan on Dec 1 became the first woman President of the All India Tennis Association. She replaced veteran administrator Anil Khanna who was forced to quit by the Sports Ministry.

AITA appointed former Indian Revenue Services officer Mahajan after its Executive Committee chose her unanimously for the post till the election is conducted.

Mahajan was also the first woman chief of the Central Board of Excise and Customs/CBEC. CBEC is the apex policy deciding body for indirect taxes.

Currently, she holds the post of administrative member of the Central Administrative Tribunal.

The Ministry asked Khanna to resign, because his election as President in 2012 was against the Sports Code that bars an official from re-election after two consecutive terms of four years.

A cooling off period is required before the person is eligible for the post again.

After agreeing to resign, Khanna was re-elected AITA President for a 4 year term till 2020. But he chose to resign and AITA as per the Constitution, elevated Mahajan one of the 10 Vice Presidents.

A special general meeting will be held by March 2017 to permit members to let the President for the remaining period closing 2020.

Apart from Mahajan, two others were eligible for post of president as per the age and tenure of the sports code

AITA: All India Tennis Association

• AITA was founded in March, 1920.
• Affiliation: International Tennis Federation
• Regional Affiliation: Asian Tennis Federation
• Headquarters: RK Khanna Tennis Complex, African Avenue, Delhi
• Official website: www.aitatennis.com

Magnus Carlsen won the 2016 World Chess Championship on 30th Nov 2016 in NYC, United States.

Carlsen defeated Sergey Karjkin to retain the World Chess Champion title. This is the third time Carlsen won the championship. He reigned as world champion since the year 2013.

The Norwegian chess grandmaster became the third youngest grandmaster in history in 2004 at the age of 13 years. In Nov 2013, he became the World Champion by defeating Vishwanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship.

On May 2014 FIDE rating list, he reached his peak rating of 2882 which is the highest in history. He defended his title in Nov 2014 by defeating Anand again.

In 2014, he won the World Rapid Championship and the World Blitz Championship, holding all three world championship titles.

World Chess Championship

• The organization determines the World Champion in chess.
• Commenced in 1886.
• World Chess Federation/FIDE administered the championship from 1948-1993.
• In 1993, reigning world champion Gary Kasparov broke away from FIDE, leading to the formation of rival PCA Championship.
• The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006.

15 time world champion Pankaj Advani suffered a 2-7 loss in IBSF World Snooker Championship 2016 semifinals against Andrew Pagett of Wales. He won the bronze medal as a result of this.

He is an Indian professional player of English billiards and former professional snooker player

He has won the following awards:

• Arjuna Award(2004)
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2006)
• Padma Shri (2009)
  
  Records broken by Pankaj Advani
  
• He has achieved a hat-trick of hat-tricks in English billiards.
• He held World, Asian, and Indian National Championship titles simultaneously, in three different years: 2005, 2008 and 2012.
• Became a snooker professional only in 2012.
• Advani won the 2014 IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship,
• Only player to win world titles in both the long and short formats of snooker.
• Also only snooker champion for both formats of English billiards.