Sports - Current Affairs for January, 2016

Roger Federer has climbed into rarified territory at the Australian Open, becoming the first man to reach the milestone. Only Martina Navratilova is ahead of him. Federer, at 34 a decade Dimitrov’s senior, is the oldest man to reach the round of 16 at the Australian Open since Andre Agassi played his way into the quarter-finals in 2005. He is looking to become only the third man to win five Australian Open singles titles after Roy Emerson (six) and Novak Djokovic (five).

Both Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis have continued the winning streak to lift their second trophy of the season with the WTA Apia International title following the 30th win in the row, triumphing over the pair of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. They now have 11 WTA doubles titles so far.

Pranav Dhanawade, a cricketer from Mumbai has become the first batsman to score 1000 plus runs in an innings in any form of cricket. Pranav reached 1000 runs in 323 balls at the under 16 inter school event organised by Mumbai Cricket Association for benefit of suburban schools. Pranav’s epic performance of 395 minutes included 59 6s and 129 4s. His team was declared winner at 1465/3 which is also a world record and Pranav remained an unbeaten 1009. He broke a 116 year old cricketing record.

Justice RM Lodha Committee on IPL spot fixing on 4th January 2015 submitted its report to the SC suggesting reforms in BCCI for India. Panel has also recommended separate governing bodies for IPL and BCCI with limited autonomy for IPL Governing Council. It has legalised betting and proposed that no minister or government servant should bear office at BCCI. Also the report holds that any BCCI office bearer cannot hold down two posts at the same time.

Novak Djokovic won at the Qatar Open on 4th January 2016 beating Dustin Brown 6-2,6-2. The world number 1 beat his German rival easily. Brown who is World Number 118 lost the first set in just 25 minutes. This was the first ever meeting between the pair. This is Djokovic’s second appearance in Qatar.

India beat defending champions Afghanistan 2-1 in the summit clash of the South Asian Football Federation Cup to life the trophy for the 7th time. India lost to Afghanistan in the 2013 edition in Kathmandu earlier. Victory for the 166th ranked India over the 150th Afghanistan saw India lifting the cup for a record seventh time. With this win, they are likely to make a jump in FIFA rankings.

Sweden’s Bjorn Isberg was on 30th December appointed as Coal India’s HIL tournament director. The role of assistant tournament director was given to Muthukumar Balakrishnan from Malaysia. Umpire’s manager for the league was Andy Mair from Scotland.

Ex Indian cricketer and Bengal all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla on 30th December 2015 announced retirement from all forms of cricket, 2 days after he was named in the Bengal squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy commencing 2nd January 2016. He was born on May 6th, 1981 and made his first class debut in the Under-19 World Cup. He was captain of Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2013 and also played for several IPL franchises.