A SUSPENSION from international football, the appointment of a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and uncertainty over hosting the hockey World Cup. Even as the dust settles over a successful Commonwealth Games campaign, Indian sport has been thrown into turmoil.
Late Monday night, football’s world governing body FIFA announced that it had suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) “with immediate effect due to flagrant violations of the FIFA Statutes”. FIFA cited “undue interference by third party”, referring to a Supreme Court-appointed CoA to run the daily affairs of the AIFF, as the reason for suspending India.
The IOA, too, is staring at a similar fate after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday named another CoA to run the federation. Last month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had threatened to suspend the IOA for outside interference in its functioning as well as not conducting its elections in a timely manner.
The IOA is the fifth sports federation, after football, hockey, judo and table tennis, to be placed under a CoA. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Anil Dave, and ex-chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi are administrators in three of the five CoAs: football, hockey and IOA.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday hosted the Indian contingent, which returned with 61 medals from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Sunita Thakur and Vinod Thakur sat intently watching his address on social media. The mother-son duo, at their native village Parsa in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohru district, were all ears as PM mentioned about Renuka Thakur who claimed 11 wickets, including two four-wicket hauls, for the silver medal winning Indian women’s cricket team.
India is set to tour Zimbabwe later this month for an ODI series. India tour of Zimbabwe 2022 will consist of only an ODI series. During the series, three ODI games will be played between India and Zimbabwe.
The IND vs ZIM 1st ODI will take place on August 18. The 2nd ODI will be played on August 20 while the 3rd ODI will be played on August 22. The venue of all the ODI games is Harare Sports Club in Harare, Zimbabwe.
India Squad for Zimbabwe ODIs: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Deepak Chahar.