Current Affairs March 2020 - Sports

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1 - Australia won 5^th ICC Women's T20 World Cup title

Defending champions Australia won the ICC Women's T20 World Cup for record fifth time. Australia defeated India by 85 runs in the summit clash at Melbourne. Alyssa Healy was the Player of the final.

Poonam Yadav was the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 10 wickets and Alyssa Healy of Australia was the highest run-scorer with 236 runs in total. Beth Mooney of Australia was awarded the Player of the Series award.

2 - Sunil Joshi named BCCI’s selection committee Chairman

Former India spinner Sunil Joshi was named Chairman of the national selection panel by the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC also picked ex-pacer Harvinder Singh for a place in the five-member group.

The CAC, comprising Madan Lal, RP Singh and Sulakshana Naik, picked the two selectors with Joshi replacing South Zone representative MSK Prasad. Harvinder replaced Gagan Khoda in the panel. Joshi played 15 Tests and 69 ODIs for India while Harvinder played 3 Tests and 16 ODIs.

3 - Mumbai set to host IOC session in 2023

Mumbai is set to host the 2023 International Olympic Committee's session after the IOC Executive Board recommended the Indian city for the annual conference. The IOC Executive Board decided to put Mumbai's candidature to a vote of the members. The decision is to be ratified at the 136^th IOC session in Tokyo in July this year.

After ratification, this will be the second-ever IOC session to be held in India after a long gap of 37 years. India last hosted an IOC session way back in 1983 in New Delhi.

4 - Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) 2019

5 - FIH rankings: Indian men's hockey team climbs to fourth position

The Indian men's hockey team has climbed to the fourth position, their highest since the inception of the FIH world rankings in 2003, in the recently released chart. India's rise comes at the expense of Olympic champions Argentina, who dropped to fifth place.

World champions Belgium remains in pole position, with Australia 2^nd and the Netherlands 3^rd also holding their positions in the top three. Germany and England remain in sixth and seventh positions, while New Zealand is static at the eighth place and Spain at ninth.

6 - First KIU Games concluded in Bhubaneswar

The Khelo India University Games concluded in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Panjab University, Chandigarh took home the champions trophy-winning 46 medals including 17 gold, 19 silver, and 10 bronze. Savitribai Phule Pune University claimed the second position and Punjabi University, Patiala declared as the second runners up.

Savitribai Phule Pune University won 37 medals including 17 gold, 11 silver, and 9 bronze medals. Punjabi University, Patiala won 33 medals including 13 gold, 6 silver, and 14 bronze medals. A total of 113 universities took part in the games.

7 - West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard became first player to play 500 T20s

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard became the 1^st player in the history of T20 (Twenty20) cricket to feature in 500 matches during the field against Sri Lanka for the first T20I in Pallekele, Sri Lanka. The list is followed by Dwayne Bravo with 453 matches at second position and Chris Gayle at third position with 404 T20 matches.

Pollard is a medium-pace bowler and big-hitting batsman in the middle-order. He was the joint highest paid player in the 2010 Indian Premier League, playing for Mumbai Indians.

8 - Philippines will host the Badminton Asia Championships

The 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships (also known as the 2020 Smart Badminton Asia Manila Team Championship) will be held in the capital of Philippines, i.e. Manila. It was earlier scheduled to be held in Wuhan, China but, due to novel Coronavirus outbreak in China, it was re-scheduled in Phillipines. China, being the epicentre of the coronavirus (COVID-19) reported more than 3,000 deaths.

2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships serves as the Asian qualifiers for the 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup in Denmark.

9 - Tiger Woods to be inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021 class

American golfer Tiger Woods will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2021. The hall of fame is located in St. Augustine, Florida. Woods, winner of 15 major titles, will be inducted in the male competitor category.

Woods was among 10 finalists named in March as candidates for 2021. His 93 worldwide victories include a record-tying 82 US PGA Tour titles.

Woods is a three-time winner of the career Grand Slam and in 2000-01 completed the "Tiger Slam".

10 - PV Sindhu named BBC Indian Sportswoman of Year

Indian badminton player PV Sindhu won the inaugural BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award. The other players nominated for the award were sprinter Dutee Chand, boxer Mary Kom, wrestler Vinesh Phogat and para-badminton player Manasi Joshi.

Sindhu became the first Indian to win badminton World Championship gold in Basel, Switzerland. Sindhu has five World Championship medals and is the first Indian singles badminton player to win an Olympic silver medal.

11 - Achanta Sharath Kamal clinched men's singles title of Oman Open

Ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal won the 2020 ITTF Challenger Plus Oman Open men’s singles title. The Indian veteran defeated top-seeded Marcos Freitas of Portugal 4-2 in the final played in Muscat.

Sharath last bagged a title in 2010, when he won Egypt Open. It was in 2010 when Sharath had bagged his last title at Egypt Open. Since then, he made two semi-final appearances - Morocco Open in 2011 and India Open in 2017 – but, couldn't manage to get through it.

12 - ATK crowned Hero ISL 2019-20 champions

The 2019–20 Indian Super League season was the sixth season of the Indian Super League. ATK (previously known as Atlético de Kolkata) won the final against Chennaiyin F.C.

Key award winners:

13 - Saurashtra won its maiden Ranji Trophy title

Saurashtra won its maiden Ranji Trophy title at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. It is Saurashtra’s first-ever win in the history of India’s premier domestic competition.

Saurashtra won against Bengal after earning a 44-run lead in the first innings. As per the rules, if the final of the Ranji Trophy is headed towards a draw, then the winner is decided on the basis of a first-innings lead. Saurashtra was led by Jaydev Unadkat.

14 - Viktor Axelsen and Tai Tzu Ying won All England Championships 2020

Viktor Axelsen of Denmark won his maiden men's singles title at the All England Championship. Two-time former winner Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei regained the women's singles crown. Axelsen defeated Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-chen. Tai Tzu defeated Chinese Chen Yu Fei.

Japanese Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota beat China's Du Yue and Li Yin Hui to win the women's doubles crown. Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti defeated Thailand's Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai to win the mixed doubles title.

15 - Greece handed over Olympic flame to Tokyo 2020

Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos handed the torch over to the Tokyo Organising Committee. Olympic gymnastics champion Lefteris Petrounias ran a lap with the flame and Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi lit a cauldron inside the all-marble Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. The flame was then handed to Tokyo 2020 representative Naoko Imoto, a swimmer who competed in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympic games, slated to be held from July 24 to August 9, has been postponed to July 2021.

16 - Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021

Japan's Prime Minister and the head of the International Olympic Committee Shinzo Abe agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Games by a year in an extraordinary move due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tokyo had won widespread praise for its organization of Olympics with venues finished well ahead of time and tickets massively oversubscribed. The Olympics was scheduled to start on July 24. Canada became the first major country to withdraw from Tokyo Olympics 2020 before, it was postponed to 2021.