(General Awareness For Bank's Exams)  Sports
June - 2014

Rome Masters

•  Serena Williams won her third title of the season as she delivered a crushing 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Sara Errani to win a third trophy at the Rome Masters .
•  The world number one now heads to the French Open on solid form after winning the week in Rome after withdrawing from a Madrid semi-final last weekend with a thigh injury.
•  Williams becomes the first player on the WTA to lift three trophies this season after beating Italy’s Errani for the seventh time with the loss of just one set in that series.

World's Highest Paid Footballer

•  Barcelona and Lionel Messi have agreed an improved contract that will reportedly make the four-time World Player of the Year soccer's best-paid player with a net annual salary of 20 million euros ($27.4 million).
•  The Argentina captain would also regain control of his image rights, further boosting the income of a man Forbes magazine estimates is the 10th highest-earning athlete, with annual revenues of $41.2 million including wages and endorsements.
•  FC Barcelona has reached an agreement to adjust the terms in the contract binding Leo Messi to the club as a professional first team player.
•  Messi is Barca's all-time leading scorer with 354 goals in 424 official games and news of the deal is a boost for the club before Saturday's La Liga showdown against Atletico Madrid.

Violence in World cup venues

•  Protesters and police clashed in Sao Paulo , as demonstrations against the World Cup and rallies calling for improved public services erupted in several Brazilian cities.
•  Officers in Brazil's largest city fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who set piles of rubbish alight to barricade a central avenue.
•  Demonstrators blasted the billions spent to host next month's football tournament and said they wanted to draw attention to what they called a lack of investment to improve poor public services.
•  Protesters staged a soccer game with dirty tactics, and one man put on a costume of a giant skeleton dressed as a Brazil player.

Validity of sports code

•  The Delhi high court has directed all National Sports Federations (NSF) to follow the national sports code. This simply means that the Union sports ministry's guidelines on age and tenure restriction have attained legal sanctity.
•  This is a shot in the arm for the ministry which suspended the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and Archery Association of India (AAI) for not implementing age and tenure directives. The court's directive will certainly make all NSFs accountable and their functioning transparent.
•  The sports ministry has repeatedly outlined that recognition to any NSF would rely on the current legal status of the organisation, recognition by the respective international federation, the Asian federation and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). The IOA had also challenged the government's authority, but the latest directive from the court has come as a jolt.

Most searched IPL player

•  Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper ViratKohli takes the top spot as the most searched IPL player this season, closely followed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
•  Yuvraj Singh from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captured the third position.
•  With one of the most stunning catches taken in cricket history against Royal Challengers Bangalore to his credit, IPL debutant Chris Lynn (KKR) takes the fourth spot as the most searched player
•  Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) lead batsman VirendraSehwag may not have scored big runs on the ground yet, but continues to attract a lot of queries from his fans on Google Search, thus puttting him up at the fifth spot.
•  Royal Challengers big man Chris Gayle, Chennai Superkings Suresh Raina, and Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper ShikharDhawan are also among the top 10 trending IPL players on Google Search.

2 medals for Indian archers

•  Indian men's recurve archers went down fighting against Korea in the final of the World Cup Stage II at Medellin, Columbia recently.
•  The Indian team of Atanu Das, ThupuvoyiSwuro and Sanjay Boro fought gallantly to go down in the tiebreak and claim the silver medal.
•  The Indian mixed team of Das and LaishramBombayla Devi won the bronze medal by beating their Mexican rivals. The Korean side began strongly winning the first two sets to go 4-0 up.

India's oldest Test cricketer

•  India's oldest Test cricketer MadhavMantri, the maternal uncle of the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, due to old age complications. He was 92 and died a bachelor.
•  Mantri was a wicket-keeper-batsman who played only four Test matches, one in India (1951), two in England (1952) and his last in Dhaka (1954-55 in the then East Pakistan), compiling 63 runs and accounting for 8 catches and a stumping.
•  His most impressive performance with the bat in Tests was a 75-run partnership. He made 39 and also put on as opener with Pankaj Roy in the first Test in England on the disastrous 1952 tour in which India lost all four games.
•  Mantri was incidentally one of four batsmen dismissed for 0 by fiery Fred Truman against India on the same tour in the second innings of the Leeds Test, when the visitors were tottering at 0 for 4 before captain Vijay Hazare and all rounderDattuPhadkar scored half centuries and took the score to 165 and forced England to bat again. But he was a consistent performer in Ranji Trophy and a mentor for the likes of Polly Umrigar and BapuNadkarn

Monaco GP

•  NicoRosberg led from pole position to win the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
•  It was Rosberg’s second win of the season to put him back on top of the Formula One standings by four points, ending a run of four straight wins by Hamilton and giving Mercedes a fifth straight one-two.
•  The Monaco Grand Prix had been won from pole in nine of the last 10 years. The exception was when Hamilton claimed his first and only victory in Monaco in 2008.

'Kerala Blasters'

•  The Kochi team for the Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament, co-owned by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, has been named 'Kerala Blasters'.
•  The name was announced by state chief minister OommenChandy after his brief meeting with Tendulkar .
•  Tendulkar also accepted Chandy's request to be Goodwill Ambassador of the National Games, to be held in Kerala in January-February 2015.
•  Tendulkar, who was given a rousing reception at the airport and government secretariat, also called on Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan, seeking support in his efforts to promote football.
  Goodwill ambassador for national games
•  The 35 National Games to be held in seven cities in the State early next year will have cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as its goodwill ambassador.
•  The idea was mooted by Chief Minister OommenChandy during his meeting with Mr. Tendulkar and responding to it, the cricketer was quick to nod his approval.
•  Making a mention of this, Mr. Tendulkar said, “as a Member of Parliament, I have already given my vision on how to improve Indian sport to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. And now, I plan to do a follow up on that. We need to work collectively to help our country emerge as a sporting power.”

Big bets on FIFA

•  Sony SIX, official broadcaster for the FIFA, believes nearly 65 million viewers are expected to watch the tournament from the Indian sub-continent.
•  The broadcaster said that it will tap into the prime time slot featuring lives games from FIFA. It said that about 24 matches out of the total 64 matches will be telecast in the prime time slot of 9:30 pm across the Indian subcontinent.
•  Last time around, out of the total viewer demography in India, the tournament had attracted 38% viewership from the 15-34 year audience category presenting a unique opportunity for advertisers and marketers to invest in, the broadcaster said in a statement.
•  Besides India, the channel will also broadcast the tournament exclusively to audiences across Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.
  Durand Cup, 2014
•  The 127th edition of Asia’s oldest cup competition, the Durand Cup, might take place in Goa this year.
•  Durand Cup was first held in 1888 in Shimla but since 1940 Delhi has been the venue of this prestigious tournament. However the interest in the competition has declined over the years with top clubs rarely taking part and as a result the organisers are considering Goa to be this year’s host.
   

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