Sports Weekly Wrap-Up (Dec 13-Dec 19): From Kohli vs BCCI to Aguero's tearful retirement

In a week that saw some major milestone breached and the biggest cricket body in the world coming at loggerhead with its captain, Indiatvnews.com handpicked the top 10 moments of the week compiled for you.

1. Virat vs BCCI: India's Test captain spills the beans by contradicting Ganguly on T20 captaincy discussion

India captain Virat Kohli made a striking revelation during a press conference that he was informed one and half hours before it was publically announced by BCCI that ODI captaincy will be taken away from him.

There were whispers of discord and on Wednesday the simmering tension between BCCI and Test skipper Virat Kohli was out in the open when the superstar batter dismissed as "inaccurate", the Board's claim that it tried to persuade him against giving up T20 leadership. One of the country's most decorated cricketers of all time, Kohli also said that his removal as ODI captain earlier this month intimated by the chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma, only one hand half hours before the Test team for South Africa was announced".

His statement forced the BCCI to close ranks as a rare chapter unfolded in the history of Indian cricket where a high-profile captain publicly rejected Board President Sourav Ganguly's statement that the body "had requested" him not to step down as T20 captain.

 

2. Kidambi Srikanth settles for silver medal at the prestigious BWF World Championships after becoming first man to reach final

Kidambi Srikanth defeated compatriot Lakshya Sen, who had a fantabulous run in his debut at Worlds, in semifinals.

Kidambi Srikanth clinched a historic silver medal in the World Badminton Championships after suffering a straight-game defeat to Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the summit clash to notch up the best ever performance by an Indian in the men's singles in Heulva (Spain) on Sunday. A former world no.1, Srikanth lost 15-21 20-22 to Malaysia-born opponent in 43 minutes. The 28-year-old Srikanth thus bettered the feats of legendary Prakash Padukone (bronze in 1983), B Sai Praneeth (bronze in 2019) and Lakshya Sen (bronze in this edition), whom he had beaten in the semifinals on Saturday.

 

3. Sergio Aguero takes tearful retirement from football due to heart ailment

Argentina striker Sergio Aguero had a glittering career with former clubs Manchester City and Atletico Madrid before moving to FC Barcelona on free transfer earlier this year.

Argentina and Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero took an abrupt retirement from professional football at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with a heart ailment. Aguero was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia since he was brought off after 41 minutes of his first start for the club after suffering from chest pain. Aguero scored a club-record 260 goals for City and was a key player in the growth of the team as a major force in England and Europe. He had a record 12 hat tricks in his total haul of 184 Premier League goals, the most for an overseas player and the fourth most all-time.

 

4. India blow Pakistan 3-1 at Asian Champions Trophy 2021

Defending champions India will be gunning for title this week with Japan awaiting in the semi-final on Tuesday.

Vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace as Olympic bronze-medallists India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 3-1 to register their second consecutive win and virtually qualify for the semifinals of the Asian Champions Trophy men's hockey tournament here on Friday. Harmanpreet (8th, 53rd minutes) converted two penalty corners, while comeback-man Akashdeep Singh, who couldn't make the Tokyo Olympics squad, found the net from a field effort in the 42nd minute for his second goal of the tournament. Pakistan's lone goal was scored by Junaid Manzoor in the 45th minute.

 

5. UEFA calls for fresh Champions League draw after admitting to error in first draw

During the draw, Manchester United’s name was mistakenly not included among possible opponents for Atlético Madrid when it should have been. That oversight meant the entire draw had to be redone.

Real Madrid ended up paying the highest price for UEFA's botched Champions League draw. Madrid were paired with Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 on Monday after UEFA had to redo the entire draw following a big mistake the first time around. The Spanish club had initially been drawn against Portuguese club Benfica but now instead faces PSG's superstar attack of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar.

 

6. Stars continue to drop out of Australia Open 2022 over various reasons

Karolina Pliskova and Jennifer Brady were among the latest to withdraw their names from next month's Australian Open as the list of big names missing out rose to seven players (including four women players). Two-time Grand Slam finalist Pliskova cited a right hand injury (sustained during training) as the reason behind pulling out. The high-profile absentee list also includes the names of Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Bianca Andreescu. Apart from them, reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu is also uncertain for the 'Happy Slam' after contracting COVID-19 last week.

7. Joe Root goes past Tendulkar, Gavaskar in most Test runs in a year list at the ongoing Ashes Test series

File photo of Joe Root.

En route his 62-run knock against Australia in the second Ashes Test on Saturday, England captain and modern-day great Joe Root achieved another milestone on Saturday when he surpassed Indian batting legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar in the list of most Test runs in a calendar year. The 30-year-old English Test skipper has now 1563 runs in the year, which is a run more than Tendulkar's run-haul of 1562 in 2010.

Also, Root has surpassed Cook's tally of 4844 runs as the Test captain of the team in his 58th match as the skipper - completing the feat in one match and five innings quicker than his captaincy predecessor, to be at 4859 runs at an average of 47.63.

8. Pakistan sweep virus-hit West Indies in T20 series

Mohammad Rizwan, who slammed 12 half centuries in 2021, became the first-ever batter to smash 2,000 T20 runs in a calendar year.

Pakistan completed a clean sweep in the three-match Twenty20 series against a virus-hit West Indies with a resounding seven-wicket win on Thursday. Run-machine Mohammad Rizwan rounded off the year with his 12th half century in Twenty20 internationals by scoring 87 while captain Babar Azam made 79 in Pakistan’s blistering run-chase of 208-3 in 18.5 overs. The West Indies squad was further depleted on the morning of the match when three more players tested positive for the coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to nine — six players and three support personnel — in the tourists’ camp.

9. Premier League season severely hit by new COVID-19 variant

File photo of Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

Five EPL matches scheduled for last weekend were called off because of coronavirus outbreaks in squads amid a worsening health emergency in Britain as the omicron variant spreads. The league said the remaining four games — Leeds-Arsenal on Saturday and Newcastle-Manchester City, Wolverhampton-Chelsea and Tottenham-Liverpool on Sunday — "are currently scheduled to proceed as planned." Earlier in the week, Manchester United's late-night match against Brentford was called-off after 42 players in the league tested positive.

10. Mohun Bagan sack ISL's most successful coach Antonio Lopez Habas

Antonio Lopez Habas had coached the erstwhile Atletico de Kolkata to the inaugural title in 2014, defeating Kerala Blasters in the final.

Six matches into their Indian Super League 2021-22 season, ATK Mohun Bagan have sacked their most successful coach Antonio Lopez Habaz as the team languishes in the sixth position in the 11-team points table. The 64-year-old Spanish coach, who led the team to two consecutive title successes, was under fire after the side slumped to a four-match winless streak. The final nail in the coffin was ATKMB's 3-3 draw against fellow strugglers Bengaluru FC. Under Habas, ATKMB made a last-four finish the next season. Habas returned for his second stint in 2019 and guided them to their second title, becoming the first manager to lift the coveted trophy twice.