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Team India cricketer Washington Sundar, who impressed everyone with his performance in the recent tour of Australia, received the promised Thar SUV on Tuesday. Anand Mahindra had earlier announced to gift SUVs to six Indian cricketers to show his appreciation for their inspiring performances during India’s 2-1 series win against Australia in their own backyard. Sundar, along with Shardul Thakur, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, T Natarajan and Navdeep Saini were among the six cricketers who impressed the business tycoon.

Sundar shared a sweet post on Instagram to express his gratitude to the Mahindra chairperson for keeping his promise to gift the Thar SUV to young cricket superstars. Sundar, who also plays for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), shared a snap on Tuesday on the photo-video sharing platform. The all-rounder posed with his new ride. Captioning the post, he wrote that he’s filled with “immense gratitude” towards “Shri Anand Mahindra” for the “wonderful gift and support, encouragement” that the business tycoon provides to young cricketers. He further mentioned that Mahindra’s “continued support” is sure to motivate many to take up cricket and bring “laurels to the country.”

Indians are “more tolerant” to deal with mental health issues than cricketers from countries like England and Australia, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said on Tuesday as he acknowledged the challenge the strict bio-secure environments pose for the players. Ever since the international cricket resumed, the players have been forced to stay in bio-bubbles, where their life is restricted to hotels and stadiums. They do not have access to people outside the bubble, making it extremely difficult for players to stay fresh and motivated. 

“I feel we Indians are a bit more tolerant than overseas (cricketers). I’ve played with a lot of Englishmen, Australians, West Indians, they just give up on mental health,” the former India captain said at a virtual promotional event here. “In the last six-seven months, with so much cricket being going on in the bio-bubble it’s so tough. Just going from the hotel room to the ground, handle the pressure and come back to the room and then get back to the ground again, it’s an absolutely different life.”

With a massive surge in the rise of Covid-19 cases in India in the last month and with players testing positive ahead of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla has stated that the only solution to the problem is to get all the players vaccinated. Axar Patel and Devdutt Padikkal are the latest on the list to have tested positive for Covid-19 while Nitesh Rana also contracted the virus but has recovered.

 The situation is getting more alarming by the day with Mumbai’s capability as a host under serious jeopardy due to it re-emerging as a Covid-19 hotspot. 10 groundsmen of the Wankhede Stadium recently tested positive for the virus. As many as four IPL teams are currently stationed in the mega city which is adding to the nightmare of the organizers. The BCCI has already kept Hyderabad and Indore as alternate venues to host a few matches if the situation continues to worsen.

Concerned at the increasing number of athletes contracting COVID-19 at top training centres, the Indian Olympic Association has asked the authorities to expedite the process to get the Olympic-bound athletes get vaccinated soon at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

Thirty sports persons and support staff across disciplines returned positive after 741 precautionary tests were conducted at the National Centres of Excellence in Patiala and Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Even though the positive results in both the centres do not include any Tokyo Olympic-bound athlete, the IOA does not want to take chances as they are training at the same facilities.

World champion PV Sindhu remains India's best Olympic medal prospect but she has to give more attention to her recovery process between matches to achieve the feat at the Tokyo Olympics, believes former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar. Sindhu didn't have a good outing in the three events in Thailand in January and even though she reached the finals at Swiss Open or the semifinals at All England, she suffered demoralising losses to Olympic champion Carolina Marin and Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong.

"I feel the best (Olympic) medal prospect is Sindhu, she can and there is still time. She showed some glimpses against Akane Yamaguchi (at All England quarters). But she needs to give more attention to recovery to be ready for next match because there will not be 24 hours to recover," Vimal was quoted by a news agency.

"May be ice bath, there are so many ways to get rid of the lactic acid accumulation after a tough match. If she can look into those aspects, she will be all right. I don't think she has any fitness issue."