Sports
Kaviska wins online Youth Rapid Chess title
Kavishka Gimhan Laksiri won the CFSL Online Youth Rapid Chess Championship 2021 convincingly by scoring a total of 8.5 points from nine games.
Gimhan scored eight out of eight in the first eight rounds by registering wins against Pansilu Karunarathne, Senith Gunarathne, Rashmitha Mettananda, Yemith Gunaratne, Oneli Withanawasam, CM IPTS Gunawardena, SMMP Kulathilake and WCM Sanindula Dahamdi and recorded a draw in the final round to win the championship.
The Online Youth Rapid Chess Championship for the Under 14 age category was conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka over the weekend on the chess.com platform under the Swiss System with nine rounds. The players below the age of 14 years by January 1, 2021 were eligible to participate. The time control was fifteen minutes with additional 10 seconds per each move played. A total of 295 players took part in the event.
According to CFSL the event was held under strict anti-cheating regulations with players being observed via zoom during matches. Only laptops and desktops were allowed for competitions.
Sanindula Dahamdi of Musaeus College performed up to expectations as she won the silver medal scoring eight points. Her only blemish was the defeat to the winner.
JM Daham Jayasundara also did well as he also scored eight points to tie Sanindula. But, he had to be content with the bronze medal due to the lesser number of tie breaker points he had. The top three players will receive medals and certificates while the Champion will receive the trophy. Merit certificates will be issued to the first 38 players.
MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the remainder of IPL 2025 after Rutraj Gaikwad was ruled out of the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming confirmed the development on the eve of the home game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday. It is a significant blow to CSK, who have made a bad start to their campaign by losing four of their first five matches. They are currently ninth in the points table, above only Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Gaikwad suffered the injury during CSK’s match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Guwahati on March 30. He was struck on his unprotected elbow after stepping out to fast bowler Tushar Deshpande and missing the ball in the second over of CSK’s unsuccessful chase, but continued batting and scored 63 in that game. He played two more games after that and made 5 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Chennai on April 5 and 1 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur on April 8. After five games, he was CSK’s second-highest run-scorer with 122 runs at a strike rate of 150.61; he was CSK’s highest run-scorer in IPL 2024.
“He [Gaikwad] got hit in Guwahati. He’s been operating with an amount of pain,” Fleming said in Chennai. “We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck.
“So we’re disappointed, and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he’s gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he’d be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL.”
Dhoni, 43, had led CSK from 2008 until 2024, when he handed the captaincy to Gaikwad. He had also handed the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja in 2022, but took back the leadership some way into the season after the team went through a bad run of results. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, CSK have won five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 and two Champions League trophies as well.
“He [Dhoni] had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can,” Fleming said. “So that was never a doubt. We’ll look at replacements. We’ve got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we’ll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad probably moving forward into subsequent years.”
After their home game against KKR on today, CSK play two away games against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 14 and Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 20.
[Cricinfo]
Both the men’s and women’s cricket events at the LA 2028 Olympics are set to be six-team competitions, as approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday (April 9). Further, a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allotted to each gender, allowing each nation to name a 15-member squad.
As reported earlier, T20 Internationals have been designated as the format of choice for the competition. The venues are yet to be confirmed although New York is in the fray to host the matches.
It is unclear how the six participating nations will be determined and the issue of representation, in the cases of Great Britain and the West Indies, is yet to be addressed as well.
Cricket was last part of the Olympic Games in 1900, when it was contested by just two teams – Great Britain and France. Great Britain went on to win the only cricket Olympics Gold Medal thus far by winning what was a 2-day game.
Cricket has recently been a part of other international multi-sport events. Both men’s and women’s cricket competitions were part of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games whereas the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games featured an eight-team women’s competition.
(Cricbuzz)
The three-day Schools Relay Carnival will conclude at Diyagama today. Here are some action pictures from day two of the event on Thursday.
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- St. Benedict’s dominated Under 20 4×800 metres
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- (From left) Shadhen Ravihansa, Rohith Akshana, Manuwa Nethsara and Enok Dilshan of Rathnayake Central won the Under 18 boys’ 4×800 metres
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- The quartet of St. Joseph Vaz’s College Wennappuwa (from left), Camidu Sandew, Maleesha Anuhas, Ruchira Daham and Kavindu Maleesha won the Under 16 boys’ 4×800 metres
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- (From left) Nethmi Sadamaya, Githmi Nehara, Gihara Karunarathne and Sahasra Sithumini of Rathnayake Central Walala pose after winning the Under 16 girls’ 4x800m relay.
Rathnayake Central lead Under 18 4x800m relay.
(Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)
MS Dhoni to lead CSK after Ruturaj Gaikwad is ruled out of IPL with injury
American Airlines planes bump wings at Washington airport
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