It was a befitting end to India Women's first 'home season' of Test cricket in 28 years as they recorded a historic maiden victory over a venerable Australia in the one-off Test  in Mumbai  on  Dec 24

In 40 Tests, India now have seven wins and six defeats, while 27 have been drawn.

Former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Dec 24  said he is "done" with the sport and the newly-elected body will now take care of it as he has many more responsibilities to look into, including next year's Lok Sabha elections.

Brij Bhushan's comments came soon after his meeting with BJP chief JP Nadda following the Sports Ministry's suspension of the WFI till further orders.

On an eventful  for wrestling and those associated with it, the sports ministry wrote to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president to form an ad-hoc committee to run the sport in the country. The letter was written hours after the ministry instructed the newly elected executive committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to abstain from administering and managing the day-to-day affairs of the federation with immediate effect until further orders. 

Facing the same opponents in multiple finals has become a routine in the 90th National Snooker and Billiard Championship at Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai as Natasha Chetan (KAR) and Aanya Patel (GUJ) locked horns for the second final in the tournament on  Dec 27

In the end, Natasha clinched her second title of the tournament by beating Aanya 3-1 in the 15 red girl’s sub-junior snooker final. Natasha also won the sub-junior billiard title by beating the same cueist from Gujarat. In junior billiards, L Shruthi defeated Aanya (GUJ) for 179-93.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old local cueist Shruthi secured her first national title in the junior category on Wednesday. Shruthi also proved her talent at the national level by winning the sub-junior title last year.

Former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard will join England's coaching staff for next year's T20 World Cup to be jointly held across the Caribbean islands and the USA.

Pollard, who retired from all forms of cricket in April 2022, was a member of the West Indies team that won the 2012 T20 World Cup and has played 637 T20 matches in his career.

Q1. Name the Deaflympics gold medallist better known as Goonga Pehlwan who  has  decided to return his Padma Shri to the government, showing solidarity with the country's top wrestlers who have objected to the election of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh loyalist Sanjay Singh as WFI president ?

1. Virender Singh Yadav
2. KD Jadhav
3. ogeshwar Dutt
4. Sushil Kumar
5. None of These

Q2. Name the Australian   who has been denied permission to place a peace symbol on his bat and shoes for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan ?

1. Pat Cummins.
2. Nathan Lyon.
3. Scott Boland.
4. Usman Khawaja
5. None of These

Q3. It was a befitting end to India Women's first 'home season' of Test cricket in 28 years as they recorded a historic maiden victory over a venerable Australia in the one-off Test  on  Dec 24 in

1. Delhi
2. Pune
3. Mumbai 
4. Lucknow
5. None of These

Q4. Name  the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief  who on Dec 24   has said he is "done" with the sport and the newly-elected body will now take care of it as he has many more responsibilities to look into, including next year's Lok Sabha elections ?

1. Sanjay Singh
2. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
3. Anurag Thakur 
4. PT Usha
5. None of These

Q5. Name  the former West Indies captain  who will join England's coaching staff for next year's T20 World Cup to be jointly held across the Caribbean islands and the USA ?

1. Kieron Pollard
2. D Ganga
3. CH Gayle
4. DJ Bravo
5. None of These

Answers

1--------------------------1   Virender Singh Yadav

2---------------------------4  Usman Khawaja

3----------------------------3   Mumbai 

4----------------------------2   Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

5----------------------------1  Kieron Pollard

India’s foreign exchange reserves grew for the fifth straight week, reaching an over 20-month high of $615.97 billion as of December 15, according to latest data shared by the Reserve Bank of India.

This surge came as Indian debt and equity markets attracted big money. The forex reserves grew by $9.1 billion in the reported week after a jump of $16.5 billion in the prior four weeks. A jump of $9 billion was the second-highest weekly surge in the ongoing financial year. As per market analysts, main reason for this rise could be fall in the dollar index. 

A retired police officer on Dec 24 was shot dead by terrorists while he was giving the call for morning prayer (azaan) in a mosque in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Mohammad Shafi Mir, 71,  was shifted to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him “brought dead”. Immediately after the incident, a contingent of police, CRPF and army rushed to the area and launched a search operation to track down the attackers.

Mir, who retired as senior superintendent of police, regularly used to give the azaan at the local mosque.

He had retired in 2012 and was living in his native village. He is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.