THE WORLD PORTAL

SUSHIL KUMAR

The world famous wrestler champion Sushil Kumar had now won the gold medal at the German Grand Prix Freestyle and Greco Roman tournament in Dortmund. He had won the gold in the 66 kg freestyle category. He had also won the bronze medal in the Men’s 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was his career’s first major International match.

BIOGRAPHY

Sushil Kumar was born on 26th May,1983 in New Delhi, India. Kumar’s father Diwan Singh is a MTNL bus driver and mother Kamla Devi is a housewife. He was inspired to take up wrestling from his cousin Sandeep and his father who were the wrestlers before. He was started wrestler training at the Chhatrasal Stadium Akhada at the age of 14 and trained by Indian Pehlwans Yashvir and Ramphal and at the Railway’s camp by coach Gyan Singh, and he was also coached by Arjuna award winner Satpal. Sushil Kumar is presently employed by Indian Railways as head TTE. His careers first success came at the World Cadet Games in 1998 where he won gold in his weight category, and then he had won the gold in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000. He was contested in various competitions and won the Bronze Medal at the ‘Asian Wrestling Championship’ in 2003 and following that up with a gold medal at the ‘Commonwealth Wrestling Championship’. Sushil was placed in the 4th position in ‘World Championships’ and also finished 14th position in the ‘2004 Olympic Games’ in Athens. He had won the ‘Common Wealth Championship gold medal’ in 2005 and 2007 and also finished 7th position in the ‘2007 World wrestling Championships’. At the ‘2008 Summer Olympics’ in Beijing, he had defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan by 3-1 in the match of the men’s freestyle wrestling 66 kg to win the bronze. After the success of his Beijing Olympics, he got Rs 5 lakh cash award by RK Global Shares and Securities Limited, 25 lakh cash awarded by the Steel Ministry of India, 25 lakh cash awards by the Haryana State Government, 50 lakh cash award from the Delhi Government and also gained 55 lakh cash award and promotion to Assistance Commercial Manager from Ticketing Inspector by Railway Ministry. In addition, Indian government honored him by giving ‘Arjuna Award in 2006. Now, he created an another history in Wrestling Championship, because he had won the gold medal at the ‘German grand Prix Freestyle and Greco Roman tournament’ in Dortmund.

MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Michael Vaughan is one of the greatest cricket players of England’s cricket team. Now, this most successful former test cricket captain Michael Vaughan was announced his retirement from all forms of the game. He had decided to end  his greatest career spanning nearly sixteen years. He had played in 82 Tests for England and 51 of them as captain. Vaughan had also played in 86 one-day internationals and captained in 60 matches .

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Vaughan was born on 29th October, 1974 in Eccles in England. His birth name was Michael Paul Vaughan. He was the younger son of Graham and Dee Vaughan. He was started playing cricket for the school side and also started playing club cricket for ‘Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club’ at Abbey dale Park in Sheffield. He is an aggressive right-handed batsman and useful occasional off-spinner. Michael was married to Nichola and they have two children, Tallula Grace and Archie Matthew. He had gained representative honors with the England under 19 teams, and made his county debut in 1993. He made his test debut for England against South Africa at Johannesburg in the 1999-2000 season. In 2001, he had scored his first test Century against Pakistan at Trafford. In the third test against India at Bangalore in 2001, he became the second English batsman, after Graham Gooch and 7th batsman in the test cricket to be given out for handling the ball. In the next year, he had scored 900 runs in seven tests against Sri Lanka and India. In 2003 Michael Vaughan was appointed captain of the England’s one-day captain after Nasser Hussain’s resignation and then take over the England captaincy in tests. Known for his composed style of leadership, Vaughan has been nicknamed ‘Virgil’ by his teammates. Vaughan had to take charge of the England one day team in the NatWest Challenge cup against Pakistan and in the NatWest series against South Africa and Zimbabwe, winning both competitions. Vaughan was captained England in 51 Tests between 2003 and 2008. Under his captaincy, the team had won the total of 26 matches and losing 11 matches. In 2004 , under the captaincy of Vaughan, the England had won the four game test series 3-0 away in the West Indies. As a captain, he had led the England side to victory over Australia during the legendary Ashes series of 2005. Michael Vaughan was kept out of the 2006 series due to the knee injury and Australia regained the Ashes. He was returned to cricket in the ODI against Australia on 9 January 2007 and seemed to be back to fitness. On 2007, he was selected in the final 15 for the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, and confirmed as captain. He was captained the team through Group C with victories over Canada and Kenya and a defeat to New Zealand. He had a relatively poor record since his return from injury in 2007, but he hit a century in the first test for England against New Zealand in May 2008. It meant that Michael Vaughan had equaled Graham Gooch’s record of six centuries at Lord’s. Michael Vaughan had stepped down as England one-day captain on 2008, after losing the series against South Africa and Paul Collingwood was selected as one-day captain. In broadly speaking, Michal Vaughan is a great player with really good knowledge of the game. He is considered as one of the best players of the world.

AWARDS

Michael had achieved many awards in his cricket career. He was chosen as one of the ‘Wisdom Cricketers of the Year’ in 2003. In August 2005, the Sheffield Hallam University honored him with an honorary doctorate for his services towards the game. In 2005, he was awarded the ‘Freedom of the City of Sheffield’ after captaining England to victory in the Ashes. In December 2005, the England cricket team was awarded the ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award’ and also he was nominated for the ‘Sports Personality of the Year individual award’. He was also nominated in the ‘Captain of the Year’ category for the 2006 ICC Awards and also was named in the ‘Test Team of the Year’ at the 2007 ICC Awards.

CAREER STATISTICS

Competition                   Test           ODIs               FC                   LA

Matches                          82              86                268                  282

Runs scored                  5,719        1,982           16,295               7,238

Batting average            41.44         27.15            36.95                29.18

100s/50s                     18/18         0/16             42/68                3/46

Top score                      197            90*               197                    125*

Balls bowled                  978            796               9,342                3,381

Wickets                            6                16                 114                  78

Bowling average            93.50        40.56             46.00               33.38

5 wickets in innings        0                 0                   0                     0

10 wickets in match        0               n/a                 0                    n/a

Best bowling                  2/71          4/22              4/39                4/22

Catches/stumpings        44/–          25/–             117/–                88/–