THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 11JAMMU TUESDAY MAY 25, 2021

NEW DELHI, MAY24: India's shooters willhave to be bang on target ifthe country is to achieve itsgoal of a double-digitmedal haul at the TokyoOlympics and the federa-tion chief has no doubtthey will be up to the task.

The world's second-mostpopulous nation has hadlittle success at theOlympics, winning just 13medals combined at thelast five Games. The sixmedals the team won inLondon 2012 was theirbest outing.

Shooting has providedsome rare Olympic joy forIndia, with AbhinavBindra's air rifle gold inBeijing the country's onlyindividual Olympic gold,the rest coming from fieldhockey.

The National Rifle Asso-ciation of India (NRAI) re-viewed its Olympic prepa-rations after the shootingteam drew a blank in Riofive years ago and its chiefRaninder Sing has highhopes for Tokyo.

"Preparation wise, wedid what we could, and theshooters are doing every-thing they can," the NRAIpresident said.

"I can't predict howmany medals they will win

but I know they will trytheir best and that theywon't let down the coun-try."

Shooting World CupIndia's 15-member

shooting contingent inTokyo will be its largest atan Olympics.

The pistol and rifleshooters, includingteenage medal prospectsManu Bhaker and SaurabhChaudhary, left for Croatialast week where they willcompete in next month's

ISSF World Cup.Eight of them are also

participating, as guestshooters, in the EuropeanChampionship in Osijekthis week. They will com-pete in the early roundsbut will not be eligible forthe finals, Singh said.

India's skeet shootersare training in Italy andboth groups will fly toTokyo from their respec-tive training bases.

"We arranged the Croa-tia training to give them

some match practice be-fore the ISSF World Cup,"Singh said.

"It's a great opportunityfor them, because not allathletes are lucky to gethigh-quality training whena pandemic is raging on."

Barring three shooterswho recently recoveredfrom COVID-19, all othersmembers of the team hadreceived their first dose of avaccine and would receivetheir second at their train-ing bases, Singh added.

'India's shooters won't letthe country down'

NEW DELHI, MAY24: India opener Shub-man Gill feels the teamcan't be better prepared forthe World Test Champi-onship final against NewZealand but underlinedthe importance of playingsession by session in Eng-lish conditions.

Gill is undergoing a 14-day quarantine in Mumbaialong with the rest of thesquad. It will be his firsttour of England with thesenior team having madehis debut in Australia inDecember last year.

He did not have the bestof times in the home seriesagainst England and he islooking to make amendsstarting with the WTC finalagainst New Zealand fromJune 18.

"We did well in Aus-tralia. We have been play-ing well overseas and I feelwe can't be better preparedfor this final. As an opener,I feel you should be able toplay session by session notjust in England, overseasin general," Gill told India

TV."It is very important to

play session by session. InEngland whenever there iscloud around, the ballswings more and when thesun is out, it gets easier to

bat. It is important to as-sess those conditions as anopener," he said.

Talking about the quar-antine protocols in COVIDtimes, he said: "It is veryhard, you are in a room for

14 days there is not muchto do. We are given work-out schedules, we do that.We try to keep ourselvesbusy watching movies andspend some time on the I-pad but it is very hard,"said Gill, who has playedseven Tests so far.

Gill has been with theTest squad since 2019 butgot his big break with theBoxing Day Test at theMCG in December.

Asked about time spentin the team and interac-tions with skipper ViratKohli and opener partnerRohit Sharma, he added:"Virat bhai tells me to playfearlessly whenever wespeak about the game. Hespeaks about mindset a lot,that you have to be in goodframe of mind when you goout to bat and shares hisexperiences."

"And when I am battingwith Rohit bhai, we usuallydiscuss where the bowlerswill bowl, what the situa-tion is like, depending onthat, when to take risk ornot."

How Shubman Gill ispreparing for his first UK tour

NEW DELHI, MAY24: The Board of Control forCricket in India on Mondaysaid it will distribute 2000oxygen concentrators of 10litres each to various med-ical organisations, rampingup the country's over-whelmed healthcare infra-structure in its fight againstthe raging COVID-19 pan-demic.

The deadly second wave ofthe pandemic has causedunprecedented health crisiswith thousands losing theirlives.

"The Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) onMonday announced that itwill contribute 10-Litre2000 Oxygen concentratorsto boost India's efforts inovercoming the COVID-19pandemic," the BCCI said ina release.

"The nation has been hitby an unprecedented secondwave of the coronavirus withdemands for medical equip-ment and life-saving oxygenwitnessing a major spike," itadded.

"Over the next few

months, the Board will dis-tribute the concentratorsacross India with the hopethat critical medical aid andcare will be provided to theneedy patients and this ini-tiative will reduce the havocunleashed by the pan-demic," it further stated.

During the first wave, theBCCI had contributed Rs 51crore to the PM Cares fundlast year.

"The BCCI acknowledgesthe stellar role the medicaland healthcare communityhas played and continues toplay as we fight this long bat-tle against the virus. Theyhave truly been frontlinewarriors and have donewhatever possible to shieldus," BCCI president SouravGanguly said.

"The Board has always puthealth and safety at the top

of the chart and remainscommitted to the cause. Theoxygen concentrators willprovide immediate relief tothose affected and will helpin their speedy recovery,"the former India captainadded.

Secretary Jay Shah, on hispart, said that the BCCI'scontribution could helpbridge the gap between de-mand and supply of oxygen.

"The BCCI understandsthe desperate need for med-ical equipment in this hourof crisis and hopes this effortwill help in narrowing thedemand-supply gap that hasgenerated across the coun-try," Shah said.

"We have all gone througha lot but I am confident thatwe can stay ahead of thecurve now that the vaccina-tion drive is underway. Iurge everyone eligible to getvaccinated."

The price of a 10-litre oxy-gen concentrator is anythingbetween Rs 60,000 to Rs 1lakh and 2000 of themcould cost the BCCI aroundRs 12 crore.

BCCI to donate 10-litre 2000oxygen concentrators

NEW DELHI, MAY24: Indian cricket's Pandyabrothers -- Hardik andKrunal -- are once again do-ing their bit to help thosesuffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, dispatchingoxygen concentrators to thecentres dealing with the cri-sis.Elder brother Krunal,who has played ODIs andT20s for India, took to Twit-ter on Monday to share theinformation.

'This new batch of OxygenConcentrators are beingdispatched to Covid centreswith prayers in our heartsfor everyones speedy recov-ery,' tweeted Krunal, whoalso plays for Mumbai Indi-ans in the Indian PremierLeague, along with a pic-ture.Hardik also took to so-cial media and said that thebattle against the pandemiccan be won by working to-

gether.'We're in the middleof a tough battle that we canwin by working together,'said Hardik.

Earlier this month, theswashbuckling all-rounderHardik had announced that

his entire family, includingbrother Krunal, would do-nate 200 oxygen concentra-tors to help the rural areasin the country's fight againstthe raging pandemic.

Currently, India is reeling

under the second wave ofthe pandemic and accord-ing to the latest update fromthe health ministry, thecountry recorded 2,22,315fresh cases infections and4,454 fatalities.

Pandya brothers engaged inCOVID-19 relief work

NEW DELHI, MAY24: India opener PrithviShaw recalled the coughsyrup fiasco from 2019 anddescribed it as a 'difficult'phase of his life. The Mum-bai youngster dealt with acareer hiccup after inadver-tently ingesting a prohib-ited substance, commonlyfound in cough syrups.

Recently Shaw had a ter-rific outing in the IndianPremier League (IPL) 2021.

The Delhi Capitalsopener scored 308 runsfrom 8 games at a strikerate of 166.49. He wasplaced fourth in the OrangeCap list before the tourna-ment was indefinitely post-poned due to a surge inCOVID-19 cases in its bio-bubble.Prithvi has been ina rich vein of form latelyand is enjoying his gamebut there was a time whenhe had to suffer an 8-month

ban for failing a dope testduring Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy 2019. As a result, hemissed out on the Test se-ries against Bangladesh andSouth Africa at home andwasn’t a part of India's Testset-up for more than a year.

In a conversation withCricbuzz, Shaw called it a‘difficult time’. He revealedthat he was down with acold and fever while playingthe domestic tournament.That’s when his father sug-gested him to take cough

syrup.“I think dad and I areresponsible for this. Wewere in Indore for theMushtaq Ali Trophy and Iwas unwell, down withcough and cold. I’d gone outfor dinner that day and I re-member telling dad aboutmy cough situation. Heasked to get a cough syrupand I procured it over thecounter of a medical storewithout consulting thephysio which was a graveerror and shouldn’t havehappened,” Shaw told

Cricbuzz.“I took the coughsyrup for two days and thethird day was my dope testwhere they detected somebanned substance. I onlygot to know about it postthe IPL,” he added.Prithvifurther spoke about how hedealt with what peoplethought about him. TheMumbai batsman also ex-pressed the feeling of facinga sudden downfall in his ca-reer after a good start.

“I can't express them inwords. That was a really dif-ficult phase. I rememberlooking around thinkingabout the perception of myimage. Would people seeme as a consumer ofbanned drugs and sub-stances? I would sit at homeand think for hours. Butthen I went to London for abit because I wasn’t unableto handle that situationhere.

Shaw opens up about his ban,calls it 'difficult time'

NEW DELHI, MAY24: Former England crick-eter Isa Guha said dispari-ties still existed betweenmen's and women's cricketbut expressed optimismthat the Indian women'steam will do as good as theirtheir celebrated male coun-terparts if ‘equal amount ofthought’ goes into it.

She has also called for theneed to have a strongplayer's association in placefor the welfare of thewomen's game.

"Women are made to feelgrateful for progress butthere is still so much to bedone to reach equity (& thatisn't just equal pay). Playersassociations are a vital partof reaching this. Indianwomen will dominate thestage when as muchthought goes into the theirgame as the men," Isa

tweeted."While the men are at a

different level there are stillbase level equities in playerwelfare. Things like pay-ment/contract times, well-being support networks,

domestic structure profsupport, maternity provi-sions, retirement planningare all things can be gainedfrom having a pa (player'sassociation)."

The Indian women crick-

eters, who made the finalsof last year's World T20 inAustralia, will receive theirshare from the $ 500,000prize money by the end ofthis week, a senior BCCI offi-cial told

Isha Guha has a suggestion forwomen's cricket team