Bhullar drops to tied 16th in Doha
Doha: Gaganjeet Bhullar recovered from a poor front nine with an eagle and a birdie on the return journey to card two-under 70 and move to seven-under for 36 holes at the Qatar Masters here on Thursday. Despite that, Bhullar slipped from overnight tied eighth to tied 16th. Also making the halfway cut were Shiv Kapur (68-71) at five-under in tied 28th place and Jeev Milkha Singh (71-71) at two-under in tied 57th place. However, Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello raced into the halfway lead after a fine second round of seven under par 65. Rafa moved to a 13-under total and establish a two-stroke advantage over South Africa’s George Coetzee (69) at 11-under. (PTI)
BCCI defends proposed ICC reforms
Chennai: Defending the proposed structural revamp of the ICC, the BCCI on Thursday said that the plan, which would leave executive decision-making in the hands of India, Australia and England, is a “recognition” of the country’s revenue generation capacity. After the BCCI’s Emergent meeting, which backed the overhaul plan first mooted by the ICC’s Commercial Rights Working Group, Patel said it was a legitimate proposal. “It’s a recognition of India’s involvement in cricket and revenue generation by India. We are asking the legitimate right and it would not shrink cricketing activity in any way,” Patel said after the meeting, which was chaired by Board vice-President Shivlal Yadav after President N Srinivasan was forced to skip it because of his mother’s demise this morning. Cricket South Africa has spoken out against the plan, calling for an immediate withdrawal of the “fundamentally flawed” proposal. It has also drawn criticism from the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association Executive Chairman Paul Marsh, who has called it unconstitutional. (PTI)