ACC meet: UAE set to host Asia Cup, venue to be finalised in March

NEW DELHI: The Asian Cricket Council will decide on an alternate venue for the Asia Cup ODI tournament in March after BCCI secretary Jay Shah and PCB chairman Najam Sethi had their first formal meeting in Bahrain on Saturday.

The Asia Cup was initially allotted to Pakistan and was scheduled in September this year but Shah, who is also the ACC chairman, had announced last October that India will not travel to Pakistan.

It is understood that United Arab Emirates with three venues (Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah) are favourites to host the tournament but the decision has been withheld for now.

All heads of ACC member nations attended the emergent meeting which was called at the behest of PCB chairman Sethi after ACC under chairmanship of Shah released the continental body’s itinerary where Pakistan wasn’t named the hosts.

Dipa says unknowingly took banned substance

NEW DELHI: Handed a 21-month ban for failing a dope test, Indian gymnastics ace Dipa Karmakar on Saturday said she accepted provisional suspension after returning positive for a banned drug to swiftly resolve her case with the international federation.

Karmakar claimed that she “unknowingly ingested” the prohibited substance Higenamine, S3 Beta-2 Agonists as per

WADA prohibited list, which was found in her dope sample.

Usha alleges security threat at her academy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Legendary athlete and Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha on Saturday broke down before the media alleging that illegal constructions were being carried out at her academy campus in Kozhikode district and strangers were trespassing into the property posing a security threat to the inmates.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, she said those at the Usha School of Athletics had been facing such harassment and security issues for some time and it has intensified after she became the Rajya Sabha Member.