1) Sports Ministry recognises Yoga as a sports discipline.
- Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports recognised Yoga as a sports discipline. It was placed under priority category.
- The ministry took the decision in order to encourage the practice of yoga across the country especially among the youth.
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (India): Sarbananda sonowal
About Yoga:
- Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline which originated in India.
- There is a broad variety of schools, practices and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism. (particularly Vajrayana Buddhism and Jainism the best-known are Hatha yoga and Raja yoga).
- On 21 June 2015, the first International Day of Yoga was observed globally for which India gave the lead to the world.
2) India win Test series in Sri Lanka after 22 years.
- India won the three-match cricket test series against Sri Lanka, 2-1. In the third and final match of the series, India defeated the host with an emphatic 117-run. With this win, India also ended a 22-year long drought of a win over Sri Lanka on Sri Lankan soil.
Series Report:
- 1st Test: Played at Galle International Stadium, Galle between 12 August and 15 August 2015. Sri Lanka won the match by 63 runs. Dinesh Chandimal of Sri Lanka was declared Player of the match.
- 2nd Test: Played at P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo between 20 August and 24 August 2015. India won the match by 278 runs. Kannaur Lokesh Rahul of India was declared Player of the match.
- 3rd Test: Played at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo between 28 August and 1 September 2015. India won the match by 117 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara of India was declared Player of the match. The match also saw test debut of two players namely Naman Ojha of India and Kusal Perera of Sri Lanka.
Player of the series: Ravichandran Ashwin of India
3) Mumbai win Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy.
- Mumbai has defeated Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) Districts XI team by six wickets and clinched the Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy in the All India invitation cricket tournament.
- TNCA batting first was able to score 163 all out in 74 over, in response to which, Mumbai scored 166 for four in 45.2 over.
- Mumbai`s Surya Kumar Yadav, was adjudged as the Man of the Series.
About Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy (Cricket):
- Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy in an annual tournament held in honour of Mothavarapu Buchi Babu Naidu.
- He is considered to be the “father of south indian cricket” and founded the annual Madras Presidency Matches, the first of which was held shortly after his death.
4) 2022 Commonwealth Games.
- Durban 2022 will be the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games, where all 71 member territories from the Commonwealth of Nations are expected to be compete.
- Durban, South Africa was awarded the rights to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games the games at the CGF General Assembly meeting in Auckland, New Zealand.
- With this, South Africa became the first country from Africa to host the games in its 85 years history.
- Motto: Ready To Inspire
South Africa:
- Capital: Pretoria (Executive), Bloemfontein (judical), Capetown (Legislative)
- Currency: South african rand
About Commonwealth Games:
- Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.
- The first event was organised in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada.
- So far, Britain have hosted the Games six times, Australia and Canada four times each, New Zealand three times, and Jamaica, Malaysia and India (XIX games in 2010) once each.
- Commonwealth Games 2018: Gold Coast, Australia
5) India v South Africa series named after Gandhi and Mandela.
- All future bilateral series between India and South Africa will be named after Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
- South Africa`s trip to India in October will be the inaugural Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Series, with the winner of the four-match Test section being awarded the Freedom Trophy.
6) Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo scrapped amid plagiarism claim.
- Four-colour logo of Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games was scrapped by Games Organising Committee.
- The logo was scrapped amid allegations by a Belgian graphic designer Olivier Debie that it was plagiarised from his work.
- Debie claimed that the design was similar to his 2013 logo for the Theatre de Liege.
- The logo unveiled in August 2015 was based around the letter T and a red circle representing a beating heart, which resembled the Japanese flag.
- Earlier in July 2015, a new Olympic Stadium design by architect Zaha Hadid was scrapped amid a row over its cost.
- Tokyo 2020 Olympics is scheduled to be held from 24 July - 9 August 2020.
7) Delhi HC revokes grant of sports prize to Ramachandran.
- Delhi High Court revoked the grant of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar (RKPP) for 2011 to Indian Olympic Association president N. Ramachandran, who is also president of the World Squash Federation.
- Mr. Ramachandran had received the prize in the category of ``establishment and management of sports academies of excellence``.
- Decision, based on the Selection Committee`s recommendation, is therefore unsupportable in law``, a bench comprising justices Ravindra Bhat and R.K. Gauba.
- The bench directed the sports ministry, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu first to pass consequential orders, revoking the grant of Puraskar to the Ramachandran, within four weeks.
8) Marvan Atapattu resigns as Sri Lanka head coach following India defeat.
- Former Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu resigned from the post of head coach of the national cricket team following its recent 1-2 Test series defeat against India.
- Atapattu`s resignation has been accepted by Sri Lanka Cricket`s interim chief Sidath Wettimuny.
- Atapattu, one of Sri Lanka`s batting mainstay during his playing days, had held the position of head coach from October 2014 after Paul Farbrace took over as England`s assistant coach.
- In September 2014, he was made the head coach of the team making him the first full-time coach of the team in 15 years.
- Atapattu, as head coach of the team oversaw Sri Lanka`s Test series win over England in June 2015. This was first test series win of the nation in 16 years that to in England itself.
9) Indian boxer Vikas won silver medal in 75 kg category at 2015 Asian Boxing Championships.
- Indian boxer Vikas Krishan (75 kg) won silver medal after going down to Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev in a brutal summit clash of the Asian Championships at Bangkok, Thailand.
- With Vikas` silver, India finished their campaign with one silver and three bronze medals. L. Devendro Singh (49 kg), Shiva Thapa (56 kg) and Satish Kumar (+91 kg) won the bronze medals.
- Overall, India with 16 points finished off the campaign with creditable fourth among the record 28 countries which participated in the Asian Boxing Championships.
- The top three table-toppers were Kazakhstan (42 points), Uzbekistan (38 points) and hosts Thailand (17 points) respectively.
10) Diamond League: Fraser-Pryce, Rutherford win.
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Greg Rutherford to win Diamond League titles in Zurich.
- Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce streaked to victory in the Diamond League women`s 100 metres final with a time of 10.93
- Britain`s Greg Rutherford, who added the world men`s long jump title to his Olympic, European and Commonwealth gold medals in Beijing, to win on a countback from American Marquis Dendy and clinch the Diamond League trophy.
11) Australia’s Shane Watson retires from Test cricket.
- Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has retired from Test cricket after a calf injury cut short his involvement in the tour of England.
- 34-year-old played in 59 Test matches, scoring 3,731 runs at an average of 35.19 and taking 75 wickets at 33.68.
- Having made his debut in 2005, he has played in five Ashes series, including this summer`s 3-2 defeat by England.
- He captained his country in one test and nine one-day internationals.
12) Lewis Hamilton won 2015 Italian Grand Prix of Formula 1.
- Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain won the 2015 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix title. The final race was held at Monza near Milan in Italy.
- For Hamilton, it was the third victory at the Monza circuit, where he earned his first and second titles in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
- It was also the seventh title in the 2015 season for Hamilton as he won the titles in Australia, China, Bahrain, Canada, the UK, Belgium and Italy.
- Hamilton won more races compared to any other British driver in the history of Formula One and is currently 5th on the all-time list, with 40 wins.
About Lewis Hamilton:
Nationality: British
Team: Mercedes
Car Number: 44