Sports World Recap, December 5, 2023: Tamil Nadu Qualify For Vijay Hazare Trophy QFs; India Beat South Korea In FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup

The Indian junior men's hockey team kicked off its FIH Hockey World Cup 2023 campaign with a win against South Korea in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the action heated up in Vijay Hazare Trophy with Tamil Nadu securing a quarter-final spots in the last round of league matches. Here's all that transpired in the world of sports on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Cricket News | Football News | Hockey News | December 4 Highlights) 

10:42pm: Premier League 2023-24's first managerial casualty: Paul Heckingbottom

Sheffield United have sacked manager Paul Heckingbottom and replaced him with former head coach Chris Wilder. Heckingbottom leaves Sheffield United rooted to the bottom of the league table, struggling to climb their way out of the relegation spots. 

Read more. 

9:30pm: BWF World Rankings Update

The Indian Women's Doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto has moved up to 28th in the BWF World Rankings. Meanwhile, the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty is steady at number two in the Men's Doubles category. 

Here are all the latest movers and shakers. 

8:30pm: Smriti Mandhana eyes multi-city WPL 

India Women's National Team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana believed that the Women's Premier League will benefit from following in the footsteps of the Indian Premier League and hosting the tournament pan-India. The maiden edition of the contest was held entirely in Mumbai, with DY Patil Stadium the venue for the final. 

Read more here. 

6:20pm: 'I didn't remove Virat from captaincy' - Sourav Ganguly 

Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has stirred an old debate concering his role in Virat Kohli's departure from the post of the Indian men's cricket team captain. Ganguly has claimed that he had no role to play in Kohli's decision, but he did push Rohit Sharma toward becoming the Indian skipper across all formats later. 

Read Ganguly's full comments here. 

5:15pm: India start off FIH Junior Men's Hockey World Cup with a win! 
The Blue Colts beat South Korea in their opening match 4-2, taking a 3-0 lead into the half-time interval before seeing out what remained of the match in the two following quarters. India will play Spain next before finishing off their group stage campaign against Canada. 

Read the report here. 

3:30pm: Vijay Hazare Update
Odisha beat Mumbai by 86 runs in Alur and Bengal beat Punjab by 52 runs in Thane to and their respective league campaigns with wins. Remember, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have already made the last-eight cut. The entire picture will be clear shortly, once all matches across groups are completed.

3pm: CWG 2026 In Limbo
In a development that raises serious concerns about the future relevance of the multi-sport event, the city of Gold Coast has ruled itself out of hosting the 2026 edition of Commonwealth Games (CWG). With the next CWG slated in three years' time and no clear bidder forthcoming, the organisers may have to postpone or cancel the next installment of the Games. Read our report to know more.

1:30pm: Sole Athlete Who Didn't Flee Race Fails Dope Test: Report
Doping has reared its ugly head in Indian athletics again. An athlete who was the sole runner when all the other 100m finalists fled a Delhi State meet in September 2023 upon NADA officials' arrival, has now reportedly failed a dope test himself. Read the story to know what happened. 

12:30pm: PAK-W Register Historic Series Triumph
The Nida Dar-led Pakistan women's cricket team has successfully defended a total of 137 to take a 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series against New Zealand. This is PAK women's first-ever T20I series victory against New Zealand, and their only triumph outside Asia and Ireland. Read our detailed report here.

11:40am: TN Qualify For Vijay Hazare QFs
Tamil Nadu beat Nagaland by 10 wickets to jump to 20 points and qualify for the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 quarterfinals. TN chase down a 70-run target in just 7.5 overs, with Sai Kishore sealing the game with a six.  

11:30am: EPL's Record TV Rights Deal
The Premier League sold its domestic TV rights for 6.7 billion pounds ($8.4 billion) for the next four-year cycle. The new contract covering the period from 2025-26 to 2028-29 underlined the league's status as the richest in football, with the annual figure of 1.675 billion pounds ($2.12 billion) around double the value of domestic rights in each of Germany, Spain and Italy. Read more here.

11am: FA Charges Manchester City
English champions Manchester City have been charged by the Football Association (FA) on Monday with failing to control their players in the 3-3 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur at home. Read our report to know more.

10am: BCCI Claims Byju's Defaulted Payment
Insolvency tribunal NCLT has issued a notice to Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, which provides online educational services under the brand name of Byju's, over a petition filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The BCCI has filed a petition claiming dues of Rs 158 crore as an operational creditor under section 9 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016. Read more here.

9:30am: Khawaja Backs Warner
Former Australia left-arm pacer Mitchell Johnson's criticism of David Warner hasn't gone down well with batter Usman Khawaja, who came out in strong defence of his opening partner, who is set to bid adieu to Test cricket at his home ground in Sydney in January next year. Read more about it here.

9am: Controversy Around Hayden's Remark
Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden had made a couple of observations on the on-field umpires' actions during Arshdeep Singh's final over in the fifth India vs Australia T20I. The remarks did not go down well with many Indian cricket fans. Read our report to know more.

8:15am: Recap
In the Indian Super League, East Bengal ran rampant at home against NorthEast United FC, beating them by five goals to nil courtesy of a brace each from Cleiton Silva and Nandha Kumar. Meanwhile, in the Pro Kabbadi League, Puneri Paltan put on a masterful defensive display to defeat Jaipur Pink Panthers. Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic closed the year as world number 1 in the ATP rankings.