I had lost everything: Former Team India's pacer Salil Ankola

Usually, it’s rare for people to admit their mistakes. However, former India pacer Salil Ankola showed courage by opening up about the struggles in his life, including alcoholism, and how he overcame them to make a comeback as a national selector.

Ankola, 58, who represented India in one Test and 20 ODIs between 1989 and 1997, spoke about his journey and struggles at Baazigar, a storytelling show organised by The Entertainment Factory at Mukti Munch in Versova on Sunday evening.

Ankola was 20 when he made his Test debut alongside 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. Ankola was patient and detailed as he spoke for nearly two hours on Sunday: “After representing India in the 1996 ODI World Cup, I underwent an operation for a bone tumour in 1997. The doctor said that I would be ready in four months. But those four months never came. I realised I would not be able to play cricket anymore. At that time, Kapil paaji [Dev] had retired, Javagal Srinath was unfit and Manoj Prabhakar had been dropped, so there was a very good chance for me to cement my place in the Indian team. But my operation was unsuccessful and all my dreams came crashing down. I didn’t know what to do. Somehow, I wanted to escape the pain.” tbzikra.org

Ankola hit the bottle during this phase. “I started drinking and it felt like it reduced my pain. From the time I left cricket in 1997 until 2010, I didn’t watch a game, apart the one when we won the 2007 T20 World Cup. I had no idea who Virat Kohli or [Virender] Sehwag were. I was drinking continuously in 2006. By 2008, the quantity had risen dramatically. I had become obnoxious. It was about me, my bottle, and nothing else mattered.”

Ankola underwent rehabilitation several times.

“When I went to rehab in 2010, I wanted to get away from the habit, but it wasn’t easy. I had lost everything. When I was doing a TV serial, I had no house and was actually living on the road. I had just my car. I used to take bottles, park my car in the lanes at Bandra and sleep there, unaware that just two lanes away was Sachin’s bungalow,” Ankola said.

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Ankola credited his wife, Dr Ria, with helping him make a comeback to cricket. “Ria insisted that I do something related to cricket. That’s why I stopped drinking, became Mumbai chief selector. In 2023, I became an India selector. In 2024, we won the T20 World Cup [under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy]. To contribute to India’s World Cup triumph, not as a player but as a selector, somehow completed the circle of life for me,” Ankola said.

Cincinnati [US], August 18 (ANI): Venus and Serena Williams turned back the clock, but fell short against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and local star Peyton Stearns in their first-round women’s doubles clash at the Cincinnati Open on Monday.

Serena and Venus battled in a three-set match, producing a scoreline of 6-2, 1-6, 10-8 in their first match together since the 2022 US Open, as per Olympics.com.

They fell two points short of advancing to round two, but the Williams sisters showed glimpses of the brilliance that made them multi-time Grand Slam winners one of the most decorated pair of siblings across any sport.

Having received a wildcard entry in the tournament often seen as a warm-up to the US Open, starting in six days from now, the Williams sisters hoped to feed off fans’ energy and advance further, but their ambitions were cut short.

Kostyuk and Stearns will be playing number three seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Hanyu Guo in the next round. (ANI)

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

Amrin Siddique, New Delhi

India could hardly have asked for a better opening day at the BWF World Championships. Five matches and five wins in front of a home crowd. But now the tournament moves into Day 2, and the challenge is no longer about making a statement; it is about building on it.

India’s rising star Ayush Shetty stunned defending men’s singles champion and world No. 1 Shi Yu Qi, star shuttler PV Sindhu secured a comfortable win, and three Indian doubles pairs also registered victories to give the home contingent the perfect start on Monday. The momentum now shifts to a new set of players, with Lakshya Sen and Unnati Hooda taking centre stage alongside India’s doubles combinations.

World No. 14 Lakshya will be one of the biggest names in action on Tuesday when he faces Austria’s Collins Valentine Filimon in the men’s singles opening round. For Lakshya, playing at a World Championships on home soil brings both expectation and opportunity. He enters the tournament as one of India’s established medal hopes and will aim to make a strong start before the competition gets tougher in the later rounds.

Unnati will also begin her women’s singles campaign against Myanmar’s Thet Htar Thuzar. Unnati is one of four Indians making their World Championships debuts this year.

Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will open their World Championships campaign against Canada’s Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai. Rohan and Ruthvika defeated the Canadian pair in their previous meeting.

One of the more interesting stories of the day is in mixed doubles, where Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh will finally get their chance on the World Championships stage. The pair was added to the draw only a day before the tournament began.

The women’s doubles draw will also carry forward the momentum created on Day 1. Both Indian pairs that won their opening matches will return to court. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who defeated Spain’s Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez, will face the American pair of Lauren Lam and Allison Lee. Meanwhile, Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi, who defeated Spain’s Nikol Carulla and Carmen Maria Jimenez, will now face Bulgarian pair Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva.

India’s matches on Tuesday, August 18:

Mixed Doubles: Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Shivani Gadde vs Jonathan Lai/Crystal Lai (Canada)
Women’s Singles: Unnati Hooda vs Thet Htar Thuzar (Myanmar)
Mixed Doubles: Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh vs Emre Sonmez/Yasemen Bektas (Turkey)
Women’s Doubles: Kavipriya Selvam/Simran Singhi vs Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva (Bulgaria)
Women’s Doubles: Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand vs Lauren Lam/Allison Lee (USA)
Men’s Singles: Lakshya Sen vs Collins Valentine Filimon (Austria)

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[popcorn number="4-76" desc="Manav Suthar’s figures in the first innings — the fourth-best for any Indian left-arm spinner in SL" class="Default"]

Manav Suthar on Monday gave another glimpse of his exceptional talent with a four-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in the first Test here, but the seeds of the left-arm spinner’s success were sown in a pre-series stint at the BCCI Centre of Excellence.

Suthar trained for 10 days at the CoE with Kookaburra balls, with winds wafting across the open field, the training session mirrored the conditions at Galle.

“I was practising with the Kookaburra ball after the Afghanistan Test. So, my plan was pretty simple to bowl in good areas, right length, right speed as the wicket here offers some bounce too which makes it mandatory to bowl at the right line,” said Suthar in the press conference.

Suthar’s 4 for 76 kept the Lankans in check throughout the day, even when centurion Sonal Dinusha and Niroshan Dickwella (80) resisted the Indian bowlers for the whole of the post-lunch session.

The fightback was unexpected as India had reduced the hosts to 99 for five at lunch. But the young spinner said the key was to remain patient and keep bowling in the right areas repeatedly in order to reap success.

“Our main focus was to get wickets in the first session. We didn’t get wickets in the second session but we got results in the third session. Our focus was on bowling stump to stump and finding the right pace to bowl on this wicket,” Suthar said.

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