June 7, 2025
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Bengaluru stampede case: Who is Nikhil Sosale, the RCB official arrested by police | Cricket News

Bengaluru stampede case: Who is Nikhil Sosale, the RCB official arrested by police | Cricket News

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Nikhil Sosale (right) in a photo featuring Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. Sosale has been arrested by local police in the Bengaluru stampede case. The Bengaluru Police have arrested Nikhil Sosale, marketing head for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Diageo India, and three others from DNA Entertainment Networks on Friday morning in connection with the stampede that occurred during RCB’s IPL victory celebrations on Wednesday. RCB’s maiden IPL title celebrations turned tragic resulting in 11 deaths and 75 injured.The arrests took place following directions from Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who called for action against officials from RCB, DNA Entertainment, and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). Sosale was taken into custody at Bengaluru airport while attempting to travel to Mumbai.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Three staff members from DNA Entertainment Networks Pvt. Ltd have been detained by the police as part of the ongoing investigation into the tragic incident. They’ve been identified as Sunil Mathew (director and vice president), Sumatnth (DNA ticketing official) and Kiran Kumar (manager).The state government has suspended several top police officials, including Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda. A one-man judicial commission, headed by retired Karnataka High Court judge Justice Michael D’Cunha, has been established to investigate the case within 30 days. Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy The stampede occurred outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium during celebrations following RCB’s first-ever IPL championship victory against Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The tragedy unfolded during a victory parade that was initially denied permission by the Bengaluru Police.Despite the initial denial, RCB announced on social media at 3 PM that the parade would proceed from Vidhana Soudha to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at 5pm. The franchise has faced criticism for continuing celebrations inside the stadium while the stampede occurred outside.Who is Nikhil Sosale? Security personnel try to manage the crowd of fans gathered for the felicitation of IPL 2025 winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru team in Bengaluru, Karnataka. (PTI) Nikhil Sosale has been closely associated with RCB since its early years. According to his LinkedIn profile, he leads the design, strategy, and delivery of the business and marketing side of the leading brand and commercial program in the IPL. He holds a Double Major in Business from James Cook University, which he completed between 2008 and 2010.Sosale has been a visible presence at RCB games throughout the 2025 season, often seen sitting with Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma in the stands. He maintains a private Instagram profile with 637 followers, which both Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma follow.He is married to Malvika Nayak, who heads the business development and partnerships department at Innoz Technologies Pvt.Ltd.In response to the tragedy, RCB had announced financial aid for all 11 families who lost members in the stampede. The franchise has also established an ‘RCB Cares’ fund to support the individuals who were injured in the incident.The Cubbon Park police registered a suo-motu case against the accused — (Accused No. 1) RCB franchise, (accused No. 2) DNA Entertainment, and (accused No. 3) KSCA administrative committee. FIR was booked under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 118 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others).A second FIR was registered based on the complaint of Rolongumes, who was injured in the incident, under the BNS section 125 A (act endangering life or personal safety of others).

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India tour of England | 'I’m always under pressure,' says Team India coach Gautam Gambhir | Cricket News

India tour of England | ‘I’m always under pressure,’ says Team India coach Gautam Gambhir | Cricket News

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Mumbai: India’s Test cricket team captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir during the pre-departure press conference ahead of the five-match Test cricket series against England, in Mumbai. (PTI Photo/Shashank Parade)(PTI06_05_2025_000349A) Mumbai: India head coach Gautam Gambhir always feels like a marked man. Recently, in a TV interview, he had stated that some former players questioned his competence as coach when the team lost in Australia, and how issues were created about the distribution of the Champions Trophy reward.The knives had already started to get sharpened when a team usually dominant at home lost 0-3 to New Zealand before the trip Down Under last year.If one thinks victory in the Champions Trophy in the UAE would have eased the spotlight, Gambhir says he is under no such illusion. “Regardless of whether I would have won the Champions Trophy or not, I’m always under pressure. Being the Indian coach, you want results. It does not change with winning or losing.”The England tour will be another tough gig for Gambhir as he leads a young captain and a young team, sans the superstars of the past, as India eye an improved show in their bid to qualify for the final of the 2027 World Test Championship. Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy While the endless supply line of players in white-ball cricket makes his task for the shorter formats easier, the transition in red-ball cricket is a potentially rocky path. Overseas Test success is something that Indian coaches are evaluated on and Gambhir is aware of it. “It’s a good opportunity to do something special for the country,” he said. “We have a talented squad and a bunch of players who are willing to express themselves and do something special.”One of the talismans in the squad is the genius called Jasprit Bumrah. One saw in Australia how heavily India’s attack depended on him. With the medical team and chief selector ajit Agarkar making it clear that Bumrah’s workload will be monitored and he will play only three of the five Tests, it is a tricky call for Gambhir to decide which of the five Tests Bumrah will feature in. “We have not taken that call which three games he is going to play,” he said, adding: “It depends on the state of the series and which way the series is heading. I’m sure he is aware of that too.”

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India tour of England | ‘Not easy to replace Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli, but we have the team’ - Team India captain Shubman Gill | Cricket News

India tour of England | ‘Not easy to replace Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli, but we have the team’ – Team India captain Shubman Gill | Cricket News

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India’s captain Rohit Sharma, right, and teammate Virat Kohli leave the field after their loss in the second cricket test match against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia. AP/PTI( Mumbai: A black SUV zooming in through the gates of the Wankhede on Wednesday evening, and a group of BCCI employees showing extreme urgency to open the doors of the swanky vehicle, were the new signs of power and importance that Shubman Gill, all of 25 years old, has now acquired.The elegant right-hander would have no doubt preferred to handle the seam and swing of the Dukes ball rather than field questions from reporters. India’s 37th Test captain, however, did an earnest job of negotiating the queries on the eve of the team’s departure for the five-Test series in England.There is an air of pessimism surrounding the competence and ability of India’s batting lineup in the absence of retired stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. “Yes, we have lost two experienced players who have won many games for us, but this team has the right batting and bowling combination to compete well in England,” Gill said at the BCCI headquarters here on Thursday. Gill will have to make a few decisions as soon as he lands with the rest of the team in London. One of them would be around his own batting position. In his 32-match and 59-innings Test career, he has either batted as an opener or by choice opted to bat at No. 3 since India’s tour of West Indies in 2023. Many feel that he is ideally suited to take the No. 4 spot, now lying vacant after Kohli’s retirement. Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy Gill was non-committal. “I haven’t decided on my batting position yet. We still have some time. We still have an intra-squad match (vs India A), and we will be having a 10-day camp in London,” he said.In his short Test career, Gill has played under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah and he has been a studious observer of their captaincy styles.Gill wants to imbibe something different from all the leaders he has played under. His appointment as Test captain raised a few eyebrows considering his limited exposure to leadership across different age groups. While he had a poor stint as Gujarat Titans captain in the IPL in 2024, in 2025 he has looked more in control and more engaged.Who’s that IPL player?So, what exactly is the Gill captaincy playbook? “I believe in communication with the players and making the players feel secure. Only then can they give you their 100%,” Gill stressed.The Indian players have all been playing a surfeit of white-ball cricket and IPL matches on flat tracks leading up to the England sojourn, where conditions will be as different as paneer and pizza. In the past, Test-bound players in the middle of IPL games took time out to practise with the red ball, especially the Dukes ball. Did he as captain advocate the same to the players? Gill said it was an individual call. “It all depends on what a player wants. If someone is playing the IPL, his commitment is for his franchise first. But many times we get breaks between games and players use that time to train,” he said.

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Rob Walter hired as New Zealand’s cricket head coach after leaving South Africa job

Rob Walter hired as New Zealand’s cricket head coach after leaving South Africa job

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Former South Africa coach Rob Walter has been appointed as the head coach of New Zealand men’s cricket team in all three formats as replacement for Gary Stead | Photo Credit: Getty Images Rob Walter has been hired to coach the New Zealand men’s cricket team in all three formats as a replacement for Gary Stead. Walter coached South Africa’s teams in the one-day and Twenty20 formats from January 2023 until April this year. Before then he coached New Zealand’s Otago province for five years and at the Central Districts association. He guided South Africa to the semifinals of the 2023 World Cup and the Champions Trophy earlier this year in the ODI format and to the final of the T20 World Cup last year. Stead was New Zealand head coach in all three formats from 2018 until earlier this week, when New Zealand Cricket announced it was seeking a replacement. Stead announced in March he was stepping down from his roles in the limited-overs formats but intended to remain as test coach. New Zealand Cricket said it preferred a coach to lead the Black Caps in all three formats. “It’s an amazing opportunity to work with such a talented group of players and support staff through a period of time in which so many global events, as well as massive bilateral series will be contested,” Walter said. “I just can’t wait to get started. It’s exciting, it’s challenging and the opportunity is enormous.” The 49-year-old Walter was high on New Zealand Cricket’s list of preferred candidates from the moment it decided to pursue another all-formats coach, ruling out Stead who guided the Black Caps to the inaugural World Test Championship. “Rob is a world-class coach with an outstanding pedigree,” NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said. “His success in New Zealand’s domestic game combined with his recent achievements on the global stage with South Africa makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Black Caps.” He’ll take over in time for New Zealand’s tour to Zimbabwe, which starts with a T20 tri-series against the hosts and South Africa before a two-Test series against Zimbabwe. Published – June 06, 2025 09:44 am IST

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Official: Opposition playing into Pakistans hands on ceasefire

Virat Kohli’s Test retirement was driven by mental fatigue, not poor form: Greg Chappell

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Former Australia cricketer Greg Chappell has said that Virat Kohli’s Test retirement was due to lack of mental clarity and not his prolonged poor form. Kohli recently announced his retirement from Tests ahead of the all-important tour of England. The star batter had been enduring poor form in the longest format since 2020 and hence people believed that it was Kohli’s inability to match his old consistency that pushed him into retirement. However, Greg Chappell feels that it was more due to the lack of mental clarity that the former India captain bid adieu to the format he loved the most. Chappel mentioned that Kohli accepted that his body was faltering as his mind wasn’t in line with it. “His decision was not born of diminished skill, but from the growing realisation that he could no longer summon the mental clarity that had once made him so formidable. He accepted that, at the highest level, unless the mind is sharp and decisive, the body falters,” Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo. Furthermore, Chappell mentioned how lack of mental clarity can affect decision-making and footwork at the crease. “When doubt begins to settle in the bones, it disrupts decision-making, impairs footwork, and erodes the spontaneity essential to elite performance. Kohli’s retirement is a reminder that form is more a function of the mind than it is of mechanics,” Chapell wrote. Kohli retired after having played 123 Tests and scoring 9230 runs in his career at an average of 46.85 with 30 centuries and 31 fifties to his name. He had been enduring poor form since 2020, having scored just 2028 runs from 39 matches (69 innings) at an average of 30.72 with three hundreds and nine fifties to his name. Since 2024, he scored 440 runs to his name from 11 matches (21 innings) at an average of 23.15 with one hundred and one fifty to his name. Due to prolonged poor form, his Test average has also taken a massive hit and dropped from 54.97 in 2019 to 46.85 by the end of his career. Published By: Rishabh Beniwal Published On: Jun 6, 2025

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Watch: Indian cricket team departs for England; heralds start of new era | Cricket News

Watch: Indian cricket team departs for England; heralds start of new era | Cricket News

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Indian cricket team at the airport ahead of their tour of England. (Twitter) The Indian cricket team departed from Mumbai Airport on Friday for England to play a five-match Test series as part of the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship cycle. This marks India’s first bilateral Test series following the recent retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Test cricket.The series will take place between June and August 2025, with matches scheduled across five venues: Headingley in Leeds, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Lord’s and The Oval in London, and Old Trafford in Manchester.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The Indian team is currently in transition, with Shubman Gill assuming captaincy duties following the departure of senior players R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli from Test cricket. Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy Several Indian players had already arrived in England earlier to participate in warm-up matches representing India A against the England Lions. The remaining squad members will arrive in the UK on Friday.India A are currently engaged in a three-match unofficial Test series against the England Lions. The first match concluded in a draw, with the second unofficial Test beginning on Friday, June 6, at the County Ground in Northampton.England have announced their squad for the opening Test at Headingley, featuring significant changes from their previous 4-1 Test series defeat in India. Notable absences include retired pacer James Anderson, while Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes, and Ollie Robinson have been dropped.India’s Test squad Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, and Kuldeep Yadav. India Test squad vs England: Ajit Agarkar full press conference England squad for first Test: Ben Stokes (Durham, captain), Shoaib Bashir (Somerset), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Brydon Carse (Durham), Sam Cook (Essex), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jamie Smith (Surrey), Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire), and Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).

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Who is Nikhil Sosale, the top RCB official arrested in the Bengaluru stampede case?

Who is Nikhil Sosale, the top RCB official arrested in the Bengaluru stampede case?

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The Bengaluru Police on Friday morning arrested Nikhil Sosale from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) management regarding the stampede incident, which happened during the franchise’s maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) win celebrations on Wednesday. The police also arrested Sunil Mathew of the event management company DNA.  All you need to know about Nikhil Sosale, the top RCB official, who has been arrested in the Bengaluru stampede case. (BCCI ) Nikhil Sosale is the head of marketing and revenue for RCB at Diageo India. He was taken into custody by the cops at the Bengaluru when he was reportedly flying out to Mumbai. According to India Today, the police have also detained three staff members of DNA Entertainment Networks Pvt. Ltd. Speaking about Sosale, he was spotted in every RCB IPL game in the 2025 season. On quite a few occasions, he was seen sitting alongside Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma in the stands.  Sosale has been associated with the franchise since its formative years. According to LinkedIn, he leads the design, strategy, and delivery of the business and marketing charter of the leading brand and commercial program in the IPL.  According to his LinkedIn profile, Sosale is a Double Major in Business from James Cook University. He pursued the degree from 2008 to 2010.  Nikhil Sosale is married to Malvika Nayak, who heads Innoz Technologies Pvt.Ltd’s business development and partnerships department. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma have often been spotted hanging out with Nikhil and Malvika. Also Read: RCB show solidarity in fresh statement on stampede tragedy The RCB marketing head has a private Instagram profile with 637 followers. Both Virat and Anushka follow him on the uber-popular platform.  All you need to know about the Bengaluru stampede A stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during RCB’s victory celebrations killed 11 and injured 33 on Wednesday. A day after, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked for the arrests of the officials of RCB, DNA and Karnataka State Cricket Association. The state government also confirmed the suspension of several top police officials, including Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda.  A one-man judicial commission has also been formed to investigate the case. It is headed by retired Karnataka High Court judge Justice Michael D’Cunha. The commission has been asked to report in 30 days. In addition, the state’s IGP and DGP were asked to immediately arrest the RCB representative, DNA event managers, and the person representing KSCA. RCB won the IPL 2025 title on Tuesday. They ended their trophy drought by winning the tournament after beating the Punjab Kings in the summit clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Following this victory, a parade was announced in Bengaluru. The Bengaluru Police initially denied permission for the same. However, at 3 PM in the afternoon, RCB posted on social media that the parade would take place from the Vidhana Soudha to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.  RCB are coping a lot of criticism for continuing the celebrations inside the stadium despite a stampede taking place outside the venue.  On Thursday, RCB announced financial aid for all the 11 families that lost someone from their household in the stampede. The franchise have also created an ‘RCB Cares’ fund to support the 33 others injured. 

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