Pacer Jasprit Bumrah played a pivotal role in India’s triumph at the T20 World Cup 2024. Rohit Sharma and co had an outstanding run at the World Cup as the remained unbeatable throughout the tournament. In the final match, they defeated South Africa by seven runs and clinched the title. Bumrah, who scalped 15 wickets, bagged the Player of the Tournament award. With his fiery pace and on-point yorkers, Bumrah brought Team India out from the jaws of defeat on numerous occasions. It won’t be wrong to say Bumrah is currently one of the greatest fast bowlers in the world. 

Not just in T20Is but Bumrah is equally effective in ODIs and Tests as well. Recently, former Pakistan skipper Ramiz Raja lavished praise on the India pacer, calling him a “legend of all three formats. 

“In my book, Jasprit Bumrah is a legend in all three formats. There is no one greater who has played all three formats. So you can see, where this boy came from, he lacked confidence, had an awkward bowling action. He was unfit, but he came back, and now he has made India win the World Cup,” Ramiz Raja said on his YouTube channel.

Co-incidentally, Ramiz’s statement came after an old video of India’s new head coach Gautam Gambhir started surfacing online, where he was seen talking about having more all-format players in the pool. 

“I’m a very strong believer in one thing, that if you’re good, you should be playing all the three formats. I’ve never been a big believer in injury management, that you get injured, you go get recovered. As simple as it gets. When you’re playing international cricket and you’re good enough, you ask any of the top players, they want to play all the three formats. They don’t want to stay and they don’t want to be labelled as red-ball bowler or white-ball bowler,” Gambhir said in the video. 

Talking about the current team, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja have announced their retirement from the T20Is after the World Cup. In the shortest format, Team India is going through a transformation as currently a fresh-looking team is facing Zimbabwe in a five-match series. 

Team India is being led by Shubman Gill and it features debutants like Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma, and Dhruv Jurel. 

The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania as the suspect in Saturday’s attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally. The suspect was shot and killed by the Secret Service seconds after he allegedly fired shots toward a stage where Trump and was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania. The FBI said it was working to determine a motive for the attack, in which one rally attendee died and two other spectators were critically injured. Trump was shot in the ear.

State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican. The upcoming Nov. 5 election would have been the first time Crooks had been old enough to vote in a presidential race.

Crooks lived about an hour away from where the shooting took place in Butler. The Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday that it closed the airspace over Bethel Park for “special security reasons.”

When Crooks was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote. The groups did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN that he was trying to figure out what happened and would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.

Thomas Crooks graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to the newspaper.

A 2022 graduation ceremony video cited by the New York Times shows Crooks receiving his high school diploma to some applause. Video from that ceremony posted online shows Crooks with glasses in a black graduation gown and posing with a school official. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video. Law enforcement officials said on Saturday that Crooks carried no identification to the site of the shooting and had to be identified using other methods.

“We’re looking at photographs right now and we’re trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation,” Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge, said during a press briefing.

USA Today reported that dozens of law enforcement vehicles were stationed outside a residence listed at the address on Crooks’ voter registration record. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene and a bomb squad was at the residence, USA Today reported. The perimeter of the residence of the suspect was guarded on Sunday by yellow police caution tape. An Alleghany County Police vehicle was parked outside.

“It’s insanity that anyone would do this,” Dan Maloney, a 30-year-old resident from the area was quoted as saying by USA Today.Reuters could not immediately identify social media accounts or other online postings by Crooks. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to questions on whether the platforms had removed any accounts related to the suspect.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Two witnesses at Donald Trump’s election rally in Pennsylvania, where he was attacked, claimed to have seen the shooter, with one recalling how the gunman moved from roof to roof, apparently scouting for a perfect perch to shoot at the former US President.

The FBI on July 14 identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, armed with an AR-style rifle, was killed by Secret Service personnel. He fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.

The gunman was able to get close enough to shoot and injure Trump is seen as a huge failure of the security agencies tasked with providing cover for him ahead of the election.

The gunman was on a rooftop approximately “200 to 250 yards” from where the former US president was addressing his supporters, U.S. media reported.

According to an attendee named Ben Macer, he was up along the fence line and “saw the guy move from roof to roof”, CBS News reported.

Macer further said he told an officer that the shooter was on the roof, approximately “200 to 250 yards” away from where Trump was addressing his supporters.

“When I turned around to go back to where I was, it was when the gunshots started, and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that,” he said.

Butler resident Ryan Knight, another witness along the fence line, also said he saw the suspected shooter atop the American Glass Research building, the report said.

“I walked over about 20 minutes before the shooting happened to stand along the fence line where Trump was. As I was doing that, I was right beside the AGR building, which had the shooter on it,” Knight said.

“When I was sitting there, a guy said, ‘Oh God, he had a gun.’ When I looked up, there was a guy on top of the building with an M16 with a blanket, pointing at the president. He starts shooting. Four to five shots rang out. I throw the guy I’m with to the ground. I jump to the ground, I look up, and I see his head get split up from the shot from the Secret Service,” he said.

The Secret Service has confirmed that one attendee was killed and two others were critically injured in the shooting.

“All the cops started flying over, pushing us out, they took my name, witness report, [and] cell phone number to go over what happened because there [weren’t many] eyewitnesses,” Knight said.

“My main thought is why wasn’t the Secret Service on top of AGR? That’s a very big vantage point to shoot at the president. How did that get missed?” Knight asked.

Macer said he did not get a clear look at the alleged shooter, but reiterated that he saw him move from building to building.

The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday, July 14, 2024 said that it was taking steps to cover more people under the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme. So far, about 1.15 crore women are covered under the scheme launched in September 2023 and a monthly aid of ₹1,000 is being provided to each of them.

An official release by the State government issued on Sunday listed out its various achievements for the welfare of people. Under the Pudhumai Penn Thittam launched in September 2022, a monthly aid of ₹1,000 each was being provided to over 2.73 lakh girl students pursuing higher education, it said.

While the national Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education stood at 26%, the figures in Tamil Nadu was at 52%, it said. The Tamil Pudhalvan scheme is set to be launched soon to cover boys. Under the ‘Vidiyal Payanam’ initiative, womenfolk were able to save about ₹888 every month, it said.

The ‘Naan Mudhalvan’ initiative for skill development of school and college students launched in March 2022 has benefitted about 28 lakh students, it said. Many of the beneficiaries have cleared the Union civil services exams.

‘Thozhi’ women hostels in Tiruchi, Guduvancheri and Tambaram have been benefitting working women and new such hotels were being constructed in Hosur, Tiruvannamalai and St. Thomas Mount. Such hostels in Adyar, Perambalur, Salem, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Villupuram were being renovated.

Financial assistance of ₹1,047 crore have been provided for weddings of over 1.26 lakh women, it said. The monthly pension for transpersons were being provided to 1,482 beneficiaries. Since the DMK came to power, the foundation stone has been laid for 45 industries and 27 have been inaugurated. They have led to employment for over 74,700 youths, it said.

The State government said it also provided aid to fishermen during the fishing ban season and to farmers to assist them in agricultural production. (EOM) DSJ

Imphal/New Delhi:

A soldier of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed in action after a joint patrol with the state police was ambushed by suspected insurgents in Manipur’s Jiribam district. Two police commandos were injured.

The police said the joint patrol came under heavy fire from the suspected insurgents in the district bordering Assam. The CRPF soldier was walking near a patrol SUV when the suspected insurgents opened fire.

Visuals of the ambush site shows the SUV with several bullet holes and a shattered rear windshield. Two police commandos who were inside the vehicle were hit.

“We returned effective fire. The insurgents took cover of the forest and ran away. A combing operation is going on,” a senior police officer told NDTV on phone from Jiribam, 220 km from the state capital Imphal.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in a post on X condemned the attack by who he called “suspected Kuki militants”.

Before today’s ambush, tension in Jiribam had been high in recent weeks following clashes between the Meitei community and the Hmar tribes.

The district didn’t see violence for over a year since Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes began in May 2023; however, clashes erupted in Jiribam last month, forcing over a thousand people from both the communities to live in relief camps, some in neighbouring Assam.

Manipur’s second lifeline National Highway 37 which connects Imphal with Assam’s Cachar passes through Jiribam. The other lifeline that connects Manipur with the rest of the country is National Highway 2, which remains blocked in Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district. This highway goes to Assam via Nagaland. The Kuki tribes also allege the Meitei community has blocked all essential items and cargo trucks from going to the hill areas where they live.

The ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

Armed people on both sides call themselves “village defence volunteers”, a definition of the belligerents that has become the most controversial since nothing stops these “volunteers” from killing people under the insurance provided by “in self-defence”.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administrative carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Moscow:

Moscow called on the United States Sunday to “take stock” of its “policies of incitement to hatred”, while using the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump to denounce support for Ukraine. 

Addressing “those who vote in the United States to supply arms” to Kyiv, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denounced support for Kyiv, which she said stoked “attacks against the Russian president”. 

She added that “perhaps it would be better to use this money to fund the American police and other services that are supposed to ensure law and order in the United States?” 

A Trump victory in the November elections would put into question continued US support for Ukraine as it resists the Russian offensives launched in 2022.

The Republican Party candidate has suggested that he would end the conflict very quickly if he won back the presidency, which Kyiv fears would mean it would be forced to negotiate with Moscow from a weakened position.

Vladimir Putin has said he takes Trump’s comments about ending the war “very seriously”.

Zakharova added that “when other means of getting rid of troublesome president are exhausted, good old Lee Harvey Oswald comes into play”, referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, a source of numerous conspiracy theories including that his death was ordered from within the US state apparatus. 

The JFK assassination commission concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who had lived in the Soviet Union, had acted alone.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said “traitors” from the party who cross-voted in the recent elections to 11 legislative council seats have been identified and will be punished.

“The same “traitors” had ensured the defeat of the Congress leader Chandrakant Handore in the council elections two years ago,” Mr. Patole claimed on July 13.

“A trap was laid this time and they have been identified. They will be punished so that no one dares to betray the party again,” Mr. Patole told reporters in Mumbai, without taking any name.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, while talking to reporters on July 14, said the Congress has accepted that cross-voting took place and they will take action accordingly.

“The Central government is going to observe the imposition of Emergency as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. Isn’t it unconstitutional to get MLCs elected by MLAs who are facing disqualification? Isn’t it unconstitutional to purchase MLAs by bribing them? BJP is the real murderer of the Constitution,” Mr. Raut alleged.

Following a split in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) had moved court seeking disqualification of MLAs of the parties led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

The ruling ‘Mahyuti’ in the State, comprising the Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde, the BJP and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, on July 12 won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections to 11 seats in the legislative council.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) faced a setback as a candidate backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) lost. At least seven Congress MLAs defied the party’s directive while voting, results showed.

“The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Pradyna Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to Milind Narvekar, candidate of the ally Shiv Sena (UBT),” party sources earlier said.

Eventually, Mr. Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted. Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), supported by the NCP (SP), lost.

The 288-member legislative Assembly, with current strength of 274, was the electoral college for the council polls. Each winning candidate required 23 votes.

The BJP is the largest party in the Assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena-38, NCP- 42, Congress-37, Shiv Sena (UBT)-15 and NCP (SP)-10.

Puri:

The ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (treasure trove) of the Shri Jagannath Temple has finally been opened after more than four decades on Sunday.

The Ratna Bhandar of the Shri Jagannath Temple was opened following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the Odisha government. On Saturday, the Odisha government gave approval for the opening of the Ratna Bhandar after carrying out the inventorization of valuables, including pieces of jewellery stored there.

To commemorate this occasion, the Office of the Chief Minister of Odisha, taking to X, said, “Jai Jagannath Oh Lord! You are rhythmic. The whole world is oppressed by your desire. You are the heartbeat of the orthodox nation… The four doors of the temple were first opened at your will. Today, after 46 years of your will, the gem was opened with a great purpose…I strongly believe that this great work will be successful…”

Special boxes were also brought to Shri Jagannath Temple ahead of the re-opening of ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (Treasure Trove) today.

Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Chief Arabinda Padhee says, “Odisha government has approved the SOP for opening the Ratna Bhandar. As per the decision, today the Ratna Bhandar is being opened as per set guidelines. Authorised representatives from the various ‘sewa’ groups, officials from the ASI, representatives of Shri Gajapati Maharaj and others would be there. The entire proceedings will be video recorded for our records, not for publicity and will be strictly confidential.”

He further stated that there will be three steps in SOPs to be followed for the opening and inventorization of the valuables in the Ratna Bhandar.

“There are three steps to the SOP: The first is the opening of the outer ratna bhandar. For the inner Ratna Bhandar, there is another set of guidelines. There is also a temporary, strong room… Once the shift from Ratna Bhandar to the strong room has been made, we will inventory the valuables. We seek the blessings of Mahaprabhu that the Ratna Bhandar gets opened easily, and the subsequent steps will follow,” Padhee said.

The ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (Treasure Trobe) of the Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri was set to be opened at 1:28 pm on Sunday, following SOPs issued by the state government.

Speaking on this, Inspection Committee Chairman Justice Biswanath Rath said, “As per the discussion in the meeting and the suggestions of the ‘Purohits’ and the ‘mukti mandap’, the right time for the opening of the Ratna Bhandar is 1:28 pm.”

He further said that the process will be quite challenging since it is still unknown to them about the position of the Ratna Bhandar since it was last opened in 1985.

“Today we convened a meeting in which we decided to go ahead with the opening and taking care of the ornaments… The process will be carried out with two sets of video recordings and there will be two certifications… It will be a challenge since we do not know the position inside since it last opened in 1985… We’ll open the locks today, in any case,” Justice Rath said.

Speaking on the re-opening of the Ratna Bhandar, Odisha Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan said that the inventory work will take place in the presence of a representative from the Reserve Bank of India and a digital catalogue will be made after the counting is done.

“We had requested the involvement of the Reserve Bank of India in this and a representative of the Reserve Bank of India will be included in it… After counting the ornaments, we will create a digital catalogue, which will include photographs, their weight and other things like their quality. A digital catalogueue will be created with all the things; the digital catalogueue will be a reference document,” he said.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be doing repair works in the Ratna Bhandar, which also looks after the maintenance of the 12th century shrine. The Treasury was last opened in 1978.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The story so far: In a shooting incident under investigation as an attempted assassination attempt, former U.S. President Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, leaving one person dead and two others critically injured. Follow Live Updates here

The U.S. Secret Service, which provides former Presidents with lifetime protection, said Trump was safe while the suspected shooter was killed.

The attack marks the first attempt to assassinate a President or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Coming less than four months before the November 5 election and just days before Trump was to accept the Republican nomination for a third time to set up a potential rematch with President Joe Biden, the incident is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the presidential race and domestic politics.

Here’s what we know so far.

How did the shooting unfold? 

On Saturday evening, a few minutes after Trump took the stage in Butler and began his speech, at least five shots rang out as the former U.S. President was talking about a spike in illegal border crossings. In one of the videos of the incident, Trump is seen clutching his right ear behind the podium before Secret Service agents dash toward him and cover him. “Get down,” the agents said as Trump dropped to the ground as gunfire set off panic.

A minute later, he emerged with his face streaked with blood. He pumped his fist in the air in a show of defiance, mouthing the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” before the Secret Service rushed him to a black SUV.

Who was the shooter?

The suspected shooter, who attacked Trump from an elevated position outside the rally venue, was killed at the scene. The suspect has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement reportedly recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene. No motive has been identified so far in the assassination attempt, the FBI has stated and added that the investigation is ongoing.

Crooks was a registered Republican, according to the state’s voter records. However, he had given $15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021, the day President Joe Biden took over, as per an AP report.

How did rally attendees react?

A witness recounted how a man next to him was shot dead during the apparent assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate. “I heard several gunshots. The man beside me suffered a gun shot to the head, was instantly killed [and] fell to the bottom of the bleachers. Another woman looked like she got hit in the forearm or hand,” the man told NBC News. He said it seemed the victim was “in the way of the shots between whoever was shooting the gun and the President.”

Republican Dan Meuser was in the front row with other elected officials and candidates when the shots rang out. “It was pretty clear after the first pop that it was gunfire,” he told AP. “It was just a lot of mayhem, and just a terrible, terrible tragedy, a terrible shame.”

Rico Elmore, vice chairman of the Beaver County Republican Party, was sitting in a section for special guests, facing President Trump, when he heard what sounded like firecrackers. “So, everyone hesitated — and it was like, no, these are actual shots. So I yelled, ‘Get down!’” Elmore saw Secret Service agents helping Trump off the stage and then heard someone from his left calling for a medic. He took off his tie and jumped a barricade, but when he reached the person, Elmore saw he had been shot in the head. Elmore said he held the victim’s head but it was too late. “I mean, it was a horror,” Elmore said.

Chet Jack, a member of the state Republican Party, and his wife Beth were sitting in the bleachers facing Trump when they heard the shots. Beth ducked after hearing the shots and then a second round of shots. “I couldn’t see what happened with President Trump, because the minute I heard a shot, I yelled, ‘Everybody get down!’” Beth said. While Beth ducked for cover, Chet said he remained standing. He said he believed the shots were coming from above, and that ducking wouldn’t protect him.

Also Read |From Lincoln to Trump: A long history of shootings in U.S. Presidential politics

Is Trump safe? 

After the incident, Trump left for New Jersey to spend the night at his private gold club. He wrote on his Truth Social site that he, “knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening…” He thanked the Secret Service and law endorsement for their “rapid response”.

Trump also extended his condolences to the family of the person killed at the rally. “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead,” he said.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said his father was “in great spirits.” “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him,” Trump Jr. said in a statement.

What has Biden said?

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, returned to Washington from Delaware earlier than planned following the attack at the Trump rally. The White House said President Biden also spoke with former President Donald Trump.

“I’m grateful to hear that [Trump is] safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information … There’s no place for this kind of violence in America,” the U.S. President said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “relieved that he [Trump] is not seriously injured.” “We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting,” she said in a statement.

“Violence such as this has no place in our nation. We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”

What is the world saying?

The deadly incident sent shockwaves across the globe, with leaders uniting to condemn the attack and denounce political violence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply concerned” by the attack on his friend.

“Violence has no place in politics and democracies. Wish him speedy recovery… Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased, those injured and the American people,” the PM added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “sickened” by the shooting, while a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office denounced all forms of political violence. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the incident “concerning and confronting.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was shocked. Jordan Bardella of the French far-right National Rally party said “Violence is the poison of any democracy.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was “following with apprehension” updates from Pennsylvania and wished Trump a speedy recovery.

An enthralling Wimbledon men’s singles final awaits tennis lovers as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz – two of the finest players in the game at present – gear up for the showdown for the title. A number of sporting celebrities like Rohit Sharma, Pep Guardiola, David Beckham, etc. have found seat among spectators in the last few rounds of Wimbledon but it doesn’t seem like the tickets to the Grand Slam are affordable for general public. Claims have been made on social media that the tickets for the men’s singles final between Djokovic and Alcaraz are the most expensive in sporting history.

“Djokovic-Alcaraz Wimbledon Final will be the most expensive get-in finals tickets in the history of sports,” American sports commentator Darren Rovell wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Right now, WORST SEAT for Sunday is more than $10,000.”

Djokovic-Alcaraz Wimbledon Final will be the most expensive get-in finals tickets in the history of sports.

Right now, WORST SEAT for Sunday is more than $10,000.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 12, 2024

The cheapest ticket on @TickPick to see Djokovic-Alcaraz in the #Wimbledon Final is $10,600.

That is the most expensive get-in for a sporting event on record at TickPick. pic.twitter.com/cKtns5LrkA

— Kyle Zorn (@Kyle_Zorn) July 12, 2024

The rough translation of the ‘worst ticket’ for the Wimbledon men’s singles final equates to INR 835193.50. Wimbledon’s Centre Court has a capacity of 14,979, which takes the total value of all seats at that price to a mind-boggling sum of INR 12,500,000.36.

In comparison, the organises have planned as sum of INR 265 crore as prize money for the winner of the final. The total pool of prize money stands at Rs. 500 crore for the tournament.

Novak Djokovic On The Cusp Of History

Novak Djokovic says the prospect of creating tennis history will provide the “fuel” he needs to defeat Carlos Alcaraz and clinch an eighth Wimbledon title and record 25th Grand Slam on Sunday.

Just five weeks after undergoing surgery on his right knee, 37-year-old Djokovic can become the oldest Wimbledon champion of the modern era and avenge his heartbreaking five-set loss to the Spaniard in last year’s final.

“I’m aware of what’s on the line. Any Grand Slam that I play, there’s always history now on the line,” said Djokovic.

“I will try to use that as a fuel to play my best tennis.”

On what promises to be an emotional day, the final will be played out in front of Catherine, Princess of Wales, who will be making just her second public appearance following her cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

UK media reported that she will also present the trophy to the champion.

Djokovic will be playing in his 10th Wimbledon final and 37th at the 75 majors in which he has played.

A 25th Grand Slam title would be an all-time record for men and women, snapping the mark of 24 he shares with Margaret Court.

“It serves as a great motivation, but at the same time it’s also a lot of pressure and expectations,” added the Serb.

“Every time I step out on the court now, even though I’m 37 and competing with the 21-year-olds, I still expect myself to win most of the matches, and people expect me to win 99 percent of the matches that I play.”

With AFP Inputs