BCCI writes to ICC after Anti-India banners fly above during Indo- Lanka match
Leeds: In yet another incident that has political overtone, unnamed aircrafts flew over the Headingley stadium with anti-India banners during the World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka, here Saturday.
The unsavoury incident has prompted the BCCI to file a written complaint with the ICC, raising concerns about the security of their players.
Minutes after the match began, an aircraft carrying the banner ''Justice for Kashmir'' flew above the ground. After half an hour, a similar looking aircraft flew over the stadium with a different banner - ''India Stop Genocide, Free Kashmir''.
Midway into India''s run chase, a third aircraft was also seen with a banner - ''Help End Mob Lynching''.
"This is completely unacceptable. We have written to the ICC, raising our concern about what happened in Headingley today. If this kind of incident is repeated in the semi-finals, it will be really unfortunate. Safety and security of our players is paramount, a senior BCCI official, who is privy to the development told PTI.
This is second such incident inside 10 days as Afghanistan and Pakistan fans had clashed at the same venue on June 29 after ''Justice for Balochistan'' banner was displayed by an unnamed aircraft that landed at the Bradford airport.
A few fans were evicted for engaging in brawl inside the stadium premises.
The ICC has zero tolerance for political or racist slogans and expressed their disappointment at another security breach.
"We are incredibly disappointed this has happened again. We do not condone any sort of political messages at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup," the ICC said in a statement.
Yorkshire, in the north of England, is known for having a sizable Pakistan population with Bradford being their ghetto.
"Throughout the tournament we have worked with local police forces around the country to prevent this type of protest occurring. After the previous incident we were assured by West Yorkshire Police there would not be repeat of this issue, so we are very dissatisfied it has happened again," the ICC statement added.
It has also been learnt that the air space above Old Trafford in Manchester and Edgbaston in Birmingham will be turned into ''No-Fly Zone'' during the two semifinals on July 9 and July 11 respectively.
The ICC has been given assurance by the Manchester and Yorkshire police authorities in this respect.
ICC's outgoing Chief Executive Dave Richardson accepted during a recent interaction that even if they have foolproof security, it can never really be enough.
Saturday's incident is an indication that local authorities did not do enough as the airspace is their domain.
The incident however leaves ICC on the edge since a more dangerous security breach is feared.
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Equity markets decline in early trade dragged by services, realty stocks, FII outflows
Mumbai (PTI): Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Monday weighed down by losses in services and realty stocks and sustained foreign fund outflows.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 316.52 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 85,395.85 in the morning trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined by 106.70 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 26,079.75.
From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki India, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Hindustan Unilever and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.
However, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Eternal, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Tata Consultancy Services, Trent, HCL Technologies and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
"Emerging positive and negative news have the potential to keep the market volatile in the near-term. Robust economic growth and indications of earnings growth revival are supportive of markets.
"The massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to the economy this year has contributed to sharp revival in GDP growth as evidenced by the 8.2 per cent Q2 GDP growth print, and RBI's upward revision of FY 26 GDP growth to 7.3 per cent augurs well for the market," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.
He noted that low GDP deflator, consequent to low inflation, has impacted nominal GDP growth and corporate earnings growth. But from the leading indicators it is clear that about 15 per cent earnings growth is achievable in FY27. This is positive for the market.
"However, there are strong negatives, too, which can impact the market. Sustained depreciation of the rupee has been forcing FIIs to sell in the market continuously," Vijayakumar added.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 438.90 crore on Friday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 4,189.17 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and South Korea's Kospi were trading in the green territory while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was quoting in the red zone.
US markets ended higher on Friday.
"American equities posted modest, broad-based gains last week, supported by softer inflation data and resilient macroeconomic indicators that sustained expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts," Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities, said.
He noted that investors positioned cautiously ahead of the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, additional inflation releases, and year-end portfolio adjustments.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.13 per cent, to USD 63.83 per barrel.
On Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex benchmark advanced 447.05 points to settle at 85,712.37, while the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 152.70 points to close at 26,186.45.
