Firstpost Spodcast Episode 74: Rafael Nadal's injury woes, Real Kashmir's winning debut in I-League and more on our daily podcast

Welcome to Spodcast, the sports update on Firstpost. We begin the podcast with football news. I-League newbies Real Kashmir defeated defending champions Minerva Punjab on Wednesday. The match between the titleholders and the debutants signalled the start of Game Week Two of the 12th season of the I-League. Kashmir started the game cautiously, playing a more defensive game. Punjab, on the other hand, created a few scoring opportunities but failed to convert them. Minerva’s forward William Opoku had a great chance to score around 45 minutes into the game when a pass from Amandeep fell in the Kashmir box. Opoku trapped and fired, only for Real Kashmir’s goalkeeper Bilal to pull off a good save, his first of many during the day. Punjab squandered more chances going offside, playing too slowly, or kicks that went wide of the goal. In ISL action, Bengaluru FC defeated ATK 2-1 yesterday. Playing in front of an excited home crowd, ATK got off to a great start, scoring their goal in the 14th minute. Everton Santos set up the goal with a great pass to 18-year-old Komal Thatal, who deposited it in the BFC goalpost. In tennis news, Rafael Nadal opted out of the Paris Masters tournament following concerns over fitness. He said, “My abdominal muscles haven’t felt good for the past few days, especially on serve, doctors recommended that I didn’t play.” Nadal was also forced to forfeit the US Open semi-final due to a knee injury. He added, “It’s been a difficult year for me in terms of injuries, and so I’d prefer to avoid doing anything drastic.” Before that, Nadal had a pretty successful year, winning his 11th French Open in June, and his 17th Grand Slam title overall. He also won tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome this year. With this development, Novak Djokovic is all but assured of the number 1 rank after the Paris Masters. Djokovic landed in Paris knowing he could grab the top spot if he did better than Nadal at the indoor event he has won four times. He defeated Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-1 yesterday, his 19th win on the trot. Some news from boxing now, and Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh said yesterday that the BFI is planning to give central contracts to its pugilists in the next six months. The WFI had also claimed it would share its plans for similar contracts with Indian wrestlers in some time. The ICC’s investigations into match-fixing and corruption in Sri Lankan cricket is throwing up a few nasty surprises. Last month, Sanath Jayasuriya’s name came up with regard to obstruction of investigation. Bowling coach Nuwan Zoysa was suspended by the ICC on Wednesday, following accusations of match-fixing and other “corrupt conduct”. The ICC said in a brief statement that he is accused of “being party to an effort to fix or contrive or to otherwise influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspect of an International match,"  and that “Mr Zoysa has 14 days from 1 November 2018 to respond to the charges.”