Sports Highlights

The following are the top stories at 1740 hours: STORIES ON THE WIRE: Hosting CWG has to be more affordable: Birmingham 2022 CEO (Eds: A PTI Exclusive) By Bharat Sharma London, Jul 25 (PTI) Only once in the last 20 years the Commonwealth Games have been staged outside the UK or Australia and the CEO of the upcoming Birmingham edition, Ian Reid, feels the multi-sporting event needs to be 'more affordable' to be hosted across 56 member nations. India will find it tough to match Gold Coast high in Birmingham By Bharat Sharma London, Jul 25 (PTI) Scaling a new high after the 'peak' of 2018 would be tough but the Indian table tennis contingent would be a content lot if it manages to match its record eight-medal tally of Gold Coast at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Another CWG-bound Indian track and field athlete fails dope test New Delhi, Jul 25 (PTI) A member of the CWG-bound women's 4x100m relay team is set be withdrawn from the Indian squad after testing positive for a banned drug.

Bisheshwar Nandi named women's gymnastic team coach for CWG New Delhi, Jul 25 (PTI) Gymnastics coach Bisheshwar Nandi, who guided Dipa Karmakar to a historic fourth place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has been named coach of the Indian women's team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in place of controversial Rohit Jaiswal.

CWG: Boxing assistant coach Sandhya Gurung, sports psychologist Gayatri Vartak added to contingent London, Jul 25 (PTI) Boxing's assistant coach Sandhya Gurung and sports psychologist Gayatri Vartak have been included in the Indian contingent days before the start of the Commonwealth Games.

Axar Patel powers India to series-clinching win over WI in 2nd ODI Port of Spain, Jul 25 (PTI) Axar Patel smashed a whirlwind unbeaten 35-ball 64, his maiden ODI fifty, to steer India to a series-clinching two-wicket win over the West Indies in a tense second match here.

Shreyas Iyer rues not converting fifties into centuries Port of Spain, Jul 25 (PTI) India's Shreyas Iyer has been in impressive form in the ongoing white-ball tour of West Indies but the batter is unhappy with his failure to convert back-to-back half centuries into hundreds.