FIFA Lifts Transfer Ban On Mohun Bagan Super Giant
The transfer ban on Mohun Bagan Super Giant was on Tuesday lifted by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, clearing the way for the club to sign new players ahead of the upcoming season. The ban, imposed on May 5 over non-payment of dues to Australian striker Jason Cummings' former club Central Coast Mariners, was revoked following prompt action by the club. Mohun Bagan had submitted a 107-page document to FIFA and responded to two subsequent queries from the governing body. 'Mohun Bagan submitted a 107-page document to FIFA and thereafter there were two queries, and finally the disciplinary committee has sent a mail lifting the ban,' a Mohun Bagan Super Giant official told PTI.
Unlike Mumbai City FC, whose similar ban took nearly three months to be lifted, Mohun Bagan managed to resolve the issue within a month.
The transfer window opened on June 9, and the club can now proceed unhindered with its team-building efforts for the new season.
The news comes days after a new president Debasish Dutta and general secretary Srinjoy Bose took charge of the club.
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First Post
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- First Post
New Zealand halts millions of dollars in aid to Cook Islands over deals with China
The self-governing Cook Islands, a country of 17,000 people, has a 'free association' relationship with its former colonial ruler New Zealand, which provides budgetary assistance as well as help on foreign affairs and defence read more This photo taken on June 15, 2025 shows a sign outside the Apii Nikao primary school, funded by the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Cook Islands on the main island of Rarotonga. AFP New Zealand's government halted aid to close partner the Cook Islands on Thursday because of a row over agreements the Pacific island nation struck with China. New Zealand 'paused' the payments and would not resume them until the Cook Islands took 'concrete steps' to restore trust, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement. The self-governing Cook Islands, a country of 17,000 people, has a 'free association' relationship with its former colonial ruler New Zealand, which provides budgetary assistance as well as help on foreign affairs and defence. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Cook Islands caught New Zealand off guard in February when it signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement with China covering deep-sea mining, regional cooperation and economic issues. Peters' spokesman pointed to the 'lack of consultation' surrounding the 'agreements signed by the Cook Islands and China' as a reason for the aid pause. 'Trust and meaningful engagement are fundamental to free association,' he said. New Zealand provided US$116 million (NZ$194 million) to the Cook Islands over the past three years, according to government figures. It has paused a planned US$11 million development assistance payment for the next financial year. 'New Zealand will also not consider significant new funding until the Cook Islands Government takes concrete steps to repair the relationship and restore trust,' Peters' spokesman said. 'New Zealand hopes that steps will be taken swiftly to address New Zealand's concerns so that this support can be resumed as soon as possible.' The pause in funding comes as New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday. Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Peters said the funding pause was not timed to coincide with Luxon's trip to China. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Peters said he discussed New Zealand's concerns about the Cook Islands agreement during a meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this year. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'About control' Brown survived a no-confidence vote in February over the deal with China, blaming 'misinformation' from New Zealand for destabilising his country. 'It becomes very clear this is not about consultation. This is about control,' he said at the time. Former Australian diplomat Mihai Sora said Cook Islands was being 'a bit cute'. 'And it's not surprising that New Zealand has reacted in such a way,' the Lowy Institute analyst told AFP. 'New Zealand obviously wants to repair its relationship with Cook Islands. It wants to block China from gaining increased strategic access to the Cook Islands, but also essentially to its immediate neighbourhood. 'But if Cook Islands pushes closer to China in a way that threatens New Zealand's national security, it's really not possible to have such intimate ties.' New Zealand also announced this year it would review aid to climate-threatened Pacific nation Kiribati, one of China's closest friends in the region. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The review came after Kiribati's president brushed off a planned meeting with Peters at the last minute. 'This was especially disappointing because the visit was to be the first in over five years by a New Zealand minister to Kiribati,' Peters' office said at the time. 'For this reason, we are reviewing our development programme in Kiribati.' New Zealand had given around US$57 million in aid to Kiribati since 2021, according to official figures, including money for 'economic development and climate resilience'.
The Hindu
8 hours ago
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The real challenges of foreign campuses
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Admissions were announced often before essential details, such as information about the faculty and other key elements, were made publicly available. While this rapid pace may signal strong intent and enthusiasm, it also raises many concerns. Also read | Boom in foreign university branch campuses: Can they deliver quality education? Challenges to the branch idea Globally, transnational education is navigating an increasingly uncertain landscape. This may be one of the most difficult global environments for universities to establish branches. The country with the largest number of overseas university branches globally, the U.S., is in complete disarray due to attacks on higher education from the Donald Trump administration. The last thing on the minds of most American university leaders is foreign initiatives. Therefore, the Illinois Institute of Technology's decision to establish a campus in India should be seen as an exception. Even institutions willing to enter the Indian market will have to overcome numerous domestic challenges. A major issue is navigating India's highly competitive higher education landscape. Most of the institutions seeking to enter the Indian market are not top-tier schools in their own countries. In India, they risk being seen as just one among several 'elite' options available to students. These branch campuses follow a market-driven model, offering programmes in high-demand fields such as business, computer science, and data analytics. While this approach may be financially strategic, the narrow academic focus risks making them indistinguishable from India's better-performing private colleges and universities. Therefore, the real challenge is to establish a clear academic identity. Without this, they risk being perceived as little more than diploma mills, ultimately undermining the reputation of the very universities they represent. It is also relevant that most of the branches already established or planning to be established are not comprehensive universities with diverse offerings and research focus, but rather are small specialised schools. India already boasts renowned public institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which are actively expanding their global engagement and research capabilities. Notable collaborations, such as IIT Delhi with the University of Queensland and IIT Bombay with Monash University, have set strong precedents for international research partnerships. Furthermore, a growing number of elite and semi-elite private universities in India now offer joint and double-degree programmes in collaboration with foreign institutions. In this dynamic environment, foreign branch campuses cannot rely solely on the strength of their brand. Myth of marketing A concerning trend among some international branch campuses already established in India is their disproportionate reliance on marketing strategies, often at the expense of academic investment. While marketing has its place, it cannot substitute for substance. Students and parents are increasingly discerning. They examine publicly available information on faculty credentials, curriculum design, industry relevance, and student support systems. Flashy campaigns without academic depth or meaningful student engagement will not build lasting trust. Another key problem lies in students' perception and the reality of campus life. Early observations suggest that most of these branch campuses operate out of vertical buildings, often renting space. While such structures may offer operational efficiency, they often lack the vibrancy, openness, and spatial identity characteristic of traditional Indian universities. If foreign universities wish to be perceived as full-fledged institutions, they must invest in essential 'soft' infrastructure as well. Need for local relevance From the Indian perspective, selecting the right partner is important. Universities from the Global North are typically interested in branch campuses for several reasons. Host countries or institutions may offer major incentives in terms of facilities or funds. In many cases, the primary motivation is to earn money, as illustrated by several branches in Dubai. Some wish to establish a presence in a country to recruit students to the home campus. Without major incentives, top global universities will seldom be attracted. India will need to carefully evaluate whether a particular branch proposal is suitable for local needs, and whether it is from a foreign institution that is attractive. The establishment of foreign university branch campuses in India marks a significant milestone in the higher education landscape. 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Hindustan Times
8 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
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The Test Championship Mace did not exist in cricket's early years before the two World Wars, the golden age in the 1970s and 1980s, and the era of the sport's physical and mental transformation in the 1990s and 2000s. But one can imagine Don Bradman lifting the crown as captain of The Invincibles, or Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards being hailed as champion leaders with West Indies in the 1970s and 1980s, or Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting in the 1990s and 2000s, and perhaps even Imran Khan and Sourav Ganguly briefly in the middle of the Australian and Caribbean domination. Last week, when South Africa were crowned champions — in a final they weren't expected to be in, against a team they weren't supposed to beat — the jewelled mace was handed to a relatively nondescript cricketer from Cape Town. Forget the larger-than-life Bradmans and the Lloyds we were just talking about, the names etched on cricket's belated but most coveted crown are batting icon Kane Williamson of New Zealand, bowling royalty Pat Cummins of Australia, and batter Temba Bavuma. From a distance, it may have seemed like a sporting accident or a strange fluke. But, trust me, that's never true. Life and times The modest Bavuma household in Langa, a cricket-crazy suburb of Cape Town about 20 minutes from Newlands, was blessed with a boy at a time when South Africa was in the throes of change. It was 1990, and the shadow of Apartheid was starting to recede at last. Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison just three months earlier. The national cricket team would be reintroduced to the world in a one-day series in India the following year. There were new opportunities and new possibilities on the horizon. In keeping with the times, the boy was named Temba, or hope, in Zulu. The rise of Temba Bavuma over the next three decades was nothing short of a cricketing fairytale. He was the first Black batsman to get into the national team in 2014, and the first full-time Black African captain in 2022. But his journey was often undermined by critics; prefixed with that dreaded Q-word in South African cricket. Did he deserve a place in the team, as the early Test century against England suggested, or was he a 'quota pick' in a new political climate? Did he deserve to be skipper, or was a 'quota captain' at a time when the government wanted to prove that Black men can not only jump and bowl, but also bat and lead? Those questions need not be asked again. Though Bavuma may have a career Test average below 40, he not only top-scored for South Africa in the latest World Test Championship cycle with 711 runs in eight Tests, he had the highest average at 59.25. And though his leadership may have sometimes appeared passive or overly defensive, he is the most successful captain in history after 10 Tests – 9 wins, 1 tie, no draws or losses. So, what is it that makes Bavuma tick? The answer perhaps comes from the Rainbow Nation that Mandela envisioned, and Bavuma's arrival in it at a time when the dream was being brought to fruition. More on that in a bit. Oh captain, my captain Mike Brearley played 39 Tests for England. In 31 of them, he was captain. He won 18 Tests and lost only four. Over his Test career, he averaged 22.88 with the bat and never bowled. He was considered such a leader of men that he was kept in the team just for that. He went on to write The Art of Captaincy (1985) and later became a psychoanalyst. Brearley may not have made it in modern cricket, which carries no passengers, even if they are the captain. But his treatise on leadership is riveting because there is no data, other than wins and losses, to truly measure captaincy. Cricket may have incorporated the concept of coaches over the last few decades, but for all intents and purposes, the duties of a manager in other team sports lie with the captain in the gentleman's game. The reason is simple: the workload on players in other team sports is too much for them to dictate wider strategy. Lionel Messi as a Barcelona forward had so much to do on his own that he couldn't be expected to run over to Carles Puyol in central defence to give directions or offer advice. It required someone on the sidelines, with a sense of the entire flow of the match, to call the shots. In cricket, where you watch from the dressing room while your colleagues are at the crease, where you breathe between deliveries, and where you deliberate between overs, the coach is just a sounding board – the captain, with a feel of the pitch and a sense of the dressing room, is the best placed to call the shots. In many ways, the job is harder than that of a football manager who needs to worry about strategy but not about scoring or defending. The Bavuma blend Different captains over the decades have managed leadership differently. In India, for instance, Ganguly was a kind of skipper who got down and dirty with the team. He knew what he wanted, and he created an atmosphere where his players knew they could count on him to protect them. If the team was in a ditch, Ganguly would jump in and say, let's dig ourselves out together. Rahul Dravid, who replaced him, was the kind who led by the example of his own excellence. He wouldn't jump into the ditch but throw in a rope and try to pull the team out. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was more individualistic and certain of himself. In the ditch analogy, Dhoni would jump in, ask the others to step aside, and dig them out himself. Each style is effective, and successful cricket captains usually fall into one of those categories or are a loose combination of these philosophies. But the Bavuma blend is different. It stems from how he draws on different strands from his life – his birth into a rejuvenated nation that wanted to unify rather than seek revenge, his rise as a batsman at a time when his peers thought he was being favoured, his burning desire (like that of any South African cricketer) to get the team to finally win big tournaments, and the constant awareness that he is a pioneer for his entire race – to inform and shape his captaincy. His leadership style was reflected in how he slowed down his own scoring on the first evening of the WTC final and then let loose on the second morning; how he moved his bowlers around in the first session of the second innings; and how his team held their catches. It was self-assured and unaffected by criticism, but he made it feel like captaincy by committee. 'There'll always be the essence of putting the team first, but I try to make sure my game is in order then try to empower the guys around me,' Bavuma, a short man in a team of giants, told reporters on the eve of the final. 'It becomes a collective leadership style.' It was nice of him to say that. The Temba way.
