Some expeditions are planned and others are rather unexpected. My own journey with RevSportz over the past 16 months is the result of a call from Boria Majumdar, upon seeing an innocuous tweet that announced my travel to the United States to cover the World Athletics Championships in July 2022.
Since I sent my first video report from Eugene, I have only seen RevSportz grow in stature as a sports platform that does not begin and end with cricket coverage. The site’s vision and sincerity have ensured that it has done really well. RevSportz has fared way better than CityWeek, that some of my friends and I launched in Hyderabad in the early 1980s.
Pardon the rather deliberate digression and the trip down memory lane. Though I have worked in and for several media organisations in my 40 years as a sports communications professional, these are the only ones that I can think of as cooperative ventures, not from the business perspective but from a philosophical approach.
Unlike most others in the digital space, RevSportz stands out for the immense experience that its promoters, consultants and contributors bring to the table. The mix of youthful enthusiasm and sobering experience, bound together by a rare passion, is bound to catch the eye of the Indian sports fan who cares for much more than cricket.
I see RevSportz strive to track developments in many sports – from archery to yachting, from athletics to shooting, from hockey to football, from badminton to tennis, from boxing to wrestling, and rugby to equestrian. The penchant to stoke controversy is not as conspicuous as the eagerness to promote Olympic sports.
It is a team that affords Indian sport and its athletes the utmost importance. It enables a rich width and depth of coverage that is unusual for digital ventures. At a time when data is very affordable in India, the demand for video coverage of sports is second only to the demand for live streaming of sporting competitions, and RevSportz has been at the forefront with its video coverage.
Even as Indian news media continues to deal with challenges that technology brings, it does take courage to build a team and risk exploring the fairly vacant spaces in the digital domain. RevSportz has shown that courage and tenacity to plough a lonely furrow when supporting Indian sports and its sportspersons while catering to the audience’s needs.
At a time when newspapers and magazines have reduced, if not altogether stopped, spending on the sports department – cricket being an exception – it is heartening to see RevSportz invest in sending people for on-ground reportage. It was not just the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games that saw RevSportz teams bring stories home, but also from the Asian Para Games and many more.
Besides, RevSportz has been a rare media house that is at the forefront of the Anti-Doping campaign, with the renowned KP Mohan showing the way on quite a few video interactions. It is the passion for clean sport at all levels that is a driving force.
The readiness with which sports science finds resonance with the RevSportz team is heartening. For instance, sports physiotherapist and India women’s rugby captain Vahbiz Bharucha was in the RevSportz studio to explain the Australian cricket team physiotherapist’s role in Glenn Maxwell’s match-winning double-century against the Netherlands in the ICC Cricket World Cup.
By seeing sport not only as a contest but also a 360-degree vocation, RevSportz is doing its bit to showcase the country’s evolving ecosystem. Sport inspires with tales of human endeavour and it is the visible 10 per cent that takes a majority of time and space. But when a media organisation consciously focusses on the invisible portion of the sports ecosystem, it has its priorities right.
The coming year, with the ICC World Twenty20, the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, will be a watershed one for Indian sport and the Indian sports media landscape. Thank you, dear reader, for being a part of the RevSportz journey as it tracks the exciting evolution of India as a multi-sport nation.