Author: Ashok Namboodiri

There was a time when losing a match meant a sigh, a shrug, and perhaps a heated debate over tea. Today, it means a flood of abuse. Athletes are threatened over dropped catches, coaches are mocked for tactical choices, and selectors are vilified as villains undermining the nation. The mutation of sporting criticism into unfiltered cruelty isn’t a story about sport alone … it is a stark reflection of who we are becoming as a society. In India, where sport is stitched deeply into national identity, the lines between passion and poison have blurred. Mohammed Shami was abused for his…

December 4 is Ajit Agarkar’s birthday. Once a celebrated India fast bowler who took nearly 300 ODI wickets, he is now the man sitting in perhaps the most uncomfortable chair in Indian cricket: the chief selector. It is ironic that a career known for crisp outswingers and rapid-fire cameos is now defined by judgment calls, scrutiny, and the relentless evaluation of others. If a selector’s career had a scoreboard, it would show a strange imbalance: success gets quietly filed away; failure lights up the front pages. Under Agarkar, India have celebrated significant success in white-ball formats, lifting trophies and…

Sport is no longer the preserve of a few… it is the aspiration of millions. That is why this partnership with Tata Consumer and Tata Gluco Sports is so significant. Tata Consumer’s vision of accessible wellness and everyday performance mirrors RevSportz’s own belief in authentic, athlete-first storytelling. As India enters a new era of sporting ambition across cricket, Olympic disciplines, and the ever-inspirational Paralympic movement, the partnership between Tata Consumer Products and RevSportz arrives as both a signal and a statement. It marks the union of two philosophies: the RevSportz commitment to authentic sporting storytelling and the Tata Consumer commitment…

Ashok Namboodiri As I exited the virtual press conference announcing that India has been awarded the 2030 Commonwealth Games, I sensed a measured optimism in the room in Glasgow. A robust evaluation process of the five expressions of interest had led to a shortlist of two – Nigeria and India – and the committee took their pick to the Board, who endorsed it. But for a nation that has already lived one Commonwealth Games dream and woken up to its administrative nightmare, celebration is only half the story. The other half is memory. And memory has teeth. The press conference…

By Ashok Namboodiri From a broadcast standpoint, the WPL mega auction scheduled for today delivers what modern sports television increasingly seeks, high-intent viewing, spike-driven engagement and narrative density without the cost architecture of live gameplay. This is decision-making television. Tension without wickets. Drama without deliveries. This is not just a TRP exercise; it is strategic brand investment aimed at the highly engaged sports fan and is viewed by brands as a property that offers positive rub-off in more ways than one. In the RevSportz view, this auction is not merely a squad-building exercise. It is less about who goes where…

(PC- Debasis Sen) For broadcasters, Test cricket is not merely a sporting product. It is a sentiment-driven economic engine where narrative, national pride and momentum directly influence revenue. Which is why India’s recent Test struggles, capped by a damaging 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand and the looming prospect of a similar…

I know that a lot has been written and more will be written by the time the Guwahati Test is over. Even if India is able to scrape through with a draw, it does not take a Feluda to decipher that there is a systemic problem here. From my three decades as a corporate practitioner, the analogy that I can bring to the table is the “Icarus Paradox” — organisations or teams that fail precisely because of the strengths that once propelled them! Consider one of the most-cited business failures: Enron Corporation. Once lauded as innovator and high-flying, it spectacularly…

Its Saturday evening and a special treat for sports fans. Two high-intensity Test cricket encounters, Manchester City and Liverpool are going to be in action in the English Premier League and Barcelona take on Athletic Club in a thrilling La Liga encounter. As the Ashes did an Eden, I watched Travis Head do to England a repeat of the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup final, as Ravi Shastri said, “Plunged my country into silence”. I sat on my oversized white sofa and compared Head to a certain Tasmanian stalwart who opened the innings for Australia and fancied a similar…

Sanju Samson’s move to Chennai Super Kings is not merely a marquee transfer; it is a strategic moment of recalibration that could reshape the trajectory of both the player and IPL’s most storied franchise. If he, as widely anticipated, is being groomed for long-term captaincy, then this is not just about filling a batting or wicketkeeping slot, it is about leadership succession, cultural continuity and the architecture of CSK 2.0. For Samson, this represents the most decisive crossroads of his career. For years, he was the face of Rajasthan Royals – immensely talented, aesthetically pleasing, yet often caught between brilliance…

More than eight African nations heading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is not merely a statistical quirk of an expanded format. It signals something far more profound: a continent that has moved from the periphery to the centre of football’s grandest theatre. With nine teams already qualified and a possible tenth still in contention, the narrative arc tilts unmistakably towards Africa. This, in every emotional and cultural sense, feels like Africa’s World Cup. Football in Africa has never been just a sport. It is language, rhythm, resistance, and release. The popularity is not new. What is new is how this devotion…