Author: Boria Majumdar

Newlands in Cape Town is something of a South African fortress. Since their readmission to international cricket in 1991-92, South Africa have won 24 of their 35 Tests there. Four of their five defeats have come against formidable Australian sides. India, apart from a missed opportunity in January 2011, have never come close to breaking that duck. Despite that, there was one Indian who always enjoyed playing at this most picturesque of venues. Sachin Tendulkar scored two memorable centuries and two 50s in his four Tests at Newlands. In an earlier episode of Backstage with Boria, he has spoken of…

Intent, a word much used in sport. And yet a word that has serious relevance. You need to show intent in any form of sport and be competitive. You have to put up a fight, especially when you are playing at home. You are the Indian national team, not of just any other country. And that’s when and where it starts to hurt. The sport of women’s cricket has been on a consistent decline in the last couple of years. Off the field, we (India) have progressed with the WPL and more. On the field, it is the same old…

Indian Olympic sport has rarely had it as good at the start of a year. Make no mistake, there will be challenges. Fitness issues and more. Luck, so very important in sport, will always be a factor. But, at the start of 2024, India seems ready. Keen and poised to take on the world and make a sporting statement. It has rarely happened before, and that is what makes the start of the new year a really vibrant one. With the big prize eight months down the line, 10 medals in Paris 2024 doesn’t look a pipedream anymore. The 2023…

David Warner is all about timing. Even in retirement. Few are able to play sport on their own terms. David Warner did. Yes, he has many detractors and they often tried to pull him down. But today at 111 Tests and 6932 ODI runs, Warner can look back at his legacy and feel proud. He announced retirement on his terms and leaves ODI cricket a World Cup winner, freeing himself up to play the cash-rich global T20 leagues in India and other countries. From being told he can’t play Test cricket to he can’t make a comeback post the “Sandpapergate”…

It has just been 24 hours since he had made it to the Candidates. A huge achievement for the 17-year-old prodigy, and yet another momentous occasion for Indian chess with three players from India in a group of eight. “Candidates was the most important goal I had set out to achieve in 2023 and I am delighted I have been able to fulfil that goal,” said an elated, yet composed D Gukesh. Speaking about how he had almost given up hope ahead of the Chennai turnaround, Gukesh spoke of the influence of Viswanathan Anand and a lot more in this…

2023 will go down in Indian sport as a year that promised much, while 2024 looks to be one full of possibilities. In cricket, the team played superbly well to make the World Cup final, before one bad day against Australia ruined their hopes of winning the world title. The team under Rohit Sharma also made the final of the World Test Championship but then were below par at The Oval. And at the end of the year, they were poor against South Africa at Centurion leaving plenty of unanswered questions going into the New Year Test in Cape Town.…

The Asian Games gold notwithstanding, the game has very little to show for in 2023 in white ball cricket. Consistently inconsistent, the Indian women’s team has shown very little progress in the year gone by. It was March 2020 and the Indian women had made the final of the world T-20 in Australia against all odds. It was the second final for the side in 3 years after Mithali Raj had led the team to the final of the 50 over world cup in England in 2017. With 86,000 fans at the MCG, the occasion was a real spectacle. While…

How do you select a coach, and does a great player always make the best coach? Andrew McDonald, for example, was never a great player. But under his guidance, Australia won everything that there was to win in 2023. To understand this, I will actually go away from cricket and to Neeraj Chopra. Neeraj’s choice of coach is all reason and prudence. And in doing so, he has time and again pointed our attention to some key attributes that we need to keep in mind. “In 2018, I went to Germany to train with Uwe Hohn,” said Neeraj. Hohn, for…

We had great sporting performances in 2023. R Praggnanandhaa making the World Chess final, Virat Kohli making a strong comeback to form and scoring 750 runs in the World Cup, HS Prannoy winning his first Super Series title, Neeraj Chopra winning the World Championship and Asian Games golds, Kishore Jena making the Olympics cut and winning the Asian Games silver to name a few. But as we look back at what has been a breakthrough year, we at RevSportz decided to pick Chirag Shetty and SatwikSairaj Rankireddy as our male athletes of the year 2023. Understandably elated when we mentioned…

As the Indian team gets ready to assemble in Doha for the Asian Cup, they do so in a day, there is some good news regarding the fitness of Sahal Abdul Samad. Sahal who hasn’t played in the last 3 weeks is nearing full fitness and is expected to be ready for the first game. While he reported a very slight discomfort over the outer ankle while receiving a pass with his inner foot yesterday, the best news for Indian football fans is that he is pain free at the moment. And that’s what should please the Indian team management…