Author: Boria Majumdar

The Indian football team is already depleted in the absence of key players. Also, four of those who played against China are suffering with cramps, and playing them against Bangaldesh on Thursday afternoon, less than 48 hours after the first game, could cause serious injuries. Sumit Rathi, Bryce Miranda and Amarjit Singh Kiyam all suffered with cramp during the China match, and the Bangladesh game on September 21 will kick off at 4pm local time, when the heat and humidity will be even more intense. Hangzhou is presently much hotter than Kolkata, with similar humidity levels, making it extremely…

Cricket’s expansion into the United States of America (USA) will gain much impetus with matches being hosted there during the T20 World Cup in June 2024. With Major League Cricket (MLC) already having taken root, these are exciting times for US cricket, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) is hoping to cash in with the help of purpose-built modular stadiums. The centre piece of this project will be in New York State’s Nassau County. A 34,000-seat stadium will be assembled from scratch at a sports park, with the turf to be made ready by consultants who work with both American…

It was 552am in the morning and the sun was already out in Kolkata. That’s when Akshay, who heads marketing for Rugby India, called saying he was waiting at the main gate of the SAI Center within the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan complex in Kolkata. It was a special invite from Rahul Bose, President of Rugby India, to watch the Indian team train just ahead of the Asian Games. Unlike what I had seen a year earlier, the girls are no longer just 5 feet. A number of them seemed taller and heavier and some of them are now 5…

Sanju Samson was part of the Indian plan for the World Cup, with KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer both recuperating from injury. He got a few chances to make a strong case for himself and, to be fair, could have done better with the limited opportunities he was given. But then, Suryakumar Yadav too did not do great things in the ODI format, and was yet picked based on potential. Samson, with Rahul and Shreyas both back in the squad, doesn’t even find a spot in the Asian Games team. He is nowhere to be found. That’s why it seems…

With the Asia Cup won and in style, the one man who would start to feel the most pressure is Rohit Sharma, India’s captain. The World Cup could well be his final opportunity to lead the team to an ICC Trophy, the promised land whose borders have been shut to India for more than a decade now. Let me take you back a little. It was the first time I was meeting Rohit since that fateful day in Manchester in July 2019, and it was expected that the conversation would turn to the World Cup at some point. “The five…

The Indian football team will take the field against China, the Asian Games hosts, at 5pm India time on Tuesday evening. And as we publish this piece at 5pm on September 18, exactly 24 hours before the game, the team hasn’t even reached Hangzhou. They will touch down only four or five hours from now, and will play their first game within 18 hours of reaching the host city. Also, of the 22 players picked for the Asian Games, India will be missing the services of five for the first match against China. Aniket Jadhav, Narender Gahlot, Chinglensana Singh, Gurkirat…

He is one of the great stories of our times. In fact, it isn’t wrong to say each time we see Mohammed Siraj run in and pick up wickets for India, each of us starts to feel good about sport. Here is someone who is all effort. Even if there is a dropped catch off his bowling, all you will see Siraj do is smile. His effort in trying to save the boundary off his own bowling when there were no fielders at mid-on, with half the side standing in the slip cordon, was proof of what Siraj is all…

A month earlier, the narrative was about the importance of a preparatory camp ahead of the Asian Games. Then it became about somehow putting a team together. Now it is about reaching on time to somehow take the pitch ahead of the first game. I had first written this on 15 September 10am in the morning saying the Indian football team will only fly out on the 17th evening and reach China on 18th evening, less than 24 hours before playing their first match against China. Many did not believe me then and thought it was a sensationalist story. No…

Coming second with a throw of 83.80 meters in Eugene Oregon in the Diamond League Final, Neeraj Chopra capped a memorable DL season with two first place and two second place showings. In sport you are considered a true great if you are able to win on a day, which isn’t really one of your best. It is about attrition and staying in the contest. About not giving up and digging deep. That’s what we have seen from Neeraj Chopra last night at the Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon. In difficult conditions where every participant struggled in dealing with the…

EXCLUSIVE Boria Majumdar, Rohan Chowdhury, Trisha Ghosal With so much speculation surrounding the Indian football squad for the upcoming Asian Games, it poses a great challenge for both the coach and the players, especially in terms of preparation for a showpiece tournament that India have not been part of since 2014. With less than 24 hours to go before they take off for Hangzhou, and after multiple changes and iterations, the team is finalised. In an exclusive interview with RevSportz, Igor Stimac, the head coach, opened up on the preparations for the much-anticipated Asian Games and what the nation can…