Author: Boria Majumdar

As the dust settles on the World Cup final defeat, it is time to take stock of three important trends. First, in the build-up to the summit clash, there were a number of conspiracy theories doing the rounds. A lot of them had already given the World Cup to India. Many called it the political arithmetic of India’s ruling party. The players, such theories claimed, were mere pawns playing out a pre-determined script. The result has debunked such rubbish once and for all. Second, there were many havans, rituals, and every other kind of superstition indulged in to ensure that…

An unfinished quest. It was one of the best Wimbledon finals in history. Andy Roddick threw everything he had at Roger Federer and played the match of his life. And yet, he ended up second-best. Roddick’s tears at the presentation ceremony resonated with every member of the audience. Here was a champion who had done the sport proud. He had fought, stayed true, but was eventually outclassed in a hard-fought final by perhaps the greatest that had ever played the sport. Roddick wasn’t disgraced. His quest continued. There are others like Roddick. Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest of all…

He has won the Olympic gold medal for India. He has also stood atop the podium at the World Championship. Clearly, he is one who has handled and knows how to deal with extreme pressure. In this exclusive conversation with Boria Majumdar, Neeraj Chopra, Olympic champion in Tokyo (2021) speaks on how athletes handle such pressure, Virat Kohli and the fitness cult, the difference between the qualification stage and a big final, while confirming that he will be in Ahmedabad to cheer for the men in blue. Excerpts from the conversation: Boria: You have won the Olympic gold and the…

“Rohit Sharma has been exceptional in this World Cup,” said Michael Clarke, who led Australia to glory in 2015. “He has always been a great batsman. But what he has done here is that he has been completely selfless. Time and again he has taken calls that may not be in his interest as an opening batter, but in the interest of his team. He is playing a high-risk game. There is always a chance against him the way he is approaching his batting. But that’s greatness. To have the confidence of pulling it off time and again. Against…

Professional sport is all about sacrifice. To give up something for a cause. And often, such sacrifices go unnoticed. As we celebrate India’s famous win against Kuwait on Thursday night in a crucial World Cup qualifier, it is time to take pause and appreciate Luka Radman, the Indian team’s fitness coach, for his contribution. Radman, it should be pointed out, lost his father just 48 hours before the game. It would have been natural if he had left for Croatia to make arrangements for the funeral. He did not. Radman stayed on to help the team, and this win is…

The relationship that Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli share with each other is best summed up by the following incident on this very day a decade ago. It was November 16, 2013, Tendulkar’s retirement day, and he himself had narrated it to me. “As I reached the dressing room post the presentation and post my speech and was sitting all by myself Virat walked up to me,” he said. “I could see tears in his eyes and he came up to me to give me something very special. He said his dad had given him this (a family heirloom for…

Let me start with a conversation with Rohit Sharma on February 25, 2020. He had hurt his hamstring in New Zealand and was back in India midway through the tour, forced to miss the two Test matches he was so looking forward to playing. He was in red-hot form in the white-ball leg of the tour and, just a few months earlier, had scored five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup, the most by a batsman in a single tournament in the competition’s history. To get injured yet again when in such form was terribly unfortunate. It was the first…

With just 24 hours to go for yet another India-New Zealand semi-final, it is time to go back to a conversation I had with Virat Kohli sometime after India had lost the World Cup semi-final in Manchester in July 2019. He had been dismissed for one by an incoming Trent Boult delivery, a ball that television replays showed was clipping the top of the stump. The decision could have gone either way, and it was unfortunate for Kohli and India that the umpire’s dreaded finger had gone up. “Honestly, when we went to the World Cup, I had this very…

It was late December 2019, and we had just finished a chat show with one of MS Dhoni’s sponsors in New Delhi. I had a flight to catch in a few hours and was looking to grab some lunch before I left the hotel. That was when the invite came. “Do you want to have lunch together?” asked Dhoni, before disappearing into the elevator. “Please come up to my room and we can grab a bite.” There was no one else present, and we could have a conversation without having to think of what would come out in the media.…

Fans are the lifeblood of sport ,and cricket is no exception. So to read that over a million fans have flocked to the stadiums during the ICC World Cup is heartening. And as I write, quite a few thousand have turned up at the Eden Gardens for the inconsequential England v Pakistan encounter. Yes, the semi-finalists are all decided. Or almost, if you wish to believe in the surreal possibility of Pakistan still making it. The England-Pakistan match is more about pride and Champions Tropy qualification (for England) than anything else. Despite this, fans have turned up to enjoy the…