Author: Boria Majumdar

It was the dream final: Newly independent India, the defending champions from 1936, taking on Great Britain, their former imperial masters who had avoided playing Olympic hockey as long as India remained a colony. That the Indians were aware of the symbolic significance of the challenge was evident from a report filed by Alex Valentine in The Times of India of August 12. He declared that the Indians had decided not to play any further practice matches but had started a two-day ‘armchair strategy’ session in preparation for the final. ‘The chief factor in Thursday’s final, readily recognised by both…

It was November 2020 and India were playing Australia in what was cricket’s comeback match with spectators after a nine-month Covid-induced break. In normal circumstances, this would have been a huge occasion. Virat Kohli and his boys taking on Australia in Australia in what was a marquee series. It was enough to galvanize the entire country and drive the sporting discourse for days. However, it was not so on this particular day. To take on cricket in India is no mean feat, and if there is one sporting event which can do so in Bengal and perhaps win, that is…

Cricket’s inclusion in the Los Angeles Olympics, a story RevSportz had been tracking from March 2023, is finally in its home stretch. Highly placed sources revealed that after much deliberation and negotiations, LA 28 is all set to make its recommendations to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the very end of this month. “Yes, LA will make its recommendations to the IOC fag end of this month and will also make an announcement to that effect,” the source told RevSportz. The IOC Executive Board is then expected to approve it just before the IOC session in Mumbai and a…

In his autobiography, A Shot at History (with Rohit Brijnath), Abhinav Bindra has repeatedly emphasised the importance of timing, a state of full preparedness before the big moment arrives. Being the nation’s first individual Olympic gold medal winner will always make him special. But what makes the ‘Bindra moment’ pivotal for Indian sport/shooting is that it encouraged thousands to take up the sport despite its lack of popular appeal and television coverage. Bindra’s gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 suddenly awakened the country to the significance of the Olympics as an event. Indians realised that they could win Olympic…

The World Cup did not go to plan for the Indian men’s hockey team. Despite much euphoria and a commanding 3-1 lead against New Zealand, India failed to hold on and were knocked out ahead of the quarterfinal stage. It has been a steady climb back since for Harmanpreet Singh, the captain. Doing well in the Pro League and scoring the highest number of penalty-corner goals, he is back to leading India on home turf at the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai. And with Pakistan in the mix, it is always a special match up to look forward to.…

In a first for Indian sport, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has set up its own Center of Excellence in Guwahati, which will be opened with much fanfare in the presence of India’s leading badminton stars on August 11, 2023. While hockey has a similar Center for Excellence, that facility is owned by the Government of Odisha. In that sense, it is a first for a sports federation in the country and the BAI deserves a lot of credit for it. Headlining the development are the three foreign coaches, who have all had an India connection before. The…

As India and Pakistan face-off in yet another charged encounter this evening at the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai, here is a look back at a classic India-Pakistan contest, the field hockey final of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. If hockey has any Gods, then they could not have scripted a better final line-up than India vs Pakistan. Here was a wounded champion striving to regain its lost title from the challenger. Pakistan had beaten India for the first time in Olympic history in Rome 1960, and the Indians had trained for four years to avenge it in 1964. The off-field…

It was July 12, and the Asian Games Gymnastic trials had just concluded at the newly established High Performance Centre in the Kalinga Stadium precinct in Bhubaneshwar. Dipa Karmakar, making a comeback after a 21-month ban, was the cynosure of all eyes. She performed well and topped the trials, and was understandably elated at the opportunity to represent India in Hangzhou. I was at the stadium, and pleased to see her perform. Soon after the event was over, we had a chat. “I am very happy to be on the mat again,” she told me. “Coming back is like getting…

The timing was perfect. D Gukesh had beaten SL Narayanan the previous night in Baku, and was now through to the fourth round of the World Cup. It meant that he consolidated his lead over Viswanathan Anand in the FIDE live ratings and could well be ahead when the ratings are published early September. I say ‘could be’ because he might drop some points and there is always that element of uncertainty in sport, something that Anand referred to as we spoke about Gukesh, what it meant for Indian chess and the road ahead. As always, Anand was candid and…

For years on end, Indian athletes have come to the Olympic stadium early, and left within minutes after failing to make the final. Such has been the pattern, leaving behind questions of why a nation of over a billion can never win an athletics medal. Neeraj Chopra too came to the stadium early, and left before long on the day of his qualification. Only this time, he had a monstrous 86.54m throw to his name, topping the qualification charts. He was the first to make the final of the men’s Javelin. As Neeraj left the stadium, there was a swagger…