Author: Boria Majumdar

Shubman Gill is the next pin-up boy of Indian cricket. After Sunil Gavaskar left the scene, it was Sachin Tendulkar who filled that void in more ways than one. By the time Tendulkar made an entire nation emotional, Virat Kohli was ready to take the baton from him. Now, as the shades of grey in Kohli’s beard grows exponentially, he would certainly want Gill to be ready by the time he decides to call time. And one can rest assured that Gill is ready for all the challenges. Anyone who watched him bat on Friday night would agree that he…

It was the India-Pakistan encounter at the 2019 World Cup, and I was in Manchester a couple of days ahead of the match to soak in the atmosphere and build up to the game. Curry Mile, the desi hub in Manchester, was all decked up. New items on the menu in almost all of the restaurants, to multiple events with cricket stars for the thousands who had trooped into to the city, this was a Manchester that had been completely Asianised. And most of the fans had flown in from India or Pakistan, or the huge South Asian diasporas in…

It was 5:30 in the morning sometime in early March 2022, and Hardik Pandya was up and running for the day. He was all set to go out and train, and it was part of a rigorous daily routine building up to the IPL. Pandya, by his own admission, needed a break after the 2021 World T20 to recalibrate. Pandya not bowling had become a major controversy and, to a degree, he had to cop the blame for India’s failure to go past the group stages of the World T20 in Dubai. He had to redeem himself and set the…

Indian sport is on the cusp. If recent trends are anything to go by, Indian stars are now winning medals in almost every international competition, across sports, or at least coming close. The Sudirman cup reverse notwithstanding, India has done well in badminton. The table-tennis players’ efforts at the ongoing world championship haven’t been bad either. Boxing, both the men’s and women’s teams, is looking up again, and shooting too is on an upswing. Athletics has been the shining light with many national records rewritten in the last month or so, not to mention Neeraj Chopra making it to the…

Be it Manchester United coming back from the brink of defeat against Bayern Munich in that fabled Champions League final in 1999, or Novak Djokovic winning a gruelling five-set epic against Roger Federer on the same day as the Cricket World Cup final in 2019, what has forever been celebrated in the annals of modern sport is the winning mentality. Rather, the almost obsessive zeal to win that separates the best from the rest. The 1999 World Cup semi-final between Australia and South Africa was won – yes, it was a tie, but the result took Australia through to the…

It is not easy being Neeraj Chopra. To do the things he does. Win consecutive medals on the world stage, and yet feel the same hunger when he gets ready for the next competition. In cricket, India has Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. In badminton, a PV Sindhu has support from the men’s team, who are also high-achievers. But in athletics, it is just Chopra at the top. To be the pole star can’t be easy, and yet he has conducted himself with utmost maturity, and presided over a revolution of sorts – winning medals at every event…

Lord’s, 2014 and England had given India a green top. Despite Ajinkya Rahane’s fine first-innings ton, India were far from safe going into the second innings. And when MS Dhoni got dismissed leaving Murali Vijay stranded, hopes of an Indian win seemed remote. In walked Ravindra Jadeja. Two hours later came the first-ever sword dance. Jadeja@50, and the momentum had switched again. Thanks to Ishant Sharma’s super bowling effort, India won a famous victory, which to an extent had been set up by Jadeja. He did the same in Australia in that famous away series win in 2021. With Rahane,…

Soon after the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Titans (GT) was over, and Shubman Gill had played an outstanding hand to push RCB out of the reckoning, his social media was flooded with abuse. These so-called Virat Kohli fans started abusing Gill for playing better and standing up for his team. Why did he, and how he could do this to Kohli and RCB was at the heart of the angst. If only they had seen Kohli run the last two for Anuj Rawat from the last ball of RCB’s innings. He had already scored a 100…

Sport is all about winning the big moments. That’s what separates the men from the boys, and the great from the ordinary. And that’s what the real legacy of MS Dhoni is all about. Two world cups and a Champions Trophy stand testimony. Add four IPL titles to the list, and you have a record unmatched. The 2011 World Cup, his greatest achievement as a player, was a poor one for Dhoni the batsman. Up until the final at least. Till then, there was not much from the skipper that one could rave about. And when India were three down…

Watching cricket during the Doordarshan days had its own charm and nostalgia. Sunil Gavaskar’s surreal technique became live and real in that disturbing black-and-white Beltek or Telerama. But what used to fascinate us was how fans evaded a posse of uniformed cops and sneaked up to the centre of the pitch to garland Gavaskar or maybe just hug him or touch him. It’s more than three-and-a-half decades since Gavaskar retired, but India remains a “Cricketer Loving Nation”. You can beef up the security at any stadium as much as you can but the “fan on the street”, encouraged by Paulo…