Author: Boria Majumdar

Boria Majumdar Sport is defined by an obsession with excellence. To push the bar each time you take the field. And each time you fail, you go back to the drawing board and come back better and stronger. That’s what the quest for perfection is all about. Let me also say this – no one is perfect. No day is ever perfect, and the quest is always to be perfect on an imperfect day. Shubman Gill is the best example of this. He didn’t score a hundred in the first Test of this series. He was determined to go big…

It was the very last part of the Sport, Business and Society conference at IIM Indore and we were announcing the names of the award winners — men and women who had submitted fantastic, full papers well before the deadline. Generous cash prizes of Rs 50,000 and Rs 75,000 had been handed over to our third and second-placed participants, when Professor Himanshu Rai, Director of IIM Indore, stepped up to announce the name of the winner of the first prize of Rs 1 lakh. It was Professor Supriya from Ajmer and soon after the announcement, she broke down in tears.…

Yashasvi Jaiswal is all about hunger. For big runs and daddy hundreds. Someone who many believed wasn’t a Test match player has proven everyone wrong. Centuries in Australia and England and a couple of doubles at home, Jaiswal, at a tender age, has done things that many do not in entire careers. The reason behind this is his craving for runs. On occasions that he gets in, he makes things count. Tremendous powers of concentration, superb temperament and a deep desire to make the format his own has made Jaiswal stand out in the last two years. If things go…

Boria Majumdar Mental Health. Heavy words. As if it isn’t normal to have a mental-health issue. It is as if a person is weak. How can someone mentally fragile play sport, and how can he or she be successful? Every person has his or her vulnerabilities. And it is perfectly normal. Imagine the kind of mental pressure a Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma will be under when they play Australia on October 19. But then, is it wrong for Rohit or Kohli to feel that apprehension? Isn’t it normal to be anxious, to feel the nervous energy? What’s the issue…

Harshit Rana was the toast of millions of Indians after Perth in December 2024. His aggression, hit-the-deck bowling, the first innings ball to get Travis Head – his selection was considered a masterstroke. Now, Harshit is in the doghouse. Apparently, he is a “quota” selection based on Gautam Gambhir’s KKR connection. He is the favourite whipping boy, the subject of many memes and downright abuse. Check social media, and you will see what I am referring to. This is no defence of Harshit. He isn’t my relative, and the truth is I don’t even know the man well. Yes, I…

Shubman Gill’s career is on the fast lane. Are the selectors investing too much in him, or is there a proper plan behind the decisions being taken? Leaving the social media narrative aside, which is completely polarised, it does seem that the selectors are acting to a plan. Had that not been the case, they would have made him ODI captain in May itself while announcing him as the Test match leader. They did not. In fact, they wanted to check how he did as red-ball captain and if he was capable of taking the pressure. Could he score in…

India Women may have beaten Pakistan, and done so comfortably in the end, but the truth is that the game has raised many more questions than answers. India were poor. With the bat and on the field, the effort was below par. The top order isn’t firing, and at times the strike-rate or the lack of intent is alarming. Against big teams – Australia, England, South Africa and the like – India will get caught out with an effort like this. Neither Smriti Mandhana nor Harmanpreet Kaur have fired yet, and unless they do so, the acceleration just doesn’t happen.…

Boria Majumdar Now that the dust has settled on the selection for the Australia series, it’s time to take a dispassionate look at things. Clearly, the transition in Indian cricket is on its way to being complete. Ajit Agarkar’s selection committee has gone about its job with a certain degree of ruthlessness, and while one can question the haste, the intent is to make sure the new captain has adequate time ahead of World Cup 2027 to fashion his own team. As far as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are concerned, I don’t see either of them playing on too…

Boria Majumdar “The captain is the least important person in the team,” he said. “No, not in terms of performance. When it comes to batting, you need to lead from the front. Set the tone. But on the field, the captain comes after all his players.” A very Rohit Sharma kind of statement, and one that sums up his cricket philosophy. Ask any member of the Indian team, and all of them would swear by their former skipper. They knew his door was always open. They knew they could confide in him, and that they had his backing. They knew…

Boria Majumdar It’s been a nightmarish couple of years for Mirabai Chanu, India’s greatest-ever weightlifter. Going into the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 as the Olympic silver medallist, she watched her medal hopes disappear because of a hip injury. A year later in Paris, her failure to lift more than 111kg in the Clean & Jerk allowed Thailand’s Surodchana Khambao to beat her to the bronze by 1kg. Given that she was 30 then, it was easy to write her off. But at the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships in Førde, Norway, Mirabai stormed back to take silver behind North Korea’s Ri Song-gum. In…