Author: Boria Majumdar

For Michael Clarke, who led Australia to World Cup glory in 2015, the hue and cry over ‘home advantage’ in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is much ado about nothing. In the latest episode of Backstage with Boria, he spoke at length on how it’s been part of cricket’s fabric from the very beginning. “I think that is the way cricket is,” said Clarke. “It happens in international cricket. It happens in state cricket. And that is why I think Chennai [Super kings] have picked their squad based on the conditions that you generally get in Chennai. It spins. “That…

Michael Clarke has forever polarised opinion. There are people who like him for his straight talk while others disagree with him strongly. Michael, however, remains unfazed. His take is simple, “I have always believed in speaking my mind.” On his birthday, it was a pleasure to speak to the lower middle-class Western Suburbs boy from Sydney who, by his obsessive love for the game of cricket and his passion and discipline, played 115 Tests for Australia. A respected voice and a dear friend, Michael is commentating at the moment on the IPL. Be it the Ferrari 355, which was beyond…

Vandana Katariya has just announced her retirement from international hockey. One of the best ever to play for India, her 300 plus caps for the national team stand testimony to her talent and resilience. In fact, her getting injured will always remain the key reason for me as to why India failed to make it to Paris 2024. She missed the Olympic qualifiers in Jharkhand and it was one of the key reasons India fell short of making it to the Olympics. While she will continue to be a part of the Hockey India league, we will always remember her…

He has always had a calmness about him. A very West Indian relaxed kind of mindset and demeanour. And having seen adversity, he knows that one needs to celebrate and value the good that comes your way. The urge to keep getting better, and be the best version of oneself, is what defines the new Nicholas Pooran. That’s what came through in the candid conversations we had on the IPL and his own approach to batting. Not overawed by the 21-crore price tag or the weight of expectations, Pooran is simply going about his job. He knows he can hit…

Surely, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) aren’t this bad. To be routed in under 30 overs and pummelled by eight wickets. It was a no-contest that even the most ardent Mumbai Indians (MI) supporter found difficult to believe. Understandably, the fans are angry. In fact, fans often overreact and that’s always been the story of fandom. But, to a degree, they are entitled. In my book, the two most important constituents of the IPL are the players and the fans. Unless the fans watch it, there is no IPL. They help the broadcaster make money, encourage the advertisers to spend and…

This is part 2 of RevSportz’s exclusive interview with Igor Stimac, former coach of the India men’s football team. You can read part 1 here. You are touching upon some really important questions, but then what is the solution? Change the law, bring in PIO, that will give you a 10-year gap. You are talking about taking 13 years to make young players into good footballers. So this gap, you fill with PIO players. Solution 2, I- League, let it be played with Indian footballers. ISL, you are saying these clubs should now have ambitions at the Asian level. Only…

Hamza Choudhury, the English Premier League footballer, did very well for Bangladesh in the recently held India-Bangladesh match where India could not win even on home soil. Suddenly, there is clamour over whether players of Indian origin should play for India. There is a rule which stops them. Coach Igor Stimac had made and advocated this point as India coach. Why did he do it? Is it the only solution? We wanted to discuss the way forward for Indian football. It’s a year since Stimac left the job. Manolo Marquez has taken it over and, no disrespect to Stimac or…

It was much like the 2019 World Cup. MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were both out there and the game was on edge. There were 25 crore people watching on Jiostar and the stadium was all yellow, screaming for their idol. Only, Dhoni is six years older and a hobby cricketer of sorts. But it was still very intense. The 19th over was proof. They needed 20 an over and Tushar Deshpande was handed the ball. Dhoni started with an upper-cut for four and then went big off the third ball for six. The commentators were all excited and when…

Uday Shankar is one of the brightest minds in the Indian media ecosystem. And this is what he said a few days back in an E4M media conclave. “You couldn’t be at Lord’s to watch a match or in Chile during an earthquake, but the journalist could. We were the link. Then the world changed. Journalism didn’t. When Steve Jobs put a camera in every pocket, everyone became a journalist. Instead of innovating, journalists started sourcing stories from the same places as their readers – Twitter, FB, WhatsApp. The power of journalism began to vanish the moment journalists stopped being…

It was about 925pm in Birmingham in August 2022 and the Commonwealth Games women’s doubles medal match was still on in the Badminton arena. I had come out to buy a sandwich when I saw Sharath Kamal walking towards the stands. We greeted each other and as expected started chatting about what he had achieved earlier in the day. 2006-2022 – 5 Commonwealth Games appearances, 5 gold medals and 10 medals in all and counting. It will take some doing to break Sharath Kamal’s record. Add the historic Asian games mixed doubles medal, multiple national medals and the sheer excellence…