Author: Boria Majumdar

We have all celebrated Navdeep Singh for his gold medal at the Paris Paralympics. It was a fantastic effort to throw 47.32m to win gold and give India a record 7th gold medal. However, what we haven’t celebrated much is his sportsmanship, something we look forward to doing at the Tata Steel Trailblazers Conclave in Kolkata between March 6 and 8, 2025. Soon after the announcement was made that Iran’s Sadegh Beit was disqualified in Paris, he was in tears. It was understandable, for, in an instant, he had gone from being Olympic gold medallist to a disqualified athlete who…

It is now a sport that India dominates and will continue to in the next few years. Vishy’s children, it can be said, have all grown up. To see Indians finish first and second in the recently concluded Tata Steel Chess tournament in the Netherlands, fondly called the Wimbledon of Chess, was immensely satisfying. D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa went into the final round tied and, surprisingly, both lost their matches. Arjun Erigaisi, despite a poor tournament, came back brilliantly in the last two rounds to take down Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh. Pragg too lost, and it meant the contest…

Sport in India received a real boost with the union budget adding a further 350 crores to the kitty. In a non-Olympic year, this is a significant addition. It shows that the sector is vibrant and the central government is serious about the 2036 Olympic bid. More money in the domain is always welcome. Take the IPL, for example. It has made the cricketers millionaires and many now aspire to play the sport. Also, it is no longer restricted to men. With the start of the WPL, women have started to make serious money from cricket, and it is now…

To run a successful franchise league isn’t easy and we have seen that with far too many sports in the last decade. Some leagues have shut down while others found it hard to get off the ground. Hockey India had also tried it in the past, and to bring it back in a better and more vibrant avatar is a good job done. Packed crowds at the Birsa Munda Stadium said it all. There are takers for the sport and the standard of play was of the very highest class. From an Indian standpoint, the efforts of Jugraj Singh, 10…

Sachin Tendulkar received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BCCI Annual Awards function in Mumbai yesterday. It was but natural he will. It could have happened earlier or a year later but the fact that Sachin would get it was known. His impact on Indian and world cricket is unrivalled and for many like me he was one of the reasons to fall in love with the sport. My first encounter with Sachin was at the age of 11. The year, 1987. As a child growing up with cricket, it was inevitable that I’d be mourning Sunil Gavaskar’s leaving the…

There were more than 15,000 fans on day 1 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium to watch Virat Kohli. The number fell to approximately less than 10,000 on day 2. After Kohli got out, it was down to 1,000. On day 3, and Kohli was fielding, mind you, the number was not even 1,000. What does this tell you? If these fans wanted to watch Kohli, why did they not turn up on day 3 as well? Or was it all hype created in the lead-up to the game, and post-day 1, it all went back to square one? Can Kohli…

How do we view Harshit Rana’s impact as a concussion substitute? Was it right on India’s part to use him? Was it within the rules of the game? How about spirit and ethics? Why did the match referee not intervene and disallow it? Jos Buttler said very politely at the press conference that he disagreed with the call. Truth be told, he is within his rights to do so. Harshit was never a like-for-like replacement. And it did not add up in that sense. However, there have been many instances in the past where players have done things which were…

Over the last two days, more than 30,000 people have been to the Kotla to watch Virat Kohli play. Not Delhi versus Railways, but Kohli. And hardly 500 people have been to the Eden Gardens to watch Bengal against Punjab. May be the same number have watched the Karnataka-Haryana game at the Chinnaswamy. While this is proof of Kohli’s star power, it is also evidence that we in India love spectacles and not the sport. Had it been the other way round, there would have been more people to watch a Vidarbha match at the VCA stadium or the Baroda-J&K…

In sport, the only constant is fandom. Rather, it can be said that it is one of the rare constants in human life. Every other choice or preference may change, but not fandom. You might decide to dress differently or eat a different kind of food or live in another country or switch careers, but a Virat Kohli fan at the age of 6 will remain a Kohli fan at the age of 60. However many hundreds Steve Smith might end up scoring, a Kohli fan will always look to him as the Pied Piper of Indian cricket. That’s how…

In all the toxicity between Rohit Sharma fans and Virat Kohli’s supporters, and the ugliness between Rishabh Pant fans and those backing Sanju Samson, Jasprit Bumrah is a breath of fresh air. He is the only Indian cricketer who seems to be universally loved. Take the case of Samson. Just a couple of matches earlier, he was scoring back-to-back hundreds and many said he has cemented his place for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Three matches into this T20I series against England, and his weakness against the short ball is the talking point. Things don’t stop there. There will be…