Author: Boria Majumdar

Contrary to the popular perception that he has been paid 18 crores, Nicholas Pooran, the West Indies white-ball specialist who was in Kolkata yesterday to meet Dr Sanjiv Goenka, is being paid over 20 crores by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise as their top retention. A source confirmed that it was a unanimous call from the coaching staff to choose Pooran whose astounding IPL strike-rate of 162.29 put him well above KL Rahul, the other option for LSG as a top retention. Pooran, to his credit, has been a stellar performer in T20 leagues across the world and, in…

December, 2017. He had just about settled down in his chair for the interview when I decided to spice things up a little. “Cristiano Ronaldo claims he is the greatest,” I said. “How do you react to it?” As his interpreter translated the question for him, I thought I sensed a degree of unease. I was wrong. All of a sudden, he burst into a fit of laughter. And interestingly, it continued for nearly 15-20 seconds. “Cristiano is a very good player,” said Diego Maradona, before pausing. “But, greatest?” He looked at me, and just indicated himself with the certainty…

We are all talking about the IPL retention deadline. In fact, social media is in a tizzy with all sorts of stories floating around. Come October 31, and it will finally be known to the world who are the players retained by the 10 franchises. While a number of names are already out in the open, there is still conjecture over the fate of a number of key individuals. But that’s not the point here. The point is how the IPL Governing Council and the BCCI have successfully made this process far more interesting than it could have been. One…

There is no question that Rohit Sharma has not been at his best in red-ball cricket in recent times. Compared to the Rohit we saw in England in 2021, the Indian skipper seems to be in a hurry each time he is out there in the middle. It is as if he is bringing his white-ball approach to the red-ball game, blazing away from ball one to try and get himself out of the rut. Maybe that’s where he needs to take a step back and pause. Ask himself what worked for him in red-ball cricket in tough batting conditions.…

New Zealand have humiliated India in India, clinching an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ongoing three-match Test series. After 12 years, India’s unbeaten streak at home has come to an end, and with one more Test remaining at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Indian fans are growing anxious about the team’s form – especially with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia on the horizon and their place in another World Test Championship final uncertain. In an exclusive chat with Boria Majumdar, RevSportz Editor-in-Chief, former India cricketer and chief selector MSK Prasad shared insights on the team’s struggles against spin, the quality…

A week that will forever define New Zealand cricket. In sport, the toughest thing to do is turn things around. Change a bad patch into a good one. Defaat into victory, and adversity into triumph. New Zealand has done it spectacularly in the last one week, and what happened with their cricket could be a good leadership case study. For context, the women’s team went into the T20 World Cup at the back of ten straight losses. No one really gave them a chance. We were all speaking of Sri Lanka as the dark horses that could upset India. Not…

It was always on the cards. And yet, you tend to think there would be fight. From someone. At least two or three of them would put their hands up. Make a difference and be counted. Virat Kohli would turn the clock back. Rohit Sharma would play a captain’s hand. Rishabh Pant would yet again lead India to an improbable victory. It was false hope. India were bad. Rank bad. The Pant dismissal was the turning point for me. A suicidal run, which made no sense whatsoever. He hesitated, and then ran. The ball was going to Mitchell Santner’s throwing…

No team have dominated India at home in the last decade in the manner that New Zealand have in these two Test matches. In that sense, credit to Tom Latham and his boys. But when we cast an eye on the Indian batting, there is far more than pitches and conditions behind the dismal failures in back-to-back matches. It is as if India are fighting some inner demons, and trying to be aggressive every third ball. No one is willing to grind it out, and look ugly. No one is keen on batting like you would in conventional Test cricket.…

Victory in defeat. Yes, it sounds a cliché, but if there was ever truth to that saying, it could be found in Rani Rampal’s career. First things first, I would surely have attended her farewell and had even booked tickets to do so. Had the cyclone not happened, it was one event I’d have loved to be part of. And I had promised her the same when she had called three weeks ago to ask me to save the date. How will I remember Rani, and what’s her legacy? To answer this question, we need to go back to the…

You speak to people, and you understand how much tension has been brewing. After all, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was supposed to have a Special General Meeting (SGM) on October 25, and the massive fissures within the organisation are all out in the open for the world to see. On Wednesday evening, a memo from the office of Kalyan Chaubey, the IOA’s joint secretary and acting CEO, announced that the SGM had been pushed back to November 10 because of ‘unavoidable circumstances’. The postponement changes little. Will the members rally behind PT Usha, the IOA president, or will they…