Author: Boria Majumdar

The best teams adapt to different situations, and that’s what makes them great. May I say that’s what this Indian team is all about. For the longest time, it was a given that India would go in with three spinners on home soil. The fast bowlers would bowl a few overs, and then the likes of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would take over. Add Kuldeep Yadav to the mix, and it is a lethal threesome. At home, this was the template. So much so that even the likes of Jasprit Bumrah could be rested. What is also important to…

Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh’s greatest ever cricketer. But as he calls it a day, the question is how he will be remembered, Will his politics come in the way, and will he have to live elsewhere with what is going on back home in Bangladesh? Or will the current political dispensation be kind and reasonable enough to give him the farewell he deserves? Shakib isn’t the most endearing personality. He isn’t Mashtafe Mortaza, for example. He is elite, and a star who was always a cut above the rest. Be it in his 7500 runs in 50-over cricket or…

There was a news item published in national dailies on Wednesday which said Vinesh Phogat had been served a whereabouts violation notice by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA). She apparently violated the clause in early September by not being at home in Sonipat. From what we know, Vinesh is now a retired athlete. She is an active politician and is diligently campaigning in Haryana with elections round the corner. While her name could well be in NADA’s Registered Testing Protocol as an elite athlete, many on social media wondered if that was even logical. Does she even care or…

The Indian team led by Harmanpreet Kaur is finally in Dubai for the T20 World Cup. May I say it is the most important tournament that Harmanpreet has ever led the team to. At home, the sport has momentum and with the Women’s Premier League (WPL), giant strides have been taken. Internationally, however, the Indian women’s game needs its 1983 moment. And for Harman, more so. Make no mistake, she is capable. Under her, India have come close. But it is one thing to come close and a very different thing to cross the line. South Africa’s men came close…

Now that the dust is starting to settle on India’s gold-medal-winning efforts in the Chess Olympiad, I think it is time to speak about my exchange with Viswanathan Anand on the day of the final round of games. In fact, the previous afternoon I had spoken to him and requested him for an interview at the end of the competition. Anand has been a friend for years, and he readily agreed. What he said was that he would send me a detailed video the moment the final round of games were done, as he wasn’t sure if he would be…

Soon after East Bengal lost 1-2 to Kerala Blasters on Sunday night, a mini-mountain of abuse was directed at Anwar Ali. Not that I was surprised. But what made it further distasteful was that it did not stop with Anwar. People started abusing his family. His mother and wife, and everyone else, were also dragged in and the slurs kept piling up. It brought back unpleasant memories. And a sense of outrage. I know what it is like to be subjected to this kind of abuse. I know how it feels when your mother and wife and daughter are targeted…

For the longest time, I have heard that you can’t really go out and monetise Olympics and Paralympics coverage. More so for the Paralympics. No one is really interested, and hence brands don’t care. In my capacity as Sports Editor with news television networks in the past, this was always a problem that I had to negotiate and overcome. Most marketing departments would come back and say they weren’t able to sell the event, and as a result, there was no way one could send reporters to cover it. Without money coming in, money spent on coverage was considered a…

The final match had just ended, and that was when Dibyendu Barua, a dear friend and head of the Indian delegation in Budapest, messaged. “Do you want to speak to the women who just created history?” he asked. I had put in a request much earlier, hoping that history would be created, and that both the open and women’s teams would win gold in Budapest. At times, miracles happen and this was one such. “This is the start of India’s dominance in world chess,” said Dibyendu. It was exactly what Viswanathan Anand, the architect of this revolution, had said to…

India had lost the 2019 World Cup semi-final to New Zealand in Manchester, and there was doom and gloom all round. Sourav Ganguly and I went out to have a quiet dinner at an Indian restaurant, Ziya Grill on Curry Mile, and Ganguly said all of a sudden, “In the next 10 years, India’s real big star will be Rishabh Pant. You all are not seeing it today, but he is your next big star.” I have always respected Sourav’s understanding of the game and hence kept quiet. But at that point, there was little to back what he was…

I hadn’t met Ajay Jadeja in years. And yet, it was as easy as could be. Jadeja was relaxed and warm and the conversation got going within seconds. “I almost missed the flight from Delhi,” he said. “It was pouring. That’s why I just jumped out and got into the metro. You can reach the airport much faster that way in Delhi.” That was when the conversation turned to Afghanistan and his role during the 2023 World Cup. Gautam Bhattacharyya, who was with us, asked him why it was that he did not take money for the assignment. Jadeja, charming…