Author: Boria Majumdar

Though his reputation as a player was built on being one of the most obdurate and consistent opening batsmen, Justin Langer won his biggest honour as coach in the T20 format, leading Australia to the World Cup in 2021 in Dubai. After differences of opinion with several senior players led to him leaving the Australia job, Langer spent time away from the game for a couple of years. Now in charge of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), he was certainly a name the BCCI might have been interested in as they look to appoint a…

India v Pakistan in New York on June 9, as part of the T20 World Cup, is just 25 days away. And India-Pakistan always bring about fascinating stories. During the last T20 World Cup in Australia, I was going through one of my worst phases. A smile was a luxury, and yet there were incidents that left a permanent mark and have stayed on as fond memories. As we build up to the India-Pakistan match in New York, it is pertinent to recount one such. On October 23, 2022, the MCG was a real spectacle. India-Pakistan was a festival and…

This interview was conducted on Mother’s Day, and perhaps that’s why I will start with this story. Sai Sudharsan has been the star batter for Gujarat Titans this season, and has only gotten better with every passing game. And in the last one, he even notched up his first IPL hundred. But then, that’s not the story. Sudharsan had invited his mother and father to the game, a day before Mother’s Day, to make it special for them. His mother, however, had other plans. She informed him that she had work commitments and wouldn’t be able to make it to…

Successful sports stories don’t happen overnight. They need to be nurtured for years for the world to see them in full bloom. For an 87.58m javelin throw or a badminton academy that changes the course of the sport forever, years of effort are in the background. And in many of these cases, the mother, literally, is the unsung heroine. On Mother’s Day, it is essential that we celebrate some of these women and their contribution to sport. In doing so, RevSportz in partnership with BSV (Bharat Serum and Vaccines) will showcase stories of mothers who are all extraordinary athletes and…

Just days before Sachin: A Billion Dreams was all set to hit movie screens around the world, someone asked me what a film on Sachin would have to offer. His life was an open book and people had followed him since he was a child – that was the crux of the argument. To be fair, it was a very pertinent comment. Sachin Tendulkar is one of the most-talked-about personalities in the history of modern India, and what would a biopic of his offer us that we did not already know? First things first – biopics or documentary dramas help…

MS Dhoni danced down the track and timed his helicopter shot to perfection. Within a fraction of a second, the ball had sailed over the midwicket boundary for a six. Rashid Khan, the bowler, looked stunned. Next ball, the result was the same. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) may have lost, but the crowd went ballistic as Dhoni scored 26 off just 11 balls. It had brilliance written all over it, and that was what begged the question one more time. Is Dhoni batting too little and too low for CSK and himself? Could this cost his side a play-off place?…

It’s been 16 seasons without a title. And the 17th was also starting to look bad before things changed, and how. Four wins on the trot, and RCB, all of a sudden, have a lifeline. Yes, they will have to depend on the results of some other games, but at least they have opened the door. With some luck, things could go the RCB way, and that’s a huge positive after what was a horrific start to the tournament. All of a sudden, the play-offs seem possible, and Thursday night’s victory was yet more reinforcement. All they need to do…

I am in Bengaluru for a series of shoots, and Simon and Schuster, my publishers, had asked if I was agreeable to visiting a number of book stores and doing book signings. It is always good to meet readers and interact with them, so my answer was an overwhelming yes! And, may I say, it was a very good experience to hop into book stores in the middle of the showers that cooled the temperature quite a bit. It was at one of the book stores that a young couple came forward and asked me a straightforward question. They had…

Sanju Samson or Rishabh Pant is a debate that has been raging in IPL 2024. And yes, we have our own colleagues differ on the issue. Within our team, we have always encouraged difference of opinion and I am perfectly fine with it. My own position on the issue is clear, Samson has done enough to push his case and the consistency is a sign of maturity that can’t be ignored. As leader, it adds to his case. And may I say, he deserves an opportunity. Sanju Samson in full flow is all class. The Rajasthan Royals captain has a…

Brajaranjan Ray, the pioneer of sports writing in Bengali, once recounted his experience of having met the proprietors of the leading vernacular daily of the time, and convincing them of the necessity for sports journalism. In this unpublished essay that I had the good fortune to read, Ray had something interesting to say about Rabindranath Tagore. Apparently, he was at a loss for Bengali equivalents of English terms in describing and reporting cricket matches. And who else to turn to, but Tagore? Tagore, of course, was as encouraging as ever. He asked him to go ahead without fear, and invent…