Author: Boria Majumdar

Team RevSportz is in Bengaluru today and tomorrow for a series of shoots. And one of the athletes training in Bengaluru is PV Sindhu. Sindhu, as we all know, is training with Prakash Padukone and had skipped the Uber Cup to focus on her Olympic preparations. And from the interview we had done with Prakash Sir, he was extremely confident that she would be ready to mount a strong challenge for Paris 2024. With us in Bengaluru, it is perhaps fitting that I share a Sindhu story, which had made a huge difference to me and to RevSportz during the…

July 2012. The Oxford summer morning kept its word: rain playing hide and seek, the English summer at 14 degrees Celsius. But that did not stop a good thousand or so people from gathering at the famous Iffley Road track at 5.45am in the morning. All invited guests were asked to be there by 6am for the Olympic Torch Relay. The Oxford leg, we were all told, would start exactly at 7am. And it did. And then, Sir Roger Bannister stepped out. Sir Roger, who challenged human limits one such morning under similar climes in 1954 by running a mile…

As I have said in an earlier piece, one of the most difficult events to deal with during the course of the sanction was the 2023 World Cup on home soil. Without me, my team was handicapped and we needed to do something to set the tone of the coverage. That’s when the idea came. How about launching a World Cup special Backstage with Boria series with a focus on India-Pakistan? And from the Pakistan standpoint, my first choice was Shoaib Akhtar. Shoaib is a maverick. One of the best fast bowlers of all time, he is all headlines in…

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar raised a question, with more than 16 years of service for India and 10,000 Test runs behind him. Clearly, a question is justified. Now, it could well be that the question has a rebuttal. For a modern-day great like Virat Kohli, a rebuttal is fair. It is a debate between two legends, and perfectly fine up to this point. But then, there is social media. All of a sudden, there are millions of trolls who jump in. Who the hell is Gavaskar to question Kohli? How can Gavaskar do this? This is where things go off-track.…

There were 62,007 people in the stands braving the summer heat. Another 60,000 or more outside wanting tickets. The stage was set for a grand spectacle. Almost everyone was supporting Mohun Bagan Super Giant, and may be that was their undoing. The pressure of the big final was too much to bear and despite taking a 1-0 lead at half time, Mohun Bagan were a timid team on the night. Not once could they take control of the game and Antonio Lopez Habas, the coach, had his worst game of the season. In all fairness, Mumbai were deserving winners in…

“I am nervous,” said Snehasish Ganguly, President of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). In what was a big moment for Bengal cricket, the CAB president was understandably a little anxious. He was making the formal announcement to inaugurate the Bengal Pro T20 league for men and women. As a first in the country, the CAB is hosting the league for both men and women at the same time, and an equal number of franchises are part of both. “It was forever an ambition,” said Snehasish. “At CAB, we have always taken women’s cricket with equal passion, and the moment…

In a freewheeling chat with RevSportz, Shashwat Goenka opens up on Mohun Bagan doing well in the current football season. They will play the ISL final on Saturday in Kolkata. At the same time, Lucknow Super Giants have also been brilliant in IPL 2024. Shashwat speaks of giving the coaches enormous freedom, in both the sports. Joining Shashwat in the interview is Marcus Stoinis, a massive superstar. He talks of the changes in T20 cricket in IPL 2024, and quickly adds the ICC T20 World Cup may be different. Boria: Look at Lucknow Super Giants. Six wins and two more,…

The Cricketer had alleged I had been intimidating him for years. See clinching evidence below, and make up your mind. In 2018, the Cricketer had sat out more games than he had played that year. A far more important news story was the assertion that his rehab at the NCA had not been as it should. There were many reports saying so, and anyone who covered Indian cricket at the time would testify that this was the perception that had gained ground. A couple of weeks before such reports was published, I had reached out to The Cricketer, offering support…

We continue to look up to the West on many counts. We continue to admire their universities, their libraries and sense of history, architecture, beautified parks, and most of all the opulence. We have fashioned our shopping malls, which have become synonymous with development in most Indian cities, on the Western model and follow Hollywood religiously. The Oscars and the BAFTA are more credible than our own film awards and Lord’s is still cricket’s mecca despite having a refurbished Eden Gardens at hand. Yes, we have the Indian Premier League (IPL) but most commentators are still foreigners and almost all…

As a sports analyst, I look for a fight in a team. Though India lost the tie 1-4 against Indonesia in the Thomas Cup on Wednesday, there was plenty of fight on display which augurs well for Indian badminton, going forward. In fact, in the match against China today afternoon, I am yet again going to look for fight. The draw, which will be announced at 11.15am, will be an interesting one. While India’s title defence is on the line, the truth is this is the best we have seen the Indians play in a while. Let’s go step by…