Author: Boria Majumdar

Part of Gary Kirsten’s support staff when India won the 2011 World Cup, Paddy Upton has been part of the Indian sports ecosystem in various ways for over a decade. Currently a mental conditioning coach with the hockey team ahead of the Paris Olympics, Upton spoke to Boria Majumdar, RevSportz editor-in-chief, about the unique pressures that Indian athletes have to face and how they can win the battle of the mind. Boria: Back home in Cape Town after being with the Indian team in Australia. The series did not go our way. Is there a mental issue? The country will…

When we watch a cricket match, the IPL for example, we watch it as a kind of habit. We take a few things for granted. For example, we know we will hear a set of commentators giving us their views of the game, we know there will be a mid-game show, and an element of fan-speak on occasion. We also know that the commentary will follow a set pattern. For most of us, able-bodied citizens, this is just normal. Seldom do we think about those with a hearing impairment. How will they enjoy an IPL game? Is it taken for…

Daryl Mitchell had just got out to Hardik Pandya, caught at long-on. The camera panned to the crowd, and one could sense a degree of anticipation. Even the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) supporters weren’t unhappy, because MS Dhoni was about to step out to bat for perhaps the final time at the Wankhede. Or, wait a minute. What we witnessed in the next four balls begged the question – is it the final time? Rather, should it be the last call for someone with a strike rate of 241 in the final over in the IPL? Hardik bowled the first…

It is the Bengali New Year today. And a festive day in many other parts of the country. First and foremost, subho nababarsha to all of you. It is a convention that we all make our new year plans and promises to ourselves on this day. For us at RevSportz, it is no different. From an idea in December 2021, today we are a team of over40. It is no longer about me. Rather, it is the team that drives the organisation. Today, it is time to outline a few things. Talk about how we want to go about things.…

For the record, India had won just one medal in the 2012 Paralympics in London. In Rio the number had increased to 4 and it was a significant achievement for the country that was still trying to come to terms with the Paralympics. In Tokyo, it was a four fold jump and India ended with 19 medals from a contingent of 54 athletes and it was by far the most successful Paralympics in India’s sporting history. India lost a few very close contests or else the medal count could well have crossed 20. The momentum continued with the Asian Para…

Sanju Samson has been one of the most talented players around. And yet, he himself would agree that he hasn’t done justice to all this potential. I, for one, was extremely excited seeing Samson play the kind of shots he did the other night. He carted the ball to all corners of the ground and reached his 50 with a very good strike-rate. Samson has been consistent in this IPL and has staked a strong claim for the wicketkeeper’s position in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup in June. Whether Samson should be there can also be answered…

Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 196 in their 20 overs, and Mumbai Indians needed just 15.3 overs to chase it down. Needless to say, it was a belter of a wicket. But in the midst of such carnage, Jasprit Bumrah bowled his four overs, conceded just 21 runs and picking up five wickets. Just this one statistic is enough to demonstrate the difference between the best and the rest. How good Bumrah is should actually be the question. In one sentence, he is unhittable and unplayable at the moment. Bowling yorkers at will, mixing up pace, and using the short ball…

Following Mohammed Salim’s death in 1989, a brief obituary in the Amrita Bazar Patrika declared: Mohammed Salim (Sr) a member of the legendary Mohammedan Sporting Club side that claimed five successive Calcutta senior football league titles in the thirties died in Calcutta on Wednesday morning. He was 76. A right winger in his playing days, he was intimately connected with many sports clubs and took active interest in training youngsters. He is survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters. When his obituary ignored his feat of having played for Celtic FC with distinction, it is hardly surprising that…

East Bengal’s ISL play-off fate is no longer in their own hands. On Wednesday night, they take on Punjab FC away from home knowing that nothing less than three points will do. If that mission is accomplished, they then need to wait until April 14 and hope that a resurgent Chennaiyin FC take nothing from their visit to FC Goa. But win, lose or draw, this has still been a season to savour for many East Bengal fans, after years in the doldrums. Carles Cuadrat, an ISL winner with Bengaluru FC, has led the revival as coach, and he spoke…

Just days before Sachin: A Billion Dreams was all set to hit film screens round the world, someone asked me what a movie on Sachin would have to offer. The argument was that his life was an open book, and people had followed him since he was a child. 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 would a biopic offer us that we did not already know? First things first, biopics or documentary dramas help expand the constituency. For youngsters growing up…