Author: Prantik Mazumdar

Cricket is a team game and Australia played like one, under the stewardship of a captain, who led from the front, galvanised his unit and marshalled his resources towards the unified goal of winning back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a decade India, on the other hand, were forced to play under three captains and chopped and changed their team reactively, without addressing the primary challenges at hand. Barring the God-sent Bumrah and the spirited Yashasvi Jaiswal, no other Indian player consistently showed up to the party Down Under. Rohit Sharma did the brave and selfless thing by standing down for…

The year 2024 will not just be remembered for India winning its second T20 World Cup title, but also for how the nation evolved and matured across sports. It had many firsts, many bests, many highs and many heartbreaking moments as one would expect in sport, but what made it remarkable for me is the rise of women and youth across categories. As the Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor to RevSportz, I was fortunate and privileged to have a front-row seat to many of those special moments. Rohan Bopanna kickstarted proceedings by fulfilling his dream of 22 years – winning his…

Preethi Pal was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a kid… Just imagine the journey from there to the finishing lines of the women’s 200m T35 race at the Paris 2024 Paralympics Games. A couple of days ago, she won a bronze in the women’s 100m T35 race (14.21 seconds). And now she has backed it with yet another bronze in the 200m race (30.01 seconds). In both races, she delivered her personal best and isn’t that what the Paralympics and life is all about? Until a week ago, no Indian had ever won a medal in a para-athletics events and…

Medal winners aren’t the only form of sporting champions! Over the past week at the Arena Porte de La Chapelle, where the Paris Olympics badminton matches were being played, I came across different shades of champions, of all shapes, sizes and forms. Spain’s Carolina Marin, an Olympic gold medalist and a 3-time World Champion, had to bow out from the court during her semi-finals match, due to yet another ACL tear. She was just 11 points away from sealing a place in the final, but she had to walk away in excruciating pain and agony and did so graciously without…

Viktor came out victorious in the battle of the ‘Sens’ and he called ir the toughest match of his career till date. Had someone asked me yesterday evening, my head would have said it was always going to be Viktor Axelsen given his 7-1 head-to-head record, his wide wing span on court and his relentless and powerful smashes. The only time Lakshya had beaten Axelsen was at the German Open in 2022, after narrowly winning the third game 22-20. But my heart believed that Lakshya could get past his Danish opponent given the way he had played in the previous…

Paris 2024 is my Olympics debut – as a viewer, reporter and a devout Indian fan.It’s been a fascinating week to say the least. As context, I have had the opportunity to travel around to world to watch international cricket tournaments, but I am new to watching non-cricketing sports at international meets. Earlier this week, I had the unique opportunity to watch two indoor events – Nikhat Zareen’s boxing bout against top-seeded Wu Yu and PV Sindhu’s shuttling battle against her arch rival, He Bingjiao.As a fan in the stadium, there were interesting contrasts and similarities that made the…

Imagine being part of the celebrations at Marine Drive after Rohit Sharma and the boys returned home victorious from Barbados! Likewise, imagine the opportunity to celebrate Leo Messi and Argentina’s historic win at Qatar 2022 once they landed back in Buenos Aires? That is what the grand and generous vision of the Champions Park in Paris is all about, but with a twist. Here, global fans are celebrating not just one sport and their respective nations, but congregating to celebrate sporting excellence and human achievements across multiple sports with medal winners from different events and nations. Athletes are at the…

Prantik Mazumdar It was a Harmanpreet show once again at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir as India’s men’s hockey team dished out a comprehensive 2-0 win against Ireland. Beyond the shades of their flags, there was hardly anything in common between the two sides, in terms of their approach and execution. For us fans, who travelled across Paris through multiple train lines, it was pure joy and relief to be seated easily in our respective zones without much crowd hassles and one was pleased to see the Indian squad in line ready to sing the anthem. The stadium had a larger share…

“Rohit sir, apart from yourself, who is your favourite player in the current Indian team that beat South Africa in the T20 World Cup final at Barbados?” This was perhaps the most innocent but pertinent question that was asked by a 10-year-old fan in Dallas, where Rohit Sharma spent his weekend to launch Crickingdom’s DFW cricket academy. The cacophony and the energy in the Surti Leuva Patidar Samaj (SLPS) auditorium where this dialogue with Rohit took place on Sunday morning was palpable. Over 700 mega fans, from all over the USA, had thronged the room and were jumping on their…

I was amongst the 110,000 fans at the Narendra Modi stadium on the fateful evening of November 19, 2023 who were silenced by Pat Cummins and his men. We fans went into a state of coma not when Glenn Maxwell hit the winning runs of Mohammed Siraj in the 43rd over, but when Travis Head dismissed Rohit Sharma in the 10th over off Maxwell with a screamer off a catch. Millions of cricket-tragics in the country like me went into a state of mourning that evening, no different from the skipper himself who was teary-eyed. His dejected walk back to…