Author: G Rajaraman

Rajaraman in Mumbai covering the IOC session for RevSportz The undercurrent around a campaign to grant the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach an extension in office beyond 2025 was palpable on the opening day of the 141st IOC Session on Sunday. A day ahead of the formal confirmation of Cricket as one of the new disciplines on the programme of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, it was the presence of five Indian teenagers, beneficiaries of the Olympic Value Education Programme (OVEP), at the podium in the Jio World Centre had a more immediate impact. IOC Athlete Commission…

Rohit Sharma’s cavalier batting during the pursuit of a rather small target and the manner in which India’s bowlers did the job expected of them were highlights of the ICC Cricket World Cup league game in Ahmedabad on Saturday, which kept fans around the world glued to screens for hours on end. Yet, it was Rohit’s sparkling captaincy that stole the thunder. At the end of the game, it could be said that he ticked all boxes on the captaincy front – managing the bowling resources well enough for the side to remain competitive even when Pakistan’s third-wicket pair of…

Some memories are for a lifetime. And, with an India-Pakistan ICC Cricket World Cup match upon us, it is hard not to cast the mind back to each of the seven earlier contests, bringing forth a tapestry of memories and emotions to relive. I have reported on three of India’s victories in the World Cup – the bitter quarterfinal clash in Bangalore in 1996, a low-scoring league game at Old Trafford in 1999 and a demolition in Adelaide in 2015. But the Bangalore match takes the pride of place among this lot, not just because it was the first but…

It seems like it was only yesterday that we were left with no nails to bite, but it has been more than 24 years since that eventful day at Edgbaston, Birmingham, where Australia tied with South Africa in a Cricket World Cup semi-final and sent us scurrying to check the playing conditions to see which of the teams had made it to the final. As Australia and South Africa square off in the ICC Cricket World Cup at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday, it is hard for the mind not to recall a dramatic freezeframe from all those…

G Rajaraman: Congrats. You have given so much joy to the entire country that one can’t say it in words. I wasn’t feeling like one fine day I would speak to an Olympic and World Champion. So thank you very much. How are you feeling after becoming the Olympic and World Champion? Neeraj: I am feeling very happy. When I started playing, boys used to talk between themselves, ‘this foreign athlete is very strong, so perhaps competing with him is very tough’. So after winning all the titles in the world of athletics, I can say with full confidence that…

Neeraj Chopra found a way to call upon a hidden skill to add to his trademark composure as he had to control the uncontrollable and become the first Indian to win a World Athletics Championships gold medal. Battling some doubts, he sent the Javelin over 88.17m across the field at the National Athletic Centre in Budapest to make history. It is a moment that all of India willed. It was a magical moment that capped a glorious week for India, its scientists achieving glory by landing the Chandrayaan3 Rover Vikram on the Moon, chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa stretching Magnus Carlson…

It promises to be a long Sunday for fans of Indian athletics tracking the World Athletics Championships concluding in Budapest. Eight Indian athletes, including the men’s 4x400m relay quartet who stunned the world on Saturday night with a sensational Asian Record time to be the second fastest among the 17 teams on view, will feature in three finals. However, it will be the affable yet tough Neeraj Chopra who can be expected to place India on the medal’s table again for only the third time in World Championships history dating back to 1983. DP Manu and Kishore Kumar Jena will…

Neeraj Chopra inspired the unprecedented feat of three Indians making it into the final of an event at the World Athletics Championships with a sensational opening throw that lifted the hitherto sombre mood in the team and infused much cheer. In characteristic fashion, the 25-year-old Chopra put himself in position for a second successive podium finish at the World Championships, after his silver in Eugene in 2022. It did not take much effort to see Chopra exercise great control over his mind in the qualifying round in Budapest on Friday. The ease with which he does that makes him the…

Neeraj Chopra and the Art of Dealing with Pressure could well become the keynote address for the Indian squad in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest when the affable Olympic Games gold medalist competes in the men’s Javelin Throw qualifying round on Friday. Over the past few years, he has admirably embraced pressure as an invisible and inevitable companion. Even as many top guns from India misfired in Budapest for one reason or the other and led to intense debates on mental strength of the country’s elite track and field exponent, even a mere mention of Neeraj Chopra brings a…

It was hard to figure out who heaved a greater sigh of relief, Jeswin Aldrin when he discovered that his 8.00m opening leap on Wednesday had secured him the last berth in the men’s Long Jump final in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest or his team that finally an Indian had made it past the qualification to the final or backers of the Indian track and field sport. The truth is that each has a reason to be relieved. With Javelin Thrower Annu Rani and fellow Long Jumper M Sreeshankar finding that things were coming together at key moments,…