Author: G Rajaraman

For years now, sociologists and journalists have been engaged by the question: What is it that makes cricket such a passion with Indians, whether the team wins or not? And there is not any one answer that anyone has arrived at. However, cricket is one activity that keeps the nation engaged, perhaps as much as Bollywood. Yet, unlike the movies, people tend to attach more importance to sport since the team is competing against other nations. And the cricket team does deliver some victories that raise the collective mood of the people. Cricket made a strong impact on Indians only…

Tajinderpal Singh Toor bossed the final day’s proceedings in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships by improving his own Asian Record in the Shot Put at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Monday. With a 21.77m effort on his third try, the Punjab left-hander earned himself a berth in the squad for the World Athletics Championships, to be held two months from now in Budapest. Tajinderpal, who returned a ‘Did Not Start’ result in the World Championships last year, has given himself the chance to make amends. Having worked to find his rhythm and confidence in the earlier meets this year,…

I remember being nervous as hell a few years ago, when I had the chance to moderate a session on Hyderabad football in my hometown. Since I had been on stage with (the late) Novy Kapadia several times before, I realised that it was the other gentleman who made more butterflies flutter in my stomach that evening. After all, he was the first journalist from Hyderabad who specialised in sports reporting. He had produced a delightful series on footballers from the twin cities and SA Rahim, the legendary coach, for Sport & Pastime, the weekly magazine brought out by the…

There was no denying Jyothi Yarraji her moment in the spotlight in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, as she completed a double by winning the 100m Hurdles setting a new Meet Record for the second time in the day. She won in 12.92 seconds, to add to the 100m crown she had won on Friday. Tejaswin Shankar (Delhi), better known for his Commonwealth Games High Jump bronze, and Swapna Burman, the 2018 Asian Games champion from Madhya Pradesh, won the Decathlon and Heptathlon titles respectively. Whether by accident or design, the schedule…

Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) and KM Deeksha (Madhya Pradesh) scripted new meet records in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase and 1500m respectively, on the second day of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on Friday. But the women quarter-milers, led by Anjali Devi (Haryana), stole their thunder in a sensational race. The top three finishers – Anjali (51.48 seconds), her Haryana team-mate Himanshi Malik (51.76) and Tamil Nadu’s R Vithya Ramraj (52. 49) – each found their personal bests. Anjali’s time was the joint-sixth-fastest (with Nirmala Sheoran) by an Indian woman over the distance, behind Hima…

As he turns 50, Leander Adrian Paes will be remembered for many things other than winning the Olympic Games bronze medal in 1996. In our minds, some athletes remain young and vibrant despite the passage of time. In our minds, some images are etched indelibly. Despite his numerous achievements on tennis courts across the world, his success at the Atlanta Olympics has few parallels. For, it was a moment that unshackled India, a moment that inspired other athletes from the country to believe that an Olympic medal could be won. I shudder to think of how things would have been…

Uttar Pradesh’s Kartik Kumar produced the best time by an Indian in the 10,000m event this year, clocking 29 minutes 1.84 seconds, to win the crown in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on Thursday. In conforming his form ahead of the Asian Games, he rewrote a 16-year-old Meet Record. He sprinted away from team-mate Gulveer Singh, and prevented his hat-trick of victories after the National Games in Gandhinagar in October 2022 and the Federation Cup in Ranchi last month. Delhi’s Pritam Kumar and Madhya Pradesh’s Harman Jot Singh were the other runners who matched…

Indian Athletics is not just about Neeraj Chopra, M Sreeshankar, Avinash Sable and the rising star Shaili Singh. With India winning six Golds and seven Silvers in a total of 19 medals in the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Yecheon, Korea, the indications are that there are others who are talented, fearless and want to be counted at the continental level. Coming after Asian U18 Athletics Championships in Tashkent, where India won six Golds and 11 Silvers in a total of 24 medals, the returns in Yecheon tell the story of talent, perseverance, vision and coordination. It also inspires a…

There is great anticipation and excitement, as indeed there must be, as we prepare to find our favourite spots to track the World Test Championship final between two top-notch squads from Australia and India at The Oval, London, from Wednesday. Yet, while the focus remains largely on the present, it is hard to stop the mind from diving into the past. Each time a World Test Championship Final is played, I cannot help but recall the first time I browsed through the collection of clippings from Sport & Pastime magazine kept by N Ganesan, my sports-journalist father. It was…

India occupies the second place in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) much-delayed 2020 Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) Report released on Tuesday. It is India’s worst rank ever, though it has been among the top seven in the list of nations with the most ADRVs – some call it the Hall of Shame – each year since 2013. The depressing news comes at a time when India may have intensified the war against doping with an improved testing strategy and with more testing than in the previous years after an inexplicable slowdown in 2016. We shall turn our attention to the…