Author: G Rajaraman

It is unfair that he is being assessed against the backdrop of the ICC World Twenty20, but Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant’s countenance at the batting crease against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Tata Indian Premier League match in Visakhapatnam on Sunday night did not give any impression other than of being anchored in the present. Though there were some patented strokes as Pant compiled a maiden half-century since his return from a career-threatening injury, even he would concede that the timing is not quite back yet. It is a measure of his mental strength that he went past…

There was a standout moment amidst the glitz and the glamour at The Imperial in New Delhi on Saturday evening. As the curtain was coming down on a four-hour long ceremony, a long-standing friend from the broadcast industry looked at us clutching five trophies and said it was time for the TV news industry to revive coverage of sports. To my mind, that speaks volumes about RevSportz’s success and the recognition it got on Saturday night. Indeed, the idea that thought leaders in the TV news industry may be inspired to re-evaluate their decision to drop sports shows from the…

A decade and a half is long time in the history of an event designed to make memories that are erased by more memories within the span of six weeks each year. But with India warming up to a long-drawn general election from next month, one cannot but dig into the recesses of the sub-conscious to recall the Indian Premier League becoming an off-shore event in 2009. Depending on how you viewed it, shifting the whole tournament to a different country and a different time zone because of the hustings was either a logistical nightmare or an opportunity to showcase…

The answers from Virat Kohli did not take long coming. To those who were wondering if he would find his touch and form, his match-winning half-century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League game in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday offered enough evidence. To those who keep insisting that he is above normal, he showcased his ‘normal’ side after the game during his interaction with Harsha Bhogle. Be it his approach to getting the Orange Cap or his awareness that he is being projected to promote the T20 game around the world or…

There was a special quality to T Natarajan’s bowling in the Indian Premier League (IPL) game at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday evening. It lingered even when it was overshadowed by Andre Russell’s hitting and Harshit Rana’s bowling in the final over of the match to snatch a four-run victory for Kolkata Knight Riders over Sunrisers Hyderabad. The left-arm seamer’s skill did spark a deeper reflection on the contemporary cricketers’ worry about their workload in the wake of injury and time spent in rehabilitation. In the past couple of years, India could have done with Natarajan’s bowling but…

Simplicity is one of the greatest draws in times when complexities are commonplace. That is the reason Jasprit Bumrah will have a lot of cricket fans tracking his bowling in the Indian Premier League 2024, notwithstanding the enormous support that batters will have through the competition. Bumrah is among those who dare to alter the lambs-to-slaughter perception that fans usually have of the bowlers in the shortest format of the game. And that is a good enough reason for us to sit back and admire him, as he backs himself to deliver the goods for his team in IPL 2024.…

It may sound confusing, but it is true that Vinesh Phogat lost and Vinesh Phogat won. On a day when Indian wrestling attempted to regain ground lost in the past year and more, those in charge of the trials heeded her unusual plea to let her fight in two divisions, though the United World Wrestling rules clearly allow a grappler to compete in only one weight category. The two-time Olympic Games grappler Vinesh became the first wrestler – and more than a few would say dubiously so – to compete in two weight categories in the trials to select the…

The relentless procession of England batters to and from the pavilion in the recently concluded Test series made us wish it was some other team that would offer India at least a semblance of competition. For a good part of the final stages of the series, it was almost as if the visiting outfit left its collective spine behind and did precious little to stop the challenge from crumbling. Come to think of it, Indians fans licked their fingers in anticipation of a 5-0 sweep by the home team but were shocked when it allowed England to overturn a massive…

The AIFF Players’ Status Committee fell back on an International Football Federation (FIFA) provision to deliver an unprecedented ruling, ordering the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to grant goalkeeper Gurmeet Singh a No Objection Certificate to enable him play for another club for the remainder of the 2023-24 ISL season and beyond. The Committee, comprising Goa FA Secretary Savio Messias, Supreme Court lawyer Lzafeer Ahmad BF and Sujesh Ranjan ordered the AIFF Players’ Status Department on February 28 to approve any request for transfer raised by Gurmeet Singh, subject to other provisions under AIFF RSTP, 2023 or other relevant AIFF/FIFA…

Deepika Kumari, India’s most decorated archer, with some unfinished business left at the Olympic Games, made her maiden international appearance as the mother of a year-old baby girl a memorable one by winning the women’s final in the first leg of the Asia Cup in Baghdad, Iraq, with a 6-2 (24-26, 27-26, 29-27, 29-24) victory over compatriot Simranjeet Kaur on Sunday. “It’s good, but I expected this victory,” she told World Archery’s official website. “The match was good, but I really deserve this title because I have been preparing hard. Now I’m happy it’s resulted in winning.” Deepika, a former…