Author: G Rajaraman

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) decision to partner Spring Media and offer fans a betting package that includes all FIH events, representing more than 1,300 matches across a four-year cycle, causes a lot of eyebrows to be raised and one question to be asked: Does hockey need funds from the betting ecosystem to sustain itself? Of course, traditional international sport does face intense challenges in trying to stay relevant in evolving societies. But does that mean taking the easy way out and welcoming the betting ecosystem to finance sport? You can dismiss this as the edgy and alarmist rant of…

Jeremy Lalrinnunga has begun the process of exorcising some dark memories. He is keen on working his way back to the national squad. The 21-year-old’s return to the national stage after a two-year gap was the highlight of the IWLF National Weightlifting Championships which concluded in Itanagar last week. He marked his first national championships since August 2021with a victory in the men’s 67kg class with a total of 298kg. That was 2kg shy of his gold-winning effort in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. This victory would have helped him erase memories of no lifts in clean and jerk…

Some decades ago, when colour telecasts – leave alone the Internet – were unheard of, we had only newspaper reports and radio commentary to rely on to track cricket with passion. India had a set of wonderful batsmen and magical spinners, but the new-ball options were spoken of in anything but attacking terms. Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar were game triers, but they gave way to the spin bowlers –Bishan Singh Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna. Of course, KarsanGhavri, the left-arm fast-medium bowler, was capable of delivering a good bouncer but even he was not the kind who could…

Sometimes, when 23 wickets fall in a torrent, the desire to reach out for the remote and search for defensive technique nuggets can be compelling. India versus South Africa in Cape Town on Day 1 of the second Test was one such day. There was an endless procession of batters, which left the producers of highlights packages with the task of showing the fall of wickets. As someone who has seen the cricket ball drop at the legendary Sunil Gavaskar’s feet, when he defended short-pitched deliveries from the fastest of bowlers and remained stationary, it was hard not to be…

Neeraj Chopra will be the first name that springs to everyone’s lips when conversations in the new year veer to India’s prospects in the Paris Olympic Games later this year. The javelin thrower answered everyone’s prayers by adding the World Athletics Championships gold medal last year to his Tokyo Olympic Games victory. Of course, he will face intense competition, not the least from his team-mates and the German Johannes Vetter and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch. No matter what happens, we can be sure that the javelin throw final in Paris will be one of the most-watched events this year.…

The 2036 Olympic Games against the backdrop of the Sabarmati river is no longer such a distant dream anymore as it has been for some years now. With a lot of work done — some visible and a lot away from public eye — Gujarat has inched away from it just being an idea and moved closer to making it a reality. There are compelling reasons to believe that 2036 is beginning to be look more viable for India, not the least being the strong backing of the Central Government. For me, the bigger reason is the strides India is…

Away from the eyes of the mainstream media, the wheels of grassroots sport are cranking in many states. Better late than never. Aware that sport is a soft power not only for the country to showcase internationally, states are now beginning to contribute their own pieces to complete the larger jigsaw. And that augurs well from the long-term perspective. Be it conducting sports competitions or building infrastructure or facilitating coaching programmes, states have now begun to lend a shoulder so that their athletes are not only better prepared for national and international competitions, but their citizens also take the right…

The coming year may well turn out to be the year of reckoning for Indian sport, another step towards becoming a better sporting nation, rather than being just a massive, readymade and welcoming market for overseas sport in which Indians have no presence at all. But until that happens, the year rolling by has to be seen as the defining year for Indian sport. What is a defining year? Shall we say it is one in which, more than any earlier year, we get a stronger indication that Indian sport will leapfrog on the Olympic Games charts to the top…

They say dreams that visit in daytime cause more pain and disappointment. But visions of Indian athletes winning 10 medals in the Olympic Games in Paris should no longer count as a dream. It is a realistic expectation that draws from the evolution of Indian sport in the recent years, including a massive attitudinal shift in the ecosystem that is cranking itself up to facilitate better returns. Yes, there have been disappointments thus far. For instance, archery has sent out a lone qualifier so far, male boxers have yet to secure a berth, the women’s hockey team is awaiting a…

For an athlete of few words who lets her prowess on the archery range do the talking, Jyothi Surekha Vennam’s Compound bow spoke most eloquently in 2023. From the time she scored a world-record 1418 points over two days of open selection trials in Kolkata in January to when she won three gold medals at the Asian Games, the 27-year-old made this her most expressive year. A bronze in the World Championships in Berlin, a gold in the World Cup Stage 1 in Antalya and silver medals at the Asian Championships in Bangkok and Taipei Open, along with team gold…