Author: G Rajaraman

If ever an example of less is more is needed, think of Neeraj Chopra and his journey in 2023. He competed only on seven days, in six competitions, in five months from May to October, but his magnetic charm is such that despite being seen performing so infrequently on TV, he occupies a vast portion of the collective mind space of the Indian sports fan. A wonderful year has thrown up many sports heroes for India to follow. Indeed, many other sportspersons across several disciplines — cricket, badminton, hockey, tennis, chess, squash and football, to name a few — pursue…

Four overseas Equestrian officials are slated to oversee an international CDI1* Dressage competition in Chhatarpur on the outskirts of Delhi. It is quite discouraging that the event, beginning on Tuesday, has just one entry since it comes in the wake of India winning team gold, and Anush Agarwalla the individual bronze, at the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou. The FEI website reveals that Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, 26, and his 14-year-old Bay stallion, Jai Dhwaj, were both registered on November 29, barely a week before the competition. There is no evidence of either of them having competed in any FEI events…

Some expeditions are planned and others are rather unexpected. My own journey with RevSportz over the past 16 months is the result of a call from Boria Majumdar, upon seeing an innocuous tweet that announced my travel to the United States to cover the World Athletics Championships in July 2022. Since I sent my first video report from Eugene, I have only seen RevSportz grow in stature as a sports platform that does not begin and end with cricket coverage. The site’s vision and sincerity have ensured that it has done really well. RevSportz has fared way better than CityWeek,…

Hearts thumping with anticipation and minds imagining the value of the deal, fans of T20 cricket have moved to the edge of their seats as if it is the final over of a thrilling IPL game. Quite suddenly and not very quietly, the term ‘player trading’ has stormed into their lexicon. No wonder, because the player at the centre of all conversations is no less than a Hardik Pandya. The news of one big trade — involving the Gujarat Titans skipper’s move to Mumbai Indians in this case — has drawn eyeballs little else has. So much so, that India’s…

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) placed Rachna, the 30-year-old Indian who finished ninth in the Asian Games women’s Hammer Throw competition in Hangzhou, on provisional suspension on Friday after she tested positive for multiple banned steroids – Stanozolol, Metandienone, Dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT). While Stanozolol and Metandienone have surfaced often in the Indian anti-doping landscape, DHCMT, known as Oral Turinabol, is infrequent. NADA website lists weightlifter Puneet Kumar in 2019 and Ajay Kumar (Volleyball) this year as those who have tested positive for DHCMT and have been sanctioned in the past 10 years by National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panels. DHCMT gained infamy as…

Pankaj Advani deserves a lot more time and attention from the Indian sporting system. Most nations, grieving the loss of their team in the final of a global competition, would have welcomed the news of one of their own winning an unprecedented 26th world title as a soothing balm, and with some fanfare. Not India, it seems. India may take some more time to mature as a nation of sports lovers who are prepared and willing to shower all world champions with similar adulation. As many as 18 years after he won his maiden IBSF World Billiards Championships, Advani climbed…

There was a hint of a Martin Crowe in Pat Cummins’ decision to throw in Glenn Maxwell to do battle with an aggressive Rohit Sharma inside the power play in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Think of it, there was a greater touch of a chess Grandmaster risking a piece to wrest control of the board than perhaps the late New Zealand captain, who employed Dipak Patel’s off-spin at the start of the innings in the 1992 World Cup. In a match that lasted 93 overs, there will be many turning points and that each student of…

There was a hint of a Martin Crowe in Pat Cummins’ decision to throw in Glenn Maxwell to do battle with an aggressive Rohit Sharma inside the power play in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Think of it, there was a greater touch of a chess Grandmaster risking a piece to wrest control of the board than perhaps the late New Zealand captain, who employed Dipak Patel’s off-spin at the start of the innings in the 1992 World Cup. In a match that lasted 93 overs, there will be many turning points and that each student of…

There are many qualities that spring to mind when Australian teams in World Cup history become the focus of cricket conversations. Competitive. Dominating. Fierce. Great. Fearsome. Courageous. Ruthless. These are some characteristics and words that surface the fastest. However, there is one that you would never associate Australia with. Vulnerability. Yes, it is not a trait that Australian teams of the late 90s and early 2000s could be suspected of having. Pat Cummins’ side has shown more than a hint of vulnerability in the 10 games so far in the 2023 World Cup, having had to scrap to win the…

As one watched some Australians leave the Eden Gardens around the same time that the South Africans arrived for their training on Tuesday, a flood of memories from two semifinals, three years apart, came rushing to the mind. At a time it is par for yesterday to be forgotten in a jiffy, it is amazing how easily some freezeframes from so long ago come back to the consciousness. The sight of Australia and South Africa and a return to Eden Gardens ahead of a World Cup semifinal sparked a walk down memory lane. It was inevitable that the India-Sri Lanka…