Author: G Rajaraman

Ruthlessness found a new address during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. It has resided with the Indian team as they stormed into the final, winning all nine league games and avoiding a banana-peel semifinal against New Zealand with skill, dexterity and authority. The clinical manner in which they won games while retaining known flair has engaged fans and confounded rival teams. The dictionary may suggest that ruthlessness is a negative trait. But that is not necessarily true in sport. In fact, it is a great quality to have for elite sportspersons. It is their single-minded focus in working relentlessly…

Recurve archer B Dhiraj’s qualification for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris by making it to the final of the Asian Continental Qualifying Tournament in Bangkok last week came as a whiff of fresh air. But it cannot hide the disappointment of the men’s team not being able to secure the quota in the Asian Championships which concluded a couple of days earlier. Viewed from the Olympic perspective, it is natural that Recurve teams come under the scanner. It is not the half-full-or-half-empty approach that can be taken in this instance. Yet, by letting the brilliance of the Compound teams…

Like a mirage, the dream date has disappeared. Cricket’s incurable romantics spent a good part of the past week or 10 days rejigging travel plans, and fantasising about an India-Pakistan semifinal in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. It had the potential to overshadow the November 19 title clash in Ahmedabad. The fans were getting ready to pay through their noses for a ringside view of the possible fireworks at the Eden Gardens. The prospect teased supporters around the world, not the least in the sub-continent, for a week and more. The excitement and the suspense only grew…

Pakistan and England will each have different reasons to play to win and to enhance the net run rate in the World Cup when they meet at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. And that will possibly make for a great game and offer a visual and emotional treat for the fans, in the magnificent stadium and those elsewhere, watching on one screen or the other. England’s massive victory over the Netherlands has helped them rise to the seventh spot on the table with the best net run rate among the last four teams, but they have to win…

The clutch of medals that they could win, the glory of being in the race for the best athletes’ awards and the limelight that these trophies bring fuelled swimmers to deliver their best at the National Games in Goa, unmindful of the fact that they had trained to peak at the Asian Games which ended in Hangzhou last month. Sajan Prakash won 9 medals, including 3 golds, 4 silvers and 2 bronzes, while Srihari Nataraj picked up 10 medals, with 4 of his 8 golds coming in the relays. In the women’s section, teenagers Dhinidhi Desinghu (7 golds, 5 of…

From a purely competitive perspective, India quelled expectations that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 league game against South Africa would be the clash of the titans. Yet, the whopping 243-run victory at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday was not bereft of some phases of very attritional cricket. On a track that changed character with time, Virat Kohli chiseled out a workmanlike knock with the surety of a seasoned craftsman to gift himself a century. It was a day on which ugly was beautiful, as aesthetics took a back seat to efficiency. It was an occasion when elegance…

Virat Kohli found a remarkable inner calm through his cricket, rising as the first of the Social-Media-era superstars. Inner calm and an intense Kohli, wearing his emotions on his sleeve despite each broadcaster assigning a camera to zoom in on his face, may sound like an oxymoron. But he would not have lasted so many seasons without finding that peace. He has been the subject of countless storms which raged on social media platforms and yet he has managed to embrace tranquility when padded up and batting for India. It is this ability which has been his biggest asset in…

A stunning attack on the New Zealand bowling by Fakhar Zaman, Pakistan’s talismanic left-hand opener, took him to an unbeaten century and powered Pakistan to a 21-run win on the Duckworth-Lewis System in a rain-hit ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. His big hitting was on display as he struck 11 sixes and eight fours while making an unbeaten 126 from just 81 balls. By the time rain interrupted their chase a second time, Pakistan had reached 200 runs in just 25.3 overs. Babar Azam, the captain, made 66 not out…

Prasidh Krishna, a strapping fast bowler who had all but kissed his World Cup dreams goodbye after suffering a lower-back injury during a tour of Zimbabwe last year, will want to show that he is battle-ready and can help India’s pace-bowling attack retain the aura that it has acquired as the most potent at this World Cup. The news that Hardik Pandya would not be fit in time to play any further part in India’s campaign was a massive blow for the team. They will have to take that on the chin and get ready for the big battles ahead…

The anti-doping case of track veteran MR Poovamma has had more twists and turns than a potboiler, the latest leading to her running the anchor leg for the Karnataka women’s 4x400m relay team in the National Games athletics competition in Goa on Wednesday. This comes barely a week after a National Anti-Doping Agency Appeal Panel (ADAP), directed by the Kerala High Court, revisited its decision and allowed Poovamma to return to competition several months ahead of the June 2024 date. Chaired by Abhinav Mukherji, the panel skipped making an admission that it had been slack in not setting the date…