Author: RevSportz Comment

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is now an adult, having successfully completed 18 seasons. But since it came into being in 2008, India have lifted the T20 World Cup only once, in eight attempts. This gives you an idea of the scale of task that confronts Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir in a couple of months’ time. The shorter the format, the more teams capable of causing an upset and the more intense competition in the final stages. It’s no coincidence that even a West Indies team that ceased to be genuinely competitive in the other two formats nearly two…

Even without the identity of the fourth team being known, Group I is shaping up as one of the toughest to navigate in this World Cup. Having won twice and lost two other finals since 1998, France are the modern-day Brazil, while Norway thumped Italy 7-1 over two games to gain automatic qualification. Senegal were African champions in 2021, while Bolivia, Suriname and Iraq — the three sides vying for the last spot — won’t be pushovers either. Team 1: France Fixtures (IST approximate times not yet published) @Metlife Stadium, New York, vs Senegal — June 17, 2026 (0030 IST).…

In a parallel universe, a hard-fought 1-0 victory away to Inter Milan, last season’s Champions League finalists, would have been something to celebrate for Liverpool’s fan base. With one of their remaining two fixtures against rank outsiders Qarabag, the three points taken in Milan more or less ensured that Liverpool will at least make the play-off round of Europe’s premier competition. Instead, the overriding emotion after a game decided by Dominic Szoboszlai’s late penalty was one of relief, with fans sitting high in the clouds at the soon-to-be-demolished San Siro applauding the players and serenading Arne Slot, the under-pressure coach,…

After 12 years, three Ashes tours Down Under and 30 innings, the monkey is finally off Joe Root’s back. His 40th Test hundred will undoubtedly be among his most cherished, a first on Australian soil for one of the modern masters. Root’s 135 not out was the cornerstone of an uneven England batting performance on the opening day of the pink-ball Test at the Gabba in Brisbane. Mitchell Starc’s 6-71 kept Australia in the hunt, but an unbeaten last-wicket stand of 61 in just 44 balls between Jofra Archer and Root swung the pendulum England’s way as they finished on…

It’s a measure of how much Liverpool Football Club values continuity that there have been only 22 full-time managers in their storied 133-year history. For perspective, Tottenham Hotspur have had nearly as many this century alone. Starting with Tom Watson in the 19th century, three Liverpool managers have presided over 500 games or more. A fourth, Jurgen Klopp, almost made it to that landmark, finishing with 491 matches in charge. Arne Slot, who has been on the touchline for 76 games now, has a win percentage (63.16) better than Klopp, Bob Paisley, Kenny Dalglish and Bill Shankly – widely considered…

This 408-run thrashing in Guwahati is hardly the first dispiriting or demoralising loss that Indian cricket has suffered, even in this 21st century of limitless wealth and plentiful success. But in most cases, even the worst defeats came with some sort of silver lining or caveat. The two previous heaviest defeats by runs – in Nagpur in 2004 and Karachi in 2006 – were examples of that. In Nagpur, cricket had very little to do with India’s loss. At the time, Indian cricket was caught in the middle of a power struggle between Jagmohan Dalmiya, who had held the reins…

There was a time not long ago when Kerala football looked dead and buried. The great days of the 1980s and ’90s, when Kerala Police competed with the best teams in the country, were long gone, and famous stadiums like the Corporation Stadium in Calicut (now the EMS Stadium) had become accustomed to crowds of only a few hundred, where once 30,000 to 40,000 fans packed the galleries. Even the relatively new Gokulam FC, which once attracted average attendances of nearly 20,000 before the COVID-19 pandemic, now struggles to get more than 3,000 spectators. The flow of players to the…

For many, the enduring image of the United States hosting the FIFA World Cup in 1994 will be the Roberto Baggio penalty that sailed over the bar and into the Pasadena sky to end an ultimately disappointing final against Brazil. The tournament itself had been a calculated gamble: taking the world’s most popular sport to a nation where American Football, basketball, and baseball dominated both the sporting arenas and the cultural imagination. But the seeds sown that summer has since reshaped the sport’s status in the United States, changing it from a niche pastime into a rapidly expanding and passionately…

RevSportz Comment The venue may have changed, from the old WACA to the new Perth Stadium, but the most isolated city in the world remains the final frontier for Test batting. The WACA was notorious for its snaking cracks and trampoline bounce, and while the new venue rarely features cracks that a bicycle tyre could disappear into, the bounce remains a huge challenge for batters. But it’s also not an insurmountable challenge. The problem that we often see in the present day is a lack of comprehension. Too many teams and players have no clue what ‘intent’ means. More often…

RevSportz Comment Despite seeing an Erling Haaland penalty superbly saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili, Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game as a manager/coach ended in a resounding 3-0 victory over Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium. Jeremy Doku, whose quick feet had won the penalty, was the star of the show and he killed off any hopes of a Liverpool comeback with a stunning curled finish from outside the box in the 63rd minute. Liverpool, whose title defence is all but over following a fifth defeat in 11 games, will look back ruefully on a Virgil van Dijk header from a Mo Salah corner…