Author: RevSportz Comment

RevSportz Comment It was Sky’s wall-to-wall coverage of English football, which started with the advent of the Premier League in 1992, that gave it access to unparalleled riches. One of the spin-offs of that infusion of wealth was the gradual dilution of coverage. Once, even the irreverent football-related material on TV was helmed by the greats of the game. For example, one of football’s most popular offerings in the 1980s features Saint and Greavsie. Ian St John had been part of Bill Shankly’s legendary Liverpool sides of the 1960s, while Jimmy Greaves was, quite simply, the best English forward of…

RevSportz Comment Matthew Engel edited The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 12 times between 1993 and 2007. “India has seized the control of cricket that until the 1990s resided in London,” he wrote in The Financial Times in 2015. “The old imperialist rulers had a feel for the game, a measure of integrity and insufferable arrogance. The new Indian masters have displayed the third attribute all right but not the other two.” It’s now decades since Lord’s was the seat of cricket power. You wouldn’t think it though if you saw the way some in their bacon-and-egg-coloured ties strut about. India, especially…

Sportspersons acting according to the dictates of their conscience is hardly something new. The last time Paris hosted the Summer Olympics before 2024 was exactly 100 years earlier. Back then, between the two World Wars, Scotland’s Eric Liddell was one of the most famous sprinters in the world. But in a movie that was subsequently portrayed – with much creative licence – in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, he refused to run in the 100m in Paris because the final was scheduled for a Sunday. Liddell, a devout Christian who died while working as a missionary in Japanese-occupied China towards…

On the field, it was business as usual. Under Todd Boehly’s ownership, Chelsea’s transfer policy has been a bit like a toddler urinating on a wall, and there was never a genuine possibility that a squad of expensively assembled misfits would take three points off the winning machine that is Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. Chelsea had their moments, as you will when you can buy players of such quality, but the discordant noises from Raheem Sterling’s camp after he was left out of the squad to play his former team are indicative of the challenge that Enzo Maresca faced…

Good luck, Los Angeles, you’ll certainly need it. While there may have been more than a quibble or two about certain organisational aspects at Paris 2024, events on track, in the pool, on turf, in the ring, on the mats and on the greens certainly lived up to blue-riband billing. The atmosphere inside the Stade de France and the Paris La Defense Arena for the swimming events had to be seen to be believed, and it was no coincidence that both venues had such a buzz because of the exploits of local heroes. For any Games to be truly memorable,…

There is a reason why there are weight classes in combat sports. For the most vivid example, look no further than the Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks heavyweight world title bout in June 1988. Spinks had fought his first 27 professional fights as a light heavyweight. The maximum weight allowed in that category is 79kg. By the time of the Tyson fight, he had bulked up to 96kg. He also had an 11cm height advantage. Tyson, then three days short of his 22nd birthday, was a human wrecking ball, 99kg of pure menace and muscle. The fight lasted 91 seconds. It was…

“My feeling is that Indian players are very comfortable. Life is very good for them in the ISL, and it is difficult for them to try and go abroad. You will grow when you play abroad. I am not speaking about the top level, Premier League or La Liga. But if you go abroad and play against opponents who are better than you, you will improve.” This is not just RevSportz’s view. These are the words of Manolo Marquez, the Spaniard who has taken over from Igor Stimac as coach of India’s men’s national football team. At 55, the Barcelona-born Marquez is…

For decades now, the Olympic fortnight has been the time when India’s athletes and those from sports other than cricket step out of a giant shadow. The headlines are then about Abhinav Bindra, PV Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra, rather than Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. But from Los Angeles 2028, even that ‘safe space’ free from cricket will be taken away. The jury will always be out on whether sports like football, cricket and golf should even be at the Olympics. By definition, an Olympic gold should be the pinnacle of your sport. It will never be that…

Graham Thorpe, the left-hand middle-order batsman who was one of the fulcrums of the England team in lean times, has passed away at the age of 55 after a long battle with illness. Thorpe played 100 Tests and 82 ODIs for England between 1993 and 2005, and was renowned as someone who could summon up his best in the toughest situations. Had English cricket not been so Ashes-centric, Thorpe might have been celebrated far more for his batsmanship. But because he played all his international cricket in an era where England were Ashes whipping boys, he never quite got the…

Kim Woo-jin is the world’s greatest men’s archer, and he has the medals to prove it. From Paris, he took home the individual, men’s team and mixed team gold medals. But that is merely one part of his story. Kim is now 32, an age when most archers start to fade. At his very peak, the Olympic gold proved elusive. That he came back to win it at the third time of asking speaks volumes of both his character and mental strength. In Rio, eight years ago, Kim smashed the world record in qualification. He hit a scarcely believable 52…