Author: RevSportz Comment

When the English Premier League (EPL) was launched amid much fanfare in the spring of 1992, it had been a quarter century since Manchester City had won the title. In that time, they had only once finished in the Top 3. The riches that came with the spread of satellite television didn’t much change their fortunes either. By the time the Abu Dhabi United Group completed their takeover on September 1, 2008 – for a rumoured £200 million – City had been relegated twice from the EPL, and even spent a season in the third tier of English football. What…

According to Justin Langer, the coach of Lucknow Super Giants, his first reaction on seeing the animated post-match conversation between KL Rahul, his captain, and Sanjiv Goenka, the team owner, was complete surprise. “It was incredible,” he said in an exclusive interview with RevSportz. “I’ve thought about this a lot over the last four days. I’ve had four surprises in my life. And they were the sexes (genders) of my daughters when they were born. They kept coming out… ‘It’s a girl’, ‘it’s a girl’, ‘it’s a girl’…Four girls, but we didn’t know leading up, so it was a great…

“I’m going to miss walking out for England so much,” said Jimmy Anderson’s statement after he had announced his plan to retire from international cricket later this summer. “But I know the time is right to step aside and let others realise their dreams just like I got to, because there is no greater feeling.” The celebratory mood would have been soured somewhat by his beloved Burnley’s relegation from the English Premier League later on Saturday, but there’s little doubt that Anderson can now look back on a career quite unlike most others. Pace bowling has always been a young…

With TV channels, newspapers and social media debating the fallout of the Sanjiv Goenka-KL Rahul conversation at the end of an IPL match in Hyderabad, RevSportz looks back at three other occasions when the IPL was in the news for non-cricket reasons. IPL’s Moses banished into the wilderness In the days leading up to the Indian Premier League (IPL) final at the DY Patil Stadium in April 2010, India’s English-speaking sports audience had begun to familiarise itself with phrases like ‘sweat equity’ and ‘shell corporations’, which usually belonged on the pages of financial newspapers. But ever since two new franchises…

Jose Mourinho’s speech about ‘football heritage’ has been watched by millions. And having spent three tumultuous years at the Santiago Bernabeu (2010-13), he knows better than anyone that Real are football’s ultimate aristocrats. Over the past decade, they have also become football’s great escape artists, conjuring up victories from almost-certain defeats. When Carlo Ancelotti coached them to the Decima (10th Champions League title) in 2013-14, Atletico, their bitter cross-town rivals, led 1-0 till deep into injury time. The goal that Sergio Ramos subsequently scored was then inked into his skin with a ’92:48’ tattoo. A deflated Atleti collapsed, and Real…

There was no running away from the starkness of the images. An India player, a bonafide star with hundreds in all three formats, and his team owner engaged in animated discussion after a humiliating defeat. Sanjiv Goenka, usually a smiling presence in the owners’ box, and KL Rahul, his franchise captain, face to face on the outfield. Except for the two individuals, no one knows what was said. Were they agreeing to disagree? Was it a dressing down? There are only plumes of smoke, with no one really sure what lit the fire. The morning after, all the sympathy is,…

Cast your mind back to the last football World Cup, held in Qatar in 2022. For the round-of-16 clash against Switzerland, Fernando Santos monopolised the attention of football fans worldwide by dropping Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal’s starting XI. Given Ronaldo’s global fan base — he currently has 629 million followers on Instagram alone, nearly a tenth of the world’s population — it was one heck of a gamble to take. But Santos came out of it smelling of roses, lilies and every other flower under the sun. By the time CR7, as he’s known in near-Star Wars speak, entered the…

Every time a young gun flexes his muscles and starts raining down sixes in the Indian Premier League (IPL), it isn’t uncommon for old fogies to say: “Wait till he plays on a track with pace and bounce, where the ball nips around.” This kind of comment doesn’t necessarily stem from jealousy or resentment. It’s a simple reminder that sporting greatness has to be earned. In Formula 1, the litmus test – the equivalent of a fast pitch with extravagant seam movement, or a raging turner – is quite simple. How do you handle your car in the wet? To…

For the new generation of Indian cricket-watchers, Ajit Agarkar is the rather youthful-looking chairman of selectors. Few among them would be aware of the excitement there was around his bowling when he first emerged as an India prospect a little over a quarter-century ago. Viewed in isolation, his ODI numbers – 288 wickets at an average of 27.85 and strike-rate of 32.9 – are those of an all-time great, though few ever considered him one. That strike-rate (number of balls needed to take a wicket), in particular, is appreciably better than those of Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, the only…

Even as the debates rage over his suitability for new-age T20 cricket, Virat Kohli went past 500 runs in an IPL season for the tenth time. He’s done so in just 10 innings, while striking at 147.49, faster than he has ever scored except for that incredible 2016 season when he piled up 973 runs. As ever, Kohli does what he does best, seemingly immune to the outside noise. Here, we try and understand what’s at the heart of the intense hatred he’s often subjected to on social media. World Cup final, 2011: Lasith Malinga has taken out both Virender…