Author: RevSportz Comment

Across more than 90 years of Test cricket, 23 Indian bowlers have taken at least 100 Test wickets. Of those, five have been off-spinners, but it’s safe to say that Ravichandran Ashwin and his methods are worlds apart from his predecessors. Two of them, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivasan Venkataraghavan, were part of the legendary quartet of the 1960s and ’70s, while Harbhajan Singh was the man whose match-winning boots Ashwin had the task of slipping into. As for Shivlal Yadav, he was one of the luckless few who had to succeed in what is still considered the golden generation of…

The summer of 2009 was a traumatic one for Manchester United. After a 2-0 loss to Barcelona and Pep Guardiola in the Champions League final, Cristiano Ronaldo decamped to Real Madrid. Yet, it wasn’t all doom and gloom at Carrington. Despite accusations of unethical behaviour from Le Havre, United managed to entice the 16-year-old Paul Pogba to Old Trafford. Even the jaded veterans who had watched Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry years earlier were calling Pogba, who has roots in Guinea, a generational talent. And after the Class of ’92 and the progress made by Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney under…

The interview itself is more than 21 years old. The incidents it spoke of go back more than three decades, to a time before satellite television, Super Sundays and million-dollar pay cheques. But the lessons it has for young sportspersons are eternal. “For some people it happens too early,” Lee Sharpe told The Guardian. “But as much as people were saying, ‘Oh yeah you can do all this when you retire’, well you can’t. You can’t do things you want to do at 19 when you’re 35. I’ll more than likely be married with kids at 35. I suppose I…

Test cricket is usually a game for wise, old heads and experienced hands. In tricky conditions, as the two teams encountered in Ranchi, your temperament is tested every bit as much as skill. And that’s where there’s often no substitute for experience. England’s top six had two men – Joe Root and Ben Stokes – with over 100 caps. Jonny Bairstow will get to that milestone next week in Dharamsala. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope have played more than 40 matches. Even Ben Duckett, the only one with less than 20 games on his resume, had played Tests in India…

For West Germany, Italia ’90 was an epochal tournament in more ways than one. The Berlin Wall had fallen months earlier, and unification was on the cards. Stars from the East like Matthias Sammer would soon be part of the national side, and there was pressure on Franz Beckenbauer to replicate his legendary feats as a player from the touchline. Andreas Brehme was one of the stalwarts of the squad, having won over 50 caps since his debut in 1984. It was his left-footed piledriver from the right side of the penalty box that Joel Bats fumbled into his own…

Why does so much hatred find its way towards Shubman Gill? Is it a function of too much (nearly) free Internet and too many morons? Is it jealousy and resentment of a good-looking and talented young man? Or is it merely a toxic fan culture where understanding of the cricket has taken a distant back seat to personality cults? But for the unfortunate and unnecessary run-out, this should have been Gill’s fourth Test century in 23 Tests. His high failure rate has become a stick to beat him with. For a top-order player, an average of 32.30 simply isn’t good…

When Rohit Sharma walked out to mark his guard in a Test match for the first time – November 7, 2013, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata – India were in a spot of bother at 82-4, in response to a modest West Indies total of 234. When Virat Kohli fell 11 balls later, it was 83-5. But with MS Dhoni (42) and R Ashwin (124) for company, Rohit stroked his way to a magnificent 177, as India ultimately won Sachin Tendulkar’s penultimate Test by an innings. That too was a new-look line-up. Shikhar Dhawan was playing his second Test.…

Two World Cup finals, just over 40 years apart. Two sensational catches. How different would Indian cricket’s history book read if they hadn’t been taken? Would the sport be the national obsession that it is now, and would those that play it be comparable to the biggest sporting icons worldwide? Imagine this. Kapil Dev has stationed himself at mid-off, in order to be closer to the bowler. When Viv Richards pulls a short ball from Madan Lal, Indian spectators in the stands at Lord’s rise in anticipation of a catch. But though the fielder at midwicket puts in a valiant…

Sebastian Haller had just sealed the most important move of his career, from Ajax to Borussia Dortmund, when he was diagnosed with a malignant testicular tumour. Scorer of 13 goals for the French U-21s, he had made his senior debut for Ivory Coast – his mother’s country – just 18 months earlier, as they sought to rebuild after the Didier Drogba years. At 28, Haller should have been enjoying his prime years. Instead, he had to go under the knife twice and withstand four cycles of chemotherapy. But by January 2023, he was back playing again, and on February 4,…

It’s hard to believe that many thought there were winds of change sweeping across Indian football just over seven months ago. The national team was on an upward trajectory, and there was genuine hope that better days lay ahead. Since then, we’ve seen the Asian Games team selection fiasco and an Asian Cup campaign that was embarrassingly toothless. The can is open and there seems to be no end to the number of worms crawling out. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) president is apparently not on talking terms with the national coach. The governing body’s legal head claims he…