Author: RevSportz Comment

When you think of sporting celebrations, you invariably conjure up floodlights, a big stage, a trophy and maybe even fireworks in the night sky. What you probably don’t imagine are little jigs of delight in the harsh mid-morning sun. But on December 6, 2009, that’s what India’s Test cricketers had to settle for after an innings-and-24-run victory over Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium took them to the top of the rankings for the first time. It was the culmination of a decade of steady progress, the story of a team that had slowly risen from the ashes of a…

RevSportz Comment Last week, Tiger Woods shot rounds of 75, 70, 71 and 72 to finish 18th in the Hero World Challenge, an event that he has hosted for over two decades. The score was immaterial. For Tiger, who turns 48 on December 30, what mattered was competing a tournament after his return from ankle-fusion surgery. At around the same time, Rafael Nadal announced that he would play in Brisbane in early January, as a precursor to tilt at a third Australian Open title. For his legions of fans, it was welcome news after he limped away from Melbourne after…

RevSportz Comment Even now, nearly a quarter-century later, it remains a benchmark in sports advertising. In the run-up to Euro 2000, Adidas, the sporting goods manufacturer, ran a black-and-white ad featuring a picture of a run-down apartment block. There were no players in the frame, no footballs, and the tagline was a stark: We All Come from Somewhere. The photograph used was taken in the Marseille neighbourhood of Le Castellane, a council estate built for refugees of the Algerian War. It was where Zinedine Zidane, hero of France’s 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 triumphs, grew up. When we watch…

RevSportz Comment Less than a fortnight after the heartbreak of the World Cup final in Ahmedabad, what conclusions are we to draw from the squads India have chosen for the tour of South Africa? Do they reflect long-term planning or short-term reality, or a mix of both? Does the absence of both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the T20I squad mean neither is part of the plan for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean in June 2024? And is it now time to draw a line under the distinguished Test careers of Cheteshwar Pujara and…

“There are two teams out there; one is trying to play cricket and the other is not.” Those words, uttered by Bill Woodfull, Australia’s captain, to Pelham Warner, England’s manager, during the Bodyline series over 90 years ago are an integral part of cricket lore. Watching the third T20I between India and Australia in Guwahati on Tuesday night, one was reminded of those famous words. Only, in this case, neither team was playing cricket. What we saw instead was some bat-ball sport on speed or steroids which bore little resemblance to the game that most of us fell in love…

Exactly 30 years ago to the day, India won the Hero Cup against West Indies at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Vinod Kambli’s patient 68 led the way with the bat, while Anil Kumble (6-12) and Kapil Dev (2-18) were the wreckers with the ball. The identity of those wicket-takers is especially important given the tug-of-war we just saw played out between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians for the services of Hardik Pandya. Injured at a critical juncture of the World Cup – is there an Indian fan alive who doesn’t imagine a what-if where he and not Suryakumar Yadav had…

If ever an incident highlighted Marlon Samuels’ approach to cricket and life, it came during Brian Lara’s last game for West Indies – at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in April 2007. West Indies’s chances of qualifying for the semi-final had long since disappeared, and the fans had flocked to the venue only to say goodbye to Lara, whose individual brilliance had often been the only consolation in a decade of steep decline. He had already struck three fours, including a trademark flourish square of the wicket off Andrew Flintoff, to race to 18 off 17 balls. Then, with…

RevSportz Comment Every self-anointed new-age guru, especially those that love to spew nonsense on social and professional platforms, is familiar with the words. They wouldn’t be able to tell you a thing about Vince Lombardi or his incredible achievement of making the small town of Green Bay the centre of the American Football universe, but the PowerPoint presentations and motivational speeches will constantly reference what Lombardi said more than half a century ago – “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Here’s what we need to understand. Lombardi, like Bill Shankly, the other coaching visionary of that age, said a…

At one point, with the match in its closing stages and Qatar certain to take home the three points, Akram Afif had the ball on the left, deep in his own half. He nonchalantly pinged a diagonal ball 60 yards upfield. Fortunately for India, it was marginally overhit and Amrinder Singh in the India goal was able to avert danger before a Qatari player chased it down. But that little passage of play illustrated just how much of a chasm still exists between India and the best teams on the continent. Remember too that Asia’s finest are now among the…

As the dates on the calendar ticked over, from October to November, India’s momentum seemed inexorable. The towelling of South Africa at Eden Gardens was intimidating, reminiscent of Muhammad Ali toying with a succession of highly rated heavyweights in his mid-1960s prime. New Zealand gave it a proper go in the semi-final, but in the end, it was always going to come down to the ultimate test in cricket – a knockout game against Australia. Other teams have cut a swathe through previous World Cups, just as India did in 2023. But even in those tournaments, Australia found a way…