Author: RevSportz Comment

Even if the International Olympic Committee hadn’t named him Athlete of the Century in 1999, Pele’s status as one of the greatest of all sportspersons would have been unchallenged. Integral to two of the greatest teams of all time, his influence extended far beyond the playing field. If you happened to be in some remote corner of the world, and you mentioned the name “Edson Arantes do Nascimento”, the chances were that you would be greeted with blank stares in return. Instead, if you used the nickname that the same man was popularly known by, Pelé, those same stares would…

Though David Warner is nearly seven years older, it was Pat Cummins that made his Test debut a fortnight before his fellow Sydneysider. In the 12 years since, the two have played 46 Tests, 73 ODIs and 36 T20Is together. There isn’t a trophy worth winning that they haven’t lifted together. It’s safe to say that they know each other pretty well. Players that share a dressing room talk. They share their experiences, and their impressions of what’s going on around them. That way, the dressing room is no different from any other workspace. Just as a group of techies…

RevSportz Comment Earlier this year, Real Madrid signed Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of £88m. With add-ons based on the player’s performance, Dortmund could eventually make as much as £114m from the deal. At the time, some thought it was a lot of money to invest in someone who was just about to turn 20. But Real knew what they were doing. With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the last lap of their careers, and Kylian Mbappe seemingly unsure of whether he values on-field honours or off-field rewards more, Bellingham is football’s future. A return of…

Caption: Usman Khawaja has been in the eye of a storm over his views on Palestine. (Source X) At the pre-match press conference ahead of the Perth Test against Pakistan, Pat Cummins, Australia’s captain, left little room for doubt as to where his sympathies lay. “I think it is one of our strongest points as a team that everyone has their own passionate views and individual thoughts,” he said. “I chatted to Uzzy briefly about it today, and yeah, I don’t think his intention is to make too much of a fuss, but we support him. “[The ICC] drew attention…

RevSportz Comment As Manchester United sink deeper and deeper into the quicksand of mediocrity, the temptation to look at the past with rose-tinted glasses becomes overwhelming. But Erik ten Hag, who walked onto the Old Trafford pitch at the final whistle on Tuesday night with all the enthusiasm of a man approaching the electric chair, is not the first manager to lead the club through such a dismal European campaign. Back in 2005-06, as he was approaching two decades in charge of the club, Sir Alex Ferguson saw his team finish rock-bottom of a group that included Villarreal (Spain), Benfica…

For the first three seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi was a ubiquitous presence, usually in a beige or cream linen suit. His relentlessly upbeat demeanour and bombastic statements ensured that the IPL stayed in the limelight even out of season. It was no surprise then that a sizeable media contingent journeyed to Goa in early February 2009, for the second IPL auction. After the mega auction in 2008, most squads were pretty full with players on three-years deals, but some high-profile names had made themselves available for a season that would eventually end up being played…

It wasn’t something you could make up. As Sreesanth started to establish himself in India’s Test line-up in 2006, dismissing the likes of Brian Lara, Greg Chappell, then coach, had a small routine. Before most sessions that India were in the field, Chappell would take Sreesanth to one side and ask him: “So, are you going to be good Sree or bad Sree?” No, this is not the script of Kindergarten Cop. It actually used to happen. Sreesanth would usually reply that he would be good Sree. Then, Chappell would ask: “What does good Sree do?” Sreesanth would then tell…

RevSportz Comment No team sport lends itself to number-crunching and obsession with individuals quite like cricket. If you look at Virat Kohli’s figures for 2023, as an example, they are stellar. After close to three years where very few breaks went his way, 2023 was Kohli’s time to remind those watching that his race is far from run. But then, the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval in June and the World Cup final in Ahmedabad offered brutal reminders that a sportsperson’s time at the top is finite, and that the door is nearly closed on Kohli’s hopes…

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…