Author: RevSportz Comment

RevSportz Comment On Tuesday, there was a news item on the BBC Sport website with the headline: Chelsea condemn homophobic abuse of Kerr and Mewis. It was in reference to an Instagram post put out by Sam Kerr, star Chelsea and Australia footballer, announcing that she and her partner, Kristie Mewis, were expecting their first child. Now, here’s the thing. If you go to Kerr’s Instagram page — she has over 1.7 million followers — you’ll find that the vast majority of comments below the post are congratulatory in nature, wishing the couple all the very best. Yes, there are…

RevSportz Comment Team Long before the mega auction, this was a team in urgent need of a reset. Last season’s rock-bottom finish, amid the Hardik Pandya captaincy fiasco, made it a second stinker in four years after their last title. Even the 2021 and 2023 seasons were modest by the standards they have set themselves. By opting to retain four players – Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav – who are well into their 30s, and bringing back Mahela Jayawardene as coach, Mumbai have chosen a back-to-the-future philosophy. Tilak Varma is the only young gun in the ranks.…

RevSportz Comment More than nostalgia, sadness or pride, the prevalent emotion on the eve of Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test was anger. For the vast multitudes that had followed his every step for nearly a quarter-century, a ticket to witness the spectacle was as unlikely as a flight to the moon. Only a paltry 3500 tickets had been made available to the general public, and the website tasked with selling them online kept crashing. In aerial shots, and even from up close, the Wankhede Stadium can be an imposing edifice. But it seated only 32,000. Even a stadium 30 times that…

Before the landmark series victory in Australia in 2018-19, India’s travels Down Under were usually stories of misadventure. Most of the batters would struggle with the steepling bounce at venues like Perth, while there was never a pace pack potent enough to challenge the hosts. There were one-off highlights, like Kapil Dev’s 5-43 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), while hobbling with a hamstring injury, and Ajit Agarkar’s bolt-from-the-blue 6-41 against Steve Waugh’s side in Adelaide (2003). But more often than not, India’s frontline pacers would make a mark before the inadequate back-up released the pressure valve. The nadir was…

RevSportz Comment You can always tell when the batting torch has been passed on from the reaction of the crowd. And even as wickets kept tumbling on the third morning at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the buzz in the stands refused to die down. That was because Rishabh Pant was out there for most of the session, doing scarcely believable things like reverse-sweeping out of the rough. India were never favourites to win, especially after slumping to 29-5, but Pant’s presence at the crease gave the assembled throng hope. It was only when he was controversially ruled out that…

RevSportz Comment Ageing is an unforgiving process, and more so for sportspersons. At the sand trickles to the bottom of the timer, what once came easily and naturally becomes a struggle. And it doesn’t matter how great you’ve been, Father Time spares no one. The two senior statesmen of India’s Test batting line-up are now facing up to that brutal reality. A few days after he turned 31, Virat Kohli scored his 27th Test century, in just his 84th Test. By a strange twist of fate, Kohli had exactly as many hundreds in 141 innings as Sachin Tendulkar, whom he…

RevSportz Comment At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was the English Premier League table, rather than the UEFA Champions League one. Aston Villa and Liverpool are the only teams with 100 per cent records, while Manchester City in third and Arsenal in ninth have yet to concede a goal in the competition. In a week when Germany’s finest were tormented by the might of Spain’s armada, there was also an eye-catching Europa League tie that saw Jose Mourinho sent off against Manchester United, with whom he had won the competition in 2016-17. The managerial star…

Long before Kagiso Rabada had even played for South Africa, Makhaya Ntini retired with more than 650 international wickets to his name – 390 of them in Tests. Why, then, is Rabada reaching 300 in Dhaka against Bangladesh considered such a significant milestone? Is it just his stellar, matchless, numbers, or are there deeper, underlying social reasons? The figures alone are eye-popping. It took Rabada just 11,817 balls to get to the landmark. Waqar Younis, the next-quickest, needed 12,602. His strike-rate of 39.2 is comfortably the best of anyone in the 300-club, clear of titans like Malcolm Marshall, Waqar and…

It is especially sobering to write about sportspersons and mental health just over two months after Graham Thorpe, England cricket stalwart of yesteryear, took his own life. Sadly, Thorpe is far from being an exception. Cricket, with its tours that can last months and a lifestyle that means you’re hardly ever home, poses a huge mental-health challenge for those that play it. Even after the gladiatorial days are done, many struggle to fill the void, with substance abuse and other poor choices taking the place of the cheers of adoring audiences. This is no 21st century phenomenon either. More than…

Manchester United’s heavy hitters met on Tuesday in London, but there was no communication afterwards as to the fate of Eric ten Hag, the club’s under-fire manager. United went into the second international break of the season in 14th place, already six points adrift of the fourth spot that guarantees Champions League football. The meeting, at the Knightsbridge offices of Ineos – the minority owners tasked with football decisions – featured Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Omar Berrida, the CEO and the sporting-and-technical-director duo of Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox. With United not playing for another 10 days, ten Hag could yet…