Author: WebDesk

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay “Mbapre”. Saw a tweet saying this a few days back during the course of the ongoing World Cup. This was actually the headline on the sports pages of a Chennai-based daily I used to work for. This was in 2018, after the France-Argentina last 16 match. Can’t stick my neck out and say that I liked it, because I am not in favour of mixing English with Hindi. But let me admit, it has some meaning. The phenomenon born in Bondi in France to parents of Cameroonian and Algerian lineage is becoming a terror for the oppositions, more…

Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goals is just one of many under threat from Kylian Mbappe. Not even 24, there are few limits to what he can go on to achieve. Just where does Kylian Mbappe sit in the pantheon of French goal-scorers? First, the disclaimer. Neither he nor anyone else will ever come close to matching Just Fontaine’s record of 13 goals from six matches at the 1958 World Cup. But that unreal strike-rate needs to be viewed in context, with 1958 being the last of the ‘open’ World Cups, before strategies based on sound defence…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay The highlight of Bangladesh’s ‘Mirpur Miracle’ was the 51-run last-wicket stand which carried them to an unlikely win. From the Indian point of view, the natural tendency would be to blame the bowlers. Nine wickets down, 50 more runs in the bank — nine out of 10 times bowling sides win such matches. India bowlers were on top, before they suddenly started appearing clueless. Once the dust settles, a few more factors should also come to the fore. This is a second-string Indian attack not high on experience. A few of them will be out once those recovering…

Has African football finally come of age?   More than four decades after Pele’s bold prediction, African teams have excelled at the 2022 World Cup. Though one of them may not win, big strides have been made under homegrown coaches. Pele may have been the greatest footballer that the World Cup has seen, but he was never a soothsayer. When it came to predictions, Paul the Octopus had considerably greater success. It was sometime in the late 1970s, not long after a Zaire team had been annihilated 9-0 by Yugoslavia at the 1974 World Cup, that he said an…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Three Asian teams in the World Cup pre-quarters and two from South America? Four Asian teams putting it across three World Cup winning nations and two Euro champions? Culmination of these scarcely believable eventualities is the maximum number of Asian teams in the knockouts of the FIFA World Cup ever. Japan, South Korea and Australia all had been there before. Australia made it to the round of 16 in 2006, Japan reached the same stage in 2002, 2010 and 2018, South Korea stunned the world by finishing fourth in 2002 when they were the co-hosts with Japan and…

 A stunning win for #KOR against #POR as they edged #URU on goals scored to seal their last 16 spot. Here’s our pick for the fittest athlete of the day

 Our special fan today might not be able to speak right now, but the million dollar smile and the energy makes our WoW Moment of the day!

 Dr. BenjaminLaker , Prof. Vijay Pareira and Boria Majumdar in the all important discussion of racial discrimination in big sporting events! The topic that needs to be addressed in today’s world! Share your thoughts

 Scenes from Team India’s first training session in Dhaka!

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Soon after Saurashtra completed a five-wicket win against Maharashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, a photograph started doing the rounds in social media. It showed the players posing with their wives, children and parents. Normally, trophy pictures do not feature them. It showed that the Saurashtra cricket team is a happy family, literally. Although Saurashtra had won this title in 2008, they did not quite become a force in domestic cricket. Barring three, they have not produced India players since. The transformation started becoming visible from the early parts of the previous decade. Ranji Trophy finalists four…