Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Shamik Chakrabarty A couple of days ago, Shubman Gill, while channelling his inner Sunny Deol, had asked Zak Crawley to grow a pair. The boot is on the other foot now. The England opener proved to be a violet that didn’t shrink. He was absolutely well within his rights to take his time to ensure his side didn’t face an extra over at the end of the third day. The India captain, on the other hand, turned out to be a shrinking violet in the face of England’s hostility. When Gill came out to bat in India’s second innings, on…

The second morning of the Lord’s Test belonged to Jasprit Bumrah. Bowling from the Nursery End, the fast bowler was breathing fire that burned down England’s batting royalty. Two incoming deliveries accounted for Ben Stokes and Joe Root, while Chris Woakes perished for a golden duck to an away-goer. At 271/7, the hosts were staring at a subpar first innings total, when the ball change happened. Just 46 deliveries into the day, with the second new ball only 10.3 overs old, Mohammed Siraj felt that the red Dukes had lost its shape. A brief chat with Akash Deep ensued before…

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Sanjog Gupta as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the global body informed via a press release. A senior figure in global media and entertainment, and sports ecosystems, Gupta will assume office on July 7, 2025, becoming the seventh CEO of the ICC. The position fell vacant following Geoff Allardice’s resignation in January. Gupta currently serves as CEO – Sports & Live Experiences at JioStar and brings with him over two decades of cross-functional experience and proven expertise in building successful consumer franchises, and is widely regarded as one of the architects of the…

The Indian government has cleared the Pakistan hockey team’s participation in the upcoming Asia Cup and FIH men’s Junior World Cup, Hockey India sources have confirmed to RevSportz. While the Asia Cup will be played in Rajgir, Bihar, from August 27 to September 7, the 14th edition of the Junior World Cup (U-21) will be held in Chennai and Madurai from November 28 to December 10. This follows a letter from Hockey India to the Indian government about a month-and-a-half ago, stating that denial of visas for the Pakistani players for these two tournaments might go against the international norms…

The final day of the Headingley Test offered a throwback to the 1987 World Cup semi-final between India and England at Wankhede. It was a game where Graham Gooch had swept India out of the tournament, scoring a match-winning 115. Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri were at the receiving end of his ‘broomstick’ aggression that worked wonderfully well for England. Thirty-eight years down the line, Ben Duckett was doing it in reverse — reverse-sweep to be precise — on a Day 5 pitch against Ravindra Jadeja. A stat put out by ESPNcricinfo reveals that England batters played 39 reverse-sweeps against…

Many moons ago, a callow Chetan Sharma on his first tour of Pakistan, was intercepted by his captain, Sunil Gavaskar, at the dressing room entrance after he got out playing a poor shot. Not that it impacted the game much, but Gavaskar was livid. “Young man,” said the great man in a hushed tone. “If you repeat this, rest assured you would never play for India again.” Sharma was a tail-ender and his primary remit was to share the new ball with Kapil Dev. But Gavaskar reminded him in no uncertain terms that when he was going out to bat,…

“Perhaps this time they will win,” said Dilip Vengsarkar, oozing optimism. “There’s always a first.” Over the phone, we were conversing about India’s poor record at Edgbaston, the venue for the second Test of the ongoing series. It was Thursday evening, and the news of Jasprit Bumrah likely opting out of the game still didn’t reach Vengsarkar. “Why, what happened,” he asked. That it’s not down to any injury and totally about managing the workload of the fast bowler elicited a sharp response from the former India captain. “Aare baap re (oh my God)!” he exclaimed. Even with Bumrah, India…

Shamik Chakrabarty First up, some hard numbers… Since October 2024, India have played nine Tests, losing seven. In any sport, this is a sackable offence as regards the head coach. In football, the coach would have been sacked in the morning. At Headingley, India became the first team to lose a Test despite five individual hundreds. They scored 835 runs over two innings and, yet, lost the game by five wickets. After the defeat, some pundits spoke about how the tourists were tactically outsmarted by England. To put things in perspective though, playing against a side that had one-and-a-half bowlers…

Shubman Gill carried himself well after the loss in Leeds, as he spoke to Mike Atherton at the post-match presentation. “Dropped catches, lower-order not contributing cost us,” India’s new Test captain was matter-of-factly. Gill is a very good batsman and led from the front with a brilliant hundred in the first innings. He has a charming personality and speaks very good English. He ticks almost all the boxes to be the next pin-up boy in Indian cricket. Gill is a greenhorn as a captain and he was never going to throw his teammates under the bus in his first post-match…

Shamik Chakrabarty On June 14, when the Club World Cup kicked off in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, must have felt American. This billion-dollar tournament (read, football pageant), staged across 11 cities in the United States, is his baby. So much so that his name is etched twice on the trophy that would be lifted by the winners on July 13. Commerce aside, this is Infantino and Fifa’s vanity project. On Sunday, Bayern Munich played against Auckland City, a team of semi-professional footballers, and won 10-0. Across the pond on the same day, England and a…