Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Joe Ganley, a Manchester United in-house reporter, wrote an excellent piece on Kobbie Mainoo on the club’s website. Therein, he mentioned the 19-year-old’s meteoric rise. “Just 1,799 people watched Kobbie Mainoo’s first competitive 90 minutes of 2023-24 in the flesh,” wrote Ganley. He was playing for United U-21s against Salford City at the latter’s Peninsula Stadium. The teams were vying for the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. On Sunday, Mainoo will play the Euro 2024 final at Olympiastadion Berlin, in front of 74,000 spectators. England manager Gareth Southgate has given the keys to his midfield to the teenager from Stockport and…

The game was meandering along, like a Test match usually does in the second session of the first day. It was a languid December afternoon in Kolkata and Sachin Tendulkar was batting on 76. The start was a tad nervy, but Tendulkar played himself in. James Anderson was bowling his third spell and running in from the Club House end at Eden Gardens. The first ball after the drinks break pitched on a length and shaped away, negating the fact that the shiny side was outside. Tendulkar was deceived. He came half-forward but could only manage a healthy edge behind…

Hang it in the Louvre – Suryakumar Yadav’s catch in the T20 World Cup final is resplendent in this tagline. It was arguably Indian cricket’s most important catch since Kapil Dev ran backwards from mid-wicket at Lord’s and grabbed the skier to dismiss Viv Richards on June 25, 1983. First the recap: The final over of the T20 World Cup started with South Africa needing 16 runs for victory. Hardik Pandya bowled a wide fulltoss and David Miller swatted it down the ground with enough power to clear the boundary. Surya hurtled down from wide long-off, clawed down the ball,…

“Happy birthday Sunil, my friend. I hope you will be fit forever,” said Zaheer Abbas. “Congratulations on reaching 75. Only 25 more to go. And god willing, you will complete that too,” said Asif Iqbal. Sunil Gavaskar turning 75 is an occasion for his friends from across the border as well, and the two former Pakistan greats offered their wishes, as they spoke to RevSportz. They recounted stories of their time, but more on that later. Gavaskar was India’s biggest sports star in the 1970s, by a country mile, and he was the first Indian cricketer who transcended geographic boundaries.…

Gautam Gambhir has been appointed as the Indian team head coach and will start working from India’s tour of Sri Lanka later this month. BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed the appointment via a post on his X (the erstwhile Twitter) handle on Tuesday. “It is with immense pleasure that I welcome Mr @GautamGambhir as the new Head Coach of the Indian Cricket Team,” wrote Shah. “Modern-day cricket has evolved rapidly, and Gautam has witnessed this changing landscape up close. Having endured the grind and excelled in various roles throughout his career, I am confident that Gautam is the ideal person…

My first visit to Ranchi was courtesy MS Dhoni, who (indirectly) invited me for the price of a couple of Shatabdi Express tickets — onward and return — to his house at MECON colony. It was December 2005 and the newspaper I was working for had assigned me to do a year-ender on Indian cricket’s new sensation. Ranchi was a cricketing backwater then and Dhoni’s rise was bringing the city to prominence. The sensational 123-ball 148 against Pakistan in Vizag, that announced his arrival, had happened a few months ago that year. It was Dhoni’s maiden international hundred and the…

Hello back-three, Gareth Southgate’s old friend, it has come to talk with him again… Will he get his waistcoat out also? No. A white t-shirt remains his sartorial choice. On a serious note, a back-three had indeed served the England manager well in the past. It was Southgate’s preferred choice at the 2018 World Cup, where his team reached the semi-finals. He stuck to it in the last edition of the Euros as well, until England’s defeat to Italy in the final. After the loss, Southgate ditched a back-three and shifted to 4-2-3-1. He is returning to his ‘old friend’…

For a change, madness was lovely. Indian fans can be a little too twee. But then, cricket is a religion in this country. The flight carrying the T20 World Cup-winning Indian team landed at the Mumbai airport to a water cannon salute. At Nariman Point, the starting point of the open-top bus parade, a sea of humanity greeted the players. The heavens opened, and from a normal perspective, standing behind the barricades soaked in the rain and without virtually any breathing space was borderline eejit. But the fans didn’t mind. They were experiencing history. By the time the bus parade…

Acerbic punditry has been part of English football. The late Brian Clough, the legendary former Nottingham Forest manager, was the master of it. The likes of Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer are continuing with it. Gareth Southgate, the England manager, is in the line of fire. Pundits, fans and a section of the British media seemingly want Southgate to channel his inner Rinus Michels and make England play like the Holland team of the 1974 World Cup or Tele Santana’s Brazil at the 1982 World Cup. Simple wins don’t satisfy them, notwithstanding the fact that England are in the quarter-finals…

It was the time for emotional outpouring. India won another T20 World Cup after a gap of 17 years and as the players and coaching staff were celebrating at Kensington Oval, Virat Kohli went into Rahul Dravid’s embrace and shed a tear. Not far from them, Hardik Pandya was talking to the host broadcaster and eulogising the head coach. The entire team then decided to toss Dravid in the air. Kohli and Rohit Sharma led the way. The great man was bidding farewell to the Indian cricket team with a world champion’s medal around his neck. His players wanted to…