Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Outside the Salt Lake Stadium, Mohun Bagan flags were sold at Rs 70 each. A bit of haggling and the price came down to Rs 50. Head bands were Rs 20 each and face-paint artists were ubiquitous. The mercury touched 39 degrees Celsius in Kolkata on Monday. And although it was an evening game, the humidity was unbearable. Die-hard Mohun Bagan supporters didn’t mind. They thronged the stadium to be part of history. Inside the stadium, there were tifos. The fans beat drums and burst crackers. And as Antonio Lopez Habas emerged from the tunnel, they greeted him with a…

After losing to Chennaiyin FC, Mohun Bagan’s chances of winning the ISL League Winners Shield were seriously jeopardised. That was when Subhasish Bose made a promise to the fans: “We will win the next three games and bring the Shield to Kolkata.” On Monday, in front of 61,000 fans at Salt Lake Stadium, Bagan beat Mumbai City FC 2-1 to clinch the Shield. The Bagan captain has kept his promise. No wonder, Subhasish was happy after the game, as he spoke to reporters. “After losing to Chennaiyin, we took every match as knockouts like quarter-final, semi-final and final. So, very…

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it was the best of moments, it was the worst of times. Shamar Joseph, the man from Baracara, a village in Guyana that had no Internet until 2018, was taking the plunge in the glitzy world of the Indian Premier League (IPL). No wonder that to start with, he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Joseph looked shy, almost apologetic, when he was handed over the Lucknow Super Giants cap before the start of the game against Kolkata Knight Riders at the storied Eden Gardens. The 24-year-old West Indies fast bowler went unsold at…

Can a backroom staff change a team’s fortunes on the field? The question has to be asked. The IPL franchises value backroom appointments. They carefully choose their mentors. Of course, a mentor’s role is limited, but in terms of creating the right dressing room atmosphere, his contribution can be pivotal. Circa 2023 was a season of ferment for Kolkata Knight Riders. They failed to reach the playoffs and behind the scenes also, all was not quite well. They appointed Chandrakant Pandit as the head coach and his ‘tough love’ approach wasn’t going down well with a number of players. Namibia…

Lucknow Super Giants’ total of 161-7 was below par. Kolkata Knight Riders went on the attack mode right from the outset in their chase. LSG bowled too many boundary balls and their fielding was sloppy. The result was a resounding KKR win by eight wickets with 26 balls to spare (162/2 in 15.4 overs). For the first time in the IPL, KKR beat LSG. This is how things transpired at Eden Gardens… Moderate powerplay for LSG Quinton de Kock took back-to-back fours off Mitchell Starc in the first two balls of the match. Vaibhav Arora started off with a wide…

“KL Rahul is stretching himself,” said an IPL insider. A player is the best judge of his body and only Rahul knows if he is pushing the envelope, after coming back from an injury lay-off. The Lucknow Super Giants captain recovered from a quad injury before the IPL and got the go-ahead from the National Cricket Academy, reportedly with a rider that he shouldn’t be ’keeping in the first few matches. Rahul, however, has been playing as a wicketkeeper-batter right from the first game. With the T20 World Cup round the corner, he couldn’t be blamed, even if he is…

Virat Kohli’s strike-rate in the ongoing IPL 2024 continues to divide opinion. Anything about Kohli accounts for significant web spaces and column inches, and his selection for the ICC T20 World Cup based on his strike-rate makes the conversation tasty. The majority of the Team India regulars haven’t yet hit their straps with the first quarter of the tournament done. But the Kohli debate seems to have overshadowed it. RevSportz takes a look at how the other India stars have been doing, and their respective performance ratings. Rohit Sharma: A tally of 156 runs from five matches has been a…

The late, great PK Banerjee had narrated the story to this correspondent. After returning from the 1962 Asian Games, the gold medal-winning Indian football team was invited to the IFA office in Calcutta where Atulya Ghosh, a powerful Congress leader in the 1960s, welcomed them. The players received a pat on the back, tea and biscuits were served, and that was that. No player had the ‘temerity’ to ask for cash rewards, for that would have been construed as indiscipline. As Banerjee had said, they never thought about cash rewards even. “We played for the Tricolour.” In 1962, only after…

Mohammad Amir is a prisoner of his misdeed. He will remain a victim of perception. No wonder then, that his recall to the Pakistan team has divided opinion. Two former skippers, talking to RevSportz, welcomed the development though. Only about a fortnight ago, Amir announced his decision to come out of retirement after a patch-up with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). On Tuesday, he was included in the 17-member squad for the upcoming home T20I series against New Zealand. Only about a year ago, he was talking about playing in the IPL, after acquiring a British passport. A year down…

Early into his game against Vidit Gujrathi, R Praggnanandhaa moved his pawn to f5 square. The chess world sat up to take note. The move was not quite as astounding as Bobby Fischer’s ‘Pawn Sacrifice’, but the variant of the Ruy Lopez that Pragg played was rare enough even for the engine to call it an inaccuracy. The move sowed the seeds of Pragg’s win against Vidit and far afield in England, while recovering from a wrist fracture, British grandmaster Nigel Short, too, was equally startled. In an interview with RevSportz, Short spoke about the move and gave his overall…