All posts tagged: Long read

Why left-arm spin is the biggest epidemic to strike Indian batsmen since 2020? | Cricket News

Why left-arm spin is the biggest epidemic to strike Indian batsmen since 2020? | Cricket News

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There are several points from where India can begin the forensics of a momentous home Test series defeat to New Zealand. But more instantly, they will confront their superior tormentor – batting against spin – again on a red-soil strip at the Wankhede Stadium. Even the impulsively optimistic fan will have reservations about this riposte from the shaken hosts. Without overreacting, as Rohit Sharma would want, the faithful will believe the team management has tacitly begun to examine the feet of their premier right-hand batters against spin, particularly the left-arm clan. Captain Rohit and his predecessor, Virat Kohli, have endured similar career graphs against left-arm orthodox spinners, embedding crests and troughs of identical amplitudes. The tribe hardly ruffled Kohli and Rohit in the pre-World Test Championship era. However, the capricious downfall since 2020 has regressed their effectiveness on turners and even moderately placid home pitches across three WTC cycles in the last four years. Whatever bug hit the duo before the post-COVID red-ball return caught up with the other Indian batters too, including the younger crop. Overall …

Massimo Costantini, the monkish Italian choosing to coach Indians over running a cocktail bar at his Italian port home-town | Sport-others News

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His thick-rimmed glasses have become his trademark look. He’s fair-skinned, short-statured, and has thinning, curly hair, usually grey or white. We’re not talking about the legendary American director Woody Allen, though you’d be forgiven for mistaking Indian table tennis national coach Massimo Costantini for the director of ‘Match Point’ and other great blockbusters. In a way, Costantini, who hails from a small Italian port city Senigallia, is director-esque too. But rather than stand behind a camera, he prefers to stand behind a table, with a TT paddle in hand. Right now, he’s directing his Season 3 of Indian table tennis, the most crucial season that could change the future of the sport in the country. And he’s doing it with calmness but firmness, friendliness but staunch professionalism. India’s Table Tennis coach Massimo Costantini The globe-trotting 66-year-old has enjoyed a fascinating coaching career which has seen him guide his home country Italy besides UAE, and even the USA. He’s won the ITTF Coach of the Year award and is inducted into the California Table Tennis Hall …

Parents on the perimeter: Why young women shooters need their fathers and mothers at the pressure-soaked Olympic trials | Sport-others News

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It’s almost 40 degrees but feels a lot higher. The sun is harsh; the breeze, hotter. Stand for a couple of minutes and you are reminded of that old animated ad where the sun sucks energy out of you with a straw. In this oven, Sumedha Bhaker is sitting on a roofless bench in the central lawns of Bhopal’s shooting range. She sits and endures, the light brown sunglasses her only protection. Fifteen or so minutes later, she gets up in a huff and walks towards the 10m qualification hall. She reaches for the door but steps back, leans on the railing and begins typing furiously on her phone. Overcome by anxiety of a nervous parent, Sumedha can’t muster the courage to go inside, where the mercury is rising too. India’s top five pistol shooters are having a proper go at each other. Their three-year-long Road to Paris has come down to a series of tense and intense selection trials. Only two of them will get on the plane to Paris. The difference between competing …

Scowling, banging pieces, wild expressions: In chess, being stoic is art form but emotional players add to its theatre | Chess News

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As a dense fog of complexity envelops the board during the Candidates game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura, the faces of the two men in charge of marshalling the 24 wooden pieces betray their inner thoughts. Here’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, planting his palm on the side of his face, seemingly struck by how he’s allowed the game to get so complicated. He mutters to himself. Scowls at his pieces. He wears the desperation of a man sitting on a ticking explosive trying to guess which wire to disconnect. He looks skywards, as if beseeching Caissa, the goddess of chess, for inspiration. He plants both palms on his temple as if trying to block his thoughts from leaking out. He lowers his head to stare at the board from a different angle, hoping for a fresh perspective. Now, he buries his head into his folded arms, seemingly taking a nap. And then, it’s the turn of his opponent, Hikaru Nakamura, to put on a performance. He’s spent just five minutes blitzing his first 22 moves while …

Big interview: Kuldeep Yadav on art of wrist spin, technical changes post-injury, Rohit Sharma as captain and bowling with MS Dhoni behind stumps | Cricket News

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With 19 wickets in four matches, Kuldeep Yadav had an influential role in India winning the recently-concluded five-Test series against England. In an interview with The Indian Express, the left-arm unorthodox spinner explains his art, talks about his return to the Test side after over a year, the changes made to his technique after an injury and Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Devendra Pandey: At Visakhapatnam, you were playing a Test match after over a year and against an aggressive set of England batsmen. What was going on in your mind? I was nervous. At the same time, excited too because of their (England’s) playing style. I had seen in the Hyderabad Test how they were playing reverse-sweep a lot. So, it was important to keep on length or a bit outside of it and vary the pace because if they could use pace from the bowling, it would be easy for them. Field placing was Important as well. Rohit bhai communicated well and it wasn’t a traditional field placement. I got the wicket of (Ben) Duckett …

From Shlok Ramchandran to Sai Praneeth, Siyadath: The Indian coaching hand in USA’s badminton story | Badminton News

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A 31-year-old who won a singles World Championships medal. A 29-year-old who played at the top level in doubles, reaching a career best of world No 32 before retiring at 26. A veteran coach who has been an integral part of India’s recent badminton history, having a front-row seat at Pullela Gopichand’s famed academy as one of the mentors from the very start. What unites them? From here on, it will be the United States of America. B Sai Praneeth, who announced his retirement last week, and coach Mohammed Siyadath Ullah will soon be part of USA’s badminton story where Shlok Ramchandran has made a name for himself in recent years, making the move Stateside to explore coaching careers. USA’s badminton scene From a well-established badminton structure in India, Sai and Siyadath will be entering a vastly different – yet increasingly vibrant – scene in the USA. For starters, badminton is not even close to being a top sport in the country at any level. Be it the professional leagues, collegiate, or Olympic disciplines. Unlike …

Laughed at once, lauded now: How WPL is changing perception around women’s cricket and cricketers | Cricket News

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The Women’s Premier League’s (WPL) impact can be gauged in many ways. But nothing captures it better than the emergence of Sajana Sajeevan. Until she was picked by Mumbai Indians, the 29-year-old from Wayanad was just another allrounder in the domestic scene. At the first opportunity, Sajana showed she’s much more than that. In her first season, off her first ball – and the game’s final – she hit a six to hand Mumbai Indians an incredible win against the Delhi Capitals in Friday’s season opener. Just like that, a star was born. Safe to say, Sajana’s six-hitting talent would not have been unearthed if not for the WPL. “Girls take cricket seriously now,” Sneh Rana, Indian off-spinner and Gujarat Giants’ vice-captain, tells The Indian Express. “Those who might not have considered taking up cricket as a serious profession, those parents who were scared ki cricket mein kya hoga (what will happen in cricket)… that is changing. More players are coming forward, more parents are sending kids to coaching, WPL is a fine platform for …

How three-time hockey gold medallists Pakistan completed a disastrous hat-trick of not qualifying for the Olympics | Hockey News

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Tongue firmly in his cheek, a television presenter harks back to the time when hockey was ‘sone ka phuwara’, golden fountain. Another anchor, less sarcastic but more dramatic, sheds ‘khoon ke aansu’. There’s a sombre recollection of the days when they were the ‘shahenshah’. And venting of pent-up feelings. “Dynamite lagi imaarate itni tezi se nahi girti jitni tezi se Pakistan hockey giri hai (Buildings fitted with dynamites don’t fall as fast as Pakistan hockey),” screams a host. The Paris Olympics hockey tournament will begin in six months. But Pakistan won’t be there. Like in Tokyo three years ago. And at Rio before that. Last weekend, they finished fourth at a qualification tournament in Muscat. Only top three qualified. It means the fabled Green Shirts, the most successful team at the Games after India, have now missed the Olympic bus the same number of times as they have won the gold medal – three. Outside the studios, few waste their precious tears. For most, it was a fall foretold. ***“We all need to understand,” asserts …