Shamik Chakrabarty Nathan Coulter-Nile, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc were the chief architects of Australia’s ‘la decima’ – 10 ODI wins on the spin. After Coulter-Nile and Smith did it with the bat, Starc bagged a five-for, as Australia eked out a hard-fough... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty The Wisden editor and the Daily Mail ‘cricket hack’ Lawrence Booth made the correct prediction. We were having a Twitter interaction after the England and Wales Cricket Board announced the provisional England squad for the World Cup last mon... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty After the humiliation at Anfield, Barcelona made a quick exit but left Lionel Messi behind. The skipper was summoned for a routine dope testing and the process took a little longer. So Messi’s team mates and the coaching staff decided to mak... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty Early into the second half during the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Wednesday, Pep Guardiola introduced Leroy Sane. Fernandinho hobbled off the pitch, but regardless of his injury, the Manchester City boss was going to make the attacki... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola after the match. (Reuters) Only a lunatic will now consider Tottenham Hotspur as also-rans. Only a dark narcissist like Jose Mourinho will say football managers ... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty Rajasthan Royals batsman Jos Butler reacts after being ‘Mankaded’ by Kings XIPunjab captain R Ashwin during the IPL cricket match in Jaipur Polly Umrigar once recounted a tale of Vinoo Mankad’s professionalism. Someone in the Bombay Ranji te... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty New Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane after a press conference announcinghis return, in Madrid, Spain (Image: REUTERS) Jose Mourinho seemingly has become a persona non grata in the all the clubs he managed and maybe beyond. Zinedine Zidane’s... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty As former South Africa captain Graeme Smith had said a few months back, “Kohli’s love for Test cricket will keep the format relevant”. The build-up to IPL 2019 has been a little low-key. The auction was relatively low-profile and with the to... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. It’s not known if Roman Abramovich had watched the very public dismantling of the Sarri-ball at the Etihad last Sunday. Chelsea’s absentee owner doesn’t turn up for his club’s matches these days. Rarely does h... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty India’s non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi with other players at a press conference ahead of their Davis Cup match against Italy in Kolkata earlier this week (PTI) Gerard Pique must be having a sense of immense satisfaction at the change th... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty An AFC Asian Cup soccer match between UAE and India at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi, UAE, earlier this month. (AP) Former Mohun Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra has a funny bone. He, at times, also revels in his sarcasm. When the Indian Super L... More »
Shamik Chakrabarty Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard receives instructions from interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before being substituted (Reuters) It was great to see Sir Alex Ferguson smiling again, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United hammered Bo... More »