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In this issue

10-03-201817 STORIES

George Foreman goes down to the canvas in the eighth round of his WBA/WBC championship match in Kinshasa, Zaire against Muhammad Ali. Norman Mailer’s aptly captures the scene in his book The Fight, one of the finest written by someone whose day job is not as a sports-writer.

Love for sports and the written word

Sports literature has been enriched by contributions from novelists, philosophers, Nobel Prize winners, palaeontologists, historians, anthropologists,

Suresh Menon

For racing drivers: One of the basic fitness exercises, lateral plank on BOSU ball.

Handling the G’s

F1 drivers need to undergo a period of conditioning to cope with the physical demands of the sport: no other race series requires the drivers to have

Ramji Srinivasan

Ramji Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, 03/02/2015: Babul Supriyo Minister of State for Urban Development in New Delhi on Tuesday. February 03, 2015. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.

For The Love of Sport

Of India-Pakistan cricket, kebabs and street soccer

“Football is my first love. I have been a fanatic since a young age,” says playback singer and politician, Babul Supriyo.

Fan psychology: Watching sport on television is indeed a meaningful pursuit for these people.

Connecting with sport emotionally through the telly

For many, watching sport on television is indeed a meaningful pursuit. This isn’t just limited to the so-called ‘millennial generation.’ Far greater

Pleased as punch: Ranko Popovic, the FC Pune City coach, celebrates his team’s victory against Mumbai City FC in an Indian Super League match. “I have football in my blood and honestly, football is my life,” says Popovic.

War and peace, and Popovic

“There is only one language on the football pitch — the football language. It is a unique language, and without any words you can understand your tea

Shyam Vasudevan

Shyam Vasudevan

Managerial bubble: Slaven Bilic was sacked by West Ham United on November 6, 2017. The team, which was 18th in the Premier League table, is now out of the danger zone, occupying the 12th spot.

Does sacking a manager mid-season help?

January has become such a key month in player movement. It turns out that November is the month for managers. A study listed as many as 32 managers in

Sunil Chhetri

A champ in the making: Despite limited hours of coaching, and practising solo most of the time, Neel Joshi stunned everyone by reaching the final of the British Junior Open in the Under-15 category.

Neel Joshi: Set to scale greater heights

The British Junior Open runner-up is keen on representing India in the world junior team championships happening in Chennai from July 24-29

Going places: Spain’s Sergio Gomez moved from FC Barcelona to Borussia Dortmund after an impressive performance at the under-17 World Cup in India last year.

The curse of modern football

In 2017, 209 under-aged players were transferred, just 1% of a market worth $6.37 billion, according to FIFA’s Global Transfer Market Report. With too

Meeting the tennis legend: Sharath Kamal took a photograph with Roger Federer (left) when he met the Swiss during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He, however, lost the photograph which was on his mobile phone. “Hopefully, some day I will get another opportunity to click a picture with Federer,” says the Indian table tennis star.

‘Man, it’s Roger Federer!’

‘He was bigger than how he looked on TV, and with his long hair let loose, it took me a while to recognise him,’ says table tennis star Sharath Kamal

BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 07/11/2017 : Manpreet Singh, captain of the Indian men's hockey team, during the National camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI south centre), in Bengaluru on November 07, 2017. Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Bowled over by a fan

Manpreet Singh, just 25, has already led the Indian national hockey team to Asian glory. The Jalandhar-born athlete, however, says his first love is f

Hari Kishore M

Reworking the diet: Shikhar Dhawan’s new sports diet is eating balanced food without giving any thought to pleasure.

Food For Thought

When training also involves the taste buds

Eating happens first with the mind, then with the eyes, then the nose, and finally the taste buds. When athletes travel abroad, they get homesick! Th

Ryan Fernando

Choking in the title round: P.V. Sindhu tossed away a match-point in the final of the India Open against Beiwen Zhang.

Varying performances, worrying trends

Consistency is seriously an issue even with the best of home-grown champions.

When luck favoured the Dutch: Up against an extremely easy draw, Caroline Wozniacki faced no top-20 player before the 2018 Australian Open final.

Wozniacki’s gain, Halep’s loss and other themes

The lessons we learned from the Australian Open, and other conclusions we can draw from the season’s first major.

Paul Fein

Path-breaker: Hashim Amla, rated one of the best batsmen in the world, has proved that players of Indian origin in South Africa can play alongside whites and do just as well as them.

Hashim Amla shows the way

Things are certainly looking up for players of Indian origin, as South Africa changes and embraces more players of colour from all sections of societ

Indians at the helm: Virat Kohli-led Team India’s ascent to the top of the cricket rankings has been backed by an excellent group of local support staff and coaches.

On The Write Line

An unhealthy bias to everything alien

India’s foreign complex should have disappeared more than 70 years ago when the nation gained independence, but it has increased. Our penchant for for

Sunil Gavaskar

India’s fast bowling sensation at the recent Under-19 World Cup, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, has commanded a big price at the IPL 2018 auction.

Rockets rare, squibs aplenty!

Feted one day, forgotten the next, life as a young prospect can be a yo-yo-like experience. Few emerge unscathed.

DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN

Shubman Gill was India's hero in the semifinal against Pakistan.

Where wings sprout for the big flight

A World Cup winner is a big tag and will always remain a proud memory.

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