Suresh Menon

Suresh Menon is a prominent Indian journalist, author and a noted sports writer. He is one of India’s best known columnists on cricket, and his writings on politics, literature and sport have a global audience. He tweets at @surmenon

Latest from Suresh Menon

Last Word: Time to set up independent body across all sports to deal with complaints

Seeking justice: Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia during their protest against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Last Word: Should Power Slap be called a sport?

Power Slap fights are typically three to five rounds. The fighters take turns hitting each other in the face with an open hand, and those on the receiving end stand with their hands behind their backs.

Last Word: Ageless sports photographs that live forever

Rage machine: Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stands over fallen challenger Sonny Liston, shouting and gesturing shortly after dropping Liston with a short hard right to the jaw in Lewiston, Maine (1965).

Last Word: Dick Fosbury, an innovator who changed high jump forever

Legendary: Dick Fosbury of the United States clears the bar in the high jump competition at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Fosbury, the lanky leaper, completely revamped the technical discipline of high jump and won an Olympic gold with his ‘Fosbury flop.’

Last Word: Sometimes originality is merely intelligent borrowing

The late Bob Woolmer was a progressive coach who didn’t shy away from learning from other sports.

Last Word: Sport, ownership, and morality

Manchester United fans hold up a sign relating to a proposed take over by Qatar during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leeds United at Old Trafford on February 08. The opposition to the takeover begs the question: why should a British public which didn’t mind Qatar’s takeover of many of its public places be fussed about a football team’s changing hands?

Last Word: Data rights is the new buzz-phrase in sport

Fighting for a cause: When in October of 2021, professional footballers in England threatened legal action against major gaming, betting and sports data companies — it was called Project Red Card — former Cardiff manager Russell Slade led the charge. Over a thousand players wanted to be compensated for the trading of their data — something they had no control over. Companies were profiting from their personal data, argued the players. Then last September they launched the lawsuit.

Last Word: Boxing, the cruellest of sports

Dangerous: Thoughts of boxing and some of its terrible consequences have been triggered by the fabulous book Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing by Donald McRae. In particular, McRae’s eyewitness account of the Chris Eubank-Michael Watson super middleweight fight that put the latter in a coma for 40 days.

Last Word: Normalisation is the name of the game

Wise decision: Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr football club in Saudi Arabia for a reported salary of 200 million dollars a year for three years guarantees the footballer useful pocket money as his career winds down. Ronaldo turns 38 this year, and you can’t begrudge him his bonus.

Last Word: When family’s safety is more important than a FIFA World Cup

Not in the right state of mind: Johan Cruyff (left) of the Netherlands in action during the World Cup in 1974. A possible kidnapping bid at gun point forced him to withdraw from the 1978 World Cup. “In a situation like that you don’t travel to the other side of the world and leave your family on their own for eight weeks,” Cryuff wrote in his book My Turn. “If you are playing in a World Cup you have to be fully focussed.”

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