Temba Bavuma Wasn’t Meant to Win the WTC – Until He Did
Within cricket's revered and storied past, tears have long been the messengers of joy and sorrow. In November 2023, at Eden Gardens, as Temba Bavuma left the field in the…
Sports
Twelve-year-old Tanay Tushar Lad of Parel makes waves in Open Water Swimming setting record in swim from Gateway of India to Atal Setu
Twelve-year-old Tanay Tushar Lad from Parel, made ripples in the water, by swimming from Gateway of India to Atal Setu, in a record time of 2 hours,26 minutes and 37…
Goli Shyamala completes heroic 150 kilometres swim from Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada
52-year-old Goli Shyamala, a resident of Samarlkota village in the Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh, heroically conquered a gruelling 150-kilometre swim across the Bay of Bengal. It spanned a period…
FIFA is whitewashing and sportswashing Israeli genocide and sporticide
Israel ‘Defense’ Forces, with unconditional support of the United States, have been waging a genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023, resulting in an unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe. They dropped over…
Indian Swimmers make waves in the Ocean defying the age barrier to inspire people to take open-water swimming challenges
Recently two Indian swimmers defied the barrier of age to set a benchmark and act as role models to inspire people to engage in challenges of Open Water Swimming. Both…
Para swimmers Lakshay Krishna Kumar and Jiya Rai do India proud by overcoming adversity with world record breaking feats in open Water Swimming
In recent months two para swimmers, have done India proud, transcending heights unscaled in open water Swimming, overcoming the most treacherous or unsurmountable barriers. They are a testimony that nothing…
Sayani Das becomes the first Indian woman to swim Irish North Channel and Five Oceans
The North Channel is considered by most, the toughest or most perilous of the Ocean Seven swims in that it is very cold, is plagued by the notorious lions’ main…
Tanvi Chavan Deore makes History by becoming the first Indian mother to Swim the English Channel
Tanvi Chavan Deore, a 33-year-old swimmer from Maharashtra’s Nashik and a mother of two kids, made history by becoming the first Indian mother to successfully swim across the English Channel,…
Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Vishy Anand, Prakash Padukone:norm-breakers for cricket-obsessed abysmal Indian sports
[This article will likely generate some ire as though I am being a bit too harsh on Indian sports, and in particular on the bane of Indian sports in my…
White Supremacy’s Last Sport Bites the Dust
The almost all white, “eurocentric” Tour de France is considered the pinnacle of cycling competition world wide. Twenty one days of some 100 miles a day (160+K), almost 2,000 miles…
Sad that some intellectuals are supporting dubious sports nationalism
More sad than the cheap jingoism and unsporting behaviour we witnessed in the world cup cricket final in the Narendra Modi stadium on November 19 is the collaborative approach from…
Deserving Each Other: The PGA Tour-LIV Golf Merger
Described as acrimonious, divisive and disruptive to golf, the LIV Golf Tournament, launched with the aid of former world number one Greg Norman and an enormous well of capital fronted…
Cricket in India and England, upper class dominance
Duncan Stone’s new book Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket has important lessons for Indian cricket and sports. It does not merely challenge the orthodoxy of English cricket,…
India: the Greatest Political Let Down of Recent Times
Knowing that no right minded Indian thinks the rate of inflation, the price of potatoes, cooking oil, petrol, diesel, rice, flour, eggs, indeed, any commodity you can name, the indices…
Commercialisation of football in India is not the solution
The discussion on football in India was so evasive about real issues at the Tata literature festival last Sunday in the context of the world cup football beginning this Sunday…
Being Anything But a Good Sport in Saudi Arabia
Here’s the big question in Jock Culture these days: Is the Kingdom of Golf being used to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Or is it the other way around? After all,…
What if they missed the gold medal, the Indian women cricket team won the hearts of people
The Indian women cricket team was on the verge of clinching the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, but just missed out on this much coveted goal. Till the last…
Hoisted by their own Petard: Wimbledon’s Russian Player Ban
It was, all and all, an odd spectacle. The Ladies’ Singles victor for Wimbledon 2022 had all the credentials that would have otherwise guaranteed her barring. Being Russian-born, news outlets…
Umran Malik: Nurture This Raw Talent
He is not from the troubled, picturesque, paradise Valley. He is from Jammu. And soon, sooner than India or the world can imagine, Umran Malik, 22, the newest fast-bowling sensation,…
Kamila Valieva and Eileen Gu: Young Women Athletes as Enemies of Empire
As one who has followed Olympic women’s figure skating, especially since Michelle Kwan (ironically a Chinese-American), I was—as an egalitarian feminist when it comes to sports—excited to learn that there…
Sportswashing at Tyneside: Saudi Arabia moves into English Football
The recent acquisition of the Newcastle United football club by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, along with financier Amanda Staveley and the billionaire Reuben brothers, was a source of much…
Stadio Olimpico: Can Sports Heal the World?
Amid chaotic politics and anti-immigrant and refugee sentiments, Stadio Olimpico in Rome seemed like an oasis of social and cultural harmony. AS Roma and Raja Casablanca fans gathered in their…
Challenges Of Swimming The English Channel Is Akin To The Spirit Of A Marxist Revolutionary
In 1988 on August 22nd, I became the 16th Indian to swim the English Channel and in this work I am summing up the challenge involved and how its experience…
Olympics, Sexism and Patriarchy
Bikinis are a mandatory part of female handball players’ dress code. In contrast, male players wear shorts. Similar sexist discrimination prevails almost in all events. Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a retired…
Sports Policy Should Aim to Promote Health, Joy and Team-Spirit
Some of the most hearwarming memories of the recent Olympic Games for India will remain of sportspersons from humble backgrounds overcoming very heavy odds to perform very well at the…
Sports strategy- Mere lip service will not suffice
To Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modi, Sports strategy- Mere lip service will not suffice- Some suggestions on a sports strategy It is an extraordinary effort put in…
When Football Did Not Come Home
They were in with a shot. The English team, deliriously floating on chants of Football’s Coming Home, had made it to their first major tournament final since 1966. The UEFA…
Can a Formula 1 Star Send a Message to the Saudi Government?
Written by Danaka Katovich and Ariel Gold For human rights advocates who also enjoy the sport of car racing, a great opportunity awaits us. Lewis Hamilton, the only Black driver…
Greed and the European Super League
Suffocating the grassroots. Mocking the working class origins of the game. World football, and primarily European club football, has long done away with loyalties in favour of cash and contract. …
The personification of cricketing grace at its supreme height –David Gower versus Michael Holding
No sport arguably took grace and artistry to depths of regions the game of cricket did. Bowling and batting or even fielding at its best was reminiscent of poetry or…
Salute glory of Sri Lanka on 25th anniversary of winning Cricket World Cup
25 years ago on March 17th Sri Lanka captured the coveted cricket world cup title for the first time .It exuded aura of invincibility as few teams ever did like…
Tribute to Sunil Gavaskar on 50th anniversary of his Test debut
Today on March 6th we commemorate a landmark day in the history of India being the 50th anniversary of legendary Sunil Gavaskar making his debut in test cricket. For the…
Suckers for Fat Cat Sports!!
This writer does love sports, especially football and baseball. I was raised as a baby boomer with literally a football, a bat and glove in my hands 24/7. The only…
Cricket’s camaraderie with far-right politics is hurting the nation
Although Cricket has embraced modernity with open arms, the game still couldn't evade its colonial history. Not many nations who hadn't been former British colonies play this game. India, a…
Tribute to Gundappa Vishwanath on 40th anniversary of his Melbourne Classic
Today on February 7thH we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gundappa Vishwanath’s epic 114 at Melbourne in 1981. This knock virtually took India out of the doldrums or despair to…
Immortal Wins: India Defeats Fortress Australia
It was never meant to be like this. After the Indian cricketing team met misery and disaster in the first test match at Adelaide, registering a paltry 36 in its…
Cricket and the Powerplay of Politics: Why CSK’s Honouring of Jadeja Reeks of Ignorant Caste Privilege
With the advent of the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the country, whose love for the game of cricket knows no bounds, found its much-seeked, collective escape…
Once There Was A Sad King, Maradona By Name
Diego Armando Maradona turns 60 on October 30. “God is the only being who, in order to reign, doesn’t even need to exist.” – Charles Baudelaire. It is with…
Dean Jones: Life of a Cricketing Entertainer
He was very much one of those cricketers who made the pulse race, a figure for the advocates of a faster variant of the game. Nothing of the solid blocker…
Live Like Them
Back in the time before the time before the time before now, we used to have a chant. It would name some courageous, creative, fighter for justice and then urge…
It is all in the game: Sports, gender equality and human rights
Undoubtedly, sports and physical activities are essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. But how can a sport help in addressing sexual and reproductive health issues of the youth, and…
Death of female Iranian soccer fan puts FIFA and Asian soccer body in the dock
When Sahar Khodayari this week set herself alight in front of a Tehran courthouse, she indicted world soccer body FIFA, its Asian regional group, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and…
The Craze for Cricket Graceless Bangladesh Society
One may or may not like cricket – not the worm, but the game – or even, could be someone like a typical Frenchman or woman who doesn’t understand…
Out of Luck: The Corrosive Culture of Sports
In an earlier article in Medium, I wrote about a corrosive sports culture that brings out peoples’ baser instincts- from applauding violence to replacing a plural view of humanity with elemental…
The Natural Enemy: Serena Williams and the Sporting Umpire
Should it matter this much? A wealthy, successful individual expressed fury at the most popular object of vitriol in any sport. The umpire or referee is only ever neutral in…
From Russia With Love
The 2018 World Cup delivered on all the promises and allayed all the suspicions and jeremiad predictions. It had a gamut of ineffaceable moments, vocabulary of emotions, kaleidoscope of iconic…
Sports women with a difference – women’s football
With the euphoria of men's football world cup drawing to a close, there has been little discussion on 'womens' football' . Sports like cricket, football or hockey are primarily dominated…
Saudi Arabia drags geopolitical baggage on to the World Cup pitch
Saudi Arabia has much at stake when its national soccer team enters the pitch for the opening match of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow. With politics a permanent fixture,…
The Temptations of Ball Tampering: Steve Smith’s Australian Team in South Africa
There was an audacity about it, carried out with amateurish callowness. As it turned out Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft, besieged and vulnerable, had been egged on by Australian cricket captain…
Crosby & Penguins Invite to Trump White House: What’s It All About?
President Trump initially invited the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors – a predominately Black American team, that is supportive of the current ‘Take-a-Knee’ protest that is erupting in American Sports…
Trump’s BDS Movement To Stop American Athlete’s Right To Protest!
President Trump has picked the right argument in America’s Cultural War, but his BDS Movement against America’s protesting NFL, NBA, MLB athletes First Amendment ‘Freedom of Speech’ rights is totally…
Torment In American Sports And The Star Spangled Banner: A Life Sketch Of Colin Kaepernick
At every turn in American culture, be it politics, sports or the corporate world, the citizenry is constantly taught, some would argue brainwashed, to believe in the Cult of the…
Olympian Politics: The Australian Olympic Committee
It was a scrappy affair, and it resulted in a predictable result: the re-election of veteran administrator John Coates as president of the Australian Olympic Committee by 58 votes to…
That Time When Male Violence Altered The History Of Women’s Tennis
Not too long ago, while leaving the gym, I overheard a conversation about the best female tennis players of all-time. As I walked home, I pondered my own list and…
Sports And Security: Manchester United’s Counter-Terrorism Chief
It seemed an unnecessarily grand gesture, but the English Premier league discovered last week that Manchester United had appointed its own counterterrorism manager. The person is said to be a…
Having A Flutter: The Melbourne Cup And The Australian Gambler
“In terms of prize money, the Melbourne Cup is worth more than the Grand National or any race in America, and it is far more popular in terms of national…
How Black Athletes Could Create A Watershed in Activist History
Chip Ward has made the clear case for our needing to collectively address Climate Change issues with Native Americans in mind, and it's undeniable that any inroads which black activists…
The WADA Hack: Transparency And The Uneven Playing Field
The disclosure of confidential material has its own sometimes fraught ethics. When it comes to medical information, assumptions abound that confidentiality comes first. Not, however, in international sports, a notorious…
The Olympic Gold Obsession: An Australian Condition
Obsessions of any sort, notably of a consuming nature, are never healthy matters. The drive to win gold, laced with a desperation often reflected in steroid consumption and psychological battering,…
Rio Olympics Overshadowed By Social Crisis
The 2016 summer Olympic games will open today, Friday August 5, in Rio de Janeiro at 8:00pm (local time), when the Olympic flame will be lit in Rio de Janeiro’s…
Annual Subscription
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us