Mihir Bose

Fate and flaw conspired to keep egalitarian football at the margins in India. Cricket—race-erected, race-directed—flourished under post-colonial patronage.

Its top tier may be gilded, but Indian cricket’s base is rotting away

Olympics will devalue cricket; its masters have no use for the games

A wealthy Board, wealthy players, but a poverty of strategy and ambition—and a ‘cool’ captain who’s clueless

So thought Britain, till the hoods came out in London and beyond

The IPL stood for a new India. The mess it’s in turns the clock back.

Twenty20 World Cup, odd exploits of a Sania Mirza or even a hockey triumph... but the great Indian elephant of sport, like Kumbhakarna, goes on sleeping

The bad blood phase seems over, the two Asian rivals can now even be graceful in defeat

It's a literary kala pani. What is depressing is that the old Indian cultural schizophrenia is still alive, more than five decades after Independence.