Covers the Indian sportspeople who don't get a cricket-sized share of attention — and asks why that's still true.
· 6 min read
India celebrates non-cricket champions intensely and briefly. Manu Bhaker’s Paris breakthrough should trigger durable investment in coaching, ammunition, local ranges and athlete welfare.
· 6 min read
Neeraj’s 90-metre breakthrough was magnificent, but our habit of turning one champion into a substitute for an ecosystem is unfair to him and everyone competing outside his spotlight. Indian athletics needs events, storytelling and investment between medals.
· 6 min read
India’s first global swimming medal at the Youth Olympics is not a cue for another forty-eight-hour celebration. It is evidence that patient coaching, race exposure and access to proper pools can produce results in a sport India habitually treats as recreational.
· 7 min read
Sindhu’s Hylo Open title was not a nostalgic encore; it showed an older champion becoming tactically richer. Indian sport must learn to follow that craft between Olympic medal ceremonies.
· 6 min read
Indian athletes outside cricket are no longer occasional miracles; they are part of a broad, competitive system. Our media, sponsors and federations must stop treating them as temporary patriotic content between cricket series.
· 6 min read
India’s archery depth is no longer an occasional Olympic-season curiosity, yet most athletes disappear from public view between major Games. Their results deserve sustained coverage, domestic visibility and institutional patience—not another fortnight of patriotic discovery.
· 5 min read
A rout of Bangladesh should be enjoyed without pretending it proves global supremacy. Indian hockey’s real test is whether a home tournament can create durable spectators, better competition and a culture that stays after the goals stop.
· 6 min read
We celebrated a historic shooter for a few weeks and then drifted back to cricket’s daily weather system. India needs leagues, broadcasts and reporting that make non-cricket athletes visible between Olympics.
· 4 min read
We remember wrestlers when they win an Olympic medal or protest on a Delhi pavement. The sport deserves sustained coverage of its craft, domestic structure and athletes between those dramatic moments.
· 1 min read
No compliant column was completed for this slot.
· 6 min read
India’s broad medal haul in Aichi-Nagoya showed that our non-cricket athletes are no longer isolated miracles. The insulting part is how quickly broadcasters, sponsors and viewers return them to obscurity once the anthem stops.
· 7 min read
India celebrates Neeraj Chopra so enthusiastically that it risks using his greatness to disguise athletics’ thin pipeline. One champion has shown what a serious system can produce; now the system must become less dependent on miracles.
· 7 min read
India fell short of its Hangzhou tally, but the breadth of success in Aichi-Nagoya matters more than a simplistic medal-count verdict. The real test is whether federations turn scattered excellence into durable systems between Games.
· 5 min read
India celebrates non-cricket champions intensely and briefly, then returns them to obscurity. Manu Bhaker’s Paris breakthrough should be treated as a case for year-round coverage, institutional memory and patient investment in shooting—not as a motivational poster.
· 6 min read
An 85-medal campaign deserves applause, but the real test is whether Indian athletes outside cricket remain visible after the closing ceremony. Federations, broadcasters and sponsors must turn episodic patriotism into ordinary professional attention.
· 1 min read
Non-cricket athletes already fight for serious attention. Their columns should not be improvised merely to complete an oversized payload.
· 4 min read
India celebrated Manu Bhaker magnificently and then drifted back to cricket. The problem is not that shooting lacks heroes; it is that our sporting attention has no memory between Olympic fortnights.
· 5 min read
Indian para-athletes are competing on one of Asia’s biggest stages while mainstream sports culture treats their achievements as a decorative sidebar. The problem is distribution and editorial choice, not audience incapacity.
· 4 min read
India’s para-athletes are elite competitors, not inspirational punctuation between cricket broadcasts. The media’s duty is to cover their sport before the medals make neglect embarrassing.
· 6 min read
India’s non-cricket athletes did not produce a respectable sideshow; they produced the country’s second-best Asian Games tally. If our attention disappears before their next training cycle begins, the neglect is ours—not theirs.
· 7 min read
A fourth-place finish and medals across athletics, shooting and archery show genuine breadth. If our attention vanishes until the next multi-sport event, the neglect is ours—not the athletes’.
· 6 min read
Eighty-five medals and success across disciplines deserve more than a fortnight of patriotic attention. If India wants Olympic depth, funding and coverage must follow athletes into the untelevised years between podium ceremonies.
· 6 min read
Manu Bhaker gave India one of Paris 2024’s defining stories, but the sporting system still treats non-cricket success as a temporary content genre. The real tribute is not another felicitation; it is a visible domestic season and secure pathways for the shooters coming behind her.
· 6 min read
India celebrates one athletics superstar as proof that the system works, then returns most track-and-field athletes to obscurity. Neeraj’s career should teach us to fund coaching, competition and recovery before medals make an athlete famous.
· 5 min read
A first Asian Games title in 44 years and direct Olympic qualification deserve more than a victory montage. Women’s hockey needs a stable league, regular broadcasts and investment between medals.
· 6 min read
India’s chess boom is real, but our attention economy still demands that non-cricket champions perform fame before we reward excellence. Gukesh’s achievement should change institutions, not merely produce a week of congratulatory posts.
· 6 min read
A fuller women’s calendar is welcome, but attention cannot remain conditional on a final, a viral innings or proximity to the men’s team. If BCCI wants a durable women’s game, it must build recognisable competitions, dependable broadcasts and a pathway that supporters can follow all year.
· 6 min read
The hockey, wrestling, sailing and combat-sport medals were not side dishes to cricket gold. If broadcasters and sponsors treated non-cricket athletes as continuing stories rather than fortnightly curiosities, audiences would follow.
· 6 min read
A broad medal haul can conceal a shortage of champions. India should celebrate athletes who reached the podium in Nagoya while asking why so many promising programmes still struggle to turn finalists into winners.
· 6 min read
Indian shooting keeps producing champions, yet we notice many of them only during medal ceremonies. Neeru Dhanda’s Asian Games success should push federations, broadcasters and sponsors toward year-round storytelling.
· 6 min read
Qualifying ambition means little without a durable domestic league, paid contracts and routine match access. I’m tired of women footballers being praised for resilience when the system should be judged for requiring so much of it.
· 7 min read
The Asian Games triumph and Olympic qualification deserve celebration, but the more revealing test begins after the podium photographs. Indian sport repeatedly turns women into national icons for a weekend and leaves their domestic ecosystem invisible by Monday.
· 5 min read
Neeraj Chopra crossing 90 metres was a personal milestone, not proof that Indian athletics has been fixed. We celebrate exceptional athletes as national miracles while leaving the system that should multiply them painfully ordinary.
· 6 min read
We restrict squads in the name of medal efficiency, then lament our shallow bench when pressure arrives. Athletes outside cricket need competitive exposure before they become podium guarantees, not congratulations after the fact.
· 7 min read
A crowded medal day in Nagoya should force us to notice the athletes who train without cricket’s money, mythology or margin for failure. I’m tired of treating India’s non-cricket champions as inspirational visitors in their own sporting culture.
· 8 min read
India’s non-cricket athletes do not need a fortnight of patriotic enthusiasm followed by silence. They need a sports culture that treats the years between medal ceremonies as the real event.
