Senior Sports Journalist Sharda Ugra believes TATA will enhance IPL's image

One of the most respected voices in Indian sports today, Sharda Ugra is a journalist with over 30 years of professional experience. Unafraid to call a spade a spade, Ms. Ugra has been vocal in highlighting the need to bring in transparency and removing political influence plaguing Indian sports.

Ms. Ugra came to the fore as a cricket journalist, but makes it a point to cover all sports. Regarded as India’s ‘first female sports journalist’, Ms. Ugra is an inspiration to others looking to follow in her wake.

This exclusive conversation sees Ms. Ugra give her honest and unbiased take on everything from the implications of TATA’s entry into IPL as the title sponsor, mainstream media’s coverage of non-cricket sports, the odious mixing of sports and politics, Indian sportspeople's freedom to air their views and the state of sports journalism in India.

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Sports journalism in Cricket vs. other sports

1. Siddharth Vardarajan calls you “the boldest and best writer on cricket in India today,” while Olympic Gold Medalist Abhinav Bindra terms you “the best writer on sport in India!” So while you may be best known as a cricket writer, you have taken pains to continue covering other sports. You could have very well stuck to writing on cricket. So how important has it been for you to keep covering non-cricket sports, and why?

I began my career as a sports journalist. I did not begin as a ‘cricket’ journalist. I was interested in all sports. Of course, I love cricket the most because I was a child of the 1983 victory and I was 13-years-old when it happened. I do understand that it is my favorite sport and it helped me career-wise because I covered it and I was in an organization where you got more of a chance to write it than any other sport.

Every time I went to any other organization, 80% of your writing tended to be cricket and the balance is other sport. But I’ve always loved sport per se. I have always enjoyed the stories that are there in it.

When I worked for The Hindu for about six-and-a-half years, I did a lot of ‘minor’ sports. I loved covering all sport. I was not good at covering too many of them in great detail on a daily basis, but whenever, whatever I could learn, I learnt. I loved covering sailing. I’ve always known that there are many fabulous stories to tell in other sports as well, outside of cricket.

I’ve always been interested in all sports, and I watch any sport. I was watching Moto GP at one point in my life obsessively (laughs). So there’s no end to obsession. I am very happy, very comfortable doing it [covering all sports]. But I know that cricket has given me my identity in some ways. It’s given me recognition.

2. When it comes to cricket journalism vs. journalism in other Indian sports, there seems to be so much attention to even ancillary issues in the former, and not even basic reporting in the latter…your thoughts?

You are saying other sports are not getting space in mainstream media, which is newspapers. But the whole definition of media itself has changed.

You are seeing a lot of stories being written in the papers in a different way. Some newspapers are doing the traditional ‘we are the newspaper of record’ kind of coverage. So are you talking about those 50-150-400 word articles with results and so on? Other newspapers are just looking at stories from a feature angle point of view.

At the same time, in the sort of space there is, bizarrely in newspapers, you see a lot of space given to European football...huge column inches in European football. I’m not saying that the quality of the game and its place in global sport is not such. But what is the other alternative that you let go? That’s a decision that sports editors have to make. That’s the sports editor’s job to decide what gets that amount of play.

In digital media, [the] alternative media that there is now, you have a lot of other sports getting their space there. What has happened is something like badminton gets a lot more play automatically now, because India’s got a skin in the game. In tennis, India has no skin in the game anymore.

So you see the change taking place even [in] mainstream and outside of mainstream as well. It’s good that way that the digital media space allows you to not worry about column inches.

Cricket involvement online is 10 times that of other sports, even on a gold medal day.

The minimum you can come to is eight-times that...if you are talking about Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal. But the thing in India is that ‘8 times that audience’ is still a big number. It’s a number that has to be responded to, reached out to and spoken to.

Ms Sharda Ugra with a Batmaker in Hallamulla Sangam, J&K in August 2006

3. Mr. Gavaskar was candid and even politically incorrect about the late Shane Warne, but – and correct me if I am wrong because I don’t follow cricket as much – he (and by this I mean commentators) doesn’t seem to call out or question BCCI/IPL Governing Council. Obviously there may be contractual reasons for this, but do you foresee an evolution in sports broadcasting where commentators are given more leeway to constructively criticize the National Sports Federation or question the organization of the League itself? This is something that does happen in American Sporting Leagues for example…

Cricket has reached the point where the rewards of toeing the line are so enormous as against the benefit of being on the other side and speaking freely. There used to be a time when commentators said whatever they felt about whoever they felt. It was a call based on whatever their assessment of the cricketer’s performance on the field was.

In English commentary, you find that that’s really held back a bit because then ‘X,Y,Z player will not talk to you after the match’. You will be blackballed, you will be knocked out several times over. It’s happened to commentators. So there are two choices there that have to be made. One is: are you willing to sacrifice your big fat annual IPL contract? Or are you willing to say: No fine. Let me play safe. That is the sad part of it because you don’t hear the biggest and most influential voices in the game. I’m not even going to call it speaking truth to power like it’s some big, grand thing…it’s sports yaar…nothing compared to what actually speaking truth to power means.

You don’t hear the biggest and most influential voices in Indian cricket speaking about issues that matter – particularly around governance issues or conflict of interest.

When the IPL was happening when the COVID pandemic second wave was on last year, for there to be nothing said or expressed or called out was just so grievously disappointing, and when you got angry and said ‘Am I the mad person here? Am I the only person here? Is it okay for this IPL to be happening in a city where there is a shortage of ambulances, where cremations are taking place 24 hours?’ But to hear nothing on that when you are commenting on every new product, every new player, every new signing…for the influential voices not to speak out openly is the most distressing point I find.

I keep saying ‘accha, theek hai [It's okay] you won’t get contract…you must have made enough money no…you’ve got a comfortable life na? At least get back your independent voice, your mental voice to say those things’.

I don’t think there’s going to be an evolution because once an organization as large, powerful, wealthy as the BCCI is knows, it’s got its claws into you. It’s not going to let go at the expense of having some people wandering along saying whatever they want and speaking the truth and speaking plainly.

The other, reverse disturbing thing is also that this thing of ‘BCCI was treated badly’. Arrey BCCI was treated badly 25 years ago, now they are treating other people badly. I know when they were treated badly 25 years ago, we wrote about it. We complained. We said that these Australian and English people don’t know how to behave, they don’t know what they are doing, they are making all wrong decisions.

So ‘evolution’ is very optimistic.

Ms Sharda Ugra interviewing Shaun Pollock before the 2001 Champions Trophy at the Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

TATA's IPL title sponsorship

4. Tata coming on board as IPL Sponsors…is there a larger long term significance of this towards Indian sports? Because at one point, TISCO/TATA Steel were household names when it came to nurturing and supporting athletes/teams, and grassroots sporting activities…

It’s quite a big deal.

Many years ago, I’m talking about late 90s, early 2000s, one of the Indian players was telling me, ‘yaar why can’t we have class in our game? Look at all these companies that are sponsoring us…why isn’t Tata there? Why aren’t the Mahindras there? Why aren’t the Birlas there?'

So it’s almost like the Tatas coming into it…never mind what it gives Tata, see what it gives IPL. In a branding term, it is as respectable, as Indian, and as top-up-there a brand as you are going to get. Real old money, serious old money brand. It’ll help in enhancing the image of IPL as a property.

What I think IPL is trying to do is become the brand that’s bigger than the title sponsor brands. Maybe that’s what they are working towards. Like the NBA has no title sponsor or the Premier League has no title sponsor now. You would hope that there is this kind of business acumen and foresight that’s involved in it. There has to be; there’s a lot of money there.

It’s not that Tata is trying to become popular via the IPL. Tata had a lot of guys they used to employ from the cricket team. The Tata Sports Club cricket team was very well known in Mumbai’s Times Shield, their city cricket competition. So they’ve always had a part to play. They’ve hired a lot of athletes. They’ve always worked for athletes.

[Now] they’ve attached their name to possibly the biggest Indian sports brand that there is. There are other companies that just have a team in it, but [for Tata it is a proclamation that] 'we are title sponsors of the whole thing'. It’s like saying 'we are above this…we are a blue chip brand’. Being blue chip is not about money; it’s about pedigree.

Tata Trusts does a lot of work when it comes to grassroots football. I’m sure it’s there in other sports as well.

Pity that they [Tata] cannot run some Indian sports because they would do a much better job than what the Federations are doing towards the sports. (laughs)

Inclusivity in sports

5. Coming to the delay in launching an Indian Women’s cricket league or women's sports leagues in general, the classic argument is that “it does not make business sense yet”. Your thoughts on this entire subject? There’s already a women’s cricket league in Australia…and BCCI is so much more cash rich…it seems that if the will is present, the way can be found…

Yesterday, an announcement came that this Women’s League is going to happen with six teams in 2023.

The other thing that has also happened is that Pakistan has said we are going to have our [Women's Cricket] League as well. So ego ka sawaal hai yaar [egoes have been hurt] “we cannot allow the Pakistanis to have a League before us.”

This is my theory. I am a paranoid person. I am a journalist and my mind is in the gutter. So I’m giving you a gutter answer. They will want to have a women’s League before the Pakistanis get their league out.

Out of sharam [pride], they’ve said we have to do it. They said first choice will go to franchises. I know for one, KKR has said 'we are ready for it. We want this to happen'.

And why will Mumbai Indians not want to have a women’s team? Jemimah Rodrigues belongs to Mumbai, why will they not want to play her?

The old theory of 'oh, you need to have enough players' is bunkum: Annesha Ghosh did a superb story in which she calculated that there are 660 women cricketers available for the women’s IPL to choose from in this country.

Sharam ke maare [to quench our pride], now next year we are going to have it. Pakistanis cannot beat us to it. This is my dirty mind. I have no inside information. (laughs)

On the state of Indian sports journalism

Ms Sharda Ugra at TRC Ground, Srinagar in June 2018

6. While there are many sports ‘reporters’ in India, there seem to be few sports ‘journalists’ willing to highlight the deeper malaises plaguing Indian sports. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, why? If not, why not?

I think there are a lot of sports journalists in the country. There are many, many average sports editors in the country, or rather editors who need not necessarily be ‘sports’ [editors but] are just general news editors. Then there are people who advertise themselves as sports journalists but are actually what I call ‘multi-media’ ‘multi-tasking’ networking entrepreneurs.

There are many, many people who want to do good stories, but there is no platform for them to put it out. There are always bad level of management guys who are saying ‘this is not a story’.

There is an undermining of the quality of journalism by the people who have the power to make a difference. I don’t think the fault is so much with the guys on the ground. Reporters on the ground, all our minds are the same, we think the same way ‘story hai yaar’.

The problem with Indian sport is [that] the stories around governance are so many, and they are so pathetic. They are so boring, that how do you say that [the] 'gymnastics federation is fighting, rowing federation is fighting'…how do you tell the stories over and over and over? The reader is like “phirse jhagad raha hai yaar [they're quarelling again]”.

The thing is that you have to be able to tell that [sport] story through the voice of the athlete. Manika Batra has gone and fought a case herself with TTFI. Manika Batra does not need the media support. It’s the person at the level of the struggler.

There’s a very leading athlete in the country. He was waiting at an airport once. He did not know if he could get on the flight for a competition because he had not got an NOC from his coach, or [it was] the national coach in Patiala [not] allowing him to leave the camp to go for this event. So this kind of junk that goes on, it’s unforgivable, it should not be allowed, it should be written about. But the moment you write on it, you take the name of the athlete, his career is over.

In cricket, if it happens, there will be attention. But listen- what happened to Wasim Jaffer? How much attention did he get? So look at the forces that people are fighting against, athletes are fighting against. I’m not [talking about] superstar athletes. Superstar athletes are very well-served currently.

A superstar athlete cannot have their toenail broken without the world getting to know about it. They are not the ones that need the support of [sports] journalists, or noise in the press. It’s the people that are upcoming, coming through, juniors…through their experiences we can tell the stories of this kind.

So I don’t think there are bad journalists. It’s the people in management who decide whether it gets published or doesn’t get published, and where it gets published - do you get published in the mainstream newspaper or do you get published in a website online.

7. The YPUgate controversy…a lot has been said and written. I would instead like to draw your attention to another aspect that hasn’t been talked about – the generally humble, down-to-earth nature of sportspersons (as compared to say politicians or movie star interviewees). Do you think this allows reporters to be excessively pushy and aggressive?

Indian athletes…let’s say non-cricketers who are non-famous… are generally sort of very reserved on how they handle authority because they know that their careers depend on them.

I have said this in many places that footballers have the most agency in this country when it comes to the ability to speak freely, because they are their own masters. Clubs sign them, they don’t sign them, it doesn’t matter. They can crib about the club and the club can throw them out, another club can sign them. Fundamentally, they are not afraid. I suppose the more famous they become, maybe they get more afraid.

The other, Olympic athletes, they are very worried that their careers rest on it. They have government jobs, their families are dependent on their income, so that is definitely a part of how their mindset is. And they don’t want to trouble authority. Often they will use a journalist to say ‘listen, put my story out, but don’t put my name’ because they know that if their name comes out then it’s someone to target.

The use of power by the people that run Indian sport can be so severe and so long lasting on careers that are anyway so short lived. But [with]in that they need to maximize as much as they can, get the best that they can and move on from there, thinking ‘why should we undergo trouble.’

For reporters to hustle them, we always try to hustle them, we try our best. But if they don’t want to talk to you, they won’t give you the answer. You will try. But fundamentally my thing is ‘don’t be rude to them. Be as polite as you can, and see what happens.’

Senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra on assignment in Srinagar.

Fame and power work equally across multiple forums. You are not going to try and push your luck with Virat Kohli more than you are with Shah Rukh Khan or Smriti Irani. It’s all about power and stature and fame. Fame gives a sort of distance and bullet-proofness to a lot of people.

8. Even outside of Indian sports journalism, journalism in India is under onslaught. Our Press Freedom index rank is 142. Investigative journalism in India is largely non-existent, or at least far from the level it needs to be at. We continue to rely on newsbreaks made in the US, UK, France or Australia, on events unfolding in India. In such a backdrop, is it too much to expect investigative journalistic reportage from Indian sports? Why are there no investigative exposes even from cricket? Do you see this changing for the better in coming years?

I think investigative journalistic reporting is still going on. It’s going on in a smaller way. It’s been abandoned by a lot of the mainstream media that there is because it is unsafe. Some are still doing it. Some sort of put their heads up from time to time and say these things. You will see it [but] you will not see it on too many front pages…inside yes. Similarly, the thing with sport: there’s always room for it. A lot of the thing that’s working now outside of sport is data. Journalism driven by data and facts and not talking-heads kind of thing.

I think television has certainly abandoned it [investigative journalism], to a large degree most channels have abandoned it. Most channels are sticking to talking-heads. I think it’s the fact that television has abandoned it, which has been the biggest blow. What used to be the follow up story…somebody breaks the story and everybody follows it up…that follow up has stopped happening across major papers. TV, of course, forget it about it it’s not going to happen.

Why should it [investigative journalism] not happen in sports? I am waiting, please somebody write something…I think there’s definitely a way. Sport is sport. It’s not like people’s lives are being threatened and they are being thrown into jail. So there should be more reason that it should be there in sport.

You just need people who are able to break away from this ‘happy-clappy ra-ra, how many thousand Instagram likes do you have kind of…what I call sausage factory journalism’ that tends to come out of successful sporting leagues. It [investigative journalism] has to work alongside of that.

Politics and sports

9. Why does Indian sports not have a Muhammad Ali? An athlete willing to speak truth to power even at great personal cost?

Indian sports doesn’t have a Muhammad Ali because it depends on what Indian sports’ concerns are, primarily. So what you are saying is ‘why don’t you have a larger than life personality who takes on political issues?’ Right? That’s what you are asking.

With the advent of social media, there is more reason, there is more ability to be able to do that [i.e. speak up on political issues]. There’s more freedom of movement, there are more platforms they are able to do that. Ali didn’t even have that. The whole press hated him. The white press hated him..for a long time. They looked on him as ‘anti-national’.

The thing is fear of consequences is what is stopping them [i.e. Indian athletes from speaking up]. It’s almost an imaginary fear in many ways because you saw what happened when Virat Kohli made this statement on Mohammed Shami…for two or three days when people went after it.

You saw CK Vineeth and and Anto doing this on the football ground. They did it but it was football, so nobody looked at it. Now what would happen if one of the cricketers turned around and did something like this...

Why don’t they do it? Because similarly why people don’t talk out freely…the gravy train just drowned them in gravy…they are drowned in the gravy of the gravy train. That’s the only logical explanation I can say.

There are people doing it. You see that there are cricketers who stand up. They are not superstars but you hear them in social media.

Let a superstar name come out and say [that] he is very angry with the country with what is happening with bigotry, hatred, communal disharmony, targeting [of] minorities, the right of women to education, talk about the hijab issue.

I am not waiting for a great superstar to come out with it, but I think someone will at some point. Because they would have made so much money that it doesn’t bother them.

It’s a question of someone with influence…and someone from the ultimate majority – which in India is the Hindu male. In the US context, Ali was the exact opposite.

Another question is at what point in their career are they going to take a stand on issues that are affecting common people – while being an active athlete? In their prime? Or after they’ve finished their playing career? So already, we are making allowances.

We see that the mega superstar athlete in India – why only athlete, most megastars in entertainment – have decided to use their fame, reach and influence as a brand-building exercise and their ‘influencer’ status as a revenue generator, that’s it.

In this atmosphere where everyone has drowned in the gravy of the gravy train, the mind boggles as to how it’s going to happen. And if it’s someone doing it in another sport, is it going to make a difference? You want someone from cricket saying this, right?

When the students were getting beaten up in Jamia and in JNU, so the first thing that struck me was like ‘look these kids are the age of cricket fans. They are the age of all these people that they support.’ You are having tear gas in a library for God’s sake. I reached out to several cricketers, I said ‘what do you think?’ Some of them answered, some didn’t reply. One of them said you don’t have the guts to publish what I have to say.

I said ‘Boss, keh toh do [all you have to do is speak], then I will publish.’ He didn’t say, because I think that he believed it was totally fine with what was happening. That the government & the police were doing the right thing. I said ‘you say it man, I’ll write it.’ ‘Tell me your words in your voice and you are willing to be quoted and I will quote you. Why should I be afraid of quoting you. You are the superstar not me’.

We have to also understand there are some cricketers, athletes, sportspeople who are absolutely supporting the majoritarian view, the government, the people in power…they are supporting the establishment. Many have joined the party in power and that is their choice. There are others who are afraid to be seen supporting the establishment because of the fact that unka image ka thoda ‘woh’ ho jayega [their public image will take a hit]. It’ll get affected. So that also exists. Let us not think that everyone else is quiet and they are a little afraid of speaking the truth. No! Some of them don’t want their public image to be disturbed.

What are we looking for – the basic understanding of what is right and wrong. Standing up for the essence of humanity. For a democratic spirit. A spirit of fairness. You are athletes.You understand fair and not fair, more than anybody else.

Hopefully that person [who could turn out to be India's Muhammad Ali] is 18 years today, and is going to come out and shock the shoes out of all of us.

10. The Commonwealth Games will be held later this year….should India demand a name change as a pre-condition to participating?

I used to be very snobbish about these mega-games, India hosting mega-games. I still have my reservations. But I don’t think we understand, as non-elite athletes, what it means to be a part of those games. The grandeur of it all. Never mind what they are called. They could be called ‘tick-tac-toe’ games or whatever.

I think the idea of a Commonwealth is absurd. The only thing common about those countries is that British stole all their wealth. That’s the idea of it to me. But it does bring athletes from all parts of the world together.

I don’t think we should be fussing about nomenclature as such, because changing names doesn’t really change things on the ground. So I don’t think name should be a thing. It will be almost a facetious kind of thing.

The least they should do is try and get the Sports Code in place, boss. Not all this faltugiri [hubbub] of changing names of events. Come on.

11. Continuing with the topic of name change: the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award has been renamed as Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, while there is already another Dhyan Chand lifetime achievement award...your thoughts?

It’s a nonsense thing to do, we know why it was done. I think Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was also a bad title because whatever he was, he was not a great athlete. We don’t know his athletic past. Name them after athletes yaar, any other athlete, we have so many athletes. Call it the ‘Balbir Singh’ award…call it ‘Talimeren Ao’ award…call it any other award ya! Name it after India’s foremost female athlete. Whoever it is. Just show some imagination man!

And if you are renaming things, rename every damn [sports] stadium in the country named after a politician, into an athlete’s name. Woh karke dikhao pehle [do that first]. Every single [sports] stadium in our country, take away our politicians' name, whichever party they belong to, and change the name.

It is lack of imagination. That is what it is. Call it the KD Singh Babu award. It is lack of a breadth of knowledge. 'Accha who’s the most famous Indian sportsperson who is not a cricketer? Okay, Dhyan Chand.' Is there no secretary telling you that “sir, there is already this one award after Dhyan Chand? Please let us get some other name.”

This just shows you that the political push behind it was so strong that it just abandoned sporting sense, common sense, any other sense that was there, to get this done.

I [also] think Dronacharya is a wrong name for a sports award but that is another topic altogether.

12. Generally speaking, sports administration in India is mired in bottomless apathy, opaqueness and corruption. Often, it feels like the only way things will change for the better if there is some sort of widespread public outrage. But to expect mass public mobilization for a ‘pastime like sports’ almost seems like foolish longing…

There’s not going to be a public outrage on sport, as much as we love it. Because there is no public outrage on many things that are more grievously sh*t in this country.

Personal choices

13. 'Sports journalist for 30+ years', there’s undoubtedly a mastery that comes with sustained focus on a particular craft. But were you never tempted to try other lines of work within sports media? Say sports PR or sports marketing or multi-media production?

None whatsoever, because I’m not been interested in them at all.

Someone said ‘why don’t you do commentary’. I know, how much I talk I should be doing commentary, but no. I am fundamentally a writing person. I am fundamentally for expression through writing.

Whatever is there is out in the written world. I am happy to help people in whatever ways and give them my ideas about X, Y, Z in other fields. But my primary skill is writing…writing, reporting, making phone calls, asking questions..that is my primary skill and that is what I do.

I am not going to multi-task because everybody is multi-tasking. This is the age of ‘break out of your comfort zone, try something new’…no I said 'I have tried...this is new only, so I am doing it as long as I can'.

I haven’t considered it because I think there’s so much more to learn, and to know, and to write, and to see, and to understand, that I feel I don’t have time for all that, for all the rest of it…to sort of jazzofy and do something else.

Ms. Sharda Ugra at the 'Grace Gates' in Bristol, UK, in 2019

Sports journalists & social media

14. How have you evolved in the face of all the changes in media, right from print to online and now social? I notice you still don’t have any social media accounts...is there a reasoning behind that?

Journalists want to be on social media to promote their own work, I am very happy for them to do it. I admire them because they cop a lot of abuse. I just don’t want free ka gaali [abuses]. That’s my very simple thing. Mass of social media is people who are anonymous, who are just doing random commenting, who are abusing for time pass [and] particularly women have the worse of it.

I’m not buying into that thing of branding, publicity, how many likes, how many people...I don’t care. I’m not into that at all. Whatever I do with my work is, I want to put it out there so that it’s there, to say this happened, 'this is this, this is this', khatam [the end].

What I get out of it in terms of my reputation or whatever, mere ko kuch nahi farak padta [doesn't bother me]. It really doesn’t bother me, to not be on it. That FOMO or whatever people say, I have no problem with being FOMO’ed. I am not fussed about it at all.

Now more and more we are discovering how these social media channels, how they manipulate, how they make money out of using their algorithms to serve some purpose or the other. I am not going to add to this bakwaas and this filth that they are doing.

There’s a lot of great work, but there’s a lot of filth. I don’t want to add to it. I am not interested in their game. I don’t want to be a part of their game. Facebook – "make friends". I don’t want 320000 friends. I know who my friends are. I’ve got numbers on my phone, I know who those people are. I don’t need Facebook, I’ve got telephone numbers.

Everyone’s saying 'write a newsletter'….I’m very very conservative in many ways. I’m like nahi yaar, I can’t be bothered. I mean I appreciate what you guys do. I follow Instagram to follow how football players have conversations with each other in COVID. I am on Instagram. I got a lot of good information for an Iran football story via Instagram.

Whatever I have to say I will write. I will not put it out on social media. I don’t have to have an opinion on everything all the time….24 hours a day I don’t have to be saying things.

15. But unfortunately, one of the criteria in hiring a journalist today is their social media following…

Yes. I think that’s ridiculous. It’s disgusting.

16. And younger journalists don’t really have a choice but to be on social media…

I swear. If I was 20-years-old in this day and age, I would be an absolute failure, I would be sitting in [the] library. I would be useless at this. Because journalism gave me a time to understand the business, to meet people, to talk to people, to make mistakes. Now toh there’s nothing. Everyday you have to be online getting hammered. Why? Chee [ugh].

17. I like your assumption that you will only get trolls for your sports articles, and not bouquets…

...Because I am not a cheerleader…I mean when you have to write good stuff about matches, maybe as a young reporter you start with doing reporting…you write nice things. What happens when you write an unpopular thing?

I understand the pressure that young journalists are under and I understand how difficult it is to be neutral and keep an even tone. But I also understand the poison that Facebook and Twitter have unleashed on the world. And I think that it’s disgraceful. And it’s reprehensible…and they are cancelling President Trump ka account and India mai kuch bhi chalega [anything goes]? Anything is allowed? What is this yaar?

18. You’ve been open about your personal life, and being single by choice. Besides the obviously personal & individual reasons behind this, could any of it be an outcome of the profession you chose for yourself? In other words, does working in the Indian sports industry necessarily entail unique personal sacrifices?

It’s not a sports industry thing. I could have been in any industry, I would have been like this. I could have been a librarian, I would have been the same. What was good is that my life was full of other stuff I had to do. I don’t think the sports industry can be blamed for who I am at all (laughs).

19. From working with large media publications to becoming a freelance sports journalist, how do you like the transition?

It’s been very liberating in a way for me as a journalist. That is not to say that the organization that I worked for, in any way curtailed what I did.

In many ways, it’s almost like I am now on a second innings of my career, and the first innings has been built up with this huge thirty-years of time that I had, to making contacts, understanding the business, to being successful, to having a reasonable income to be able to support myself.

I find it liberating because there are always places that are ready to take what you write. It’s not going to upset something or the other. Because in every organization there are checks and balances, and things that you have to watch out for, and what you can and you cannot put down in the way you want to put it down. So, I don’t have a very tactful way of writing, most of the times. So now I can write exactly how I like. I can just take out full ammunition and let go.

I sometimes have to tone down myself. But I find it very liberating because I have been able to build this life because of these opportunities that I got in the places that I worked. And what I learnt from all of them was different.

Each and every organization taught me something different, and to which I am now able to put it to use here and look at many other things and parts of the sports journalism business, or the sports media business that I want to do in, and it’s still going to be writing as often as I can do it, touchwood and I am enjoying it hugely.

20. What is your advice for budding sports journalists?

My advice to budding sports journalists today is do what I am unable to do at this point, which is multi-task and understand different skills that you are doing in various media. Not just text like I do, video skills as well, social media skills as well.

More importantly, soak in all the information you can get and pick the battles you are going to fight. You don’t have to fight battles now, you can fight those battles twenty years from now. You are 20-years-old now, you are 25, you can fight them when you are 45. But just arm yourself with the information, the understanding, the wisdom that you get and everything that you learn today, you never know when it will turn up and give you the kind of perspective that nobody else in the business will have, because you kept that in mind, because it was there.