Looking back at 2025: Top sporting moments of the year

As the year comes to a close, we wrap up 2025 with a special year-ender episode. In this edition of Express Sports hosted by Mihir Vasavda, Vinayakk Mohanarangan, and Amit Kamath, we speak to journalists and editors from The Indian Express newsroom, not from the sports desk, about the sporting moments that stayed with them this year. From iconic wins and unforgettable matches to personal favourites that sparked joy, debate, or disbelief, our colleagues share what made 2025 memorable for them as sports fans.

Hosted by Ichha Sharma
Produced and written by Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, I'm Atcha Sharma and you're listening to Three Things
the Indian Express New show. As we head into the
new year, we're looking back at some of the biggest
moments from twenty twenty five, after talking about the most
prominent movies and the most impactful health development. Yesterday we

(00:23):
spoke to veteran journalist Nija Chaudrie, who picked five personalities
who shaped Indian politics this year.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
But today we're turning.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Our attention to the world of sports and presenting to
you the latest episode of the Express Sports Podcast, where
we explode the biggest sporting moments.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Here's the episode in its entirety. Hello and welcome to
Express Sports podcast. This is the last game time of
twenty twenty five and Jessaki customaryea hamayu ken yet ya
yes cup chalagapata in. It wasn't term. I don't know

(01:02):
if Amit and Vanyak, who are here with us, you'll
agree with me, but I'd rather say that this was
a slow sports here. There weren't like mega sporting events
that we were used to post COVID every year to
dras As Shanta, but still we weren't shot of storylines
and what we have done this year is slightly different
from the previous ones. We thought key are Hamtinokomasha Sunteho.

(01:24):
So we'll go beyond the three of us, beyond the
sports team even and try to get a sense of
what the rest of the Indian Express newsroom thought of
the year in sport. Ahmit Vanayak and I do not
know what people have said. It's only one person who
has all the intel and that is a produce a
Shashank Parga. So Srashank, before Ahmit and Vhenyak come in,

(01:46):
why don't you tell us what is in store for us?

Speaker 4 (01:49):
Yeah, So we were having a discussion about what should
we do for the year ender episode, and we thought
we'll actually speak to people in office who are not
part of the sports team about what their favorite sporting
moment of twenty twenty five was. And we thought that
unlike you guys, you know, these are the people who
only watch sports for the love of it. You guys

(02:11):
do it for both money and love. So we thought
we'll speak to these just money, just money, Okay, Okay, great,
that's good to know. So then it's good that we
spoke to these people who are just genuine fans of
whatever you know, spoke, they follow and yeah, I had

(02:32):
a great time speaking with these people, and a lot
of them spoke about their moments very passionately. So yeah,
and we have ten of them. So I hope you
guys are excited and looking forward to it. And one
thing I want to say, obviously, is that a bunch
of people spoke about cricket, because how can you not
talk about cricket?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
But yeah, it's very easy to not talk about cricket.
Me hear me and when I do it all the time.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
Yea. But yeah, so are you guys ready, Yes, let's go.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Okay, So I thought that, I mean, I thought, maybe,
you know, we could start with a non cricket sport first,
because we'll hear a lot about cricket, so I thought
maybe we could begin with a non cricketing sport, in fact,
sport that yeah, it's not a racket sport either, doesn't
involve a ball, So I thought we could start with

(03:24):
that first. The first person that we'll be hearing from
is Udit Mishra. He writes for the Economy. For the paper,
he has a column with us called Explained Speaking. He
writes for the Explained team quite a bit. So here's
Mishra talking about his favorite sporting moment of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, it's not exactly a one particular moment, but I
follow Formula one in a bizarre manner. I follow it
on some years and then I let it go because
Formula one has a history of cars dominating and then
very boring. But every three four years it becomes very
interesting because there's massive surgeon competition. This was one of
those years, and so it's not exactly a moment, but

(04:10):
it's the last, you know, the last three four months
of Formula one racing where the defending champion, Max was
Stappen for Red Bull Racing, was completely down and out
in the first half of the year till August. But
in the last nine races he's won six of them
and came very close to actually winning the title. And
in fact, one could say that he actually won more

(04:32):
Formula one races this year than the two McLaren drivers,
one of them being Lando Norris, who eventually won because
of the point system. But if you were to just
look at the number of races one, Max was Stappin
ended up winning more races in the year. So why
it stood out for me is because I was never
a big Max Verstappen fan. I used to root for
Lewis Hamilton, who was an underdog when he sort of started.

(04:55):
So I used to root for Hamilton. He's also one
of his kind, you know, the hardly any black drivers
and very different from the nasty Formula One driver that
we all know of the winners. And I sort of
reached a breaking point, as it were, in twenty twenty
one when in the last Abudai robbery almost unfairly, Lowis

(05:18):
Hamilton lost out to maxw Was stappan that victory would
have made Lewis Hamilton the eight time world champion, an
unparalleled achievement, and he got stuck with seven. And since
then there's been a slide, And so I did, like
Max Verstappen, almost like a kid fan, still sulking.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
Over Louis Hamilton's fate.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
But the second half of this year actually I found
that I was rooting for Max because he showed even
though this year was not when he actually won, I
suspect that this year will be the year and his
performance would be the one that would actually turn him
into the legend that he actually is, because he scored

(05:59):
all these points and he won all these races with
the car which was nowhere near as dominating as the
McLaren's or even other cars like Mercedes. So what I
saw in the second half of the year was this
man really at the top of his craft, not making
mistakes and really getting more out of you know, where
the man matters more than the machine. And that was

(06:20):
sort of the I think the standout moment or notion
in my head for this year. Yeah, that's pretty interesting.
I'm because a because we generally feel I I at
least generally feel that after Formula One went off the
quote unquote big TV channels, right, it's not on any
of the OTT platforms, the mainstream. Once at least I

(06:43):
thought the viewership would have been impacted, but I've realized
that it has like a niche following of its own,
maybe because I've tried to survive your Jobio. But then
as his storylines arted, this was happened, which was crazy.
He was more than one hundred points behind in the
championship race in August and he lost the title to
and the Norris by just two points. So it's it's
quite stunning. In that sense.

Speaker 6 (07:04):
Actually, I want something read to that I have stopped
following Formula one, like what it was saying there for
a long time. I mean, I don't think I've actually
followed form La one properly since my undergrad days, which
is like what sixteen years back now. But I did
watch the movie this year, the One movie and something
that you said me here on the niche following that
it has like I watched a couple of times in
theaters and the first time I saw it was probably

(07:26):
the second or third day if I remember right, and
the theater was packed.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
Here in Noida.

Speaker 6 (07:31):
People came wearing formla on like merchandise, and there was
like huge cheers every time there was like a reference.

Speaker 5 (07:38):
I think Blues Hamilton comes once.

Speaker 6 (07:40):
These real life drivers come here and they're in cameos
and they're like massive cheers, like okay, so this is
like a proper phenomenon.

Speaker 5 (07:48):
No, And I think what you said, the drive to
survive think but.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
By in Noida, the Formula one is the mainstream sport.

Speaker 6 (07:56):
Yeah, probably not, I guess, crowd, but I think I
mean the success of one movie overall kind of tells
me that, yeah, I drive to survive and all these
recent developments have I mean kept the sport relevant, I
would guess, I mean not for me. I mean I
love the movie, I still don't didn't follow the season,
but I thought that was interesting and me.

Speaker 7 (08:14):
Just like said, you know, I'm only fascinated by the
fortunes of one guy, usually Lewis Hamilton, and so this
season was very fascinating for me because it's Lewis Hamilton,
one of the more story drivers, racing for the first
time with Ferrari, one of the most story teams, and
he ends up I think the season he was what
six or something in the standings. So that's how terrible

(08:37):
the combination was. You know, on paper it looks great,
but that's how terrible it went. And there was this
one moment where I think he was desperately trying to
tell his team that, you know, let me go ahead.
I think this this was during Miami or something, where
he's trying to tell his team that, you know, please
let me overtake.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
My teammate Charles.

Speaker 7 (08:55):
Leclerk, and both of us have different strategies let me overtake,
and these guys are taking their owns time. Okay, it's
a sport of speed, and these guys are going being
glacial about it. So Hamilton finally snaps on the radio, Yeah,
have a tea break while you're at it. You know that,
I think summed up beautifully what how frustrating it can
be for somebody like a Lewis Hamilton, and how frustrating

(09:17):
it can be.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
For some of his fans.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it's quite scunning. I actually purchased the subscription just
to watch Formula One at the start of the season,
and I ended up watching just like one lap of
the Saturday sprint race. That's that I have not followed
the rest of the season as close as I would
have liked. But he was hoping he knew your resolutions.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
And all that.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's an interesting first one, Sashan, What do we have
for next?

Speaker 5 (09:40):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (09:41):
So next, I think let's talk about what is perhaps
the most popular sport in the world. And the person
that we'll be hearing from is Sidharvasni. He's part of
the business team. He primarily reports on data and the
economy and so you know, a lot of looking at numbers,

(10:02):
so he was happy to take out time and talk about,
you know, something other than that. So here's Siddhat talking
about his favorite moment.

Speaker 8 (10:12):
Well, if you narrow it down to just one moment,
it's going to be difficult for simple as I support
Liverpool Football Club and they won the league title the
English Premier League after having changed the legendary manager Argan
Club last year and they went to under the new
manager in the first offing.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
But in terms of the big story from a football.

Speaker 8 (10:31):
Perspective, European football perspective, I would say it's always romantic
when a small club, a so called small club does
well and does so well that it actually wins something.
Every once in a while you see that a small
club beats a Barcelona, a Real Madrid, a Manchester City.
But Crystal Palace, which is a London based club did

(10:52):
is in the midst of the best year of its existence.
In May it defeated Manchester City in the final of
the FACU, which is the oldest football competition in the world,
defeated City one nil. City obviously managed by Pep Guardiola,
who is widely regarded as the greatest manager ever and City.
Manchester City are of course the most dominant first in

(11:14):
English football for the last decade. What has also helped
is their manager Oliver Glasner, who took over in February
twenty twenty four if I remember correctly, and he's by
all accounts the best manager they've ever had. He is
probably in the top two three four best manager in
the Premier League right now. Currently they are Palace fourth

(11:36):
in the Premier League four twenty so they are in
what is called the Champions League position, which is Champions
League obviously the most prestigious competition in Europe. They should
not be in that position. There is no tangible reason
for them to be there. It's just that they are there.
And to be fair, Christatasant the only team doing really
well right now. When I say only team, I mean
the so called small club the likes of Brighton and

(11:57):
hu Albion. They have sole players of three hundred million
over the last two or three years.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
Itself.

Speaker 8 (12:02):
Kaisied Of Philippe Kaisiedo and Ecuadorian was sold to Chelsea
for one hundred and fifteen million pounds. Alexis McCallister of
the work of Winner with the Argentina was sold to
Liverpool for thirty five to fifty million, depending on which
number you believe. And they are I think seventh or
eighth right now, and they're also working under a really
young thirty to thirty three year old manager who also
came from the German league, the Bundesliga, the second division

(12:23):
at actually, and they're all just swinning. Another club Bournemouth,
who have literally sold their entire defense this summer. Dean
Huizen went to Realmitted for fifty million pounds. Miloshquirkish Hungarian
went to Liverpool for forty million. Another Ukrainian center back
Zabani went to PSD Paris for seventy million. And they
have had a bad few set of results the last

(12:43):
five six games, but they were in the top ten
of the league where they shouldn't have been. So for me,
the story of Pray twenty five is these so called
smaller clubs doing exceedingly well. Just to give an idea
of how small Bournemouth is, their entire stadium has only
can house maybe twelve thousand people, which is a sixth
of let's say Arsenal, a fifth of Liverpool, a seventh

(13:06):
of Manchester United. Their revenues are incredibly small in terms
of what they can generate on their own and not
what they get from let's say broadcast and TV deals.
Which is split fairly evenly amongst Premier League clubs, but
they should not be doing so well. So for me,
it's the small clubs who are the story of twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 9 (13:25):
It it's just amazing how he started with Liverpool winning
the title and just ignored the current struggles of Liverpool.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So let's just see if you can get him on
poard and drag him on that. But it is funny
because when he mentioned small clubs, he was just going
to talk about Arsenal although they can classify as a
small club name no, but that's.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
A really nice point that he brought up.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
I think Newcastle are technically not a small club, but
they also won I think after ages.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
I mean they haven't won a title or anything, so
Crystal Palace won something.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
And for Crystal Palace to do to defeat City a
fake Cup final is yeah, it was amazing and I
think they followed it up with the Community Shield winn
as well at the start of the season by beating
Liverpool And yeah, I mean, as an Arsenal fan, I'd
say thanks to Crystal Palace for those two big results
which probably meant a bridge as could come to Arsenal

(14:16):
Lisz talks rows and yeah, it's nice for them to
win something, and yeah, good. Always these underdog stories are
always fascinating. I think right now, as fear recording, they've
slipped down a little bit. But yeah, his point stands.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
By the way, couldn't you tell that he looks at
a lot of data.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, that's what when I said, right, it's a good point.
He's a proper numbers man and I'm Bonemouth coustadium capacity,
which is like quite stunning, I must say, very very.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
Passionately put forward to.

Speaker 6 (14:42):
I think you could see that he was a numbers
man from the way he explained all those transfers and
things like that.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, let's move to the number three, shank.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, let's move to the number three.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
And I was thinking, maybe we could do one more
non cricketing sport before we move on to cricket. Okay,
So then next person that we'll be hearing from is Asadraman.
He writes on politics, specifically he covers the Congress Party.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
Okay, so this is what he had to say.

Speaker 10 (15:16):
See, I watch a range of sports, so I watched tennis, cricket, football,
and try to stay updated with some other sports also
like Formula One and some motorsports also so but the
one moment that really struck out for me this year
was the French Open final in the Tennis Grand Slam,
in which Carlos Alcarez defeated Yannick Sinna. So the two players,

(15:42):
they are the next Roger Federer versus Nadal, sort of
rivalry has been brewing between them, and so I felt
that that match had everything because like it started off
with Sinner, you know, very being very dominant and completely
running all over Alcara, and it was a five set match.
In the first two sets, it was all Sinner and

(16:05):
Sinner was way ahead of Alcaraz, and then in the
third set, Alcaraz had to defend three match points and
it was almost like it was that match was done,
Like I remember watching it at my home in Lucknow.

Speaker 8 (16:19):
I was on leave at the time.

Speaker 10 (16:20):
One of the reasons why I got to watch that
match in pieces because I was on lead and the
third set was almost done, and I was thinking that
the match is almost over. There are three match points,
Sinna's going to win one of them and the match
will be over. But Alcaraz managed to win all the
three match points. Basically defended all three match points one
that point, went on to win the set, and then

(16:41):
went on to win another two sets and win the match.
So if you think about the scale of the comeback,
it was not just in that set, but it was
also that Alcaaz had to could not put a foot
wrong once he had gone down by two sets, and
once those three match points were there, it was all about, like,

(17:02):
you know, everything had to be really really perfect from him.
A little slip up would have given Janick Sinner a
chance to win the match. So I think that moment
really stuck with me, and I think this whole year,
all the sports that I've watched, I think it's one
of those moments you know that a great comeback in
a sports, in a match, in a game is something
that really stays with you.

Speaker 7 (17:22):
Yeah, absolutely, I think, and infect in tennis, I think
more than any other sport. Now it becomes a slightly
easier to like picture yourself in the middle considering it's
a very one on one gladiatorial sport in a sense, right,
And you always when you're trying to imagine sport and
you're trying to imagine yourself in the middle of the

(17:43):
ticket of action, you're always trying to think I will
be so low in the whatever year and then I'll
make a comeback. So from that perspective, I think it
was one of the as you said, one for the ages.
The scale of the comeback was insane. A lot of
people would have switched off the TVs and then maybe
next day would have found something special.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Up one hundred percent.

Speaker 7 (18:03):
So this was one of the best moments I think
sporting wise in the year winnag anything.

Speaker 6 (18:08):
Yeah, I mean easily top three for me as well.
Incredible match had shared a stat recently. I think it's
not about the French Open itself, but incredibly after sixteen
matches officially the end of the year, Alcaraz and Ciner
I've played sixteen matches and the number of points one
in their rivalry so far is equal sixteen hundred and

(18:28):
fifty one points, like the actual points that you win
during it at a match like that you love forty
love that point tally is exactly level after sixteen matches.
I think someone had shared this start recently, and I
went and checked their sixteen matches and total points and
all that, Yeah, turned out to be true. It's the
year of sincras so to speak, twenty five them splitting

(18:49):
the four Grand Slams to each and alcast finishing year
and number one, but Ciner winning the year in finale.
Pretty incredible, how this rivalry is developing. Yeah, twenty twenty
five will be defined in tennis as the year Siner
and Alcarez stepped up big time and left everyone behind them.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
Let you worried about the gulf in gap between them
and the rest of the field.

Speaker 6 (19:10):
Kind of might make it a little too predictable, but
they are playing at a different level compared to the
two and that French Open final will be one for
the ages five hours and twenty nine minutes if I remember,
greatly incredible match and so many twistenturns just epick between
these two.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Okay, perfect, So now we move on to cricket. Okay,
there were a bunch of people who wanted to talk
about cricket. Cricket was part of their favorite sporting moment
of twenty twenty five, and we'll begin with Paramita Chakrabati.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
She is part of the National Opinions Team.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
She writes about books about gender, about the workplace politics.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
And this is what she had to say.

Speaker 11 (20:00):
I think for me, the standout moment this year would
be the women's World Cup win in November. You know,
everybody's talking about how it is the nineteen eighty three moment.
It totally isn't simply because they've been there before. When
the men's cricket team went to England in nineteen eighty three,
there were rank outsiders, nobody had any expectations of them.
This women's team, however, were in two World Cup finals.

(20:22):
They came very close to winning it in twenty seventeen,
so this just seemed like a homecoming of sorts. But
what I really really enjoyed was how the women paid
tribute to the ones who came before them and how
they paved the way for those after them. I don't
know if you saw this interaction they had with the
president after the win where they spoke of how they

(20:43):
have picked up the pieces from mithilaraj Diyanadolji and Junchopra
and how their journey has been made easier because of that.
So any sort of sisterhood is something that I have
deep regard for, and it has shown in the way
this women have played. You know, they're not most of
them are not from big cities. They've come from the
margins of India, but the way they came together on

(21:05):
that field, it was something amazing. I think that is
my standout moment.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Was there any particular moment in any particular match that's you.

Speaker 11 (21:14):
I think Amanjo course catch to get the South African
captain out in the final.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
She was almost losing it.

Speaker 11 (21:22):
She juggled around with it and when she finally caught it,
you could have seen the look on the South African
captain's face, but it was amazing. I think that was
a moment that will stand out for me.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (21:33):
I actually loved how Barubata basically made it a point
to kind of say that, you know, let's stop trying
to get equivalence with the men's port in this and
trying to say that, okay, mens, you are the nineteen
eighty three men.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
So that I think was a lovely way to put it.

Speaker 7 (21:49):
I completely agree with her that this maybe not be
the nineteen eighty three moment for women's make considering they'd
reached the final a couple of times before this, but
they had not been able to get past And we've
done multiple stories also in the lead up to the
World Cup or in the past couple of years about
the kind of things that women's cricketers in India have

(22:10):
had to India, there's somebody who've never been given their due,
you know, you had I think almost fifteen years after
the IPL started, we got a women's league that also
like five teams.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
All of that.

Speaker 7 (22:22):
There's always that talk about how it's never traveling, it's
always like maybe.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
In one city, all of those things.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
But yeah, I mean this final that happened that too
in Mumbai was clearly the crowning moment of women's cricket
in India because you had full fans, you had very
passionate fans, many of them had followed them for a while,
so you had everything and it was definitely the crowning.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Moment for women's cricket in India, or in fact the
World League.

Speaker 9 (22:47):
Actually, the only reason only way I see there are
some similarities between nineteen eighty three and twenty twenty five
is on both instance, I feel the teams were completely dismissed.
There weren't many chances given to any of them. I
know that India were favorites and home soil and everything,
but wider audience beyond the circle that closely followed women's cricket,

(23:08):
there was still a lot of cynicism.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
I feel.

Speaker 9 (23:10):
I don't know when I if he fit the same
because he follows the team much closer than I do.
But the level of cynicism I felt was the same.
And also the neglect from the administration was at some
level also quite similar. So those are the two reasons.
So I feel that it is similar to nineteen eighty three,
but not the bigger, broader picture of course.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
No, I just speak for the semicism.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
Yeah, that definitely middle of the tournament, after they lost
those three matches. I think even they would agree that
they weren't getting things right and it didn't look like
a champion team, but credited him for how they turned
things around. I mean, yeah, goes without saying easily. The
moment of twenty twenty five for me was that, actually
the semi final was probably a bigger moment, so to speak.
But yeah, the eventual catch that happened precre took just

(23:57):
be replayed over and over again. Yeah, moment of the
year for me, if you had to pick one. Okay, guys,
So now we are moving on to another person. Her
name is Nionica Boss. She is part of the Bomba Bureau.
She writes about local governance and a lot of civic issues,
and she's going to be talking about the cricketer who

(24:19):
perhaps has the most fans in India.

Speaker 5 (24:22):
Maybe I'm right.

Speaker 12 (24:24):
If one were to ask me about my favorite sporting
moment of the year, it has to be Coalie's knockout
performances and those centuries against South Africa in the three
match ODI series which concluded earlier this year, earlier this month. Actually, really,
I mean, it felt so amazing to watch Kali, you know,
back in his form and just to get that glimpse

(24:46):
of the old Kalie because for me, I started watching
cricket because and around the time when Kali joined the
Indian cricket team. So just to get a glimpse of
that old Coali bag felt so amazing. And the fact
that this performance has come against the backdround of so
much speculation and so much criticism, and he had been
going through a bad slump for a while now, and

(25:08):
earlier this year when he played during the Border Gavasker Trophy,
his performances had been poor and then he ended up
announcing his retirement from the Test match and soon After that,
after the Indian Cricket team won the T twenty World
Cup at West Indies, Collie arounced his retirement from the
T twenty format as well. So really, at present he's

(25:30):
only left with the ODI Cricket matches to prove his
metal as a cricketer. And it's not just the professional criticism,
but also Coley has been subjected to so much scrutiny
in his personal life and with so much negativity around you,
you really need to be in a solid space to
just block out the noise and continue practicing and continue

(25:53):
your just to have that kind of dedication towards the sport.
So really, you know, after all this at the end
of the year, when we got to see Coley scorer
one thirty five in the first match and then one
zero two in the second match, it felt amazing. And
you know, like after the match ended, I would watch
and wait to just your Coale speak because he's such

(26:13):
an excellent speaker as well. So yeah, I mean it
just unlike the bandwagon of selectors and former players and
team management who would go on television to give their comments,
the way Coley stayed away from the limelight and trained
hard and delivered when it mattered the most, Jillie was
something for me.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
That's been an interesting year for Coley, now, you guys.

Speaker 9 (26:37):
I mean, from the ipal title, to everything that happened
between him and Gotham Gamble at least reported to happen
between him and Comb the differences and everything too, then
ending the year on such a high that, I mean,
I'll be very surprised if he isn't in the squad
for the fifty oh World up.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
In twenty twenty seven. What a year for him, I think.

Speaker 6 (26:55):
Slightly unfortunately the whole ipl title kind of I mean,
it was great on the day that they won, but
all the things that happened afterwards kind of took the
sceene away from it, I thought, significantly as it I
mean should kind of disappointing how things spanned out after that,
So I think I don't think it was celebrated, so
to speak, as much as it might have been otherwise.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
So for him to come back to the ODA format, and.

Speaker 6 (27:20):
You know, with all the speculation about his future, both
him and Drow, it to show what they're capable of
in this, I mean the format that they both aced
through their careers, both of them probably are best at
fifty oh cricket among all three formats. So for them
to show that they still have the fight, it's been
interesting to see. I think. Yeah, twenty twenty seven is
still quite a bit away, so that sense, can they

(27:41):
keep this going with just one format over the next year.
I mean, in terms of their talent, there is no doubt,
but do they still have the drive to hang around
till twenty twenty seven. I think it's more them question
than otherwise, I think. So it's going to be an
interesting year to see how they mix and match their
playing time.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Something to look forward to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Okay, guys, So although me and you mentioned in the
beginning that you know, we spoke to people not from
this sports team, there is one exception to that, which
is that I spoke to some leave the way they
the National sports editor and also I guess k Boss,
and not because you asked me to or he asked
me to. I just really wanted to speak to him

(28:20):
and I thought since we were talking about cricket, I
should also ask him about this, and yeah, I think
he had a very interesting moment to share.

Speaker 13 (28:31):
So I'll say that I was there, so it has
stuck in my mind. India England series the most what
if series ever? Like anything could have happened.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Right.

Speaker 13 (28:41):
So there you are sitting I think it was the
Lord's Match, third Test match, and it's getting late, and
it's getting very late in India that people here are
waiting for you to file a copy. It's almost reaching
Levenish right, and on the cruise is Siraj and Jadeja.
They are having the partnership of their life now. They
were supposed to score some seventy eighty runs for the

(29:03):
last wicket and they're almost reaching there. Now they're like,
say about thirty runs closed, right, And there you're waiting
to write what is it the greatest ever come back
by India or is it going to be a case
of England snatching victory from the jaws of defeat? And
all those phrases are in your mind and what to
write and what not to write, when to start one
to end and again like I'm all set to write, okay,

(29:26):
since these guys are playing exceptional cricket, like Siraj is
middling every ball and Jadeja is not giving him strike
and Siaj is saying donah, I'll play like you don't
worry at all, and absolutely his confidence is perfectly so
he has the right to bat, and he is batting.
And then after tea or lunch it was, and they
get show up. But she's now show but she has
got an injured hand. He's got fractured one hand, and

(29:48):
he's just bowling with his one hand, and he bowls
a ball to Siaj and Siraj actually from the middle
of his bat he defends the ball, and that ball
in a crazy, freaky thing which I've never ever seen
in cricket. The ball bounces in front of him and
then suddenly takes a u turn toward the stump and
there's a small pebble on the way. It climbs over

(30:09):
it and hits the stump and just one baale drops right.
So I haven't ever, never ever seen a drama like this.
It's a crazy moment which just still gets stuck in
my mind. And Siraj was here for our idea exchange
and he said, Sota, I remember that ball, the bail
falling from the stumps, and he still gets nightmares for that,

(30:32):
and again he insists that please men a ball middle
of the bat. Samarata I had not edged it. I
was not beaten by that ball, but still I got out.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (30:41):
I mean, guys, I think when we just think of that,
there's so many what if moments, and this one happened
in such slow motion, right the moment the ball hits
Siraj's bat to hitting the stumps.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
It's almost filmy ending to it.

Speaker 9 (30:55):
The slow motion and the celebration and one guy is
almost in tears and everything that happened over there.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
It was incredible, and especially how it kind of framed
the whole series.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Right like before the team went there, everybody was saying that,
you know, very young team Shubern deals captain.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, totally, no, we're owl the fare. All of that
is happening.

Speaker 7 (31:16):
Then suddenly you have this seesawing of a series which
ends with India basically I think winning by w six
runs or something in the final Test, like as close
as it can get. And if I'm not mistaken, this
was the one tour where all matches went for all
five days, so all twenty five days action.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
We got so insane, insane number of things happening in.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
This whole series and kind of fitting like how he
came back and was the face of the heart of
India's win in the fifth Test. That level the series,
you know that. I think the moments moments almost defined
the series. The Lord's incident then, you know, stepping on
the boundary rope in the fifth Test in a catch
that could have potentially been costly and then running into bowl.

(31:57):
I think he bowled like a crazy number of deilties
or only pays it from either side to play five
matches and then to deliver that final spell. Yeah, in
incredible moments, just a Siraj. Moments from that series will
make it too many highlights of the year, I think.

Speaker 9 (32:11):
Yeah, in the way Australia thrashing England right now, it
just goes to showkeep dono teams India England, Kitna, so
error Pronta and it made it's like watching two football
teams with open defenses right, just entertaining.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
So I think it was one of those kinds of series.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Okay, So this is our last cricketing bit. This one
is coming from Sonal Gupta. She writes features and explainers
on a wide range of things from art and culture
and international affairs and me obviously spoke to her.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
So this is what she said.

Speaker 14 (32:45):
So for me twenty twenty five. I wouldn't really call
it like one moment, but as someone who doesn't really
consider herself as a cricket fan. And I know this
comes across as something you can't really say indieah, but
as someone doesn't follow cricket a lot, and I probably
know like four or five people in the current squad.
But someone I've still come across because I follow so

(33:07):
much of social media for my work is Ashleep saying
that man is after the gen Z heart. I feel
like he's also twenty six years old. He has a long,
long career ahead of him, I'm sure, but he's so
fun to follow on social media because I think he
really brings this behind the scenes vibe to the whole
cricket squad. You always see, you know, like we have

(33:27):
Wirat Koli, you have Rohit Sharma and all these other people,
and you see that their feeds on Instagram are very
like either they're very branded or they're curated and very polished.
Everything is neat and perfect. But I think Ashleep saying
brings like this very chaotic energy to Instagram. You see
him following all the trends that are going on. I
saw one reel where you know, he's dancing alongside Copiada,

(33:51):
and it's very funny to see like these men in
blue being awkward being you know, they're dancing. There was
a very recent reel that came out with Ratkoli that
I think, did you well. I think it had like
some over one hundred million views or something, and it's
just a joke about how Viratkuli couldn't take a century
because the target I don't know what it's called, but
the run rate or whatever it was not you know,

(34:11):
enough for him to actually score a century. And I
found that really funny and I'm sure other people did
as well. But then there was a parallel reel that
came out about the amount of convincing that Ashti had
to do to get Virat to participate, and I find
it really funny. I think for someone who was like
a non cricket fan actually really brings like the homely,
the human side.

Speaker 9 (34:31):
Of cricketers alive and any twenty twenty five trend that
he really picked on and did well in his reels.

Speaker 14 (34:38):
I think a lot of like these recreating viral music
videos you had him doing Damien Girl, I don't know
if everyone knows about it. But it's like you lip
sync and you follow along this song and he did that,
and that's how I actually discovered him. And I found
that hilarious because I've never seen like professional cricketers, especially
like national team cricketers do this before, so that was
very funny.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
I think Indian cricket does need some characters like R
Steve because otherwise, a you have somebody like a Rohit
who can be really funny, but their social media is
full of some sponsored posts, branded content, all of that nonsense.
But yeah, so I think actually in that sense, I
find him really hilarious. Some of the videos that he does.

(35:20):
There are also these antiques of him, you know, mimicking
fans and all of that while they're shouting SI's name
and all of that, and joy Swal's name and all
of that, and just a very colorful character. Lovely to
see you.

Speaker 9 (35:34):
I mean, I do that all the time, but not
on this one. I think he should be the official
behind the scenes guy of the Indian team. I mean
matches coming in there might as well on tour.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
It might be of some use.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
I was thinking of. Yeah, I don't disagree with any
of this. Like, it's great what he does.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
I just remembering the TV that used to be there
a while back, which eventually send it into a little
bit of cringe.

Speaker 5 (36:02):
I hope actually doesn't. I mean, he comes up us
as a naturally.

Speaker 6 (36:05):
Funny guy, so he continues doing this because yeah, I mean,
I definitely agree. It's what Sonald said. It's just not
common in men's cricket. The women's team, I think, is
a little more different that way, especially. I mean, yeah,
Jenny is probably the first name that comes to mind
when it comes to these Instagram stuff. They generally have
a much more casual vibe about their social media than

(36:25):
the men's team. I mean, whether it changes or not
in the immediate future remains to be seen, but yeah,
what Azeem does for the men's team is pretty unique.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
It's very interesting character foricial.

Speaker 7 (36:35):
And because you mentioned cringe, I think I remember it's
very easy for a lot of these franchises to ipl
franchises at least to get influencers who will do like
border on the proper cringe just because today is a
popular and whatever not Like I think LSG and all
of these guys kajo social media.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, that is like utter.

Speaker 9 (36:56):
Cringe it's like Yucky take cautcha, but its sanitized. Yeah,
like Instagram now or so that's a refreshing. But on
this note, now there is if anyone who slightly is
interested in Indian football, it's extremely funny, sad way may
to watch Awadi is doing. Is this player with Kerala

(37:16):
Blasters and national team and art real of him trying
to be an uber driver or Santa Claus Bundra road pay.
It's just funny that what il guys are doing when
there's nothing happening kind of a thing. But yeah, it's
nice when players go out of that whole compulsion of
being like very image conscious and sanitized on their social

(37:39):
media and do something fun and in.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
Fact, you know because when I mentioned Jemima, I remember
a bit of world but I think they had gotten
Chiagosta to like meet the team in the dressing room
and these guys forced her to sing a song and like,
and Cherago says a few verses and Jemmy being Jemmy,
just suddenly stands up on the table points and says
up really fascinating, quick quitted guys, like very very fun

(38:06):
to see.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
Okay, so now I'm finally moving on from cricket. Okay,
we will be hearing from Sakshi Chuan. She is, well,
she's based in Delhi. Oh this might be basketball, yes, yes, yes,
this is basketball.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
How do you know that? Mee all?

Speaker 9 (38:22):
I mean from all the interactions I've had with it,
it's always been about basketball.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
So yeah, that's correct. In fact, it was after we
recorded that I found out that she used to play
for UP.

Speaker 15 (38:33):
So I basically have two and they're both basketball related
because that's the sport I follow. So one is In January,
seventy fourth Inter National Championship was held in Gujrat where
the match was going on between Punjab and Indian Railways,
which was a neck to neck match throughout the time
and in the last the score was seventy two for

(38:55):
Punjab and seventy for Indian Railways with the two seconds
left on the show. And in those two seconds, this
player he plays for India, also said Singh seko he
in a very disbalanced position, shorter three pointer. We call
it the buzzer beater shot and it went in and
Railways one seventy three seventy two. And the other was

(39:17):
during the Under nineteen Junior National Championship in Louiana. The
Punjab team was playing with Uttar Pradesh and usually you
have tall players in basketball. So this Pnjab player who's
not like average height, his name was Migaindre Singhaliwal.

Speaker 5 (39:33):
He went over like a six one six two guy.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
And did a post a dunk.

Speaker 15 (39:38):
We call it post a dunk because he went all
over his body and slammed it in the ring. So
that was the moment, like the entire stadium stood up.
We were obviously watching it online. Those two moments were
like the Aura moments of twenty five.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
By the way, when you said you're going to talk
about basketball, I thought you're going to talk about NBA.
I did not know that you're going to talk about
these specific moments from the domestic scene in India.

Speaker 15 (40:07):
Yes, because ideally everybody likes to talk about NBA international
players and what they do. But I feel personally that
there is a lot of recognition that the game needs
in India, and also the fact that we also have
very good players, like we do have players from India
who have gone and played in the NBA G League
or who have gone and played in China, and so

(40:29):
behind all these places where the talent is considered to
be top notch. So I'm personally a fan of watching
domestic basketball and trying to lift the game from at
the domestic level. I want the game to be lifted
from there. That's why my moment is not n WE related.
My moments are completely domestic to highlight that these players

(40:53):
are also doing similar stuff. Like how Stephen Curry shoots
the ball with one leg flying in the air. That
is exactly how sick was shot. Was his one leg
was flying in the air and he was almost about
to fall to the sideline and he shot it in
that disbalanced mannal.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
It's actually quite a stunning thing. Guys. I mean, I
don't know.

Speaker 9 (41:12):
I don't follow basketball that much, either NBA or the
domestic game. I think you do follow Basketballna.

Speaker 7 (41:19):
Yeah, and I think, see, I understand the point that
she's making that India does have talent, but then see,
I think a lot of Indian players, like you have
principle saying, who's been given an opportunity to go play
in the G League And see I've watched those games
right when he was playing in the G League against
other teams, and like he's what he's summoned six eight
or something. He was playing in the power forward the

(41:41):
position back in that league, and he was legitimately getting
bullied at the post, right.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
So I've seen that and that kind.

Speaker 7 (41:49):
Of informed the decision that maybe Indians still need a
lot more to be playing even in the G League.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Forget the NBA actual league, but even the G League.

Speaker 7 (41:58):
So yeah, I mean, I completely understand our point that
India does have a lot of talent, but it's not
as if they've not been given opportunities. We've had multiple women.
You have Honey Harsimran cor who's playing in a D
league university. We have guys like Sanjana Rames who are
playing in a D league university in US. So they

(42:19):
have been given those opportunities to make sure that they
are in the pathway, you know, to play in the
WNBA at some point.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
But those things haven't worked out. It must be because
of a reason.

Speaker 7 (42:29):
Like I'm not getting into that whole argument about genetics
and all of that, but I just feel that like
maybe there are certain things that are still not there
among the Indian players, at least.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
I guess so.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I guess so, I think for most of us who
aren't tuned into the sport that much.

Speaker 9 (42:45):
The saddest moment from basketball would be of that Haryana
player Hardy Krati I think his name was when the
pole fell on him when he was just trying to
go for a dunk.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
So that was one heartbreaking moment.

Speaker 9 (42:56):
And I think that's also the point in a way
that she's trying to make that India maybe players but
they don't get that kind of I don't know if
the infrastructure is so universally across India or what, But yeah,
that one kind of stayed with me that moment.

Speaker 6 (43:12):
No, but I mean, yeah, just one thing to add
is what Sashan said, like coming here, I was genuinely
surprised that she picked two Indian basketball moments.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
I didn't see that coming. So yeah, colored me surprise
for Shank.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Yeah, and in fact, talking about surprises, we have two
more moments to go and both of these actually kind
of surprised me, one more.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
Than the other.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
This next one is coming from Icha Sharma. She's actually
part of the podcast team. She's part of my team
and uh, actually yeah, why don't you, I mean clips
prothetral Diagachy Snakyapikya.

Speaker 5 (43:46):
So here's it cha, right.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
So for me, something that I have been following quite
recently is Moto GP and it's only been a year
for me, but I really love the sport at something
you know, which is technical and tactical at the same time,
and I really enjoy that there are so many different
rider styles and something that really stood out for me
this season was and for many others as well, was
Mark Marquez, you know, sealing his seven Premiers title at

(44:12):
the Japanese Grand Prix.

Speaker 5 (44:14):
And it wasn't just about his win, actually it was
you know, seeing.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
So many years of setbacks and it was like a
huge comeback for I think everyone. And apart from that,
you also have his brother, you know, Alex Marquez, who
got his first Motor GP win at the Spanish Grand
Prix Jurez. And in that Grand Prix also we saw
like Mark was crashing, but it was more like, you know,

(44:38):
you could almost feel that new chapter energy for Alex,
and of course you have the Silverstone where to be honest,
if you see from a different perspective, there was kind
of a late heartbreak for Cortaro, but you have the
Zechi winning there as well.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
And something which I can just not stop thinking.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
About is that like just related to Vizzeki was like,
and that he actually went on to win the Australian
Grand Prix after hitting a seagill at the start of it,
like early on in the race. So that was something
like that as well happened this season. And of course,
as I mentioned that, there were a lot of things
that happened this season, but it would be almost unfair

(45:17):
to not mention the French Grand Prix at Lemons where
Johann Zarco ending, you know, France's seventy one year of
wait for a home win, so you have even that
and yeah, so like just the season was everything that
you wanted to see and you know, lean.

Speaker 6 (45:37):
On well, those last too minutes actually felt like Greek
conlapin to me basically other than Ascelian GP and French
GP and those names. I mean, it just flew over
my head. Everything was just giving us all new ideas
for the next season.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
But it's sure for our listeners.

Speaker 9 (45:55):
I think it is very important to underland Year that
she is one of the pillars of the Game Time podcast.
She and Shashank they produce whenever whoever's available. I mean
we give random times, random days, and one of them
is always there and she's always this silent spectator, so
I would never have guessed that she's so deep into motorsports.
A spell motor GP so well, I think maybe we

(46:18):
can have some of it in the coming year. And
I don't think we cover motor GP a whole lot.

Speaker 7 (46:22):
I think the last piece that we've written on MotoGP
on maybe the website or the paper was when we
had written about.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
It coming to India at some stage, was it? Yeah,
they were talks about it right head if I'm not wrong, Yeah,
and then that feel true? Interesting? Interesting, good one. You
caught a soft guard there like the seagull on that
motor GP track.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Again, talking about sports that the Indian Express doesn't cover
chairs our final moment and this was the one that
surprised me the most, perhaps and this is coming from
al jun Sen.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
He is part of the explained team.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
And here's what he said, Sergeant, what is your favorite
sporting moment of twenty twenty five when the.

Speaker 5 (47:09):
Dodgers won the World Series.

Speaker 16 (47:11):
I think it was one of the most incredible sporting
spectacles I've ever witnessed. I know baseball isn't big in India,
but for all cricket nerds out there especially, I think
there's a lot that you will like about this sport.
And for me, the final of the World seies again.

(47:32):
This is a game seven, both teams have won three.
Each winner takes al and it's been pitted as a
David versus Goliath, story, right, It's the Los Angeles Dodgers
with the best player in the world and the biggest payroll,
versus the Toronto Blue Jays, who also have a big payroll,
but you know, they cast themselves as a team of
misfit underdogs. So the Blue Jays were winning for the

(47:54):
longest time until the ninethe innings. The ninth inning is
the final inning of a baseball game and a relatively
unknown player. So of all the Dodgers big name players,
they don't hit the home run. It's Miguel Rojas, who's,
you know, end of the bench kind of guy. He

(48:14):
hits an unlikely home run. This is I think his
first home run of a right handed pitcher in the
whole season, so it's like the probability of that happening
is just next to zero and ties the game.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
And then there are the Blue Jays still have.

Speaker 16 (48:30):
An innings to respond, and they almost win it, but
two completely incredible moments at the field right and matter
of inches, I don't even know how to describe it,
but one base running error by the Blue Jay's second
baseman and an incredible catch in the outfield where basically

(48:52):
the Dodgers center fielder bulldozes his right fielder to make
the catch, and the right fielder things that the ball
has dropped, but somehow the catch happened, and then the
game goes on for another two three innings and ultimately
the Dodgers win. I was supporting the Dodgers, so I
liked it right. If I was a Blue Jays fan,
I probably would have hated this game. But I think

(49:14):
this game was everything that I like about sports. It
was unpredictable, it was emotionally taxing in some ways, but
since I ended up on the right side of the game,
it was very rewarding. And for someone who's never watched
a game of baseball, I think you would have enjoyed

(49:34):
this game too. The emotion among the fans. You know
they're waiting for their first World Series, when you know
they're two outs away from winning it all. Then the
game is tied and then they end up losing so
that experience, again, I could only imagine what it would
have been in the stadium. And I was up till

(49:55):
what nine o'clock in the morning to watch this game,
so I stayed up night. Effectively, I was worth it,
and I was tired next day in office. I probably
didn't do a great job that day, but I thoroughly
enjoyed it. And one of my favorite sporting moments of
all time.

Speaker 7 (50:15):
Yeah, Urgin Domestic League World Series. I used to it,
but you know, I think maybe Urgin didn't touch upon this.
But what was fascinating about this whole Dodgers winning the
World Series was the fact that a lot of the base,
the supporter base of this team is primarily Latino. I

(50:39):
think the stadium that these guys play in is about
fifty thousand or something capacity.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Half of them are usually filled by Latinos.

Speaker 7 (50:47):
And this title came at a time when the Trump
administration was basically conducting raid after raid on you know,
people who of Latin American origin and basically throwing them
on the ground, putting them in jail, deporting them, all
of them. And there was a team here which was
kind of winning it for those guys. So I mean
the win was not just for the team. It was

(51:09):
a lot about the city. It was a lot about
the Latin Americans who who were basically being persecuted by
the administration in a sense. But then you also had,
you know, the team winning it for you. Oh, that's
a great point. I didn't know that, so that kind
of puts it into context also me. I think if
you remember when we had gone to Tokyo to cover
the Olympics, there was a lot of chatter back then

(51:31):
about this one Japanese.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Baseballer called Shohei. Yeah, like he was the face of
every magazine.

Speaker 7 (51:39):
You could imagine all of that was happening Chotani Place
for the Dodgers. He was one of the stars of
the team. He doesn't talk a lot like you don't
get you know, in American sport, you have athletes who
are outspoken. You have athletes who are like they will
come and say whatever. They are like cowboys of the court.
Right in chest you have somebody like a Bobby Fisher.
You have like in uh, whatever whatever sport you look at.

(52:03):
Right in basketball, you have Steph Curry, Lebron James, who
will call President Donald Trump at a press conference, never
caring about who's listening, what could happen to them. And
then you have somebody like a shy who is barely
ever speaks. He's demure if you will that if that
term can be used. So he's that kind. And still
almost all of America is kind of given their heart

(52:25):
to this guy for something that he does. He's great
at pitching, he's great at the batting as well. So
very fascinating sport. Obviously we don't cover it too much
because we have a rare urgents and Guta probably follows it.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
The rest of us don't. But that's putting it a
great context here. Good stuff there a surprising, very surprising
I thought when Shashanka before the recording, when he mentioned
there is a surprise sport, I was sure it would
be Frisbee because we last I don't know game time
start to to plug Frisbee over years, so I mean
as random Major League Baseball and Frisbee are as random
for me. With new apology our.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
Okah, perfect, guys, those were all the ten moments. You
guys want to share your favorite moments from twenty twenty five.

Speaker 7 (53:07):
Okay, I'll do one moment that basically everybody in the
sport was talking about. It got a lot of outsiders
to like kind of focus on this sport. And then
I will talk about a moment that maybe nobody noticed,
but then it kind of showed exactly what chess players are, right.
The first moment was Magnus Sculsen losing to Glucash and
then smashing his fist and that was the fish thump.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
On the table that was heard around the world.

Speaker 7 (53:33):
Once again, after I think the maybe after the whole
hands Nemen cheating allegations, this was the first time that
the rest of the world took notice of sport again
the chess again, right.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
So it was one of those moments.

Speaker 7 (53:46):
And because when I was in Norway, like that frustration
of Magnus for losing to Boukish, that didn't just end
with that fish smash, right, So I followed him on
the way to his car. This man gets into his car,
the door shut and hear him below his guts out
and I'm told that apparently while they were on the
way to the hotel, they had to stop the car somewhere.

(54:09):
Magnus had to get out, he had to again scream
into the whatever Norwegian air, and then he had to
get back into the car. So it was that frustrating.
Why was it frustrating is because Magnus at some point
believes that he is much better than everybody else in
the world, including Gouksh, and Goukish is the guy who
currently occupies the World Champions thrown only because Magnus is

(54:29):
somebody who's not interested in sitting on the throne anymore.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
So he's abdicated now sits on it.

Speaker 7 (54:34):
So Magnus was basically drawing that game till the end,
and there was one point at the end very blundered. Now,
Magnus Caulson's entire legend is built on the fact that
he could torture people in the end games. Like everybody
in chess agrees that Magnus is somebody whose primary folte

(54:54):
is the endgame.

Speaker 16 (54:55):
Right.

Speaker 7 (54:55):
He's taken games that anybody would offer draws for and
drag them out so much that people end up crumbling
and losing to him. That was his forty And for
Magnus to like kind of lose in an end game
by blundering was something that it was a slap to
the ego. Right then we started talking about what constitutes
good behavior on a chessboard was issuing disrespect to his

(55:18):
opponent and.

Speaker 5 (55:19):
All of that.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
So that was one moment.

Speaker 7 (55:21):
The other moment, the one that typified what kind of
awkward creatures chess players are, happened recently at the Global
Chess League closing ceremony. Right, there's this team called Alpine
SG Pipers with pragain and the Fabiano Ku and Leon
Mendosa all of them, so they won the title.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
After the presentations were done, they were told.

Speaker 7 (55:41):
Royal Opera House, johemm balcony, we give you champagn bottles
and you were supposed to like a formula and drivers,
do you have to spray it into the audience? Now,
a couple of problems with that. None of these guys
have ever clearly ever handled a champagne bottle. So they
are given three champagne bottles, like there is a video
of this. Also like they're very awkwardly looking around about

(56:02):
what to do with this. At some point they look
at the manager doing properly like a formula and driver would.
So then they also start like a very vigorously shaking
the bottle. Then at some point they managed to open
the bottle. After discussing the tragicory of the cork and everything.
The champagne starts flowing, it literally falls in front of
them on the parapet and it does not get stratched

(56:25):
into the crowd, which is a good thing because there
were a bunch of kids in the club. So yeah,
that kind of for me, it typified the kind of
power people chess players are absolutely like, Yesadachi's sometimes, you know,
tournament organizers bring these guys in things in key. You know,
chess players you should celebrate like other sportsmen or other athletes,

(56:46):
but it kind of, yeah, is lost on them.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
Yeah, I saw an Instagram story and that was extremely
funny the way they tried to do that. When do
you want to go with your moment or should I?

Speaker 12 (56:56):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (56:56):
Yeah, I mean I've already mentioned my moment in the
middle of the podcast. Yes, inter winning the Women's World Cup.
Don't think anything is going to top that. So that's
my ties.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
You can't go at me.

Speaker 9 (57:06):
Oh So then I was just, you know, slightly worried
that our moments could end up being the same because
I think this was one of those very like I mentioned,
it was a slow sports here when it comes to
Olympic sports, right, and it wasn't a lot. But one
thing that I really really it was heartwarming was Kilimbi
Shriekhant reaching that final of the Malaysia Masters. Right, it

(57:29):
was more than a thousand days I think you had
mentioned in your report, I thinky or twelve eight days
since he had reached that far in a tournament and
his expressions that win over Tanaka in the semi final.
I mean, she can't we've spoken so much, right, He's
this is this one player who've been we've been rooting
for to win succeed for a very long time, just

(57:52):
for the kind of player. He's a beautiful, elegant player
that he is, and it hasn't been a great couple
of years point in badminton, especially for Shrikant. He couldn't
go for the Parasa Olympics too, and at the start
of the cycle. To get that kind of a win
for him, it was just very pleasing. Not much happened
after that, but that's sport. I mean, you have that
one week, one day where things fall in place for

(58:13):
you and it was quite beautiful.

Speaker 5 (58:15):
Yeah, nice choice, mate. Actually I remember that week for
what she can't said.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
I can't remember if it was a quarter final or
the after the match when he was asked by the
BW media person, where have you been all this wild
and he said, yeah, even the referees have been asking me,
the charum players are asking me where I've been, So yeah,
it's very nice.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
It's just one of those twos that, yeah, that it
just kind of sums of why we like sport, right
and following the journey of these players, it's just incredible
when they're losing constantly and still every week they travel,
they wake up, they go and compete and lose and
then repeat the whole process again. For someone like them
to have such a win after more than twelve hundred
days of not so happy outings on the court, it

(59:01):
was really cool.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
Yeah, I mean, she can't someone you just I mean,
you just want to watch him play every time he
gets on the court. He is the kind who will
delight you and frustrate you an equal measure. But he's
the sort of player who makes you fall in love
with the sport as much as hate it sometimes. So
one of those clear guys you want to root for,
sort of player, not the most flawless, but certainly one
of the most elegant.

Speaker 5 (59:22):
Nice joys may actually just.

Speaker 6 (59:24):
One more from badminton, if I could pick, I think, yeah,
Sindhu at the World Championships, even though she fell short
of a medal, I think for a brief while there,
in that win against Wangxi, the second best player in
the world this year, she showed glimpses of I think
twenty nineteen since two. We were talking about that during
I think on the day of the match as well.
Is one of those moments that wound the clock back
for Sindhu and showed there is still like, I mean,

(59:46):
she's not done yet. I mean unfortunately she couldn't go
on to get that medal with just one more win needed,
but that that win against Wang Xi was something else
that day I remember, yeah pretty poor.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Yeah yeah, yeah quite assuming this be in a marathon episode.
Before we go, Shashan, do you want to come in
with your favorite moment.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
Maybe a favorite sporting moments. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
I love when, you know, I get to record with
people who are talking about something so passionately.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
So I had a great time talking to these people.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
Even though Jobeyo bold He Jobivo players, I had no
idea who they were most of them, But yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
I just like putting all of this together it's an
easy escape route.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
Man, cool, you just picked the easiest option last weekend,
you America Penn Fighting would Now, I don't know how
many people can relate to that one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Now we mentioned that brilliant, brilliant. It has been a
marathon episode. But will I guess you will allow us
to indul just once a year, and this has been
that kind of a thing.

Speaker 9 (01:00:45):
It's been a great year, and I guess I speak
for all of us here that you know hopefully it'll
be a cracking twenty twenty six. It's I mean, I
can't even think of the number of events that are
lined up. I was just doing some math and guys
on Indian soil itself. In the first one to eighty
one days of the year, from January to June, we

(01:01:06):
have one forty six T twenty games, men and women.
So good luck to us, God bless us everyone who's
watching the game and following T twenty cricket, because it's
going to be mad. The next six months of the
year are going to be mad for different reasons, which
we'll be talking about at a later episode.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
Yeah, it was just going to say twenty twenty six
promises to be utterly bonkers year for sport. Just the
World Cups and the Asian Games and all these big
events one after another.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
It's going to be, yeah, quite hectic.

Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
I think twenty twenty five was, like you said at
the start, very odd in that since post COVID, like
we've been having one major event or the other every year.
Twenty twenty five had just I think, yeah, Cricket World
Cup at home, but no multi sport major event. But yeah,
twenty twenty six promises to be bonkers.

Speaker 5 (01:01:53):
In that sense.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Lovely. That's it, guys, Thanks for listening, Thanks for sticking
with us all through twenty twenty five.

Speaker 9 (01:01:58):
We'll be back with the new episode of Game Time
in January, and before we go, wishing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
All of you are very happy New Year. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
You were listening to Express Ports by the Indian Express.
This week's show was edited and mixed by Sesh Bawar
and produced by me Shashang Bargev. If you like the show,
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Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
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