Dhruv Tara (Guiding Star). Review on Sportstar

Vividly remember those sunny afternoons or lazy evenings listening to the transistor(it was not called radio in our house. idk why?) along side my grandpa jumping in excitement(not my grandpa, me jumping)

after every mention of a square-cut by Gundappa or landmark reached by his brother-in-law(Gavaskar) during the West Indies pace attack.

Few years later, started watching TV in places like University Library(TV was new in small towns then). My father had least interest I guess but just for my sake used to drive me to the Univ library. Used to be so thrilled all day waiting to watch those highlights late in those chilly winters nights with Palmolive da jawab nahin ads in between. I can still remember Kapil Dev hitting John Emburey for four sixes in a row and that too in a test. There was no need for it in a Test. But Paaji was sheer entertainment whenever he used to bat, I guess nobody ever explained him the difference between test and ODI batting.:-)

Few months later, we got a TV at home and slowly started to watch live telecast of abroad series, espcially the NZ/Aus ones wherein used to wake up very early in the morning and glued to Idiot box till the last shout of the rickshaw wallah for school fell on my ears. After reaching school, the first thing to be discussed with classmates was Cricket and how I used to feel proud of being the latest score provider. By now, my passion for cricket had already taken over my studies. Started reading each and everything about cricket whenever and wherever I could get a chance upon. Thats when my Father subscribed for Sportstar, the weekly sports magazine along so many other weekly, fortnightly, monthly magazines.

Since my introduction to Sportstar, I had been a regular reader all during my school/college days. Now I read it online sometimes and buy it when in India. Most of the articles written are by prominent sports journalists and respected former sportspeople. The compilation of statistics of each player, team, game, ets is simply put. magnificent. Not just INternational but national statistics as well.

Got hooked on to Sportstar due to interest in Cricket but during the course also got involved into various other sports that this weekly used to cover. Coming from the same Publishers as The Hindu and Fr*ntline with an editor(N.Ram) who himself had been a former Tamil Nadu Ranji player, the articles and coverage were of high quality with unbiased viewpoints and details as minsucule as the background and circumstances of each player. For eg., the story of Bahadur Singh who went on to win Silver medal at Asian games in 10000m race barefoot as it was neither affordable to him nor to the SAI. If only he had enough support.

However, the most important aspect of this weekly is even though it started with exclusive coverage of Cricket and then tennis, eventually it catered to the needs of all other sports lovers at national and international level with the same professionalism, be it football, swimming, badminton, chess, etc

The quality of the paper is extraordinarily good similar to Fr*ntline and lil less thicker than National Geographic. The lensmen do a great job in capturing the true emotional moments of the players from angles one could only dream about to capture. The latest photos section on https://cricinfo.com is also great place to watch such photos.

One need not read all those biographies of great players to be inspired on/off the field. But if one can understand and appreciate the nuances of any sport, that in itself will make one a great sportsperson & a good person in Life. And that precisely is what Sportstar does.

And yes like others, the main attraction of this magazine for me was the centre page Jumbo Size poster of your favourite sports person. A colored poster on a thick paper, four times the size of a normal page which could be hung in your bedroom as a great inspiration.(i used to have those of Sabatini and for a long time of Steffi Graf till I started hallucinating every blonde haired girl as Graf). Posters of many other greats are still lying somewhere in the attic.

Please note that this is not a magazine only for people who like reading about cricket or tennis happenings only. But it also strives to bring forth the updates from the world of hockey, kho-kho, Kabaddi, Athletics, Chess, swimming, football, etc, etc which helps to appreciate the efforts of the likes of Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Nikhil Kanetkar, Tanmay Shrivastava, Ambatti rayudu, Rajeev Bagga, Nikhil Advani, Boppanna, Gopichand, Rajeev Bagga and many others who are/were equally hard working as Sania or Bhutia or others in the limelight.

Sincerely hope that Tanmay Shrivastava’s career does not end up the Ambatti Rayudu way.

If you do not know who these two guys are and want to be abreast of, better start reading this magazine in your library or start subscribing it. If you are the new age kind, hey there is an online version as well on https://sportstaronnet.com/.

Zindagi Hain Khel Koi Pass Koi Fail

Khiladi Hain Koi Anari Hain Koi

Babu Samjhe Kya Naana Samjhe Kya!

Today, while discussing with my Badminton partner about one of the interviews of Prakash Padukone and Martin Frost featured in sportstar long time back, I just felt like writing on Sportstar. My sports journey started with Cricket and then movied to other games including Badminton which has been my first Love since that excellent article. Thanks Sportstar.!