Sportscraft World

Jamaica's Usain Bolt receives applause after placing third in the men's 100m at the 2017 IAAF World Championships at the London Stadium in London on August 5, 2017. PHOTO | KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV | AFP  PARIS Sprint legend Usain Bolt said Sunday that he hopes to still see his dream of becoming a professional footballer come true when he undergoes a trial at German top-flight club Borussia Dortmund. However, the multiple Olympic and world champion admitted that he would prefer to play for Manchester United, his favourite team. "In March we're going to do a trial with Dortmund and that will determine what I do with that career, which way it goes," the 31-year-old world record holder told the Sunday Express. "If they say I'm good, and that I need a bit of training, I'll do it. "It makes me nervous. I don't get nervous but this is different, this is football now. It'll take time to adjust but once I play a few times I...

On 5 December 2013, India were awarded the rights to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, its first ever global football event of any stature. In early-2016, the AIFF proposed that 2017 could also see the long-awaited merger of the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League — India's two premier football tournaments — leading to a bigger and longer domestic competition. The proposal was later reworked and a three-tier league system — also a first in Indian football's history — was put forward. So even before it began, 2017 was earmarked as the year in which Indian football would come of age. Fast forward to the dying hours of what was perceived to be the most significant year in Indian football's history till date, the nation can look back in admiration at some path-breaking developments, and rue certain missed opportunities. India's 'Cup of Good Hope' Jeakson Singh Thounaojam celebrates with his team-mates after scoring India's first World Cup goal. ...

The next year will be big for almost all major sports India plays — cricket, hockey, badminton — with round-the-year action pinning fans down in front of TVs or stuck to mobile phones livestreaming the events. While 2017 saw Indian sport consolidate itself —  Virat Kohli  shone as cricket captain and badminton emerged as the Olympic sport with lots of excitement around it — 2018 should be a good indicator of where the country really stands as a sporting nation. The next year will be big for almost all major sports India plays — cricket, hockey, badminton — with round-the-year action pinning fans down in front of TVs or stuck to mobile phones livestreaming the events. The headline sporting event of the year, though, will be the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, a tournament that will be missing Italy, Chile and Holland in the list of the qualified 32. While Indians can sit back and revel in the neutral’s corner during the World Cup, they will,...

Bittersweet is perhaps the best phrase to sum up India’s sporting record in 2017. The Indian team under Virat Kohli played brilliantly in the Champions Trophy in England in June to make the final, but eventually ended up second best to Pakistan. Uday Deb The women repeated the performance a month later. Beating Australia in a pulsating semi-final, they were in a position to close out the final but eventually fell short by an agonising margin of 9 runs, to finish runner up behind England before a packed house at Lord’s. PV Sindhu, who had another good year following her breakthrough performance in Rio in 2016, twice ended up second best in two closely contested finals. In fact, the world championship final between Sindhu and the Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in Glasgow will rank as one of the best badminton matches ever played. Among men, India now has four players in the top 20 in badminton with Kidambi Srikanth being the stand out performer winning a record four super series ti...

Why do you think football is called the  Beautiful Game ? Moments, yes. But who supplies those? Those men, donning jerseys, shorts, socks, shins & boots. Men who go to war for 90 minutes every time they step onto that pitch. It is what they do that sends fans into a frenzy. They have to be special enough for fans around the world to proudly wear their names. Sadly, careers in the game aren't as long as one would want it to be. Age and injuries play a part. The hardest thing for a footballer is probably coming to terms with the fact that he will never step foot onto the green that gave him his life. 2017 has seen some of the greatest players call time on their career. Here's a list 10 Iconic player of who hung up their boots: 1. Philipp Lahm The German international led his country to World Cup glory in 2014, a year after he had won the treble with his club Bayern Munich. Lahm spent his entire senior career of 16 years at the club, barring two seasons (2...