Kunal Pradhan is Managing Editor, Hindustan Times.
Articles by Kunal Pradhan
Sachin@50: What Tendulkar’s milestone means to generations of Indians
It feels like he’s done it all, won it all, such a short while ago. How does one measure a living legacy that united, uplifted, a nation?
Updated on Aug 03, 2023 02:46 PM IST
Kunal Pradhan
87.58m that could change everything
India getting an Olympic medal in athletics seemed impossible enough. Then Neeraj Chopra went and got a gold. Can this spark a track and field revolution in India?
Updated on Aug 08, 2021 06:39 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: The hunt for the impossible treble
'Flying Finn' Paavo Nurmi and 'Czech Locomotive' Emil Zatopek belong to the rarest club in running. In Tokyo, Dutch runner Sifan Hassan almost joined them as she chased a distance running treble.
Updated on Aug 06, 2021 10:18 PM IST
Tokyo 2020: The moment to build big is here
India's Olympic hockey medal is the dawn of a new day. Here's what we need to do to build on this beginning.
Updated on Aug 06, 2021 02:18 PM IST
Tokyo 2020: The moment to build big is here
The 18-member squad, which scripted this moment with blood, sweat, guts and grit over two frenetic weeks, could go down in history as the pioneers of India’s hockey renaissance.
Published on Aug 05, 2021 11:08 PM IST
Echoes of history in Olympic glory
If there’s one activity in India to which some parallel can be drawn, one sport that can learn from this example, it is wrestling.
Published on Aug 04, 2021 10:07 PM IST
How to rule the world, in 13 steps
The fastest time in the world since 1992 until last month is now the fifth fastest, destined to slip further down the pecking order by the time Warholm and Benjamin are done.
Published on Aug 03, 2021 09:56 PM IST
Tokyo 2020: Yes, you can have two golds
The only man putting his hands together to give Tamberi his beat was Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, the double world champion high jumper, and the man the Italian was trying to defeat.
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 11:02 PM IST
Kunal Pradhan, New Delhi
Tokyo 2020: Thrown into a field of dreams
The importance of Kamalpreet to Indian sport cannot be overstated on a day when she will step into a circle 2.5m in diameter, with a 1kg disc in her hand, and look to hurl it beyond the margins of history.
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 08:34 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: It's time to lay a new foundation
The last time the Indian team reached the semi-final (other than 1980) was in 1972, on grass. And if they go on to win a medal of any colour, it will be worth several golds.
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 08:24 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: Long track of a sprinting island
Jamaica is the land of yams and jerk sauce, fast bowlers and wicketkeepers, reggae and the Rasta life. In the last two decades, it’s also come to be known as the land of the champion Olympic sprinters.
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 08:13 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: Respect the fight, not just the medal
Medals are only one way to measure the march of a sporting nation such as India, which still doesn’t have a system or culture that promotes excellence on the field of play. A better, more crucial yardstick is whether more of our athletes are being able to get in contention.
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 08:18 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: The Sun rises in the pool, again
Every Olympic success has a backstory and a cascading effect that exemplifies the power of sport to inspire. Each medal is steeped in history and plants a seed for the future.
Published on Jul 28, 2021 10:34 PM IST
Tokyo 2020: To be a legend, defeat a legend
On Monday, the American champion, 24, and the Australian challenger, 20, crossed paths in a race for the ages.
Published on Jul 28, 2021 07:03 AM IST
Tokyo 2020: The G.O.A.T. in dragon’s clothing
Ma Long had said before the Games that if he lost a single game, it would be letting his country down.
Updated on Jul 27, 2021 11:26 PM IST
Tokyo 2020: Make way for the outsiders
Anthony Nesty, now a coach in Florida, who set the ball rolling 33 years ago, should take a bow.
Updated on Jul 25, 2021 09:26 PM IST
Kunal Pradhan, New Delhi
Olympics: Welcome to the Redeem Team
If the Olympics are meant to be more about the struggle than the triumph, then the stories that stand out are not those of dominance, but those of redemption. Redemption of the kind that Mirabai Chanu experienced in Tokyo on an extraordinary Saturday morning for Indian sport.
Updated on Jul 25, 2021 03:09 AM IST
Why it’s not just about the money
On the eve of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, being held a year later than scheduled in the shadow of a virus and amid opposition from the Japanese public, there is some logic to this simple question: Why hold the Games in the middle of the Covid pandemic?
Updated on Jul 24, 2021 08:41 AM IST
Olympics: Why it’s not just about the money
On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, being held a year later than scheduled in the shadow of a virus and amid opposition from the Japanese public, there is some logic to this simple question: Why hold the Games in the middle of a pandemic? The answers offered by most experts point to economics, and accurately so.
Published on Jul 23, 2021 09:37 PM IST
Starting Gun: In a dark time, the Great Symbol to the rescue
What is perhaps the greatest of the symbols was devised by a French aristocrat who had fulfilled his dream of recreating Ancient Olympia by managing to convince the world that sport, at the turn of the 20th century, would cement the bond between nations, some newly formed and newly evolved
Updated on Jul 23, 2021 08:22 AM IST
Higher, faster, stronger: A tribute to the Indian Olympian
As you cheer for India at the Tokyo Games, spare a thought for every athlete’s journey to the Olympics. They deserve our support not just once in four years but at every stage of the struggle
Updated on Jul 17, 2021 04:26 PM IST
Dhoni: The first hero of ‘real India’
A study in contrast, Dhoni symbolised the hopes, aspirations and abilities of small-town India
Updated on Aug 16, 2020 08:18 PM IST
When human endeavour beat human imagination
Every emotion, quality and nuance of sport came alive on Sunday. Were there really only two winners?
Updated on Jul 15, 2019 08:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Kunal Pradhan
Cricket a gentleman’s game? Pshaw! — Flip Side by Kunal Pradhan
Cricket is not, and need not, be different from any other sport. There is no need for it to take itself so seriously that it has “laws” instead of “rules” and believes that it must be played with a superior “spirit”.
Published on Mar 30, 2019 06:06 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Kunal Pradhan
A camouflage cap has nothing to do with cricket Why play to a different gallery?
Even at the worst of times, sport has played the role of a healer despite the war metaphors that are freely attached to it
Updated on Mar 16, 2019 04:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Kunal Pradhan
Flip Side by Kunal Pradhan: Windies revival – An elusive dream
What does a West Indies renaissance really mean? The glory of West Indies cricket in the 1970s and 1980s was not just about victories and defeats. It was about race, culture, music, and the significance of lives lived on tiny islands figuring like dots on a world map
Published on Feb 16, 2019 06:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Kunal Pradhan