There was nothing Sachin Tendulkar couldn't do with that heavy bat of his. Similarly, Shane Warne was equally capable of making the cherry do tricks that even the Gods wouldn't have thought possible. So, it comes as no surprise that whenever the two
Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive. But Tyson Gay has trained his whole life to no avail. Bolt extinguished Gay’s 100-meter hopes at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Gay took notice and trained even harder. Unfortunately, Gay recently tested positive
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought three times. Frazier won the first in 1971, handing Ali his first career loss. Ali won the rematch in 1974, and the two fought again in 1975's Thrilla in Manila. It was the only fight of the three that did not go
The rivalry between the American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky is one of the most memorable in chess history. Fischer became the first competitor from outside the Soviet Union to earn the right to challenge for the championship. Fischer
Modern chess has many a stalwart from Boris Gelfand to Vladimir Kramnik to Magnus Carlsen. That Viswanathan Anand has managed to hold his own and come out on top against most of them is testimony of his longevity. In the early years of his career,
The Wimbledon final of 1980 that was played out in five sets is still, by and large considered the greatest tennis match in the Open era. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were, as the cliche goes, as different as chalk and cheese. But, when they met on
The Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi rivalry was yet another one-sided rivalry in tennis. But, it was one that gifted tennis a great many match. Many of them were in fact played out in the finals of Major tournaments, which only made the competition that
Where the Nadal and Federer rivalry is a clash of styles, the Nadal-Djokovic rivalry is more of a slugfest with both players bringing out some of the greatest and most brutal strokes from behind the service line whenever they meet. They played out
Rafael Nadal has handed Roger Federer some of his most humiliating defeats, the most memorable one being the 2008 French Open final when Nadal handed the Swiss a bagel. But, then, Federer, it might seem, had the measure of the Spaniard on grass
What Mike Atherton was to Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting was to Harbhajan Singh. The crafty off-spinner from India snaffled Ponting for a duck on three occasions in the home series in 2001. Overall, Ponting was dismissed by Harbhajan 10 times.
When he retired, Glenn McGrath said that the one batsman he feared most bowling to was Brian Lara. Interestingly, it was McGrath who holds the distinction of having dismissed Lara the most number of times in Tests: 15. Of course, Lara too enjoyed
Chaminda Vaas is likely to go down as one of the greatest ODI bowlers of all time. With a whole host of variations in his arsenal and a sharp cricketing brain, he plotted the downfall of the best batsmen of his generation. Sachin Tendulkar was one