Vijayan Bala

Indian Sports Conversations and Reflections Vijayan Bala

Since 1971, I have interviewed many Indian players and some coaches and umpires who have made a name in their respective sports - nationally and internationally. These interviews have appeared in leading newspapers such as the Hindustan Standard, The Statesman, Delhi, The Hindustan Times and Rajasthan Patrika. The interviews have also been published in well- known magazines such as Sportsweek, SWARAJYA, Weekend Review, Children's World, Sun, Woman's Era and ALIVE. The people interviewed include Deepa Malik (Paralympics), Gurbachan Singh Randhawa ( Athletics ); Manuel Aaron and S Vijayalakshmi ( Chess ); Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Jaisimha, Prasanna, Chandrashekhar, Venkataraghavan, Bedi, G. R. Vishwanath, Solkar, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Shanta Rangaswamy, Diana Eduljee, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Swarup Kishan and Tarak Sinha ( Cricket ); S Manna, S Mewalal and P K Banerjee, ( Football ); Anirban Lahiri, S S P Chawrasia, Nonita Lal and Aditi Ashok ( Golf ); Balbir Singh Sr, Leslie Claudius, Gurbux Singh, Harbinder Singh, Mohinder Lal, Ajitpal Singh, Ashok Kumar, Md Shahid, Mamta Kharab and the great administrator Ashwini Kumar ( Hockey ); Abhinav Bindra, Col. Rathore and Vijay Kumar ( Shooting ); Kamlesh Mehta, Indu Puri and Manika Batra ( Table Tennis ); Naresh Kumar (Tennis ); Sushil Kumar and Sakshi Malik ( Wrestling ) and Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics).