Aditya K Halder

Principal Correspondent @DeccanHerald | Ex-India Today, Firstpost, IndiaTV | Limca Book of Records co-author | Part-time prof, full-time sports nerd

[Aditya K Halder @addyhalder]

@_offside18 Toni Kroos

[The Tribune @thetribunechd]

Former women’s hockey captain Asunta Lakra alleges threats after raising sexual harassment issue

@Padmadeo reports

https://t.co/DaxescxnI5

[Aditya K Halder @addyhalder]

Cracked me up! 😆

"Inspired by the All India Football Federation, I am toying with the idea of changing my name to V. S. Naipaul in order to win the Nobel Prize, or maybe to Usain Bolt to run the 100m in world record time."

@surmenon 👍

[Sportstar @sportstarweb]

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹? 🤔

Whether it is called the All India Football Federation, the Football Federation of Bharat, or the Supreme Council for Optimistic Ball Chasing, supporters will settle for something remarkably simple. A team that wins a few more matches.

The beauty of renaming a football federation is that it requires no extra training sessions, no youth academies, no scouting network, and no troublesome questions about grassroots development. A new signboard is far cheaper than a new football culture.

🔗 Read the full piece here #FromTheMagazine: https://t.co/MDMFhNvMjd

✍️: @surmenon | 📸: Special Arrangement

[Vishank Razdan @VishankRazdan]

Day 4 was surreal.. it indeed was.. The day started out with a fair bit of ominousness (you'll see that in the vlog).. but what Sarvesh & Ancy did yesterday was just unprecedented.. 2 World class NRs made the day historic!

Day 4 vlog:

https://t.co/SG4guDp0ID

@olympic_indian

[Vinayak Padmadeo @Padmadeo]

When babus play favorites, sport suffers. Daughters of a forest guard, medical shop owner, forced deposit 3 lakh to participate in Junior World Handball championships because govt does not recognise Handball body. Sad!!

Story link 👇
https://t.co/dIQkPky6mb

[Ujwal @UjwalKS]

Big loss this...he was so young

[Hari Thoyakkat @harithoyakkat]

For everyone’s information, FFB is not the first FFB of its kind:
1. Football Federation of Burundi is FFB
2. Football Federation of Belize is FFB
3. Burkinabe Football Federation is also FFB

Had a unique name and acronym, but now changing that to something very unoriginal.

[Mihir Vasavda @mihirsv]

Today's special of fact resembling fiction:

@IndianFootball has found a way to fix domestic game & qualify for #WorldCup - by changing AIFF's name to Football Federation of Bharat.

Shows how serious the people running (or ruining?) the sport are!

https://t.co/lhlF2X9dcL

[V @Redhood194]

Khalid Jamil tactics for the Indian NT

[Pritish Raj @befikramusafir]

There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen

Nothing more apt than a crazy day under Ranchi's red sky!

Pg 1 story: https://t.co/bGbP0kPKIc

On Indian sprinting revolution: https://t.co/tsdgHDsnPZ

On the golden hour: https://t.co/b5g7IIsAPd

[Anand Vasu @anandvasu]

This may not make for popular reading, but all Indian sports fans should listen to what Satwik and Chirag are saying. This is about how India's fans make some of their sportspersons feel.
The cricket versus other sports debate keeps popping up. And die-hard supporters of lesser-watched sports rue the lack of attention their game gets.
But, the fact of the matter is that Indian sports fans care disproportionately about cricket and the IPL.
Till this changes, no amount of infrastructure development, event hosting, corporate support, governance reform ... will make a lasting difference.
And, anyway, those things typically only come, when those in power have the motivation to make the right changes and are held accountable.
That will only happen when enough fans actually watch, play, talk about, love, hate and appreciate a wider range of sport.
Terrific and sobering interview by Shivani Naik:

[Pritish Raj @befikramusafir]

I can never understand a journalist asking a shooter about 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

What is the point?
Never heard cricketers being asked about Manu Bhaker or anyone else.

There was no relevance and no connection.
Hilarious and sad also

[Vishank Razdan @VishankRazdan]

Aisi investigative journalism ke liye Ramon Magsaysay award mil jaaega aapko Prithvi! 😄

[Arnab Seal @arnabsTOI]

Hockey India has received a detailed complaint alleging serious misconduct, including sexual harassment and abuse of authority against a Hockey India official.

#hockey #hockeyindia

[Hita Prakash @HitaPrakash]

A sensitive topic requires a sensible approach.
@addyhalder & I attempt to simplify IOC's new policy on 'Protection of Female Category in Olympic Sport' for everyone's better understanding.
Link: https://t.co/ugzscgf2yN
@DeccanHerald @Olympics

[Indro @indraneel0]

'33 sexual harassment complaints against SAI staff and coaches', accordingly to sports ministry's Lok Sabha reply https://t.co/5YuuQvOtSM

[The Bridge @the_bridge_in]

#Exclusive | Are Indian federations flouting financial transparency rules?

All NSFs are required to furnish audited accounts data for the previous financial year on their website.
Only 3 of the 14 we checked comply!

✍️@Abhiee0312 & @ritusejwal19

https://t.co/GPLdsv6JiX

[Gargi Raut @gargiraut15]

If you put your hands on me inappropriately. I will put your face on the internet.

A reporter should be able to do their job without being touched inappropriately.
@AhmedabadPolice

[Arka @ArkaTweets1]

This is the reality.

As India faced Japan yesterday, I was watching my own team face another on the ground and I was wondering how we were going to survive the next financial year.

Last 3 months have been like that. 200 unanswered mails because CSR starts and ends on LinkedIn.

[Sundeep Misra @MisraSundeep]

TJ Ensures Indian Anthem on Chinese Soil

The Indian national anthem echoing through the Tuanbo Sports Centre in Tianjin on Sunday signalled more than just a heptathlon gold medal at the 2026 Asian Indoor Athletic Championships. It was the coronation ceremony of Tejaswin Shankar ‘TJ’ as Asia’s premier all-round athlete. It wasn’t just a gold; TJ redefined the ceiling for Indian multi-eventers.

To me, TJ is the “intellectual athlete.” He goes beyond being merely articulate about his event; he provides a complete technical takedown—discussing air, float, and the mechanics of each discipline with the precision of a scholar. Nothing is inevitable in athletics except the ability to create a will and bend the event your way: no one in the Indian contingent does that better than TJ.

There is always a dividing line between being good and great. Greatness is a cloak hanging at the end of the finish line, reached only by those who can force their way into the elite. Like Jimmy Gressier (10,000m) in the Tokyo 2025 World Championships, you have to push, force, and power yourself to reach that summit. TJ has that force; he showed it off the track when the administration placed hurdle after hurdle in his path, and he answered with a high jump bronze in the 2022 Birmingham CWG.

This cerebral approach allowed him to pivot from a world-class high jumper to a dominant multi-event force. Tianjin was a clinic in consistency:

60m: 7.11s (PB); Long Jump: 7.53m (PB); Shot Put: 13.63m (PB); High Jump: 2.23m; 60m Hurdles: 8.02s (PB); Pole Vault: 4.20m (PB); 1000m: 2:43.91. Total Score: 5,993 (National Record).

A two-time NCAA Division I champion, TJ is India's most versatile athletic asset. That ‘will’ of his now eyes Mount 8000, the elite decathlon mark crossed by only nine men in Asian history. With the Commonwealth and Asian Games approaching later this year, the “Club of Nine” might soon have to accommodate a tenth member.
#tj #tejaswinshankar #heptathlon
#Athletics