india was rightly called the sleeping giant of women's cricket. now it has woken up, and how! i wrote a few words about the business behind India's women's World Cup win and how that changes the economics of women's cricket (+ sport) globally. www.stateofplay.club/india-world-...

The State of Play’s first subscriber-only story 🔒 is live. It is about how a Mumbai-based tyre manufacturer has been quietly building one of the most distinctive (and eclectic) portfolios in sport. Do subscribe and read. www.stateofplay.club/bkt-sports-s...

this is a great, long read. “The screen revolution will shape our politics as profoundly as the reading revolution of the eighteenth century.”

back after a hiatus. early this week, I launched The State of Play, a weekly, subscription-led publication on the business of sport, written from an Indian lens. on Friday, I dropped a scene-setting essay on Indian sport’s $40 billion reset. do read and subscribe (and share, if possible). 👇🏽

"The hype is quenching brands’ thirst for profit: the value of sales of portable drinkware in America reached $4bn in the year ending in May 2025; some 270m containers were sold in the country, up from 240m two years ago." - fascinating. on the primarily Gen Z-led business of water bottles.

You’re telling me this guy was on drugs? I’m not buying it.

China has become the most powerful player in the grim drama of Myanmar’s civil war. To see how, follow an oil-and-gas pipeline through three conflict zones https://econ.trib.al/EaId2hj

this is a must-read, and well-reported account of how Columbia University capitulated to Trump and co.

fascinating. the trump tariffs and their impact on the cola wars

interesting. puma is now returning to its running roots with its “Fast-R Nitro Elite sneakers” Puma was proper pioneer in running with legendary shoe lines such as Osaka, before its eventual pivot to “sports lifestyle” 👟

what a graphic!

apple's suppliers shipped ~$2 billion worth of iPhones from India in march, an all-time high: reuters citing customs data foxconn - $1.31b worth of smartphone exports in march (highest ever in a month, and jan + feb combined). total for 2025 ($5.3b) tata - $612m for march, up 63% from feb. wild!

lmao

not going to happen. so well.

"Russia ran a trade surplus with America of $2.5bn last year. Had the calculation applied to it, the country would have faced a tariff of about 40%" www.economist.com/finance-and-...

This, by @sbg1.bsky.social is a must read. "In his second-term White House, they are all Steve Bannons now." www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Wow. “Apple is said to have shipped *five* planeloads of iPhones and other products to the US over just three days to stock up its warehouses and ensure prices don't surge.”

this is so 🇰🇵

wow. just saw this shakti concert during an unrelated rabbit hole trip (some other band etc!) bonus: a recreation of the iconic lotus feet ft. shankar mahadevan in the second half of the video! amazing.

a good read on why matcha is having a moment

immensely enjoyed this excellent @newyorker.com profile of lauren boebert and how she explains the broader political dynamics in colorado

phew! what a story. proper banger. this *should* be picked up by one of the streaming platforms

interesting essay on the coming battle between social media and the state (and why mark zuckerberg tilted to the right as he did last week)

this is a great read on the decline of socialization, and how that is upending our personalities, our politics, and our relationship with reality

wow. on china’s “micro-drama” rage—a new-media format dubbed as a crossover between TikTok and Netflix, where episodes are filmed in a vertical format and last just over a min each. the value of the micro-drama grew 10x between 2021 & 2023. currently valued at $5.3b expected to hit $14b by 2027 😱

“This was British politics entirely contorted and angry—hyperfocussed, to use a Muskian expression—by the thumbs and antic mind of a very rich man, very far away.” - great read on Musk’s foray into UK politics

this essay on fact and fact-checking is def worth reading

on point @newyorker.com cover

the most WTF headline of the year so far

wow

what a story!

this is good news. the business of history is booming, thanks to book sales and podcasts.

fun times in indian cricket 😅

🇱🇰 what a country!

a fun story on the myth of the airplane mode. “The real reason is this: Airlines think people won’t stop yapping on their cell phones during flights, leading to more instances of “air rage.” That’s why regulators continue to ban phone calls and data usage on planes; it’s just plain annoying.”

its taken me 17 years in active journalism to realise a dream, and here we go! a front page lead story in the Indian Express for me was a hallowed space to crack. its happened! 😅

this is interesting. Netflix winning rights to stream two Fifa Women’s World Cups in 2027 (Brazil) and 2031 (To be Decided). announcement comes right before its streaming of two Christmas Day NFL games. it shelled out $75 mn for each game. beyond anything else, sports allows Netflix to sell ads!

highly relatable and long essay, this one by @edzitron.com “It isn’t that you don’t “get” tech, it’s that the tech you use every day is no longer built for you, and as a result feels a very specific kind of insane.”

interesting read

lmao

What a bizarre story re: football ownership. Romanian investor Dan Sucu, according to the club’s official website, owns 77% of Genoa, Italy’s oldest active football club. Except, a US investor called A-Cap (which was a lender to Genoa’s previous owner 777 Partners) has also claimed ownership 😱

thoughts re: Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement. (slightly longish thread, so bear with me 😅) the key (and the missing word) in all of this is *clarity* (or the lack of it). and when it came, what Ash did was unavoidable. here’s my unvarnished take.

this is fascinating. The battle between the Broccoli family and Amazon over the future of the James Bond franchise. The Broccoli family has creative control of 007 and Amazon owns the franchise (via its $6.5b MGM acquisition) TLDR: Amazon’s hopes of a new Bond film are in limbo

india having their best phase of the batting innings with the ball now 30+ overs old. good 50+ run partnership between KL and Jadeja. India need to get to 250 and avoid follow on. that should be that, with inclement weather.

good read. why are Christmas films—often cheesy, mindless and with predictable plotlines—widely loved? • 144 Christmas movies released worldwide, 7x from 2000. • hallmark is releasing 32 films this year bottomline: makes business sense (low budgets ~$5m and higher returns) + theme-wise v positive.

this graphic neatly illustrates a decline (the average falls to 14 since 2020). fighting form is one thing but fighting a nemesis you thought you overcame is something else. this is the latter, imo.

worth reading this on virat trying hard at the nets to overcome his struggles.

some stat, this: last five years, Kohli has scored 3 100s, all of which have come with him walking in at 187/2, 153/2 and 275/2. without these hundreds, his numbers in the last five years: 62 innings, 1557 runs, 25.95 average, 9 fifties.

this is a great grouping. much fuller and a touch wider and virat couldn't hold back from fishing. ideally, should have left it alone.

india’s batters had one job. blunt the new ball → tired bowlers → softer ball → cash in.