Bhubaneswar will host the country’s first-of-its-kind sports literary festival titled the ‘Ekamra Sports Literary Festival in association with Emerging Sports November 2-3 ushering in a new era in the sports history of the state as well as the country.
The mega event will offer the sports lovers of the Temple City an opportunity to learn as well as experience interesting unheard stories from the finest sportspersons and sports journalists in the world. A host of celebrities from across the globe will share their experiences and interact with the audience on the occasion.
The mega event will kick off with the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiling the ‘Ready Reckoner Cover’ before the launch of the cover page of ‘Hockey Bites’. Former Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice and senior sports journalist Sundeep Misra will present the opening remarks after the welcome speech by state Sports Department secretary Vishal Dev.
Dev will also be participate in the first session of the mega event as he will join state Sports Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera and SAI director general Neelam Kapoor to deliberate on the topic ‘The making of Bhubaneswar as a Sports City’.
The discussion will be an interesting one as the city has hosted several major international events in past few years. The speakers are expected to shed light on how a state, which is primarily known for the international cricket stadium in Cuttack – the Barabati Stadium, turned its fortunes and became a household name in world sports.
Keeping an eye on the upcoming men’s Hockey World Cup, the audience will also learn how the city managed to convince the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to host the game’s biggest event worldwide.
Interestingly, this will just be the beginning, as this will be followed by some sensational discussion and debate sessions. Here’s what the audience can expect from the first-of-its-kind sports literary fest in Asia:
Jeff Thomson
The former Australian fast bowler will share his views on the decrease in number of genuine fast bowlers in Test cricket. During the early 80s, lethal pace bowlers were ruling the roost and they were awfully quick and accurate, which is a deadly combination for any fast bowler. In those days, every team had a few legendary pace bowlers, but now the scene is quite different.
Two of the greatest pace bowlers of this age are Dale Steyn and James Anderson, who are in the last phase of their career. So the question arises as to who would be next big name in fast bowling?
The question is so pertinent, and the answer too is difficult. You can hardly think of a player who can be the future of fast bowling. If one fathoms a little deeper, he can easily find that the art of pace bowling is on the wane. Thomson will be here to explain the issue as well as answer the queries in the audience’s mind.
Ric Charlesworth
The author of the book ‘Shakespeare – the Coach’, a former hockey player and the all-time great sporting coach of Australia, Ric excelled in practically every field, including coaching the World Cup-winning Aussie men’s and women’s teams, captaining Western Australia in cricket and winning a seat in the federal parliament. Moreover, he is a tactical genius in football.
Ric will be at the Lit Fest to share some interesting anecdotes in ‘Shakespeare – the Coach’, his third book after ‘The Coach – Managing for Success’ and ‘Staying on top’.
‘Shakespeare – the Coach’ is a blueprint for motivating coaches, managers, teachers and trainers. Ric draws on his experiences from many different playing fields and combines them with Shakespeare’s unique approach to plan how to get the most out of yourself and your team.
Charlesworth uncovers his fan side through the book, idolising Shakespeare’s plays and poetry and their ability to capture and shape his coaching style.
A date with hockey legends
This session will have an Odia essence as Olympian and state hockey icon Dilip Tirkey will join other legends like Dhanraj Pillay, Vasudevan Bhaskaran and Australian Brent Livermore for a discussion on the Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar scheduled from November 28-December 16. These hockey legends will play Nostradamus ahead of the mega sporting event.
They will deliberate on the SWAT and downsides of all the participating teams. Moreover, the speakers are also expected to share some of their World Cup or Olympic moments to add spice to the session.
The Dhoni Touch
Though MS Dhoni will not attend the event, his presence will definitely be felt when author Bharat Sundaresan speaks about his book ‘The Dhoni Touch: Unravelling the Enigma That Is Mahendra Singh Dhoni’.
Taking Dhoni’s suggestion to visit his home town Ranchi and meet his close friends to learn more about him before penning the book, Sundaresan traced various aspects of the life and times of the coolest skipper the game of cricket has ever produced. The session is likely to reveal some yet-to-be known aspects of Mahi’s life.
While many have watched the biopic on Dhoni – ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’, they may still get to know some still unknown episodes in the Ranchi lad’s career.
Interaction with Aakash Chopra
The name of the speaker clearly suggests that this session will on cricketing knowledge, as Chopra, a former cricketer and now a commentator and an analyst, will speak about his book ‘Numbers Do Lie: 61 Hidden Cricket Stories, Impact Index’.
The book revisits the record books to measure cricket statistics through the prism of match situations. Created by filmmaker and writer Jaideep Verma in 2009, the Impact Index is based on a simple premise – accounting for every cricket performance first within the context of its match. And after that, the series or tournament the match is from.
The book validates a few beliefs that cricket aficionados have entertained for a long time. But it also throws up a few surprises that are an ode to the unsung heroes, to give credit that has long been due.
Debate on ‘Hyperandrogenism’
The most trending discussion topic in past couple of years or so, hyperandrogenism will be in focus at the Lit Fest when Australian middle distance runner Madeleine Pape and Indian middle distance runner Santhi Soundarajan share the stage with Gopi Shankar M, an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist.
This final session of Day One of the two-day mega event, will have plenty of material for the audience to ruminate as Odisha’s Olympian and Asian Games silver medallist Dutee Chand too was once accused of being subject to hyperandrogenism. Even Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya was dragged into this controversy.
There are so many opinions on a single word – hyperandrogenism. It will indeed be a fantastic experience to witness former athletes making their points clear through their debates and discussion on different topics at the Lit Fest. Last, but not the least, this mega fest is also expected to present a whale of infotainment to the eager audience.