Ekamra Sports Literature Festival: The Day I Became A Runner Wins Book Of The Year

The fifth season of the Ekamra Sports Literature Festival was a resounding success with a mix of serious conversations around the future of Indian football and multi-million-dollar leagues together with interviews of bestselling international Authors which ended with India's only Sports Book Awards as Sohini Chattopadhyay's 'The Day I Became a Runner' won the Ekamra 'Sports Book of the Year'.

The 5th season was held at Bhubaneswar's Iconic Kalinga Stadium Complex. Amrit Mathur's PITCHSIDE - My Life in Indian Cricket won the 'Autobiography of the Year'; the Biography of the year was claimed by Sudipta Biswas' 'Tulsidas Balaram - The Boy. The Hero. The Tormented Footballer'; The Cricket Book of the Year went to R Sridhar and R Kaushik's - 'Coaching Beyond, My Days with the Indian Cricket Team'.

The best sports book publisher of the year went to Harper Collins. The Special Jury Award went to Grit - The Vishwas Story by Vishwas KS, VR Ferose and Sriram Jagannathan. Grit is an illustrated story, an ode to a man, a Para swimmer who surpasses unimaginable hardships and comes out at the other end with integrity, optimism, and gratitude.

The highlight was a heartfelt and stirring session with 3000m steeplechase Rio
Olympics finalist Lalita Babar - one the eight Indian female athletes featured in
Sohini Chattopadhyay's book "The Day I Became a Runner." Lalita said her life as
an athlete was brought alive in a meaningful and sensitive way in the book.

This season was about words. Words that transport us to the heart of the action,
Capturing the sweat, tears, and triumphs that unfold on playing fields and
stadiums around the world.

The Opening session with former World Cup winning coach Dav Whatmore was
an audience delight with his forthright answers laced with Aussie humour. He
gamely took on questions on winning formulas, best ODI captain and his own
favourite cricketers.

The session on Potential of Multi-Million-dollar league had a formidable panel
from around the country - Saroj Panigrahi (Coo, Games 24x7), Shaji Prabhakaran (Secy Gen, AIFF), Abhijit Bhattacharya (Founder, Brahmaputra Volleyball League, Rishikesh Joshi, Founder of Sports For All (SFA).

Saroj Panigrahi felt fantasy sports are a great way for increasing popularity of
sports. Abhijit Bhattacharya inspired the audience with his journey of building a
unique platform for promoting rural talent through community participation
without corporate sponsors.

Acclaimed Filmmaker R Balki spoke about his latest film Ghoomer starring
Abhishek Bachchan. He also revealed that he would love to make a sports biopic
on Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as the late Indian cricket captain had not just talent
and charisma but also a certain edge that made the millennials needed to know
about.

Italian Author Piero Trellini revisited The Unforgettable Brazil Vs Italy 1982 Match while British cycling Daniel Friebe spoke at length on why he wrote a book on a doping pariah Jan Ullrich.

Football fans were privileged to hear two former Indian captains speak about
their experiences and about a forgotten legend Tulsidas Balaram featured in
Sudipta Biswas's book - Tulsidas Balaram - The Boy. The Hero. The Tormented
Footballer.

Another session around sports broadcaster Gaurav Gala's book 'Áwakening the
Blue Tigers' grappled with thorny and complex issues around football in the
modern context of India qualifying for the World Cup.

The Ekamra Sports Literature Festival is the World's largest ever sports literary
festival bringing together some of the biggest names from Indian and
international sport.

The festival ended on a high with the Ekamra Sports Book Awards! From
captivating biographies to heart-wrenching memoirs, insightful analyses to works
of fiction that ignite our imaginations, the nominees represent the very best of
sports writing.

We believe Sports is Best Read.

HIGHLIGHTS OF PREVIOUS SEASONS

2018 - SEASON 1 - Bhubaneswar Sessions - 12; Speakers - 50

Packed audiences heard former Canadian Sprinter Ben Johnson, Hockey Guru
Ric Charlesworth, multiple gold medal winning Olympic Swimmer Stephanie Rice,
fast bowling legend Jeff Thomson, Indian Test batsman Ajinkya Rahane and

former Test player Mohammed Kaif. 2019 -

SEASON 2 - New Delhi Sessions - 13; Speakers - 17

Packed audiences heard and interacted with former England Cricketer Monty
Panesar, Former Indian Cricketer Kirti Azad, World class cyclist Kristen Worley,
India's Ace Sprinter Dutee Chand, Former Indian Davis Cup captain Rohit Rajpal,
T20 World Cup Winning Bowler Joginder Sharma, and Former India Spinner
Murali Kartik.

2020 - SEASON 3 - Toronto

Sessions - 6; Speakers - 15

Olympic gold medalist Sami jo Small launched her book, Nick Greenslade, the
deputy sports editor of The Times (London) spoke about 'The Thin White Line:
The Inside Story of Cricket's Greatest Scandal'; CBC Sports' Scott Russell spoke to
Stuart Horsfield about '1982 Brazil, A Glorious Failure', the story of one of the
greatest sports teams ever that never won; And a power packed session on
gender inequity with four of Canada's top women athletes. 2022 -

SEASON 4 - Gurugram

Sessions - 11; Speakers - 25

Eminent Speakers included former India cricket player Harbhajan Singh on his
forthcoming autobiography, Chelsea legend Pat Nevin on his memoir The Accidental Footballer, former foreign correspondent Andrew Downie's oral history of The Greatest Show on Earth: The Inside Story of the Legendary 1970 World Cup. Other Authors featured - Arunabha Sengupta and Abhishek Mukherjee, bhijeet Kulkarni, Anindya Dutta, Pradeep Magazine