Sambit Bal is an Indian journalist who was born and brought up in

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango tr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. He spent 15 years in mainstream journalism working in some of India's leading publishing houses before joining

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

in 2001. He was the first editor of ''

Wisden Asia Cricket ''Wisden Asia Cricket'' was a monthly English language cricket magazine produced by the British-based cricket publishing company Wisden Group, Wisden. History and profile ''Wisden Asia Cricket'' was founded in 2001. The first issue was publish ...

'' and the Asian editor of wisden.com. In 2003, wisden.com acquired ''

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

'' and the sites merged. Bal became the editor of Cricinfo in 2004. In 2007, Cricinfo was bought by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Upon that takeover, Bal wrote an open letter to the editor, admitting the site needed "fresh investments". He promised that Cricinfo would not lose its voice, and ultimately belonged to its users. He is also the founder editor of ''

Cricinfo Magazine ''Cricinfo Magazine'' was a monthly cricket magazine published by the Wisden Group from January 2006 to July 2007. The publisher was Infomedia. The magazine, focused on cricket in India, and co-branded with Cricinfo, replaced Wisden's previous ''W ...

'', which appeared for the first time in January 2006. Before joining Wisden, he edited ''

Gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

'', a monthly features magazine published in Mumbai.

References

External links

Sambit Bal articles
at

ESPN Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

* *
Couch Talk with Sambit Bal
Subash Jayaraman, The Cricket Couch, August 4, 2012 *https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/an-unshakeable-bond-297654 Cricket historians and writers Indian sports journalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{India-journalist-stub