Vijay Lokapally is an Indian sport journalist and author. He started his career when he joined the ''

Patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

'' newspaper in 1981, and later moved to

The Hindu Group The Hindu Group is an Indian publishing company based in Chennai. Its first publication was ''The Hindu'', a daily newspaper that began publication in 1878. Hindu Group Publications The Hindu Group publishes a number of newspapers and magazines ...

(writing for its publication ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' and ''

Sportstar ''Sportstar'' is an Indian monthly Sports magazine, sports magazine published in India by the publishers of ''The Hindu''. Its headquarters is in Chennai. History and profile ''Sportstar'' was established in 1978. The magazine covers interna ...

'') from 1986. He is based in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and married to Sunanda, with whom he has a son, Akshay.

Career

Lokapally joined the newspaper ''

'' in 1981, with his first article about the cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi. Bedi was impressed with the work, and Lokapally quoted this as a motivation to work as a cricket journalist. He resigned from ''Patriot'' in 1986 and later joined

(writing for its publication ''

'' and ''

''), specializing in sports. He said that he felt "fortunate" to work with the company. He said, "My interest in writing came because of my passion to play and watch sports. And what better in life than to get paid for pursuing my hobby? ''The Hindu'' gave me assignments in India as well as overseas and it was wonderful to write about cricket from distant venues of the world." A

-based journalist, he married Sunanda, with whom he has a son named Akshay. According to ''

ThePrint The Print is an Indian online newspaper, owned by Printline Media Pvt Ltd. It was launched by journalist Shekhar Gupta in August 2017. History Printline Media Pvt. Ltd, founded by journalist Shekhar Gupta, was incorporated in New Delhi, India ...

'', Lokapally has been considered in the media as one of India's most respected writers on cricket, and according to

Sportskeeda Sportskeeda is an Indian sports and esports news website, founded in 2009. It is operated by Absolute Sports Private Limited and owned by Indian video game company Nazara Technologies. The website has news, features, commentary and videos on spo ...

, he is regarded as one of the most well-known sport journalist of India. He has written five books related to

cricket in India Cricket has been the most popular sport in India in modern era since the British Raj, and is played almost everywhere in the country. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the governing body of Indian cricket and conduct all dom ...

. The first is ''The Virender Sehwag Story'', chronicling the life of the former cricketer

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...

, which was published by UBS Publishers' Distributors on 3 May 2004. In an interview to

Yahoo! Cricket Yahoo! Cricket was a cricket website based in India. While in name part of the US-based Yahoo!'s Yahoo! Sports, it is hosted and administered by Yahoo! India. In February 2009, Yahoo! India signed a three-year partnership with the International ...

, he admitted that he was happy with his collaboration with the company as it has given him "confidence to look at more opportunities". He subsequently wrote ''Driven: The Virat Kohli Story'', released by India's

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

on 1 October 2016. In a review carried by ''

Daily News and Analysis Publications established in 2005 Newspapers published in Mumbai English-language newspapers published in India Daily newspapers published in India Essel Group 2005 establishments in Maharashtra ...

'', the critic G. Krishnan said that the book was written in "a simple manner with interviews from those who have seen Kohli closely from his younger days" and Vedam Jaishankar from ''

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...

'' called it "memorable". His next two books are ''World Cup Warriors: The Boys in Blue'' (2019) and ''Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling 1886 to 2019'' (2020). Lokapally co-wrote the cricketer

Rohit Sharma Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer and the current captain of the Indian cricket team. Widely considered as one of the best opening batter of all time, he plays as a right-handed batsman for Mu ...

's biographical book ''The Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story'' in 2020 as well.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lokapally, Vijay Indian film critics Indian male journalists Living people The Hindu journalists Year of birth missing (living people)