Indian shooting stalwart Jaspal Rana, the Asian Games gold medallist who later shaped a generation of champions as a coach, passed away on Thursday night at the age of 49, leaving the sport mourning one of its most influential figures.

According to National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Rana breathed his last at a Delhi hospital after recently undergoing a medical procedure.

Rana had reportedly fallen ill during the Indian contingent's return journey from the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany. Upon landing in New Delhi, he was rushed to hospital, where doctors performed a procedure to insert a stent. Despite medical efforts, the decorated shooter-coach succumbed on Thursday night.

A towering figure in Indian shooting, Rana first earned national acclaim through his exploits on the range, winning multiple international medals, including an Asian Games gold, before reinventing himself as one of the country's most successful coaches.

His greatest coaching triumph came at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he guided Indian pistol ace Manu Bhaker to a historic double bronze-medal finish, a feat that cemented his reputation as one of the sharpest minds in the sport.

Over the past decade, Rana played a pivotal role in nurturing India's next generation of shooting stars. As junior national coach from 2012 onwards, he mentored several young talents, including Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Anish Bhanwala and Chinki Yadav, helping transform India into a global force in pistol shooting.

Known for his meticulous approach, Rana introduced training systems designed to mirror the pressure and intensity of Olympic competition, earning widespread respect among athletes and administrators alike.

In recognition of his contribution to Indian sport, the government conferred upon him the prestigious Dronacharya Award in 2020.

Rana was serving as the high-performance coach for India's pistol shooters, a role he formally assumed after being appointed by the NRAI in February 2025 for the 25m pistol discipline.

His death marks the end of a remarkable chapter in Indian shooting — a journey that began with medals and records and evolved into a legacy built on mentorship, excellence and the success of countless athletes he inspired.

From champion marksman to master coach, Jaspal Rana's impact on Indian shooting will endure long after the final shot has been fired.

With PTI inputs

The 40,000-odd fans who made their way to Eden Gardens on an extremely humid evening on Wednesday, 20 May, must have wanted to see home team Kolkata Knight Riders win to stay alive with a slim chance of making the IPL 2026 play-offs. If there was anything else on their agenda, it was also to see Rohit Sharma provide some fireworks in what could arguably be his last innings in competitive cricket at this venue.

However, there was disappointment on that front as the ‘Hitman’ was foxed by a change of pace from rookie left-arm pacer Saurabh Dubey, holing out beyond mid-wicket for Cameron Green to complete an extremely well judged catch to trigger an early collapse. A laboured innings of 15 off 13 balls, which included two of his trademark effortless sixes, hence came to an end.

The question, which weighed in the minds of some of Rohit’s fans at the clubhouse during a lengthy rain stoppage was whether the white ball giant — who will be 40 next year — be back at this venue where he is called the ‘King of Eden.’

Technically speaking, Rohit along with Virat Kohli is in the running for berths in the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe (October-November), but it remains to be seen how he would figure in the MI management’s scheme of things next year.

The MI management is believed to be extremely unhappy at the way the season had panned out for them for they were the first team to go out of reckoning. A rash of injuries, including a hamstring issue for Rohit, along with a captaincy crisis of sorts did not help the campaign.

It’s not for nothing that Rohit considers Eden his ‘second home’ after Wankhede Stadium — as it has been witness to a number of his career landmarks. The greatest of them was in 2014, when a young Rohit shattered the record for the highest individual score in ODI history with a mammoth 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens.

The year before, he scored a magnificent 177 on his Test debut against the West Indies at the venue in 2013. There have been a number of memorable moments for him in IPL as well as back in 2012, he struck his first-ever century in the T20 league — an unbeaten 109 against the Knights. He had also led the Mumbai Indians to two of their IPL title victories in finals played  here in 2013 and 2015.

The drama over the lack of an official broadcaster for the FIFA World Cup in India, with less than a month to go for the world's largest football extravaganza, seems like a poor reflection on the country’s desire to be seen as a sporting nation. A visit to the FIFA website shows that more than 100 countries have finalised their broadcast deals with the world governing body, but India does not feature among them.

With the days ticking by and the absence of any takers, the matter has now reached Delhi High Court, which on 11 May issued a notice to Prasar Bharati over a plea seeking directions to ensure that the marquee event is broadcast in India, especially through free-to-air platforms like Doordarshan and DD Sports.

Advocate Avdhesh Bairwa had filed the writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, raising fears that millions of football fans in India could miss out on live telecast of the ‘greatest show on earth’.

There are reports that Prasar Bharati has held exploratory discussions with FIFA as a fallback option should commercial negotiations with private broadcasters fail, which may see a throwback to the days when only knockout matches were beamed on Doordarshan. The world governing body, which initially sought close to $100 million for the combined India media rights package for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups, is reported to have lowered it to the region of $35 million, but still there are no takers.

JioStar, formed through the Reliance-Disney merger, reportedly offered around $20 million for the upcoming edition but the bid was rejected and the impasse continues. The question that is quietly doing the rounds is: while the broadcasters would certainly be looking at a return on investment (RoI), are the exorbitant price tags to acquire media rights for cricket properties like ICC events or the IPL coming in the way of someone like JioStar playing ball?

The answer is yes and no. Despite the Indian media rights landscape being dominated by cricket, Viacom 18 had acquired the rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar for a reported price tag of $60 million. JioCinema, which provided free live streaming in India on its mobile app and website, recorded more than 110 million digital viewers during the tournament, with the Argentina vs France final alone drawing 32 million viewers.

‘’The match timings in India are making a huge difference in terms of marketability unlike the Qatar edition. Most of the matches have kick-off times of 12.30 am, 3.30 am or 6.30 am, and this is making broadcasters wary,’’ a well known industry insider told National Herald.

While the argument holds, he also broke down why it’s quite challenging to monetise a football match. ‘’Any broadcaster depends on two avenues for revenue generation from a sporting event — commercials and subscription. While the match timings for this World Cup are inconvenient in our time zone, FIFA has certain restrictions against pop-up ads etc during a game. Hence, the only window is half-time, but viewers mostly take a break rather than listen to experts,’’ he observed. ‘’It’s also not very tenable to levy additional subscription charges when people already have Jio connections.’’

What has also not helped is that since the merger between Viacom18 and Disney Star, JioStar now controls a dominant share of India’s sports broadcasting ecosystem and enjoys almost near-monopoly leverage in rights discussions. There have been reports that Sony explored the possibility of bidding, but eventually decided against a formal offer.

Football fans live in hope that there could be a late compromise between FIFA and JioStar. Reacting to a query on the subject, All India Football Federation deputy secretary-general M. Satya Narayan said: ‘’See, the AIFF has no role in this but we feel India is too big a market for FIFA to finalise a plan without us on the radar. The hesitation on the part of the broadcasters could be because of timings but hopefully, there will be a solution soon so that the million of football fans here are not deprived.’’

Key regional broadcasters:

USA: Fox, Telemundo, Peacock, Universo

Canada: CTV, TSN, RDS

UK: ITVX

Sub-Saharan Africa: SuperSport

Australia: SBS

Germany: ARD, ZDF

India: No official broadcaster yet; negotiations ongoing with broadcasters like JioStar

Digital and Global

YouTube: Will air live match action, including the first 10 minutes of games as an appetizer, in addition to select full matches per a March 2026 deal

FIFA+: FIFA's direct-to-consumer platform is available for streaming