81 All Out - A Cricket Podcast: Recent Episodes
81 All Out
We review India's magnificent win over Bangladesh in the second Test in Kanpur.
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Talking Points:
- India doing both the expected and unexpected at the same time
- India's great bowling attack and the art of picking 20 wickets
- Jasprit Bumrah - in a rarefied space of fast bowling
- Jadeja's speeds v Bangladesh's spinner's speeds
- India's batting assault
- Kanpur 2021 v Kanpur 2024
- Kohli, Shastri and the decision to play five fast bowlers
- Jaiswal's remarkable start to his Test career
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack| ESPNcricinfo
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Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- The simple genius of Ravindra Jadeja - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
- Rohit Sharma and the sixes that woke up a dead game - Alagappan Muthu - ESPNcricinfo
- A freakish ten-for and good old Indian dominance - 81allout review of the India v New Zealand series in 2021
We review India's 280-run win over Bangladesh in the first Test in Chennai.
Talking Points:
- Bangladesh complete... then lose by 280 runs
- Bangladesh's impressive trio of pacers
- The sessions that Bangladesh won - before the ball got older and runs flowed
- The sweep v drive ratio: and why Bangladesh chose to sweep much more
- India's spinners finding the right pace for the conditions
- Mohammad Siraj's relentless second-innings spell
- Mehidy and Shakib: too slow with the ball?
- Rishabh Pant's grand return to Test cricket
- Shubman Gill's purple patch in Tests
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack| ESPNcricinfo
*
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- Ashwin, Jadeja, Bumrah, Siraj, Akash Deep Lead India Into The Black - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
- Ashwin's double act of hundred and six-for secures 1-0 lead for India - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- Reminiscing special memories from my home test - R Ashwin - YouTube
- Why does India need a players' association? Ask a former cricketer - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
We chat with ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent Mohammad Isam about Bangladesh's historic series win in Pakistan and their chances in the upcoming two-Test series in India.
Talking Points:
- Bangladesh's dream-like comeback wins in the two Tests in Rawalpindi
- A bowling attack with tremendous variety - world-class spin and promising pace
- The arrival of Nahid Rana - and his ferocious spells in Pakistan
- The symbolism of Bangladesh's series win amidst the political climate in the country
- Mehidy Hasan Miraz - workhorse, counter-puncher, MVP
- Can Bangladesh's attack adapt to India's varied conditions?
- The challenge of a two-Test series without any warm-up games
- India's unsettled top six
- How spin-friendly conditions could help Bangladesh narrow the gap
Participants:
Mohammad Isam (@Isam) | ESPNcricinfo
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack| ESPNcricinfo
*
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- Bangladesh's small wonders conjure a Rawalpindi miracle - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
- Nahid Rana: a new express finds fame in Rawapindi - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
- The quirks and challenges of covering Bangladesh cricket - 81allout podcast with Mohammad Isam on his book 'On the Tiger's Trail'
In the latest episode we chat with Paras Mhambrey on his recent stint as the bowling coach of the Indian team. We discuss India's varied bowling attack and how he managed the transition from one set of fast bowlers to the next.
Participants:
Paras Mhambrey
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
‘We have a cluster of fast bowlers who have got exposure in white-ball cricket and are not far away (from Test call-up)’, says Paras Mhambrey - Indian Express
Data driven: How Mhambrey's work is helping Shami & Co - Sanjjeev K Samyal - Hindustan Times
‘What a bowler thinks and what he actually does are different things’ – Bharat Arun interview with 81allout
The value of data analysis and how the Indian team embraced it - 81allout podcast with Himanish Ganjoo
'I cannot tell a bowler what to do or not do. I need to help them understand their own rhythm' - Bharat Arun interview - Karthik Krishnaswamy - The Cricket Monthly
In the latest episode we chat with Himanish Ganjoo on how data can assist cricket teams and what he learnt from his own stint as a data analyst with the Indian side.
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Himanish Ganjoo (@hganjoo_153)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
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Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
Himanish Ganjoo's articles - ESPNricinfo | Substack
Training the Hawkeye on Axar Patel: Angular, Anomalous - Substack
Understanding T20 - 81allout podcast with Hassan Cheema
Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
Databall - Kartikeya Date - The Cricket Monthly
We chat with veteran journalist Clayton Murzello about the oldest living Indian captain: Nari Contractor. Clayton speaks about his interactions with Contractor and why we must remember the man for much more than that one day in Barbados: when he suffered a near fatal injury in a warm-up game.
Talking Points:
- A story full of destiny: from his birth till that fateful day in Barbados
- The stylish left-handed batter who couldn't make it to the Mumbai Ranji side
- How Contractor ended up playing first-class cricket for Gujarat
- The captain who first introduced team meetings and broke down barriers
- The day when the universe conspired against Contractor
- Frank Worrell's advice to Contractor before the Indians faced Charlie Griffith
- A remarkable story of recovery - and how cricket saved Contractor
- The visionary that roped in Frank Tyson to coach youngsters in Mumbai
Participants:
Clayton Murzello (@claytonmurzello)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- Contractor steps into the 90s - Clayton Murzello - Mid-Day
- Griffith's delivery hit my face at 90 degrees: Nari Contractor - Clayton Murzello - Mid-Day
- The amazing life of Mumbai-based former India captain Nari Contractor - Clayton Murzello - Mid-Day
- The bouncer that ended a career - Martin Williamson - ESPNcricinfo
We review the final of the T20 World Cup and end of India's wait for an ICC trophy.
Talking Points:
- How trophy wins don't define India's legacy.
- The unfairness of labelling South Africa chokers.
- The peerless Bumrah.
- Virat Kohli's change of approach and his great swansong T20 innings in the final.
- Rohit, Pant and the fallacy of "shot selections".
- How India finally managed to construct a well balanced squad for the conditions.
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh (@cornerd)
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- 'The Worm Turns for India's Greatest Generation"- Cricketingview.
We review the Super 8 phase of the T20 World Cup and touch upon Afghanistan's glorious triumph, India's sweet win against Australia, and the hopes for the semis and final.
Talking Points:
- Afghanistan's historic wins over Australia and Bangladesh
- Gurbaz and Zadran - the rocks around Afghanistan's journey
- Playing their first official cricket match to 2004 to a semi-final in 2024
- The political question around Afghanistan - and absence of public pressure
- Rohit Sharma's assault against Australia in St Lucia
- India and South Africa thriving with their Test-quality attacks
- The mystery of Kuldeep - and his indecipherable fastish spin
- Looking ahead to the semis and final
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- ‘Cricket is the only source of happiness back home’ - Ben Morse and Masoud Popalzai - CNN
- The World catches up with Australia - Gideon Haigh - Cricket et al. substack
- Perfect Imperfection for Imperfect Tournament? - Neil Manthorp - Manners-on-cricket substack
- Human rights question hangs over success story of Afghanistan's men - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
We review the first two weeks of the T20 World Cup and chat about the heartwarming performances of USA and other Associate teams. Plus Pakistan's insistence on opening with Babar and Rizwan; Kohli's attempts to change; Pant's hitting training; and the umpiring decision that Bangladesh are furious about.
Talking Points:
- Why a 20-team World Cup seems so much more inclusive
- Why USA beating Pakistan is not as shocking as it may have been 10 years ago
- Many teams have struggled to score freely but the games have been close
- Pakistan's RizBar problem
- The importance of a T20 batter having a wide range of strokes
- Rishabh Pant's trained hitting - and how he embraces risk at all times
- Bangladesh's close defeat to South Africa - and the lbw
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy books republished by 81allout:
War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh
Related:
- BAN lose to SA Despite A DRS Reprieve for Mahmudullah - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
- What will be the legacy of Cricket World Cup’s New York adventure? - Andy Bull - Guardian
- How India vs Pakistan converted an American sports fan to cricket - Michael Dominski - New York Times
- Saurabh Netravalkar and Harmeet Singh: two Mumbai boys living the American cricket dream - Nagraj Gollapudi and Shashank Kishore - ESPNcricinfo
- Cricket stadium opponents relieved with ICC’s decision to nix Van Cortlandt Park proposal, opt for Long Island site - Camille Botello - Bronx Times
Is there any other sport that allows recreational players to rub shoulders with superstars? Scott Oliver has traced down these delightful stories in a new book called Sticky Dogs and Stardust and we speak to Scott to understand his passion for this type of story and how these experiences can reveal so much about a cricketer and their love for the game.
Among the several superstars to have played in club cricket in England, the book tells the stories of all-time greats such as Adam Gilchrist, Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Wasim Akram, and Shane Warne - and also reveals what these cricketers' presence meant for their amateur team-mates.
Support 81allout on Ko-fi
*
Sticky Dogs and Stardust by Scott Oliver is available to buy in hardback and ebook formats. You can get 10% off the standard price at thenightwatchman.net with coupon code 81ALLOUT. Hardback (£15.30 + shipping when you use 81ALLOUT): https://www.thenightwatchman.net/buy/sticky-dogs-and-stardust Ebook (£4.49 when you use 81ALLOUT): https://www.thenightwatchman.net/buy/sticky-dogs-and-stardust-ebook
Talking Points:
- The allure of the big star playing the small game
- The thrill of seeing a youngster with the potential for greatness
- Seventeen-year old Adam Gilchrist finding himself in England
- The remarkable story of Viv Richards in his pomp at Rishton CC
- The sight of great fast bowlers like Marshall and Donald terrorizing amateurs
- The cult of Garry Sobers at Norton CC
- The cricketers who disappointed their clubs
- The passing of an era - and how cricket's current economy doesn't allow for superstars to be part of an amateur setting
Participants:
Scott Oliver (@reverse_sweeper)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Books republished by 81allout:
- War Minus the Shooting - Mike Marqusee
- Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - Mike Coward
- The Summer Game - Gideon Haigh
Related:
- Sticky Dogs and Stardust review - Martin Chandler - Cricketweb.net
- List of Scott Oliver's articles
The 2024 edition of the IPL has seen hitters step up to a new level - with 200-plus totals becoming routine and 200-plus chases being achieved too. Is this an inflection point for the format? And how should we be talking about the sport if this is the new normal?
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Talking Points:
- Why has this IPL seen a sudden jump in totals?
- Has the impact-player rule played a significant role in raising totals?
- Have teams found more hitters to accomodate in the XIs?
- Jake Fraser-McGurk - the prototypical T20 hitter
- The effect of non-capped Indian players like Abhishek Sharma, Ashutosh Sharma
- Why Dhoni bats so late in the game: the effect of platooning
- What does it mean when you wish for a balance between bat and ball in T20s?
- Why higher scores suggest the hitters are more in control of their shot-making
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Karthikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
- What’s the deal with T20 bowling? - 81allout podcast
- Jake Fraser-McGurk, the ideal T20 batter - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- How Do International Cricketers Do At The IPL? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
How much does bowling matter in T20s and how does one measure the potency of a bowler in this format? What are the measures of excellence for a T20 bowler?
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Talking Points:
- How does one describe a good T20 bowler?
- Is it possible to separate actions and outcomes for T20 bowling?
- A format that offers the bowlers almost no leverage
- What is the role of bowlers in a contest designed to be between bat and bat?
- Does a great T20 bowler need any particular skills?
- The value of bowlers with unconventional actions
- What Jasprit Bumrah does well in T20s
- Why T20 bowlers can't be viewed in the same way as Test or ODI bowlers
- Can we gauge bowling in T20s before hitting has reached its full potential?
- The future of T20 bowling - and why some rule changes can bring bowlers into the game
- The Harshal Patel problem for T20 bowlers
- Are teams being inefficient when paying huge sums for bowlers?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Karthikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
- Bowling doesn't really matter in T20 - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Ferociously fast and thrillingly direct: how Mayank went bang, bang, bang - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- 'If you go searching for wickets in T20, you're playing into the batsman's hand' - Samuel Badree interview by Nagraj Gollapudi - The Cricket Monthly
- ICC recommends ODI rule changes - Cricket Australia
T20 started in the early 2000s but what if the format was invented 15 years earlier. Who were the players who would have excelled in the shorter format? We decided to pick a T20 side from the era before the IPL and debated how Aravinda de Silva and Brian Lara might have changed their game for T20s. And if players like Ricardo Powell and Adrian Kuiper would have had more illustrious careers than they did.
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Talking Points:
- The evolution of ODIs and T20s - and how both took about 20 years ago mature
- Would players like Sunil Narine have been as big a star if not for T20s?
- The West Indian legacy in terms of accelerating the T20 evolution
- Which players from the past would have thrived in this format?
- Would you have heard much more of Alistair Brown and Michael Di Venuto had T20s been around earlier?
- Would Aravinda de Silva have continued his Mad Max avatar in T20s?
- Ricardo Powell, Atul Bedade, Robin Singh - the superstars who could have been
- Players like Lance Klusener who rigorously practiced range-hitting
- The value of a good googly bowler in T20s
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Deepauk Murugesan (@complicateur)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Ijaz Ahmed's 84-ball 139 v India in Lahore in 1997 - YouTube
- When Surrey smashed the 50-over World Record thanks to Alistair Brown's 268 - YouTube
- When Kapil Dev hit four sixes in a row to avoid the follow-on at Lord's - YouTube
- Atul Bedade's big day in Sharjah - YouTube
We review the fifth Test between India and England in Dharamshala – where India stamped their authority with a win by an innings and 64 runs.
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Talking Points:
- A one-sided – and thoroughly expected – end to a Test series in India
- The Bazball delusion
- England's inadequate bowling resources thoroughly exposed
- Kuldeep the genius - a wristspinner with both variety and control
- R Ashwin caps off his 100th Test with signature spells
- The first morning - when Bumrah and Siraj made the ball talk
- The challenge against spin for Duckett, Pope, Stokes, and Bairstow
- Did England Bazball enough or too much? And why it doesn't matter
- When Shubman Gill was at his fluent best
- The problem with England playing Anderson and hardly bowling him
- England not replacing the injured Leach and Rehan - and over-bowling Bashir
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- IND Win By An Innings In Dharamsala, Finish Series 4-1 - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- On Ravichandran Ashwin - India's greatest matchwinner - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Just sit back and get ready to marvel at R Ashwin, for the 100th time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Joe Root on facing Ashwin and Lyon - Sky Cricket podcast - YouTube
- How India Bazballed England - Himanish Ganjoo - X (formerly Twitter)
We review the fourth Test between India and England in Ranchi – where India sealed a series with a magnificent five-wicket win.
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Talking Points:
- The third-innings bowling that capped another brilliant third-day fightback
- India's forced accelerated transition - with a team full of youngsters
- Dhruv Jurel's expert batting with the tail
- Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep - an undecipherable trio
- Bazball sucking all the oxygen out of the England media
- Did England miss a trick by not bowling Anderson and Robinson enough?
- How England's statements often ran opposite to their actions
- Could England have done better in India if they shelved Bazball?
- Akash Deep's dream first spell
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Ranchi win epitomises current era of India's Test team with promise for the next one - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- India Pull Off Sensational Heist Against Negative England In Ranchi - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview Substack
- Fog of post-truth Baz-chat obscures England’s progress under Ben Stokes - Barney Ronay - Guardian
- England lose series in India - Sky Cricket Vodcast - YouTube
We review the third Test between India and England in Rajkot – where a terrific all-round performance helped India go 2-1 up.
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Talking Points:
- India's magnificent bowling on Day 3
- How the flat pitches in this series are neutralizing Bazball
- India's spinners - turning the ball more with greater control
- Why England's batting tactics are actually a tribute to India's great bowling
- Why India are actually relentlessly attacking while England are highly defensive
- Why England should have played an extra seamer in all three Tests
- The problem for England's spinners in India - lack of control
- Sarfaraz Khan's old-school method of lofting spinners
- Shubman Gill's tweak to his technique
- Ashwin's 500th, Jadeja's stupendous Test
- Mohammad Siraj - non-stop relentless
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Craft Kuldeep undoes Bazball - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- India win by 434 runs - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview Substack
- What next for Bazball after India crush England - Sky Cricket Vodcast - YouTube
- R Ashwin: the 5D chess master of modern cricket - Jarrod Kimber - YouTube
We review the second Test between India and England in Visakhapatnam – where Jasprit Bumrah powered India to a 106-run win.
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Talking Points:
- A celebration of Test cricket
- A series with echoes of the 2016-17 home series v Australia
- Are England really playing Bazball?
- India's decision to play five bowlers even with an inexperienced batting line-up
- Does anyone think of drawing a Test match these days?
- Jasprit Bumrah: an artist operating on a different plane to the rest
- James Anderson's spell and the mystery around how little he bowls in India
- Did England pick one spinner too many?
- Yashasvi Jaiswal's crackling double-hundred
- Shubman Gill making the most of his luck to a fine Test hundred
- Do these pitches give India the best chance v England?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Jasprit Bumrah press conference after Day 2 - BCCI.tv
- Sky Cricket podcast with Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain - YouTube
- India Beat England By 106 runs- Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview Substack
- Jasprit Bumrah's spells in West Indies in 2019 - Antigua, Kingston - YouTube
We review the first Test between India and England in Hyderabad – where India lost a Test match at home after gaining a first-innings lead of 190.
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Talking Points:
- One of England's greatest wins
- Ollie Pope's freakish 196
- India's approach to facing left-arm spin
- Why England choose to sweep and reverse-sweep India's spinners
- Bazball and the approach to risk-taking
- India's batters getting out to unforced errors after being set
- Jasprit Bumrah's astonishing range
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Sky Cricket podcast with Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain - Sky Sports
- How England cracked the risk-reward equation in Hyderabad - S Rajesh - ESPNcricinfo
- England begin their series in India with a win... Again - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview Substack
- Jasprit Bumrah interview with Ali Martin - Guardian
- Bharat Arun interview - 81allout podcast
We rewind to England's tour to India in 2001-02 - when India won the three-Test series 1-0 and England leveled the six-match ODI series 3-3. England arrived in India on the back of terrific series wins in Sri Lanka and Pakistan - and despite a green bowling attack managed to gave India a scare in two Tests.
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Talking Points:
- The uncertainty around the tour because of the events around 9/11
- India's eventful 2001 - epic wins, big defeats, and plenty of controversy
- The similar (yet contrasting) narratives around the captaincy of Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly
- How England's raw bowling attack found a way to restrict India's batting line-up
- The legend of Ashley Giles bowling a negative line from over the wicket
- Tendulkar's peak - and the unrealistic high standards everyone set for him
- Craig White and Matthew Hoggard: coming of age on a tough tour
- The Bangalore Test that could have been played in Headingley
- The threat of Sehwag at No.7
- Marcus Trescothick's dream run in the one-dayers
- When Flintoff took his shirt off
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
DP Prashant (@prashantdptweet)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- India v England, Ahmedabad Test highlights, 2001-02 - YouTube
- India v England, Bangalore Test highlights, 2001-02 - YouTube
- England divided by safety worries - Mike Selvey.- Guardian
- Playing with Fire - Nasser Hussain autobiography - Amazon
- Coming Back to Me - Marcus Trescothick autobiography - Amazon
We review the two-Test series between South Africa and India - which ended 1-1 after a bowler-dominated shootout in Cape Town.
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Talking Points:
- India's missed opportunity to finally win a series in SA
- Why the Cape Town pitch backfired on South Africa
- India's lack of fast bowling depth - a sign of more struggles in future away series
- Mohammad Siraj's dream spell on the first morning in Cape Town
- Dean Elgar's century: a tale of plays-and-misses and cashing in on poor bowling
- Aiden Markram's astonishing attack
- Where Rabada and Bumrah showed their class: figuring out the conditions
- Rohit Sharma's comments about the pitch - and potential double-standards
- Are these short Tests harming the format? Or are they ideal for entertainment?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- India prove their golden age has plenty of kick left - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- Mean Reversion - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview - Substack
- Newlands pitch the tip of WP’s iceberg of problems - Telford Vice - Wordpress
- On the ICC pitch evaluation system - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview - Substack
- Crime and punishment: warnings, fines, bans and let-offs - Alok Prasanna Kumar - The Cricket Monthly
We chat with Karthik Krishnaswamy and Kartikeya Date about the role of luck in cricket and how we can better describe the game by separating actions from outcomes.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking Points:
- Luck v skill - and why the two are not opposed to each other
- The traditional method of describing cricket - by ascribing reasons for outcomes
- Why it is hard for fans to accept 'luck' as a major part of a sporting contest
- The luck component in different sports - and the 'optimal' luck cricket needs
- The brief phase in each ball when neither batter or bowler is in total control
- India's loss to New Zealand in 2020 against an attack best suited for the conditions
- England's strategy v spin in the 2019 World Cup compared to their strategy in the 2023 World Cup
- The model of the game that views contest without the layer of chauvinism
- The post-facto analysis that accompanies most discussions around captaincy
Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk) | ESPNcricinfo page
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- What's luck got to do with it: a control review of the World Cup - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Virat Kohli's battle with himself - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- The Virat Kohli century that was a trip back in time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- What we talk about when we talk about pressure - Podcast with Abhinav Mukund - 81allout
- What we talk about when we talk about cricket - Podcast with Daniel Norcross - 81allout
- Are some points in Tennis more important than others? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
- Luck and skill untangled: the science of success – Michael Mauboussin interview – Wired
- Why it’s so much harder to predict winners in ice hockey than basketball – Vox – YouTube
We are thrilled to have novelist and cricket writer Rahul Bhattacharya to talk about his experiences from the World Cup.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking points:
- Cricket writing v cricket analysis - and how each is a specialised job
- Does the BCCI care for what is written about them in the press?
- The antipathy towards Indian and foreign fans throughout this World Cup
- The staggering amount of money people were willing to pay for tickets
- The experience of covering a match at Ahmedabad
- India v Pakistan - and how the discourse seems to be war minus the shooting
- Jasprit Bumrah - what can't he do?
- The electricity of India's fast bowling trio
- Maxwell's fantastical night
- Rohit Sharma - the dada batsman
- Virat Kohli's fitness - and his Djokovic-level fitness
- Australia's perfect game in the final
- Travis Head and his Gilchrist-like audacity
- The 'anyone but India' sentiment pervading much of the cricket world
Participants:
Rahul Bhattacharya
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- What the World Cup means - Rahul Bhattacharya - Hindustan Times
- Many shades of the Indian cricket fan - Rahul Bhattacharya - Hindustan Times
- With a skip and a stutter, Bumrah conjures up another miracle - Rahul Bhattacharya - Hindustan Times
- They turn up to watch India bowl - Rahul Bhattacharya - Hindustan Times
- Rahul Bhattacharya's Hindustan Times columns
- Pakistan fans a glaring absence at India Cricket World Cup clash - Rahul Bhattacharya - Al Jazeera
- Indian hype for Cricket World Cup will grow but fans come off second best - Rahul Bhattacharya - Guardian
- Shiv on the Shore - Rahul Bhattacharya profiles Shivnarine Chanderpaul - The Cricket Monthly
- Pundits from Pakistan - Rahul Bhattacharya - Amazon
- Sly Company of People who care - Rahul Bhattacharya - Amazon
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review the World Cup final where Travis Head and Pat Cummins inspired a triumph for the ages.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi.
Talking points:
- Australia's remarkable achievement - and this triumph in comparison to their previous World Cup wins
- Rohit Sharma's approach at the start of the innings
- Virat Kohli and the ability to strike at six an over on any pitch
- The slowdown in the middle overs against fine Australian bowling
- Cummins, Hazlewood and their brilliant variations
- Shami opening the bowling instead of Siraj
- Bumrah's beauty to dismiss Steve Smith
- Travis Head's unforgettable assault
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Related:
- Great final caps Australia's greatest year - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Watch out for Shami when he's running in like a horse - Bharat Arun - ESPNcricinfo
- Advance Australia, inevitably - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
- Krishnamachari Srikkanth's analysis of the final - YouTube
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review two weeks of the World Cup - and chat about Maxwell, Shami, Siraj, Omarzai, Williamson, Shreyas, and much more. Support 81allout on Ko-FiTalking points: Maxwell's freakish 201* How well did Afghanistan bowl to Maxwell? The curious case of Australia's batting in this World Cup Are Afghanistan in the same phase that India were in the 1990s? India's bowling attack - the finest quintet for these conditions? Rohit and Kohli - taking chances v taking no chances Are India due a bad day? Or will they finish the World Cup unbeaten? New Zealand's NRR and the connection with how efficiently they are built South Africa's conundrum - Rabada or Shamsi? Angelo Mathews and the moment the Nagin rivalry peakedParticipants:Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)Ashoka (@ABVan)Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related: Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review the India v England match in Lucknow - and chat about the other themes emerging in the World Cup.
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Talking points:
- The brutal simplicity of Mohammad Shami
- Jasprit Bumrah: the bowler with the joystick
- Rohit Sharma: the ultimate problem-solver
- England's awful batting slump
- Joe Root lbw Bumrah 0
- Ben Stokes - reckless or calculated?
- Pakistan's problem with no big hitting and no quality spin
- New Zealand losing with respectability
- The furore over umpire's call
- Bangladesh's forgettable World Cup campaign Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Related:
- World Cup weekly review - Kartikeya Date - Cricktingview Substack
- This is Mohammad Shami's World Cup - Andrew Fidel Fernando - ESPNcricinfo
- Sky Sports Cricket podcast - Nasser Hussain and Eoin Morgan dissect England's loss - Spotify
- Wasay & Iffi - YouTube
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review the India v New Zealand match in Dharamshala - and chat about the other themes as the World Cup nears its halfway stage. We also pay our heartfelt tribute to one of India's greatest cricketers: Bishan Bedi.
Support 81allout on Ko-fi
Talking points:
- The poetry of Bishan Bedi - and what he meant to a generation of fans
- New Zealand running India close in Dharamshala
- Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra trying to hit Kuleep out of the attack
- Jadeja's discomforting pace - and his ability to calibrate it so finely
- Rohit and Gill taking their chances against a quality opening spell
- Kohli's quest for a century - and the needless uproar around it
- Afghanistan and Netherlands showing their class
- Why aren't teams looking to limit the damage with NRR?
- Will Australia sneak into the semi-finals?
- Will England's batters finally fire?
- Who will go after India's bowlers? New Zealand try but fall short?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Related:
- The Art of Bedi: Our conversation with Suresh Menon - 81allout podcast
- Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 2011, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review the India v Pakistan match in Ahmedabad - and chat about the other themes developing in this World Cup.
Support 81allout on Ko-fi
Talking points:
- India's enviable bowling attack for the conditions
- Jasprit Bumrah - the magician
- Kuldeep and Jadeja keeping Pakistan quiet
- Siraj and the cross-seam attack
- Rohit Sharma's evolution as an ODI batter
- Shreyas Iyer's approach to playing spin
- The joy of the Australian collapse
- New Zealand's deceptive dominance in the early stages of the World Cup
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- India demonstrate their all round strength, hammer Pakistan - Cricketingview substack
- India's bowling unit: Gods of small things - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- 81allout preview of the 2023 World Cup
- Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 2011, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We review the India v Australia match in Chennai - a tense contest that India won by six wickets.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking points:
- India's threat with their seamers as well as spinners
- How this World Cup is rewarding Test-quality spinners
- Australia's lack of depth in the spin department
- Pat Cummins' problem at first-change
- The Kohli-Rahul partnership
- Bangladesh, South Africa, New Zealand, and India - the early favorites
- How is 2 for 3 different from 80 for 3 when chasing 200?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- KL Rahul's cut de grace - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- 81allout preview of the 2023 World Cup
- Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 2011, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
- Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
- Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon
We preview the 2023 World Cup - the muted build-up, BCCI apathy, and how the conditions could play such a big role in how some teams progress. Could South Africa or New Zealand finally win the big prize? Can Pakistan overcome their spin-bowling drawbacks. Can Bangladesh make the semi-final? Or will India be too strong when playing at home?
[podcast_subscribe id="1595"]
[kofi]
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 2011, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
We rewind to the 2011 World Cup that was jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh - and talk about ODI cricket back then, the bowler-friendly nature of many games, the big upsets, the nail-biting finishes, and a cathartic moment for India - and a generation that had never knew what it meant to win a World Cup.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking Points:
- The roundabout connection between the hosts of the 2011 World Cup and India taking part in the 2007 World T20
- How India had turned into a feisty ODI side leading up to the World Cup
- The close ODI series in South Africa before the World Cup
- Sehwag and Kohli trouncing Bangladesh in the opening game
- The pulsating tie against England in Bangalore
- Australia's first loss in a World Cup since 1999 - against Pakistan
- Steyn leading South Africa to a thrilling win in Nagpur
- Sri Lanka thriving in their home conditions - throttling the opponents
- Sri Lanka's thumping of England in the quarter-final - and echoes of 1996
- India's bowling attack - dealing in cutters, slower ones and knuckle-balls
- An unforgettable night at the Motera - when India overcame Australia
- The hype before Mohali - and the eventual anti-climax of India v Pakistan
- Mahela's silken grace in the final - an innings for the gods
- The riveting partnership between Gambhir and Kohli
- Dhoni... finishes off in style
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
DP Prashant (@prashantdptweet)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
- On Board Test, Trial, and Triumph: My Years in BCCI - Ratnakar Shetty - Amazon
- The Test of My Life: From Cricket to Cancer and Back - Yuvraj Singh - Amazon
- 'I wanted to hug him and hit him at the same time till he confirmed we'd won the World Cup' - India's players look back on their triumph - The Cricket Monthly
- BJP's Control of Cricket in India - Sharda Ugra - Caravan
- Kevin O'Brien's record century against England - ICC - YouTube
- War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
One of the themes in our episode on team selection was how the change in playing conditions of ODIs had made selection hard. We dialed in on how the change in Powerplay rules, along with the two new balls at both ends, has reshaped in the cricketing contest in ODIs and thereby reshaped the way teams are being selected.
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Talking Points:
- How profound has the impact of the ODI Powerplay rules been since 2015?
- Is there clear evidence that introduction of two new balls at both ends has skewed the contest more in batters' favour?
- Has the elimination of the middle overs stalemate resulted in a diminishing role for part-time bowlers?
- How relevant are the middle-order accumulators since the new Powerplay rules came into being?
- Are teams fielding deeper bowling attacks than they did in the past?
- Is there scope for touch players under the new order?
- How have different teams responded to the change in Powerplay rules over the years?
- Given the competitive nature of teams in this format, can there be an overwhelming favourite at this World Cup?
- Has the elimination of stalemate resulted in bowlers attacking more in the middle overs or are batters scoring more runs at a faster clip? Can both be true?
- Has the Powerplay rule change enhanced the parity between bat and ball. Or has it diminished it?
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
Rule changes in ODI cricket over the years - Lalith Kalidas and VS Aravind - Sportstar
How to watch ODI cricket - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
How the ODI rule changes have affected run-scoring - S Rajesh - ESPNcricinfo
What we talk about when we talk about selection - 81allout podcast
The crew chats about the idea of selecting a cricket team, and debates how one can have a meaningful conversation about an inherently unfair process. Should selectors be more transparent about the reasoning behind their choices? Is there a process by which we can judge a good selection? And how can anyone justify the selection of the Indian team when anything less than a victory in a global tournament (or marquee Test series) is deemed a failure?
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Talking Points:
- How does one have a meaningful debate about selection?
- Does the selection (or non-selection) of one player have a big impact on results?
- Will it help us understand the process better if selectors explain the rationale for their choices?
- What was the cricketing logic behind Vijay Shankar's selection for the 2019 World Cup?
- What are selectors looking for when they earmark a player as an India prospect?
- Is there anything that can be termed an 'outrageous selection' ?
- Does Sarfaraz Khan know why he is not being picked for India? Does it matter?
- Are selection debates essentially about 'who are the 11 players I like the most'?
- Pre 2011, should Yuvraj and Raina played more Tests than Badrinath and Rohit?
- The difference between Karn Sharma over Ashwin, Shardul over Ashwin, and Jadeja over Ashwin
- Is Shardul Thakur an extraordinary Test selection - or merely a lucky one?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Why selection in India is not illogical or capricious, contrary to popular opinion - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- What more can Sarfaraz Khan do to get selected for India? - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- R Ashwin opens up on WTC drop and on being ‘traumatised’ in the past - Venkata Krishna B - Indian Express
- ‘Batting is now less artistic, more power-based’ – 81allout podcast with Amol Muzumdar
- Watching, studying, writing, talent-spotting: a life in cricket - 81allout podcast with Makarand Waingankar
We review the recently concluded five-Test series between England and Australia that ended 2-2 - with Australia retaining the Ashes. It was a series defined by England's 'Bazball' approach to batting - though that undersells how well Australia's batters resisted English bowling and how well Australia bowled in largely batting-friendly conditions.
https://ko-fi.com/81allout
Talking Points:
- A neutral view of the Ashes - and how it is hard to pick a team to support
- The limits of Bazball - and why England's recent success stems from their bowling depth
- Australia's bowlers adjusting to the flat pitches and England's risk-taking
- Why did England not want to prepare seamer-friendly pitches at home and capitalise on their big strength?
- Stokes v Starc on the final morning at Lord's
- The cult of Bazball - and how it fits in well with the English cricket establishment's exceptionalism
- Mark Wood's pace and Nathan Lyon's absence
- The effect of Bazball on England's bowling attack
- Stuart Broad's cinematic goodbye
- England's chances in the five-Test series in India next year
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Why did Bazball fail to regain the Ashes - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview Substack
- Stokes and McCullum want to save Test cricket but we must look beyond Big Three - Jonathan Liew - Guardian
- England 'wanted to pick Wood' but settle for Tongue in all-seam attack - Matt Roller - ESPNcricinfo
- Bazball: a cult of bruised masculinity where you win even if you lose - Barney Ronay - Guardian
- Mark Wood and the primal theatre of pure pace - Ben Gardner - Wisden
We review the second Test between West Indies and India at Port-of-Spain, which was rained off when India needed 8 wickets to wrap up the win. It meant India won their sixth series in West Indies and continued their dominance when touring the Caribbean.
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Talking Points:
- The problem with gauging the quality of a Test based on crowds and pitches
- Does Test cricket have to conform to a template?
- Mohammad Siraj's terrific spells
- West Indies' curious decision to field first on a benign pitch
- Virat Kohli's near-flawless hundred
- Ashwin and Jadeja tightening the screws on Day 3
- Mukesh Kumar's debut - and India's transition over the next few years
- West Indies' improved batting performance
- The challenge for India's bowlers in tougher conditions
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Mohammad Siraj takes 5 for 60 - Windies Cricket - YouTube
- Fazeer Mohammed reviews the second Test - SportsMax TV - YouTube
- Let West Indian cricketers play in first-class cricket in India - Deep Dasgupta - ESPNcricinfo
- When India collapsed for 81 all out - Windies Cricket - YouTube
- How West Indies became a fast bowling paradise again - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
We review the first Test between West Indies and India at Dominica - which saw a dominant Indian side complete a big win. The conditions were perfectly suited to India's spinners – and gave Ashwin the chance to show his range.
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Talking Points:
- A 'perfect storm' for West Indies on a pitch favouring spinners
- The media obsession with the 'death of Test cricket'
- Ashwin's 12-wicket haul on his return to the side
- Ashwin and Jadeja's deadliness: control + variations + drift + turn
- Cornwall's economical action with few moving parts
- The challenge when facing Ashwin when he is bowling round the wicket
- The power of Jadeja's action - repeatability
- Jaiswal's debut hundred - and why the India A system is so valuable
- Alick Athanaze's assurance against spin
- India's transition - and the case for Ishant and Saha
- Multi-format players and the future of Tests
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Ashwin remains India's constant in the face of constant change - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Ashwin's first innings spell - West Indies Cricket Board - YouTube
- Caribbean Cricket Podcast review of the Test - YouTube
- Bumrah and Co. lead the rout - 81allout review of India's Test series v West Indies in 2019
Where is cricket best enjoyed? Live at the stadium or on a screen many miles away? What do these experiences teach us and what really are we watching when we take in a game? The 81allout crew discuss.
Support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking Points:
- The challenges (and privilege required) to access a cricket ground
- The ordeal of watching a game in an Indian stadium
- The improved quality of television coverage that takes you close to the action
- The complications of a televised game that is carefully directed and packaged
- The distractions during a broadcast: advertisements, crowd shots, sponsor logos
- Experiencing the conditions at the ground and understanding flight and length
- The appreciation to be gained from watching the entire field of play
- The democratic nature of TV - and how it introduces the game to new fans
- The influence of commentary on one's interpretation of the game
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- ‘A TV producer needs to catch the pulse of where the game is going’ – Ajesh Ramachandran - 81allout podcast
- ‘In some ways, a TV director plays God’ – Hemant Buch - 81allout podcast
- What about the fans? BCCI could have avoided the Dharamsala mess - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Why do spectators get a raw deal - Gideon Haigh - ESPNcricinfo
- Fly Lara Fly - Rahul Bhattacharya - The Cricket Monthly
- A handy rule to have in sports - Osman Samiuddin - The National
We speak to British playwright Maatin about his play Duck, which looks at the cricketing events of 2005 through the prism of a 15-year-old boy in a public school in London.
You can buy tickets to the play here.
What the play is about:
It’s the summer of 2005, and Ismail – ‘Smiley’ to his friends – is about to become the youngest-ever player in his elite public school’s First XI cricket team. He sets his sights on immortality – breaking the school batting record and getting his name into Wisden. But at the start of the season, new coach Mr. Eagles takes a particular dislike to him, threatening to derail Ismail’s historic moment. Worse still, no one seems to get what he’s going through. Set during England’s famous Ashes victory and the events of 7/7, Ismail discovers that cricket might not be able to take care of everything as it once did.
Talking Points:
- The impetus to write the play and how closely it resembles Maatin's childhood
- The challenges of being an outsider in the British public school system
- The memories of the 2005 Ashes when seen along with the 7/7 bombings
- Azim Rafiq's testimony and what it meant for minorities in English cricket
- The burden of needing to be a 'good immigrant' in England
- The obviously visible Muslims who have been integral to England's recent rise
- Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid: what wearing their faith on their sleeves has meant
- The backlash Moeen got when he wore an armband in support of Palestine
- The infamous 'Tebbit Test' that questioned people's loyalty to their country
- The complexities around fandom - and how it is hard to explain one's support
- How easy it is to fall in love with the game - and also fall out of love with it
Participants:
Maatin (@maatin)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Watch Duck - details here.
- Anyone But England - Mike Marqusee - Amazon
- ‘Cricket in England is held back by its own mythology’ – interview with author Duncan Stone - 81allout podcast on 'A Different Class'
- British Muslim experiences in English first-class cricket - Daniel Burdsey - International Review for the Sociology of Sport
- Moeen - Moeen Ali autobiography - Amazon
- It Isn’t an Easy Time to Be a British Muslim. Cricket Helps - Moeen Ali profile - New York Times
- Stokistan - Scott Oliver on how Pakistani players have lit up the north Straffordshire leagues - The Cricket Monthly
- The rainbow beauty of Hashim Amla - Niren Tolsi - The Cricket Monthly
We review the World Test Championship final between Australia and India at The Oval - which ended with a 209-run win and the Test mace for Australia. It was India's second consecutive loss in the WTC final - and offered hints that a terrific side is likely past its peak.
Talking Points:
- Australia's greater depth in bowling
- Yet another missed opportunity for this Indian side to win a world title
- The height advantage - how the 'release points' could have made a difference
- The magnificent Mr Smith
- Did India misread the conditions on Day 1?
- Gill and Pujara leaving balls that hit the stumps
- Ashwin v Jadeja; Ashwin v Shardul; Ashwin v Umesh - the selection riddle
- Lyon's craft to get Jadeja and Rohit out
- Rahane's joyous return to Tests
- What next for this Indian bowling attack?
- The Rahul Dravid question
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Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Prashant DP (@prashantdptweet) | Prashant's cricket posts on Medium
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Kartikeya's Substack
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- The story of the WTC final - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Boland and Cummins unleash on India - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
- Beware, England: Steve Smith looks like a batting immortal again - Geoff Lemon - Guardian
- Ajinkya Rahane, India's quiet hero - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo
- Ashwin's preparation list for the WTC final - Venkata Krishna - Indian Express
We chat with ESPNcricinfo assistant editor Karthik Krishnaswamy and freelance writer Saurabh Somani on making sense of cricket in these times of excess. With leagues mushrooming around the world, and multiple formats to track, can journalists be expected to have a holistic view of the game?
Talking Points:
- The evolution of cricket - and pressures on journalists - over the last decade
- The near-impossible task of watching cricket across formats and geographies
- The difficulty of 'connecting the dots' from age-group to international cricket
- The need to change one's writing to suit the rhythm of the format
- Making peace with not watching most of the cricket that is being televised
- The lack of bandwidth to take in the big picture
- The future of one-dayers and how its extinction could have far-reaching effects
- A future where journalists will need to pick formats to cover
- Balancing the demands of the market with the demands of journalism
- The future of cricket coverage with advances in video and Artificial Intelligence
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Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Karthik Krishnaswamy's articles on ESPNcricinfo
- 'Hard for journalists today to probe serious issues in cricket' - Pradeep Magazine - 81allout podcast
- A Cop in Cricket - Neeraj Kumar - Amazon
- Will IPL franchise owners swallow international cricket whole? - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
- Is there too much cricket? - Cameron Pononsby - Wisden
- Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution - Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde - Amazon
- Hitting against the Spin - Nathan Leamon and Ben Jones - Amazon
- IPL, basketball and the tamasha paradox - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - sidveeblogs
Some cricketers we love at first sight; some, we take time to appreciate; others, we do not understand the fuss; and still others are quick to get under our skins. Often, we review our views over time - and often surprise ourselves by changing our opinions about cricketers.
Kapil Dev, Ishant Sharma, Ravi Shastri, Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, and Steve Waugh - all formidable cricketers. All of whom we have changed our minds over at various stages. And all of whom we focus on in this episode - to understand the evolution of our fandom.
Talking Points:
- What Kapil Dev chasing Hadlee's record meant for many young fans
- The staggering image of Kapil being a combination of Bumrah and Pant
- Ishant Sharma's arrival in Test cricket - and the 'trolling' years that followed
- Post-2016 Ishant - the most improved Indian cricketer this decade?
- The Ravi Shastri stereotypes - and how it is easy to be trapped by all of them
- The legendary forthrightness of Ian Chappell
- Rahul Dravid's purple patch - and why that record needs to be revisited
- Mohammad Azharuddin: a glorious rise, an inglorious fall
- Steve Waugh and the danger of hyping 'mental disintegration'
- Sachin Tendulkar - the slow journey from hero to mortal
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Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Prashant DP (@prashantdptweet) | Prashant's cricket posts on Medium
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Talking fandom: love, loyalty, and a sense of belonging - 81allout podcast
- That special whistle: the phenomenon called CSK - 81allout podcast
- Conversation with veteran journalist Pradeep Magazine - 81allout podcast
- Whatever happened to Ravi Shastri 1.0 - Sharda Ugra - ESPNcricinfo
- History’s witness: The IPL final, as Ravi Shastri saw it - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - Yahoo Cricket
- Ishant Sharma interview with Gaurav Kapoor - Breakfast with Champions - YouTube
- Ian Chappell on captaincy and much more - 81allout podcast
- The inscrutable craftsman - Rohit Brijnath - ESPNcricinfo
- Like father, like son - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
- Out of my Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh autobiography - Amazon
- Captain courageous, like Tendulkar, vs Rihanna - Mukul Kesavan - NDTV
We talk to the veteran journalist and author - Pradeep Magazine.
We discuss the major themes of his books - Not Quite Cricket and Not Just Cricket – and talk about the lessons from the match-fixing epidemic in the late 1990s and how the player-journalist relationship has altered over time. Journalists of the 1990s had enough access to the inner circle to get an inkling of the shadiness, says Magazine, but journalists of today are sadly in the dark.
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Talking Points:
- A chance-meeting with a bookie in 1997 that opened up the world of fixing
- Writing about match-fixing before the big story broke
- Interviewing Sachin Tendulkar about match-fixing in 1997
- Kapil Dev accusing his players of being distracted by money in 1983
- Magazine's relationship with Kapil Dev over time - from fan to critique
- The two sides of Mohammad Azharuddin and how it was hard to separate both
- The problem for investigative journalists today cut off from the inner circle
- A new book that casts light on the corruption that could engulf the game
- The nexus of politics and cricket - and propaganda taking over the game
Participants:
Pradeep Magazine (@pradeepmagazine)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Pradeep Magazine's books - Not Quite Cricket and Not Just Cricket
- Neeraj Kumar's book - A Cop in Cricket
- A T20 tournament that wasn't - how fixers fabricated the UvaT20 League - Guardian
- It is far more than a game, this cricket - Conversation between Pradeep Magazine and Rahul Bhattacharya - Kolkata Literary Meet - YouTube
- With sports becoming so commercialized, sports journalism has become more challenging: Pradeep Magazine - Times of India
We talk to the former Zimbabwe fast bowler - and the first black cricketer to represent his country - Henry Olonga.
We focus on the book that Olonga published in 2010 - Blood, Sweat, and Treason - and revisit the highs and lows of his career. We also look back on Olonga's and Andy Flower's iconic black armband protest at the 2003 World Cup, and how it would change his life forever.
Talking Points:
- Growing up in Zimbabwe in the 1980s - and recognizing his cricketing potential
- A bittersweet Test debut against Pakistan- when he was called for chucking
- The purple patch - beating India and Pakistan in Test series, and shining in the 1999 World Cup
- The tumultuous early 2000s - within the team and for the country as a whole
- The racial tension in the backdrop of unrest over Zimbabwe's land reforms
- The push for 'targets' to have more black players and administrators
- The political build-up to the 2003 World Cup - and the decision to speak out
- How Olonga's life turned upside down in a matter of a few weeks
- The divine intervention in the Zimbabwe v Pakistan league match in Bulawayo
- Escaping to England thanks to some generous benefactors
- Writing the book - and ruminating on the value of speaking one's mind
Participants:
Henry Olonga (Twitter: @henryolonga)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- Henry Olonga's book: Blood, Sweat and Treason - Amazon
- Standing up for their principles - Martin Williamson - ESPNcricinfo
- Andy Flower & Henry Olonga: the 'death of democracy' remembered - BBC
- Andy Flower, inspiring cricketer – and protestor - Oborne & Heller podcast
- Sachin super angry on Henry Olonga - YouTube
- Blind Audition: Henry Olonga - This Is the Moment - The Voice Australia 2019
- Risk - Janet Rand - Orwell Today
We talk to ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent Mohammad Isam on his decade-long career covering cricket and his recent anthology On the Tigers Trail.
Isam touches on the culture of cricket media in Bangladesh and offers a number of personal nuggets - bowling to Kevin Pietersen in the nets, talking to Javed Omar about a 'Hate to Love' piece, prompting a Mohammad Ashraful breakdown, following Mashrafe Mortaza on his election trail... and much more.
Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
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Talking Points:
- The culture of cricket coverage in Bangladesh
- The journey from being a club cricketer to a journalist
- Hearing of Mustafizur Rahman's potential - and helping his rise
- Bowling to Kevin Pietersen in the Dhaka nets in 2010
- The hopes invested in Mohammad Ashraful, and the eventual disappointment
- The Dhaka Premier League and its role in the cricketing fabric of Bangladesh
- The cottage industry of left-arm spinners in Bangladesh
- The journalist-player relationship and retaining one's journalistic objectivity
- The brutal honesty of Mashrafe Mortaza
- The fateful day in Christchurch in 2019: when the team escaped from terrorists
Participants:
Mohammad Isam (@isam84)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
- For those within Bangladesh, order Isam's book here
- The day I helped KP confront his spin demon - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
- Javed Omar, no, yes, sorry - Mohammad Isam - The Cricket Monthly
- The original premier league - Mohammad Isam on the Dhaka Premier League - ESPNcricinfo
- Red Sun Rising - Sidharth Monga and Mohammad Isam - The Cricket Monthly
- Left-arm revolutionaries - Mohammad Isam - The Cricket Monthly
- A mountain of hope, a pile of Ash - Mohammad Isam - The Cricket Monthly
- Mashrafe's tale - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
- On the campaign trail with Mashrafe Mortaza - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
We talk to journalist and historian Gideon Haigh about The Summer Game - his classic book recently republished by 81allout Publishing.
Gideon talks about the largely forgotten 1950s and '60s, and fascinating stories he heard from many who nourished the game – at a time when the financial rewards were minimal and when the game itself saw some fallow times.
India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)
Australia (paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The idea for The Summer Game - an outgrowing from The Cricket War
- How post-war period opened up Australian cricket to the rest of the world
- The tragic end to Ian Meckiff's career - and what he recalled of it many years on
- Robert Menzies' role in Australian cricket through his primership
- The discontent of the '50s and '60s setting the stage for World Series Cricket
- The poignant story of Pat Crawford - who disappeared from the face of cricket
- The staggering popularity of the West Indies tourists in 1960-61
- Richie Benaud's punctilious image management - and his precise writing
- The ebullient Benaud who ruffled feathers as a player and journalist
- Neil Harvey's legacy in Australian cricket
- Australia's tours to South Africa in the 1960s - and their attitude to discrimination
- Bill Lawry's reaction to the news that he was dropped from the Australian side
Participants:
Gideon Haigh
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Books Discussed:
- Gideon Haigh's books - gideonhaigh.com
- Cricket War - Gideon Haigh - Amazon
- Bowler non grata - Brydon Coverdale meets Ian Meckiff - The Cricket Monthly
- The Lucky Country - Donald Horne - Amazon
- Beyond a Boundary - CLR James - Amazon
- The Summer of '49 - David Halberstam - Amazon
- The Fifties - David Halberstam - Amazon
- The Tale of Two Tests - Richie Benaud - Amazon
In episode 156 of the 81allout podcast we are joined by former India Test cricketer and Ranji Trophy colossus Abhinav Mukund - who has now turned into an astute analyst on TV. Abhinav is piqued by Kartikeya Date's latest article in ESPNcricinfo (Do India choke in high-profile ODIs) and shares his perspective on how a player approaches (and talks about pressure), and weighs in on the question: is pressure a good parameter to explain the result of a match?
Talking Points:
- The times when a player feels he is in the 'middle of a volcano'
- How players talk about the game and their part in it
- What players mean when they talk about 'pressure'
- Does pressure affect performance in a sustained manner?
- Talking about skill v talking about mental faculties
- Is it fair for strangers to make assumptions about players' mental abilities?
- The problem with attributing the result to mental strength/weaknesses
- What happened to South Africa in the 2015 World Cup semi-final?
- The value of finding a mindspace when 'nothing matters'
Participants:
Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Buy War Minus Shooting - Mike Marqusee | Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - Mike Coward
Related:
- ‘I have found my love for the game in the last couple of years’ – 81allout podcast speaks to Abhinav Mukund on his career and challenges
- Do India choke in high-profile ODIs? Here's what the numbers say - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Why there's no such thing as a finisher in ODI cricket - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- What pressure does to cricketers - Aakash Chopra - ESPNcricinfo
- The mother of all myths - The Cricket Monthly - Tom Eaton on the narrative of South Africa choking in World Cups
- What Is Clutch? A Look at the Most Overused Term in Sports - Rob Goldberg - Bleacher Report
- Cognitive Biases in Sports: The Irrationality of Coaches, Commentators and Fans - Samuel McNerney - Scientific American
In episode 155 of the 81allout podcast we review the fourth and final Test between India and Australia in Ahmedabad. The two teams played out a high-scoring draw, which ensured India won their fourth consecutive series against Australia and set up a Test between the same two teams in the World Test Championship final in June.
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Talking Points:
- The value of Axar Patel as a bowler and batter in this series
- Has any Indian team had as much batting and bowling depth as this one?
- The pitch laid out for the final Test - flat and slow
- Australia's batters finishing off on a high note
- Ashwin's masterful spell in the first innings
- What Ashwin and Lyon do really really well
- Virat Kohli's defensive flourishes
- Will Kuhnemann play another Test?
- The political event on day 1 - and the questions cricket fans need to ask
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (ABVan)
*
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Related:
- 81allout podcasts from the series: 3rd Test | 2nd Test | 1st Test | Preview | Throwback to 2004
- Rahul Dravid interviews Virat Kohli after his century - BCCI.tv
- Nanbaa, ellaam konja kaalam - R Ashwin review of series - YouTube
- Artistry and attrition combine in Ashwin spell for the ages - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- 81allout podcast with Amol Muzumdar
- The Modi Stadium metaverse: half full or just half empty? - Sharda Ugra - Mojo Story
- Cult over cricket - Mukul Kesavan - Telegraph
In episode 154 of the 81allout podcast we review the third Test between India and Australia in Indore. On a challenging wicket in Indore - which was subsequently classed as 'poor' by the ICC match referee - Australia pulled off a terrific nine-wicket win.
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Talking Points:
- Did Australia do anything differently in this Test than in the previous two?
- Jadeja's rare off-Test in recent times
- India's collapse on the first morning - and all the pitch talk
- Did the pitch rage enough? Was the match referee justified in rating it 'poor'?
- The problem with variable bounce (as opposed to lateral movement)
- Khawaja v Labuschagne: a contrast against spin
- Nathan Lyon's masterful spell - from around the wicket, cramping the batters
- Lyon's evolution as a spinner for Indian conditions - and his battle with Pujara
- Pujara's half-century in the second innings - and the partnership with Shreyas
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (ABVan)
*
Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee |
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
*
Related:
- Chasing Wickets Instead Of Control - Kartikeya Date - A Cricketing View
- The last grand battle between Pujara and Lyon - Kathik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Nathan Lyon proving to be Australia’s unglamorous linchpin in India - Geoff Lemon - Guardian
In episode 153 of the 81allout podcast we interview the award-winning author and historian - and one of modern India's most renowned biographers - Ramachandra Guha.
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Talking Points:
- In search of the memories of India's first great cricketer - Palwankar Baloo
- Does the Bombay school of batting begin with the remarkable P Vithal?
- How the city of Bombay is a main character in Corner of a Foreign Field
- The Parsee influence in the history of Indian cricket
- CK Naydu's epochal 153 against the MCC team in 1926-27
- The evolution of the game in post-independence India
- Race, caste, religion, and nation - the fissures around Indian cricket
- The India v Pakistan match in Manchester in 1999 - with their soldiers at war
Participants:
Ramachandra Guha (@ramguha)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee |
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward
Books Discussed:
- Corner of a Foreign Field - Ramachandra Guha - Amazon; Spin and Other Turns - Ramachandra Guha - Amazon; Cricket, Public Culture, and Making of Post-Colonial Calcutta - Souvik Naha - Cambridge University Press; A Stroke of Genius - Gideon Haigh - Amazon; On Warne - Gideon Haigh - Amazon; Beyond a Boundary - CLR James - Amazon; Cricket Country - Prashant Kidambi - Amazon; Pundits from Pakistan - Rahul Bhattacharya - Amazon; Fire in Babylon - Simon Lister - Amazon; Cricket: the game of life - Scyld Berry - Amazon; Late Cuts - Vic Marks - Amazon
In episode 152 of the podcast we review the second Test between India and Australia in Delhi. The match see-sawed for two days until Australia collapsed on the third morning - and India sealed a six-wicket win.
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Talking Points:
- Australia's tactic to sweep against spinners on a pitch keeping low
- Batting in India in the third innings - a most perilous task
- The Smith sweep to Ashwin, and Labuschagne playing the ball off the pitch
- Ashwin and Jadeja - and the subtle variation in lengths across innings
- Could Australia have used their feet and lofted more in the second innings?
- Ashwin's mesmeric spell on the first morning
- Nathan Lyon's drift and turn from around the wicket
- How the Axar-Ashwin partnership tilted the scales
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (ABVan)
*
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Related:
- Jadeja's seven-wicket haul - BCCI.tv video
- If Jadeja doesn't get you, Ashwin must - 81allout podcast review of the 1st Test
- R Ashwin and the story of a most magical over - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Ashwin-Jadeja combo a nightmare for any touring team to India - Dinesh Karthik - Cricbuzz
- India get the better of Australia, one flick at a time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- The Plan: How Fletcher and Flower Transformed English Cricket - Steve James - Amazon
- Batsmen could learn from the Hayden way - Andrew Ramsey - cricket.com.au
In episode 151 of the 81allout podcast we review the first Test between India and Australia in Nagpur. India outclassed Australia in all departments and their superior depth in both batting and bowling propelled them to an innings victory.
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Talking Points:
- Rohit Sharma's exceptional ability to suss up the conditions and bat accordingly
- Ravindra Jadeja's mesmeric control on the first morning
- The outrage over the selective watering of the pitch
- Which team doesn't doctor its pitches to give the home side an advantage?
- The Smith-Labuschagne partnership on Day 1
- Todd Murphy's impressive debut - speed, control, and accuracy
- The Pujara sweep - and how rare it was for him to get out that way
- Nathan Lyon's problem on slow Indian pitches
- The Jadeja ointment - and the connection with Sandpaper-gate
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (ABVan)
*
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Related:
- Why have visiting bats stopped having big series in India? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- What's happening with the Napur pitch - Venkata Krishna - Indian Express
- India's cheat code: lower-order muscle - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Forget conspiracy theories and whingeing, there’s only one way to win in India - Mark Taylor - Sydney Morning Herald
- Couch Talk 81 with Sunil Subramaniam - Subash Jayaraman - Couch Talks
- Rohit's zen, Pujara sweeps, Murphy's five and Ravi's improvement - Jarrod Kimber - Jarrod Kimber's Sports Almanack
In episode 150 of the 81allout podcast we preview India's upcoming Test series against Australia - the latest chapter in a storied rivalry. Australia sure have the team to pull off a series win but the panel agrees that they will still need to be at their best to hand India their first home-series defeat in nearly a decade.
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Talking Points:
- Australia's attitude towards cricket in India over the years: from apathy to obeisance
- The role played by Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Mike Coward and a few others in embracing India and her passion for cricket
- The 2017 India v Australia series, and the gripping Bangalore Test
- Can Pat Cummins replicate Glenn McGrath's success in India?
- The current Australian bowling attack v the 2004 attack that won in India
- India's fast bowling potency in home conditions (even without Jasprit Bumrah)
- Ashwin v Smith: a rivarly with a layer of deep technical insight
- Are we about the see the new new Virat Kohli?
- Can Australia's batters (especially the left-handers) tackle Ashwin?
- The flexibility Jadeja offers this Indian line-up
- Pant's absence and an opening for Axar to bolster the batting
- Our wishes for the pitches in this series: green tops and raging turners
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (ABVan)
*
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Related:
- When Australia conquered the Final Frontier - 81allout podcast rewinds to 2004
- ‘It struck me that you can score 574, declare twice, and still lose a Test’ – Allan Border - 81allout podcast
- How Smith's grip is linked to tennis - Daniel Brettig - Sydney Morning Herald
- R Ashwin: 'I've always been good at assessing batsmen, but now I think I've taken it to another level' - Sidharth Monga interview - The Cricket Monthly
- Umesh Yadav's spell v Kerala in Krishnagiri - Hotstar (access on in India)
- How will Smith and Labuschagne bat against Ashwin and Co.? - Sridharan Sriram column - Indian Express
In the latest episode of the podcast we look back on Australia's tour to India in 2004-05 - when Adam Gilchrist led the visitors to their first series win in India in 35 years. Australia have won just one Test in India since - and will hoping to improve that record in the upcoming four-Test series.
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Talking Points:
- How 2004 was in many ways the sequel to 2001
- If McGrath won't get you, Gillespie must
- Shane Warne's finest hour in India
- The emergence of Michael Clarke - and a special Bangalore hundred
- Adam Gilchrist's measured brutality
- Damien Martyn's expertise against spin
- When Kumble rocked Australia on day 1 in Chennai
- Virender Sehwag's unforgettable 155 - and the match that promised so much
- A curious case of 'greenwicketitis' in Nagpur
- Was Nagpur really an outlier pitch? Or was it just magnificent bowling?
- The most exciting Test of that series - on a raging turning in Mumbai
- Murali Kartik's moment, and the liberating Tendulkar-Laxman partnership
- Do the current Australian team have a bowling attack to win in India?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Prashant DP (@prashantdptweet)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
*
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Related:
- True colours - Adam Gilchrist - Amazon
- The balls of the century - Shane Warne to VVS Laxman - Sharda Ugra - The Cricket Monthly
- Anatomy of a classic - Virender Sehwag on his 155 in Chennai - ESPNcricinfo
- Once upon a twinkle-toed debut - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
- Wisden Reports - Australia in India 2004-05 - ESPNcricinfo
- John Wright's Indian Summers - Amazon
- India lose 35-year-old home record - Sharda Ugra - India Today
- Justin Langer chats with Gideon Haigh and Peter Lalor - Part 1, Part 2
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with journalist Annesha Ghosh about the Indian Women cricket team - their journey in 2022 and how much there is to look forward to in 2023.
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Talking Points:
- 2022: a momentous year for Indian women's cricket both on and off the field
- Mithali Raj: colossus nonpareil
- Jhulan Goswami: a torchbearer who inspired a generation
- The physiological challenges for a woman to bowl fast
- How Kolkata toasted Jhulan during her last match
- The lack of transparency with the Indian selectors
- Shikha Pandey's comeback - and her ingenious practice videos
- India's march to Commonwealth Games final - and the eventual heartbreak
- The sizzling Harmanpreet-Jemima partnership at the final
- How does any team beat Australia? What is the secret sauce
- The allround options in the Indian lower order
- Deepti Sharma's running out Charlie Dean at the non-striker's end
- The incredible potential of the women's IPL
- The BCCI's historical apathy towards women's cricket
Participants:
Annesha Ghosh (@ghosh_annesha)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Buy War Minus the Shooting | Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar
Related:
- 2023 could be India Women’s all-at-once year, after everything, everywhere in 2022 - Annesha Ghosh - Moneycontrol
- Jhulan Goswami: A swansong of Indian cricketer who inspired millions of women - Annesha Ghosh - BBC
- The girl who took women's cricket to the next level - Annesha Ghosh - The Cricket Monthly
- The Fire Burns Blue - Karunya Keshav and Sidhanta Patnaik - Amazon
- Cameroon bowler Maeva Douma effects four mankads in two overs - Wisden
- Why is there stigma involved in running out a non-striker? Because it's all about power - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- Viacom 18 bags women's IPL media rights for $117 mln - Reuters
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat about the challenge of being a modern umpire - and how excess scrutiny and knee-jerk reactions from pundits have combined to create a toxic environment.
Talking Points:
- The challenge for modern umpires - with ball-by-ball social media scrutiny
- How TV replays can fool us into thinking that umpiring is an easy task
- Has DRS accelerated the erosion of the umpire's authority?
- The frequent grumbling around the soft-signal - is it even needed?
- The issue with Sachin Tendulkar's reservation about umpire's call
- The value of umpiring judgement, and why the on-field umpire's decision is vital
- Ben Stokes' misunderstanding of the soft-signal
- Do umpires' performance change based on the match situation?
- Will cricket go the way of American football with video replays?
Support 81allout via Ko-FI
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Cricketingview Substack
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
*
Buy War Minus the Shooting | Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar
Related:
- Why Does The Umpire Get To Decide? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Television killed the umpiring star - Kartikeya Date - The Cricket Monthly
- On Umpire's Call - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- The new lbw rule in DRS - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- A Conversation with Warren Brennan About Hotspot, RTS and other Technology in Cricket - Cricketingview podcast
- The DRS and Technology in Cricket - Channel 7 video
- Accepting the umpire's decision has become a date concept - Gideon Haigh - Twitter
- Simon Taufel podcast - Subash Jayaraman - Couchtalk
In the latest episode of the podcast we discuss India's 2-0 win in the Test series in Bangladesh.
Talking Points:
- India's close escape in the second Test in Mirpur
- Are Kohli and Rahul going through a bad patch or are they on the wane?
- Batting against spin with the new ball v old ball
- The challenges of playing fastish finger spin in the DRS era
- Axar Patel's deadly round-arm action - and why it is invaluable on these pitches
- Where R Ashwin stands v Kapil Dev in the allrounder stakes
- The non-selection of Kuldeep Yadav for the second Test - was it really shocking?
Support 81allout on ko-fi
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Buy War Minus the Shooting | Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar
Related:
- Is the DRS a good thing? Yes if you're a fingerspinner, no if you're a left-hand batsman - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Training the Hawk-Eye on Axar Patel: Angular, Anomalous - Himanish Ganjoo - Substack
- 'Phenomenal' Shreyas Iyer calms the panic down with assured batting - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- All-rounder Ashwin, second only to Richard Hadlee, rescues India again - VS Aravind - Sportstar
- Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Litton Das stride towards becoming Bangladesh's next batch of match-winners - Mohammad Isam - ESPNcricinfo
In the latest episode we talk to author and journalist Gideon Haigh about his recent collaboration with Wasim Akram on his memoir Sultan.
We talk about the process of writing the book and the challenges that Gideon had to overcome to ensure he told the story in Wasim's voice.
Talking Points:
- The process Gideon followed and the contrast with On Warne
- The conversations Gideon had with Imran, Dravid, Shastri, and plenty of others
- Settling on a voice for the book - how people imagine Wasim will speak like
- Wasim's ability to praise and slam his team-mates - often in the same paragraph
- Wasim's evolving relationship with Waqar - their partnership and falling out
- The physical and emotional hurdles Wasim had to overcome through his career
- The challenge of writing the chapter on match-fixing
- Was Wasim the greatest bowler of all time?
- Revisiting the great spells via YouTube
Participants:
Gideon Haigh
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar and War Minus the Shooting (both books republished by 81allout)
Related:
The wonder that was Waz - Gideon Haigh - ESPNcricinfo
'The match-fixing rumours were like a trauma... no one trusted each other' - Wasim Akram interview - Guardian
At 56, Wasim is turning his thoughts to his legacy - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
'He made you believe the impossible' - Gideon Haigh on Shane Warne - 81allout podcast
On Warne - Gideon Haigh - Amazon
The Unquiet Ones - Osman Samiuddin - Amazon
Pakistan in 1999: the allure, the magic, the heartbreak - 81allout podcast with Ahmer Naqvi and Hassan Cheema
In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the idea of greatness in cricket. What do we mean when we say a player is 'great', how does one compare across eras, and what are the pitfalls we fall into when discussing greatness.
Talking Points:
- Greatness as a measurement of a player's performance against their peers
- The habit of putting down one player as one elevates another
- The need for a transcendent moment for a player to be anointed 'great'
- The fallacy of the match-winning innings
- Lillee v Cummins: the complexity of comparing two great bowlers
- The power of nostalgia in talking about greatness - the Andy Roberts problem
- Great batsmen in weak teams and great bowlers in strong teams
- The problem with recency bias when judging greatness
- Is this South African team better than the teams from the 1990s and 2000s?
- The high benchmark for subcontinental players in foreign conditions
Support 81allout on Ko-fi
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
*
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Related:
- The line of greatness - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - The Cricket Monthly
- Wisden 100 - Wikipedia
- Who are the greatest T20 players of all - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Who are the best batsmen of each decade - Anantha Narayanan - ESPNcricinfo
- The Richards standard for ODI batsmen - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- A new measure for cricketing greatness - Andy Bull - Guardian
- An all-time world Test XI, according to ICC rankings - Rupin Kale - Wisden
In the latest episode of the podcast we speak to two pioneers from the early days of the internet: Simon King, the founder of Cricinfo, and Vishal Misra, an early volunteer who was instrumental in the building of the database and streamlining live scoring.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The difficulty of getting cricket updates in the early 1990s
- Chatrooms, IRC, and begging for score updates
- The aggregation of cricket fans across North American universities
- The idea for building a database that would store all cricket information
- The early pioneers such as KS Rao and Murari Venkatraman
- The evolution of the Cricinfo scorecard
- Sending live updates from Malaysia, Kenya, and Bangladesh
- Travis Basevi - the man who built a wonder-tool called statsguru
- Vishal's memories from the 1996 World Cup - when live scoring took off
- The day cricinfo's server crashed in Oregon
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Simon King
Vishal Misra (@vishalmisra)
*
Related:
- ESPNcricinfo at 20 years - ESPNcricinfo
- One night in 1996 - Vishal Misra - ESPNcricinfo
- The wizard Elz - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
- Travis Basevi, my friend who changed the way cricket was consumed - Vishal Misra - ESPNcricinfo
- Travis Basevi: the Statsguru visionary who transformed cricket - Tanya Aldred - Guardian
- Cricinfo - How it all began - Rohan Chandran
- A bot called Cricinfo - Badri Sheshadri - ESPNcricinfo
- The Cricinfo story - Hosted by Gautam Govitrikar - YouTube
In the latest episode of the podcast we discuss the recently concluded T20 World Cup in Australia - where England were crowned champions. We focus on some of the themes of the tournament - upsets, teams assessing a variety of conditions, exploiting ground dimensions, and the overall calibre of strokeplay - and wonder how some of the great bowlers are largely nullified by the format.
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Buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon.
Talking Points:
- A World Cup full of memorable upsets
- Navigating the conditions across Australia - and the effect it had on teams
- Batting against length v batting against the field
- Why some great batters are misfits in the format
- India's problem at the top - and KL Rahul's T20 v Test fortunes
- The Nasim Shah over to Jos Buttler in the final
- The big difference between batting in an ODI and in a T20
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview); Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Related:
- England's approach may lead other teams into the T20 era - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- The England white-ball machine - Jarrod Kimber - YouTube
- The 'rationally irresistible' rise of Jos Buttler, T20 opener - Matt Roller - ESPNcricinfo
- Who was to blame for India's defeat - Cricviz
- Why T20 hitting is not just a more risky version of batting - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
In the latest episode we talk to author and journalist Nicholas Brookes about his recent book An Island's XI: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket.
We talk about Nicholas' journey in learning about different aspects of Sri Lankan cricket and touch upon some of the key themes in the book - the early 'whistle-stop tours', yearning for Test status, the massive victory against India in 1979, the aura of Satha, Opatha and the rebel tourists, Arjuna, Aravinda, Sanath, Murali - and the politics that has never been too far from the game in Sri Lanka.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The class structure in Sri Lankan cricket and how school's cricket is so fundamental to cricket on the island
- Grace, Hobbs, Bradman, Sobers, Worrell - just some of the illustrious early visitors to Ceylon
- M Sathasivam - the charm of the cricketer, the mystique around the man, the tragedy of an accusation
- The 'rebels' who visited South Africa and the cloud that hung over the tourists
- The chaotic years leading up to the 1996 World Cup triumph
- Aravinda de Silva - everyman one minute, spectacular artist the next
- The evolution of Sanath Jayasuriya leading up to 1996
- A conversation in Peshawar: when Saqlain spoke to Murali about his doosra
- The complexity of the Murali story - the politics, the cricket, and the man himself
Participants:
Nicholas Brookes (@brookeswites); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
The story of De Saram and Satha: batting geniuses who went to jail - Nicholas Brookes - The Cricket Monthly; In Colombo, three is not a crowd - Nicholas Brookes and Benjamin Golby - The Cricket Monthly; A Murder in Ceylon: The Sathasivam Case - Prof Ravindra Fernando - Amazon; Growing up with Murali - Andrew Fidel Fernando - The Cricket Monthly; When Murali bared his soul - Vithushan Ehantharajah - The Cricket Monthly; War Minus the Shooting - Mike Marqusee - Amazon; The lost boys of Jaffna - Andrew Fidel Fernando - The Cricket Monthly
In the latest episode we talk to historian and author Duncan Stone about his recent book 'Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket'. The conversation delves into the nebulous 'Spirit of the Game' and how it is emblematic of the fetishization of English cricket - which has turned a people's game into a seemingly noble pursuit accessible mostly to a privileged class.
You can order the book here.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The Spirit of the Game and why English cricket is its own enemy
- The pivotal decision to take cricket off free-to-air television in 2005
- What the Azeem Rafiq revelations teach us
- Outlawing of competitive cricket in the south of England for several years in the early 1900s
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Duncan Stone (@StoneDunk)
Books discussed:
Anyone But England - Mike Marqusee; Beyond A Boundary - CLR James; Willow Wand - Derek Birley; Rowland Bowen's history of cricket;
Related:
English cricket has always been a people's game, but that's not what the elitists will have you believe - Duncan Stone - ESPNcricinfo; The class and culture war at the heart of English cricket - David Hopps - ESPNcricinfo; ECB's South Asian Action Plan fell short - Duncan Stone - The Cricketer; Law (19.8) and Order - 81allout podcast discussing the 2019 World Cup final; The toxic side to the Australian way - 81allout podcast with Jarrod Kimber; Why is there stigma involved in running out a non-striker? Because it's all about power - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo; Spirit of Cricket & the Mankad - Pakistan Cricket Podcast;
In the latest episode we discuss ways in which data is upending the way teams approach the sport - and also question why there is so much resistance to the idea that smart use of data helps everyone understand the game better.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout):
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy);
For the rest - please check your country-specific Amazon pages.
Talking Points:
- The importance of data in the T20 era - with teams looking for more efficiencies and for ways to exploit match-ups
- The 'anti-data constituency' and why data is such a polarizing topic
- The false-opposition to data: and why observation and experience are data too
- The age-old cliche: 'Numbers don't tell the full story'
- The terminological baggage around terms like 'luck', 'fluke' and 'randomness'
- The difference between descriptive data and predictive data
- The lack of sufficient data in T20s - with so few games played every season
- The issue of player accountability - and the fear of data revealing hard truths
- Do TV channels have a moral responsibility to educate the public about data?
- What does the future of cricket data look like?
- Can one expect more systematic recording of judgement metrics?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Himanish Ganjoo (@hganjoo_153); Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview); Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Related:
- Pressure, clutch, choke: the language of cricketing discourse - 81allout podcast
- Understanding T20 - 81allout podcast with Hassan Cheema
- Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
- Databall - Kartikeya Date - The Cricket Monthly
- On Analysis And Statistics in Cricket - Himanish Ganjoo - DeepPoint Substack
- Do match-ups work in T20? The data says yes - Himanish Ganjoo - ESPNcricinfo
- The rise of the analyst, coded signals and the DRS revolution - Sky Sports podcast with Nathan Leamon
- Cricket is having its Moneyball moment - Mike Jakeman - Wired UK
In the latest episode we discuss ideas of loyalty and fandom - with respect to both teams and individual athletes - and dissect various strands of 'belonging' to an imagined community.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The schizophrenic nature of fandom in the franchise age
- Do you cheer for Kohli when he plays for India and wish for him to fail for RCB?
- The idea of imagined communities and the spread of nationalism
- Why does bandwagoning have a bad reputation?
- Supporting a team versus an individual - and how the first appears more noble
- The sacred space of fandom - watching as a community v watching alone
- The live experience v the TV experience - and the vast difference between them
- The loss of hope in 2000 - when Azhar and Cronje were embroiled in scandal
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Rohit Naimpally (https://rohitnaimpally.substack.com/); Deepauk Murugesan (@complicateur); Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Related:
- That special whistle: the phenomeon called CSK - 81allout podcast
- The ins and outs of Fantasy Cricket - 81allout podcast
- Reviving War Minus the Shooting - 81allout podcast with Osman Samiuddin
- Imagined Communities - Benedict Anderson - Amazon
- Rules for Being a True Fan - Bill Simmons - ESPN Page 2
- We cheer for clothes - Jerry Seinfeld - YouTube
- The remarkable rise of the Oakland Roots
- Is sporting fandom a set of rituals or a relationship - Ahmer Naqvi - ESPNcricinfo
- Confessions of a bandwagon fan - David Sax - The New Yorker
- The legacy of Michael Jordan in China - Andrew Gao - chinosity.com
- Will you watch the World Cup - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - sidveeblogs
In the latest episode we discuss popular terms used to describe a cricketing contest - and why these are often lazy alternatives with no standard definition.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy); Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy); USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy); UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy); Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The category error in sports - when stories are used to describe contests
- The narrative around 'big moments' and how some phases are assumed to 'decide' contests
- The rampant discourse around 'pressure situations'
- The belief that some players are superior at the finish than at the start
- Jordan and Robert Horry - and the spread of the clutch narrative
- Australia v South Africa, Edgbaston, 1999: a narrative gold
- The future of cricket discourse - and ways to describe the entire contest
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd); Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- The episode that really matters - 81allout podcast with Sidharth Monga
- What's the story, Morning Glory - 81allout podcast with Karthik Krishnaswamy
- What we talk about when we talk about cricket - 81allout podcast with Daniel Norcross
- Anatomy of a classic - Virender Sehwag on his 155 in Chennai - Interview by Chandrahas Choudhury and Nishant Arora - ESPNcricinfo
- Bias Case - Steve Tignor - Tennis World
- James Anderson and reverse-swing - Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara discuss - YouTube
- Against narratives - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- Why there is no such thing as a finisher in ODI cricket - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Roger Federer opens up - Interview by David Remnick - New Yorker
- Paddy Upton's interview of Allan Donald - Apple podcasts
- 'I wanted to be there at the end. That was my drug' - Lance Klusener interview - The Cricket Monthly
- Rudi Webster - Think Like a Champion - Amazon.com
In the latest episode of the podcast we discuss a fundamental question that underpins a T20 contest: does batting have a place in T20? Are elite batters like Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Steve Smith good fits in the T20 format - and what metrics tell us how good a batter or hitter is.
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Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)
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Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
For the rest - please check your country-specific Amazon pages.
Talking Points:
- The intrinsic logic of T20 - a resource-heavy format with limited time
- Who is better? A batter who averages 50 and scores at a strike rate of 150 or one who averages 35 and also scores at a strike rate of 150?
- The evolution of T20 - from a game that resembled cricket to a different sport
- The problem with picking hitters from an ecosystem that encourages batting
- Ways to measure the excellence of a T20 batter/hitter
- Why a single in a T20 is vastly different from a single in an ODI
- Is there any value in picking an anchor in the top order?
- Can a team full of hitters find a way in bowler-friendly conditions?
- Chris Gayle v ABdV v Kohli v Babar v Buttler: who is the better T20 pick?
- The great T20 hitters - and a formula to rank them
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Related:
- An essential point in T20 - Kartikeya Date - - A Cricketing View
- Kohli's T20 problem - Kartikeya Date - A Cricketing View
- Is a single in T20 the same as a dot ball in ODIs? - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- How do batters train for the demands of T20? - Tim Wigmore - The Cricket Monthly
- Who is T20s greatest player? - Cricviz
In the latest episode of the podcast we discuss the recent fourth-innings run-chases in Tests around the world.
Since the start of 2021, there have been 58 instances of teams batting in the fourth innings - of which 27 have ended in victories. England, West Indies, India, and Pakistan have chased tall targets and we explore whether there has been a significant shift in how teams approach the run-chase.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy)Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy)USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- The recent increase in teams achieving the target in the fourth-innings
- The high preparedness of bowlers before matches - and the predictable drop in intensity as Tests runs their course
- Rewind to the 2000s - when more teams chased targets
- The difficulty of bowling negative in this era - against batsmen with great range
- The T20 effect on Test chases
- A thumb-rule for guessing if a team has a chance in the chase - check run-rates
- India's historic chase at the Gabba in 2021
- England's recent successes in chasing 250-plus targets
- Will teams start preparing pitches that ease out as the game progresses?
- Sehwag's blitz, Sachin's 136, Gavaskar's pristine 90 - and other great chases
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd); Ashoka (@ABVan)
*
Fourth-innings chases - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview; Shafique's epic 160 leads Pakistan to fourth-innings glory - Fidel Fernando - ESPNcricinfo; The Bairoot show in Edgbaston classic - 81allout podcast; England post a record against India - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview; Dravid: 'We have started Test matches well but haven't been able to finish well' - ESPNcricinfo; Has it become easier to chase down stiff targets in Test cricket - S Rajesh ESPNcricinfo; Fly Lara Fly - Rahul Bhattacharya - The Cricket Monthly; Clive Lloyd and Bedi rewind to Port-of-Spain in 1976 - YouTube; Gordon Greenidge's 214 at Lord's in 1984 - YouTube; Nathan Astle's 222 of 168 balls - YouTube
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with Hemant Buch, who is a broadcast consultant with over 25 years' experience as an executive producer, director, and producer.
Hemant guides us through the responsibilities of a live TV broadcast director. He also talks about his recent assignment in Sri Lanka - where Australia and Pakistan played cricket series in a time of intense political and economic strife.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar (recently republished by 81allout)India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy)Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy)USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Talking Points:
- Hemant's journey into the world of journalism and broadcasting
- A TV director and producer - and how they need to complement each other
- Watching a match from 20 different angles and choosing the best view
- The challenges of directing a Test match versus shorter forms of the game
- The predominance of Indian and South African camerapersons in cricket
- The high calibre of camerawork during the recent two series in Sri Lanka
- The need to be nimble while using the ultra slomo camera
- Covering cricket in Sri Lanka amid economic and political turmoil
- The peaceful protests outside the ground at Galle
- Sri Lanka's cricketers speaking up about the economic plight of the people
- Witnessing packed houses in stadia as Sri Lankans grappled with daily crises
- Dasun Shanaka's stunning knock and Prabath Jayasuriya's stunning entry
Participants:
Hemant Buch (@hemantbuch); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
*
Related:
Articles by Hemant Buch; Hemant Buch's photos; Hemant Buch interview on Couch Talk; ‘A TV producer needs to catch the pulse of where the game is going’ – Ajesh Ramachandran - 81allout; When Sri Lanka came to the cricket to fight for the country's future - Fidel Fernando - ESPNcricinfo; Australia's Sri Lanka tour more profound than wins and losses - Daniel Brettig - Sydney Morning Herald; 'A golden age for watching cricket in Sri Lanka' - Fidel Fernando - 81allout; Sport, history, race: the complexity of cricket in South Africa - podcast with Telford Vice and Firdose Moonda - 81allout
We talk to legendary Australian captain and batsman Allan Border about his experience of touring the subcontinent in the 1980s - taking in the tied Test in 1986, the World Cup win in 1987, and the controversial tour of Pakistan in 1988.
Joining Border is veteran journalist Mike Coward, whose classic book - Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - we recently republished via 81allout Publishing.
Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar:
India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy)
Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)
For the rest - please check your country-specific Amazon pages.
Talking Points:
- The cultural shock in the subcontinent for Australians of Border's generation
- Coming to grips with the heat, the noise, and the way of life in India
- The pressure that Border was under in the lead-up to the tied Test
- Dean Jones' epic innings and the role Border had in it
- The final day of the tied Test - when players and umpires felt the heat
- Bob Simpson's contributions as manager of the team during the 1987 World Cup
- Defying the odds in Lahore as Steve Waugh silenced the capacity crowd
- Gatting c Dyer b Border 41 (and the moment when a World Cup final turned)
- How Mike Coward managed to be both empathetic towards the players and ruthlessly objective when reporting the crisis in Pakistan in 1988
- The legacy of Frank Tarrant and the pioneering Australian tour of 1935
- The institution of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: its cache and its future
Participants:
Allan Border
Mike Coward
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Cricket Beyond the Bazaar: the revival of a classic book - 81allout
A lifetime in cricket writing - 81allout podcast with Mike Coward
The subcontinent beyond the cliches: revisiting a landmark cricket book - Dan Brettig and Russell Jackson discuss Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - 81allout podcast
Embracing the East: Suresh Menon on Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - ESPNcricinfo
Mike Coward's books
The Final Frontier: Mike Coward - The Greatest Season That Was podcast
'It long irked me that sports writing, in this country, has been devalued' - Mike Coward's speech at the ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2015
We review the England-India Test at Edgbaston, which see-sawed till day four - before England defied the odds.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- A fitting end to a high quality series
- Bazball: a marketing gimmick or viable cricketing strategy?
- England making the most of their ODI strengths in Tests
- Bairstow's purplest patch
- Joe Root the invincible - a 360-degree master
- Rishabh Pant's command over the bowling
- Balls that refused to swing after the 30th over
- Did India misread the pitch when choosing Shardul over Ashwin?
- India's third-innings collapses - a trend over the last two years
- The future of England's attacking approach
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- England post a record against India - Kartikeya Date - A Cricketing View
- India's fourth-innings fumble: What has gone wrong? - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- In the zone - Kevin Pietersen and Mark Butcher on sporting nirvana - Sky Sports podcast
- Attack, attack, attack - Ben Jones - Cricviz‘
- As a captain, you don’t delegate decisions that affect winning or losing’: Ian Chappell - 81allout podcast
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with one of the most prolific radio broadcasters: Joseph 'Reds' Perreira. In a career spanning over 50 years, Reds has commentated on 152 Tests and close to 500 other matches - including ODIs, first-class, and List A games.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- Overcoming a stammer by imitating radio commentary
- Traveling the Caribbean to watch live sport in the 1950s
- A memorable commentary debut in 1971 - when India toured the Caribbean
- The thriller at Edgbaston - calling West Indies v Pakistan in the 1975 World Cup
- The honour of being at Lord's in 1975 - watching West Indies lift the trophy
- Life as a freelancer in Australia in 1975-76
- The day Roy Fredericks ruled
- The World Series Cricket game in Sydney - when Kerry Packer made his point
- Breaking the story of the West Indies' "rebel" tour to South Africa
- The 1983 World Cup - and the inexplicable loss in the final
- Lara's debut, West Indies' 1-run win, and South Africa's collapse in Barbados
- The 2007 World Cup - and how it could have been so much better
[kofi]
Participants:
Joseph 'Reds' Perreira
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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Related:
Living My Dreams - Joseph 'Reds' Perreira - Amazon
Reds hits rewind - Sriram Veera - ESPNcricinfo
Gavaskar Calypso - Lord Relator - YouTube
How we won the World Cup - Clive Lloyd interview - ESPNcricinfo
Roberts and Murray stand tall - Fazeer Mohammed - ESPNcricinfo
'Quicker you bowled, harder he hit' - Ian Chappell on Roy Fredericks' 169 at Perth - ESPNcricinfo
'Cricket is about scoring runs' - Jeff Dujon interview - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
Legends of TMS - Tony Cozier - YouTube
Why India's win against West Indies in Berbice remains special - Nimish Dubey - Indian Express
Reds Perreira's notes from the Perth Test of 1975 - when Roy Fredericks scored 169 off 145 balls
We speak to the former India allrounder and, until recently, the national team's bowling coach - Bharat Arun.
Arun gives us a lesson in the craft of bowling, guiding us through what a coach looks for and how he suggests minor adjustments. He assesses Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, R Ashwin, and Axar Patel and explains their strengths and evolution.
Note: War Minus The Shooting by Mike Marqusee, recently republished by 81allout, is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.in, Flipkart
Talking Points:
- Arun's introduction to the game and the allure of quick bowling
- The myths surrounding fast bowling and training in the 1980s
- The reason many Indian bowlers weren't able to build on their early successes
- The early Bumrah - and what Arun thought of his action and technique
- R Ashwin's willingness to move out of his comfort zone
- The changes a bowler can look to make - in the run-up and load-up
- Mohammad Siraj's control in spite of his relentless aggression
- Managing a bowler's workload - and finding the optimal number of overs to train
- Bhuvaneshwar Kumar working on his fitness and adding pace to his swing
- Assessing India's losses in South Africa in 2018 and New Zealand in 2020
- India's magnificent tour to West Indies in 2019 - when Sir Viv was wowed
- The Lord's Test of 2021 - when England were undone in less than 52 overs
- Axar's unique angle of delivery - and his ability to bowl straight on a turner
Participants:
Bharat Arun
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
'I cannot tell a bowler what to do or not do. I need to help them understand their own rhythm' - Bharat Arun interview - Karthik Krishnaswamy - The Cricket Monthly
Bharat Arun on India's pace revolution, the next Test captain, and the importance of Ashwin - Ayan Acharya - Sportstar
The paaji effect - R Ashwin interviews Bharat Arun - YouTube
Bharat Arun's report card on Shami, Bumrah, Ashwin, Bhuvi, Jadeja - Sriram Veera - Indian Express
Chennai Super King - R Ashwin profile - Karthik Krishnaswamy - The Cricket Monthly
*
In this episode, we talk to S Giridhar and VJ Raghunath, authors of the book Mid-wicket Tales: From Trumper to Tendulkar.
Giri and Raghu take us through their lifelong journey as cricket fans - and help us understand the magic and aura that surrounded some of the greats from the past. Memories, anecdotes, technique, literature: the stories never stop.
Talking Points:
- Learning about the game through books, radio commentary and at stadiums
- The singular Mr Venkataraghavan - a breed apart in Tamil Nadu cricket
- The joy of watching close-in catchers as India's great spin quartet spun a web
- Why Neil Harvey is so revered among old-timers in Madras
- Gundappa Viswanath - batting side-on, oozing class against the greatest attacks
- Bedi's poetry, Chandra's electricity, Prasanna's flight
- The extraordinary Kapil Dev and his ability to rotate strike at will
- The great slip catchers - and Azhar pouching them without a sound
- An all-time XI from the guests' experience of following the game
Participants:
S Giridhar (@MidWicketTales)
VJ Raghunath
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Mid-Wicket Tales: From Trumper to Tendulkar - S Giridhar and VJ Raghunath - Amazon.com
From Mumbai to Durban - India's Greatest Tests - S Giridhar and VJ Raghunath - Amazon.com
Wrist Assured: an autobiography - S Giridhar on G Viswanath's autobiography - Hindu BusinessLine
They too played for India - S Giridhar - ESPNcricinfo
The kinship of cricket lovers - S Giridhar - Hindu BusinessLine
Unexpected beauty - Suresh Menon on TE Srinivasan - ESPNcricinfo
The art of Bedi - Suresh Menon on the 81allout podcast
The greatest slip catcher - Ian Chappell on Bob Simpson - ESPNcricinfo
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with Roberta Moretti Avery, the captain of the Brazilian women's cricket team.
Roberta talks about how she stumbled upon cricket and describes the growing popularity of the game in Brazil - especially among women.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- Roberta's transition from golf to cricket, and the freedom of the 360-degree swing
- The Brazilian version of street-cricket called Taco
- Setting up pathways for young girls to progress through the system
- The challenge of explaining the complexity of cricket to those new to the game
- Changing the grammar of cricket with a mix of English and Portuguese
- The exposure one gains from tournaments like the Fairbreak Invitational
- Supporting women cricketers in their late 20s and early 30s
- A five-year vision for Brazil cricket
Participants:
Roberta Moretti Avery (@MorettiAvery)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Related:
The Brazlian city with more cricketers than footballers - Melinda Farrell - Sporting News
Why cricket is gaining popularity in Brazil - The Economist
How cricket is gaining new ground in Brazil - Shashank Kishore - ESPNcricinfo
Matt Featherstone on cricket in Brazil - ICC
Cricket growing in popularity in Brazil - CGTN America
Cricket Female Initiative of the Year - ICC
Brazil v Canada, 2021 - @CricketBadge - Twitter
Cricket's Fair Break - Jarrod Kimber - YouTube
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with Ajesh Ramachandran, the Executive Producer at the ICC and their Broadcast and Content Lead. Ajesh takes us through the typical day in the life of a TV producer, and goes on to explain the intricacies of a live cricket broadcast.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- The responsibilities of an executive producer before an ICC event
- Hiring the crew and inspecting the venues for suitability of broadcast
- The broad vision for the broadcast - melding journalism and entertainment
- Rostering the commentary queue on match eve
- The importance of time-management during pre-match routines
- The producer-director chemistry - and how that often shapes the coverage
- Understanding the rhythm of the contest to guide the storytelling
- Briefing the commentators about the context and gravitas of the tournament
- Being in the commentators' ear through the match and balancing various voices
- Memorable moments from a 20-year career in broadcasting
Participants:
Ajesh Ramachandran (@Edged_and_taken)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Related:
These pictures brought to you by - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo
ICC looks to entice a new generation of viewer - Will Strauss - SVG Europe
Remember the game - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - The Cricket Monthly
'I really get annoyed with one-sided cricket' - Ian Chappell interview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
Pitch perfect - Harsha Bhogle interview by Arun Venugopal - The Hindu
Mohammad Rizwan match v nets - ICC
Wahab Riaz spell to Shane Watson in Adelaide in 2015 - ICC
World Cup final Super Over at Lord's in 2019 - ICC
What do broadcasters have to do with ball tampering - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with cricket journalists Adam Collins and Bharat Sundaresan about their unforgettable trip - covering Australia's first tour to Pakistan in 24 years.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- The uncertainty over Australia's tour to Pakistan in the build-up
- The historic first day at Rawalpindi - despite the flatness of the pitch
- The Shane Warne jolt at the end of day one of the first Test
- Abdullah Shafique's ability to shift gears against a quality attack
- The Karachi Test - and Cummins and Starc paying homage to the two Ws
- Khawaja resists, Babar enthralls, Rizwan adds the cherry to the cake
- The grandeur of Lahore - and memories of the terrorist attack in 2009
- Umpire Ahsan Raza's poetic moment
- Is there anything Cummins can't do?
Participants:
Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07); Adam Collins (@collinsadam); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
So far yet so near - under Shafiq's watch rises Abdullah - Bharat Sundaresan - Cricbuzz
The last night in Pakistan - Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon - The Final Word podcast
Ahsan Raza’s dream return to Lahore 13 years after bloody attack - Nic Savage - News.com.au
The menace and unfairness of Pat Cummins - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
Shaheen, Naseem and a partnership of devastation - Bharat Sundaresan - Cricbuzz
The final frontier - Adam Collins, Dan Brettig and Shannon Gill - The Greatest Season That Was Presents podcast
Shane Warne - magical, tireless, immortal - 81allout podcast
In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood movie 83 - which retells the story of India's miraculous victory in the 1983 World Cup.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983
- The conspicuous absence of India's victory over West Indies at Berbice
- The complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath's golden season
- Ranveer Singh and Jiiva - and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari Srikkanth
- The film not setting the context for the 1983 World Cup
- The lack of a genuine bad guy - which makes the movie search for antagonists
- The factual inaccuracies in the movie - including a big faux pas in the final scene
- The movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytelling
- The cinematographic techniques - long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reels
- The nationalistic tone that runs through the movie
- The Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983
- The Indian cricket ecosystem's inability to create cultural value and works of art
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf)
Anantha (@anantha)
Related:
With Obvious Storytelling, '83' Is an Opportunity Lost to Show Underdog India’s Famous WC Victory - Tanul Thakur - The Wire
83 Loses Itself In The Excesses Of Euphoria - Rahul Desai - Film Companion
We review the two-Test series between India and Sri Lanka - which India won 2-0 in emphatic fashion.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- India's invincibility at home - across conditions against all opposition
- The relentless pressure that opposition batsmen are up against
- Jasprit Bumrah and a series for the gods
- Ravindra Jadeja's evolution as a Test batsman
- Sri Lanka's spinners unable to sustain the pressure
- Pathum Nissanka's impressive resistance in Mohali
- Shreyas Iyer's assault in Bangalore - and his six-hitting prowess
- Rishabh Pant's talent to straddle the edges of possibility
- Dimuth Karunaratne's masterful sign off
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- Dimuth Karunaratne, a mortal treading into the galaxy of the divine - Fidel Fernando - ESPNcricinfo
- Where was the planning, Sri Lanka? - Fidel Fernando - ESPNcricinfo
- Bumrah's numbers capture a befitting story - Sandip G - Indian Express
- Ravindra Jadeja - the sting in India's tail - Shiva Jayaraman - ESPNcricinfo
The world of cricket has been shaken by the untimely death of Shane Warne. We felt the need to dedicate an entire episode to this news, and share our fond memories of this singular cricketer.
Note: War Minus The Shooting by Mike Marqusee, recently republished by 81allout, is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.in, Flipkart
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- What Warne meant to the 1990s generation of cricket fans
- The seismic effect that follows the death of a widely loved artist
- Warne against India - stereotypes v reality
- The quality of Warne's stock ball - and his masterful control
- Warne's range of speeds, his dip, and the lethal flipper
- Warne v Tendulkar, Lara, Laxman
- How world cricket may have looked had Warne played for England
- Warne the one-day bowler - and the magic from the World Cups
- Warne in Cape Town in 2002 - the tireless match-winner
- Appreciating Warne through thoughtfully curated and compiled videos
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
On Warne - Gideon Haigh - Amazon
'He made you believe the impossible' - Gideon Haigh on Shane Warne - 81allout
Goodbye Warne - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - 81allout
Shane Keith Warne - A Cricketing View
Warne predicts McCullum's downfall - YouTube
Warne's hum set up him to be the greatest of all - Daniel Brettig - The Age
Memories of a charismatic genius - Richard Calland - Mail & Guardian
We speak to the legendary Australian captain Ian Chappell on a book he published in 1992 - Chappelli: The Cutting Edge.
Chappell offers his thoughts on captaincy, coaching, cricket administration and the muddled approach of those running the game today. Having followed the game for over seven decades - and read avidly about its evolution – he offers both critique and perspective while burnishing his arguments with insightful (and often hilarious) anecdotes.
Note: War Minus The Shooting by Mike Marqusee, recently republished by 81allout, is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.in, Flipkart
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- Test cricket's parlous future both in the 1990s as well as the present
- Evaluating a captain and the difficulty of explaining good captaincy
- Captaincy as amateur psychology - and the time-consuming nature of it
- Getting the best out of his fast bowlers, especially Dennis Lillee
- The challenge, and satisfaction, in captaining match-winners like Doug Walters
- Why the best coaches should be working with players at a formative stage
- How senior players are often better coaches than the appointed coach
- Chappell's relationship with Richie Benaud - as mentor and friend
- The thrill of the hook, and how modern techniques are not favorable to the shot
- The age-old problem of over-rates
- Sir Garry Sobers: genius nonpareil
Participants:
Ian Chappell
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Books by Ian Chappell - Amazon
Ian Chappell column on ESPNcricinfo
'Captaincy is not a 9 to 6 job' - Ian Chappell interview - Sportstar archive
Why Bruce Laird's World Series knocks were as good as Test hundreds - Ian Chappell - The Cricket Monthly
The science of deception - Ian Chappell and Erapalli Prasanna on the thrill and skill of spin bowling - The Cricket Monthly
'Early in life I worked out that being yourself is the easiest thing' - Ian Chappell on the transition to commentary - The Cricket Monthly
'I get really annoyed with one-sided cricket' - Ian Chappell on 30 years of broadcasting - ESPNcricinfo
We speak to the veteran journalist and author Mike Coward, who has watched and covered cricket over six decades. Coward rewinds the clock to various points in his illustrious career and talks about the importance of journalists and players trusting each other. He also opens up on his experience of being an openly gay journalist - and how the male cricketers can take a lead from the women on making it a more inclusive game.
Note: War Minus The Shooting now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.in, Flipkart
Talking Points:
- An Adelaide childhood - and Les Favell as a 'summer god'
- Working in the newspaper industry in the 1960s - the smells, sights, and sounds
- A dream stint in England - meeting Rod Laver, the 1972 Olympics, and Ashes
- The magnanimity of Richie Benaud and Ian Chappell
- World Series Cricket and how it polarized the game and media
- The importance of Allan Border for India-Australia relations
- Covering the 1986 tied Test from an open press box, bathed in sweat
- Bradman, Tendulkar, Warne and Gilchrist - genius in contrast
- The experience of being an openly gay sports writer
Participants: Mike Coward; Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related: Mike Coward's books; Collection of Mike Coward's articles for ESPNcricinfo; A boy's own idol - Mike Coward on Les Favell - Wisden Asia Cricket; The subcontinent beyond the cliches - 81allout podcast on Cricket Beyond the Bazaar; Calypso Summer - YouTube documentary on the 1960-61 series; Madras Magic - YouTube documentary on the tied Test in Madras; Calypso Summer - Mike Coward - Amazon.com; Little Master becomes mere mortal - Mike Coward - Fox Sports; The warmth of a sweltering city - Mike Coward on Chennai - ESPNcricinfo; Embracing the East: Suresh Menon on Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - ESPNcricinfo; When a tie was a victory for Border's battlers - 81allout podcast; The Final Frontier: Mike Coward - The Greatest Season That Was podcast; Mike Coward's speech at the ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2015
In this episode, we chat with two journalists from South Africa - Firdose Moonda and Telford Vice.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Bangalore. They are happy to courier copies to those outside Bangalore if you write in at: Thebookstore@attagalatta.com (You can also tweet at their handle: https://twitter.com/AttaGalatta).
Outside India, War Minus the shooting is available as a paperback and e-copy on Amazon.
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- South Africa's remarkable Test series win against India
- A victory coming after a period of turmoil for South African cricket
- The value of the private school system as a talent pool for South African cricket
- The Kolpak myth - and why South Africa didn't lose as much as it seemed
- The complexities of kneeling - and why it is not as binary as one would think
- The SJN hearings - a moment of awakening for cricket in the country
- The platform that the SJN offered for many non-white cricketers to be heard
- An opportunity lost with several leading cricketers not offering testimonies
- Makhaya Ntini's remarkable confession
- Boucher, Smith, and the possible paths forward
Participants:
Firdose Moonda (@firdoseM)
Telford Vice (@telfordvice)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Fidose Moonda's articles on ESPNcricinfo
Telford Vice's articles on Cricbuzz
Thirty years after readmission: how far has South Africa cricket come since 1991 - Firdose Moonda - The Cricket Monthly
Flawed but necessary: SJN hearings reveal no heroes, no villains - Firdose Moonda - ESPNcricinfo
Paul Adams: I was nicknamed 'brown s*** when I was playing' - ESPNcricinfo
Many shades of grey in the Boucher battle - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz
The end of SA's rainbow that never was - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz
South African cricket deserves better than the SJN report - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz
Bavuma stands up to the fire - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz
We review the third and final Test between South Africa and India - which South Africa won by seven wickets and rounded off a monumental series win.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Bangalore. They are happy to courier copies to those outside Bangalore if you write in at: Thebookstore@attagalatta.com (You can also tweet at their handle: https://twitter.com/AttaGalatta). It is also available on Flipkart now and will soon be available on Amazon as well.
Outside India, War Minus the shooting is available as a paperback and e-copy on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- A fast bowling shootout - with South Africa's attack tailor-made for the Newlands pitch
- Rabada's stupendous spell, and the absorbing battle with Kohli
- Keegan Petersen coming of age in Test cricket
- Rahane and Pujara - the end of the road?
- Rishabh Pant's exceptional innings on a tricky pitch
- The Elgar DRS moment - and the outrage around the lbw decision
- Kohli's chat via the stump mic - and angst against the broadcaster
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd); Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- A second-innings triumph for South Africa - Kartikeya Date - A Cricketing View; The rise of Petersen, the wisdom of Elgar and a great SA victory - Firdose Moonda and Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo; South Africa needed Rabada at his best to stop Kohli - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz; Petersen the hero of South Africa's iconic home victory - Firdose Moonda - ESPNcricinfo; Temba Bavuma, a cricketer with principles - Niren Tolsi - Newframe; Why Virat Kohli is unlikely to get banned for his Cape Town outburst - Ben Gardner - Wisden; What do broadcasters have to do with ball tampering? - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo; Crime and Punishment - Alok Prasanna Kumar on penalties and breaches under the ICC's code of conduct- The Cricket Monthly
We review the second Test between South Africa and India - which South Africa won by seven wickets. This was India's first loss at The Wanderers ground, and South Africa's first Test win against India in six Tests.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Bangalore. They are happy to courier copies to those outside Bangalore if you write in at: Thebookstore@attagalatta.com (You can also tweet at their handle: https://twitter.com/AttaGalatta)
Outside India, War Minus the shooting is available as a paperback and e-copy on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- South Africa's fast bowlers more suited for the conditions than India's
- India's lack of height in the fast bowling department
- Olivier's lack of pace and what he brings to the attack
- India's fast bowlers offering lessons in the nuances of fast bowling
- Shardul's terrific spell and his ability to hit the cracks
- Elgar v Pujara - similar batsmen who chose different methods in this match
- Did Kohli's absence hurt India?
- Making sense of Pant's approach and shot selection
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- Looks fast, feels faster - why the speed gun is only part of the story - Cameron Ponsonby - ESPNcricinfo
- How South Africa won the pace-bowling battle at the Wanderers - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Here comes Elgar's moment of truth - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz
- Resolute van der Dussen plays forgotten hero - Firdose Moonda - ESPNcricinfo
- 'The hardest part is to leave out a senior player' - Trevor Hohns interview - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
- Javagal Srinath on Jasprit Bumrah - Sandip G - Indian Express
We review the first Test between South Africa and India - which India won by 113 runs. This was only South Africa's third defeat in Centurion across 27 Tests.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Bangalore. They are happy to courier copies to those outside Bangalore if you write in at: Thebookstore@attagalatta.com (You can also tweet at their handle: https://twitter.com/AttaGalatta)
Outside India, War Minus the shooting is available as a paperback and e-copy on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal - and adjusting bat-speeds across formats
- India's bowlers adjusting to the conditions - and finding the right length to bowl
- Bumrah's trick-shots, Shami's consistency, Siraj's relentlessness
- Temba Bavuma's strokeplay - and how his Test record is similar to KL Rahul's
- Rahane's 48 - an innings in keeping with his style of attack
- Pujara and Kohli - and the expectations from each
- Playing Ashwin v playing an extra fast bowler
- Quinton de Kock's sudden retirement from Tests
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- The Wrong Model - Kartikeya Date on the contest between bat and ball - A Cricketing View substack
- Javagal Srinath on Jasprit Bumrah - Sandip G - Indian Express
- Leave it to KL - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- Could de Kock retirement breathe new life into CSA-players' relations - Firdose Moonda - ESPNcricinfo
- The Ashwin interview - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- The open-chested predator - Sriram Veera - Indian Express
- The fast bowler's snarl ft. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
We preview the three-Test series between South Africa and India - a golden chance for the Indian team to win their first Test series there.
Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Bangalore. They are happy to courier copies to those outside Bangalore if you write in at: Thebookstore@attagalatta.com (You can also tweet at their handle: https://twitter.com/AttaGalatta).
Outside India, War Minus the shooting is available as a paperback and e-copy on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- Kohli v Ganguly - and the controversy vacuum in Indian cricket
- Can a tree stump captain India (and other philosophical questions)
- Is this saga the new Chappell-Ganguly? Will it have lasting implications?
- Memories of India's past tours to South Africa - Kapil, Amre, Prasad, Sreesanth...
- The panelists pick their favourite Indian innings in South Africa
- A battle of the bowling - and which batting line-up can resist best?
- Shreyas or Vihari or Rahane? Ashwin or no Ashwin?
- Can we expect pitches like we saw in 2018?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Correction: Apologies for confusing two Test matches that came under discussion. Sreesanth dismissed Kallis in both the 2006 Johannesburg Test as well as the 2010 Durban Test. Kohli's century on the 2018 tour was in Centurion and not Cape Town. We will be more careful in the future.
Related:
- Virat Kohli calling out Sourav Ganguly and the clashing storylines - Sharda Ugra - Hindustan Times
- Virat Kohli's biggest gamble yet - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
- Was India's hardness forged at the Wanderers? - Telford Vice - Cricbuzz.com
- Tendulkar and the totemic number - Mahesh Sethuraman - Medium
- India v New Zealand series review - 81allout podcast
- Couthtalk with WV Raman - Subash Jayaraman's interview - Couchtalks
- VVS Laxman's 32 at Bloemfontein in 2001 - YouTube
- Sreesanth 8-99 in Wanderers in 2006 - YouTube
We review the recent two-Test series between India and New Zealand - which India won 1-0.
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Talking Points:
- Is India v New Zealand a major rivalry? Or a filler between marquee series?
- New Zealand's decision to pick Will Sommerville for both Tests
- India's immense depth - winning comfortably despite so many of their first-choice players out
- Ajaz Patel's freakish ten-for
- Tim Southee's exceptional spells in the subcontinent
- Mohammad Siraj's ability to stay in the fifth gear
- Is Rahane out of form or in decline?
- Kohli's lean trot and his atypical nature of playing spin
- Which Indian batsmen played spin the best?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
- The boy from Mumbai - Ajaz Patel on his long journey - After The Whistle
- Tim Southee and a five-for of rare mastery - Sidharth Monga on Southee in Kanpur - ESPNcricinfo
- 10 and then gone? What could be Ajaz Patel's Black Caps fate on return home - stuff.co.nz
- The Perfect 10 and cameraman Taqi Raza - Devendra Pandey - Indian Express
- Ajaz joins Laker and Kumble in all-ten club - S Rajesh - ESPNcricinfo
- Kandy Test 2002, Murali 9/51 - via @cric_archivist - Twitter
In the latest episode of the podcast we talk about how and why we set up 81allout Publishing - and the first book we released: Mike Marqusee's War Minus the Shooting. ESPNcricinfo's senior editor Osman Samiuddin joins us to discuss the classic work.
Buy War Minus the Shooting in:
India (e-copy only); USA (paperback and e-copy); UK (paperback and e-copy); Australia (paperback and e-copy); Other (paperback and e-copy)
Participants: Osman Samiuddin (@osmansamiuddin); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related: 81allout podcast on War Minus the Shooting - Part 1; 81allout podcast on the 1996 World Cup; War Minus the Cliches; Mike Marqusee's website
Other books discussed: The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket; Anyone But England; Pundits From Pakistan; Not Quite Cricket;
In this episode, we revisit Mike Coward's book about Australian tours to the subcontinent through the 1980s: Cricket Beyond the Bazaar.
Joining us to dissect the book – and its importance for Australian cricket literature – are two contemporary journalists - Russell Jackson and Daniel Brettig. They tell us about the effect the book had on them and how it continues to be a guiding beacon for Australians reporting on the subcontinent.
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- The history of India-Australia relations and the blossoming of cricketing ties in the 1980s
- Mike Coward's love for India – and how he intuitively grasped how big the game would become in the subcontinent
- A delightful mess of a book - journalism, travelogue, observations, rumination, history, culture.. it has it all
- The cult status that Allan Border, Dean Jones, David Boon and so many others of that generation enjoy among Indians of a certain generation
- The 1986 tied Test and the start of the Australian renaissance
- How writers like Mike Coward helped several Australians grasp the complexities of the subcontinent
- Australia's triumphant World Cup in 1987 - and the historic win in Lahore
- Australia's controversial tour to Pakistan in 1988 - and the effect it had for the next decade
- How Mike Coward stayed true to his profession despite having such unbridled access to the players and team management
- The relevance of the book today and how young Australian readers can benefit from it
Participants:
Daniel Brettig (@danbrettig)
Russell Jackson (@rustyjacko)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Embracing the East: Suresh Menon on Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - ESPNcricinfo
When a tie was a victory for Border's battlers - Michael Sexton on his book about the tied Test in Madras - 81allout podcast
The Final Frontier: Mike Coward - The Greatest Season That Was podcast
Collection of Mike Coward's articles for ESPNcricinfo
'It long irked me that sports writing, in this country, has been devalued' - Mike Coward's speech at the ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2015
Clueless Australia need a cultural shift - Daniel Brettig - ESPNcricinfo
Daniel Brettig: Books on Amazon.com
Russell Jackson - articles on ABC Sport
Our special guests this week – Hassan Cheema, the strategy manager at Islamabad United, and Ahmer Naqvi, a freelance writer on pop culture – analyze Pakistan's performances in their first three games of the T20 World Cup.
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- Why the T20 World Cup is virtually a home tournament for Pakistan
- The emotional reaction to watching Pakistan win three in a row
- The importance of the Pakistan Super League
- A new generation forging a new identity and narrative for Pakistan cricket
- What Babar Azam has meant for Pakistan cricket as a whole
- Shaheen's stupendous opening burst versus India
- Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez - the stalwarts guiding the middle order
- The versatility of Imad Wasim
- Comparing this tournament and the 2017 Champions Trophy
- Pakistan winding back the clock by playing two anchors as openers
- The joy of watching a team do as you expect
Participants:
Hassan Cheema (@mediagag)
Ahmer Naqvi (@karachikhatmal)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Why the PSL matters - Ahmer Naqvi - Dawn
Reflections from the Faysal Bank T20 - Ahmer Naqvi and Hassan Cheema - ESPNcricinfo
Rohit ball or Rahul ball: which Shaheen Afridi dismissal was better? - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
How Mohammad Hafeez has been a T20 giant in 2020 - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
The Shoaib Malik problem - Osman Samiuddin - ESPNcricinfo
Understanding T20 - a conversation with Hassan Cheema - 81allout podcast
Pakistan in 1999: the allure, the magic, and the heartbreak - 81allout podcast
The Old Trafford blowout - 81allout podcast
Conversation with Ahmer Naqvi and Hassan Cheema - Couchtalks with Subash Jayaraman
Our special guest this week is Gaurav Sundararaman, a senior stats analyst at ESPNcricinfo, and he helps us unpack the complexities of Fantasy Cricket - where fans pick teams and compete in increasingly popular Fantasy Leagues.
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points:
- The allure of fantasy cricket and how it changes one's perspective
- ESPN Super Selector and the early days of fantasy cricket
- The popularity of fantasy leagues in the T20 era
- Picking a team and the dangers of biased selections
- Tournament mode v daily mode
- Rajat Bhatia, Sreenath Aravind and the value of unheralded stars
- Chris Gayle, David Warner, ABd - the must-haves
- Rajat Bhatia, Sreenath Aravind, Amit Mishra - the bankable players
- The moment when Fantasy Cricket creators asked - 'Who is Jasprit Bumrah'
- Automated substitutions, dynamic pricing and the next steps in fantasy cricket
Participants:
Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) (All ESPNcricinfo articles by Gaurav)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
Dueling with Kings - Daniel Barbarasi on Fantasy Sports - Amazon.com
How to boss fantasy cricket - ESPNcricinfo - Part 1, Part 2
Five important tips for Fantasy players - Joy Bhattacharjya - Cricbuzz.com
A $150bn market: How fantasy sports transformed cricket fans from being spectators to stakeholders - Rohan Abraham - Economic Times
Has Fantasy Sports got the right direction in India? - Somesh Chandran - Livemint.com
The allure of fantasy cricket and why it should bother us - Tony Kuriehon - Newsminute
Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution - Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde - Amazon.com
In this episode, we chat with author, essayist, and perceptive cricket columnist Mukul Kesavan
Click here to support 81allout on Kofi
Talking Points: Viswanath - 'this extraordinarily skilled and beautiful Teddy Bear playing cricket' | Watching Imran Khan bowl live for the first time | The "neat perfection" of Sunil Gavaskar | Neville Cardus - and "everything undesirable about cricket writing | The thunderous silence around Wasim Jaffer | The IPL in Delhi during the the pandemic | The significance of Mohammad Siraj
Participants: Mukul Kesavan; Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related: Beyond borders; Watching, hoping, praying; The Viswanath problem; No room for bigotry; Jaffer alone; The nation state and modern sport - The India Forum; A fairy tale on the field; India; Cricketing memory and a quest for rare videos; Men in White; Brightly Fades the Don; Cricket Crisis; Pundits from Pakistan; Chinaman; The Match; A Corner of a Foreign Field; Anyone But England; Beyond a Boundary; Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville
We review the Indian team over the last four years - the period since July 2017 when Ravi Shastri took over as head coach.
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Talking Points:
- The significance of being a very good team in a competitive era
- The bowling depth in this era world-wide - which is superior to previous teams
- Irfan Pathan in the mid-2000s - and the first glimpse of picking five bowlers
- India's dominance over West Indies and Sri Lanka in the last decade
- The confidence to play four fast bowlers even if it meant weakening the batting
- India's phenomenal home record over the last decade
- The perception experiment with Atherton, Hussain and Stewart
- India's home conditions being more varied than conditions away
- The value of Bharat Arun - India's bowling coach
- The post-facto Vijay Shankar outrage
- The diffuse excellence of this Indian team - and the clamour for an ICC Trophy
- The Dhoni problem in the 2019 World Cup
Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
- 'I have absolutely no regrets about the book launch': Ravi Shastri - Guardian
- 'How do I take 20 wickets overseas?' - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
- John Wright's Indian summers - Amazon.com
- India's home record in the 2010s rivals the great Australian era - Deepu Narayanan - Cricbuzz.com
- Not enough home advantage? No problem for India - Karthik Krishaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- 'I cannot tell a bowler what to do or not do. I need to help them understand their own rhythm': Bharat Arun - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- 'If I don't take wickets even in one innings, I think my career for India is over': Ishant Sharma - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo
- 'I was waiting for it' - Vijay Shankar on bowling the final over against Australia - ESPNcricinfo
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Our guest this week is Nishant Arora who, over two decades, has worked in multiple capacities within cricket – as a TV journalist, player agent, and BCCI media manager, and ICC digital producer.
Nishant had joined us in March to talk about his time as a junior cricketer and his friendship with Yuvraj Singh and other Indian cricketers. You can listen to that conversation here.
Talking Points:
- The saas-bahu model that the Indian TV media adopted in the mid-2000s
- The life of a television journalist in an age eager for controversy
- How coverage of cricket became incidental to a journalist's job
- The move from journalism to a player agent to a media manager
- The frosty relationship between the Indian players and the media in the mid-2010s
- What the BCCI does right - and the scale at which it operates
- The unsung heroes of Indian cricket - those who nurture the grassroots
- The increasing number of pathways for channeling talent into potential
- The spotting of Bumrah and Gill - and the lessons they teach us
- The future of the cricket media landscape and the opportunities it provides creators
Participants:
Nishant Arora (@NJA21)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
From the field to the press box the managing the media: a chat with Nishant Arora - 81allout podcast
The Test of my Life: From Cricket to Cancer and Back - Yuvraj Singh, Amazon.com
I won't force my kids into cricket - Sachin Tendulkar interview by Nishant Arora - CNN-IBN
Virat Kohli masterclass with Nasser Hussain - icc-cricket.com
Wasim Akram bowls to Warner, Gayle, Buttler, Kohli, Russell and Dhoni - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo.com
How did India build their world-beating bench-strength? They have a system - Sidharth Monga- The Cricket Monthly
Cricket's decade of madness - Rahul Bhattacharya - ESPNcricinfo.com
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
We review the fourth Test of the England v India series - which India won by 157 runs.
Talking Points
- Two Oval triumphs - 50 years apart
- India once again leaving out Ashwin
- The decision to go with four fast bowlers on this surface
- Shardul the enigma
- How the quality of bowling magnifies the intensity of the viewing experience
- Does Bumrah really set batsmen up?
- The Ajinkya Rahane question
- Rohit Sharma's first hundred outside Asia - and what it meant to one fan
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Related:
- 78 all out: England v India, Headingley Test review - 81allout podcast;
- India ride on awesome foursome: England v India, Lord's Test review - 81allout podcast;
- Masterful Jasprit Bumrah is the true architect of India's triumph - Jonathan Liew, Guardian;
- Tireless Jadeja's control on a lifeless pitch justifies Kohli's faith in team combination - Osman Samiuddin, ESPNcricinfo;
- India in the field - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
We review the third Test of the England v India series - which England won by an innings and 76 runs.
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Talking Points
- India's choice of five bowlers - choosing competitiveness over respectability
- The first morning - when India were bowled out for 78
- James Anderson and the mastery with which he varies his length
- How badly did India really bat on the first morning?
- Joe Root's 'classical' style of getting beside the line of the ball
- What does one mean when one says a batsman has extra time to play his shots
- Dawid Malan cementing his spot
- The Ashwin question
- Is Rishabh Pant better off at No. 6 or 7?
- Cheteshwar Pujara and the need to factor in expectations
- What connects Virat Kohli and Ricky Ponting?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
- At Headingley, India were undone by a master of his craft - Ian Chappell - ESPNcricinfo
- Are Kohli and Pujara in slumps? Let's look at what the control data says - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
- Welcome addiction - Mukul Kesavan - The Telegraph
- The master and his apprentice - Rob Johnston - Cricbuzz.com
- Uninventing Virat Kohli - Ben Jones - cricviz.com
- India ride on awesome foursome: England v India, Lord's Test review - 81allout podcast
We review the second Test of the England v India series, with the focus on the dramatic final day.
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking Points
- The remarkable turnaround on the final day of the Lord's Test
- How narratives around player behavior are often a TV creation
- Enhanced TV coverage offering us a perfect window into fast bowling
- India's bowlers extracting wickets on a pitch with few demons
- Jasprit Bumrah to Ollie Robinson - the ball from heaven
- England's lack of batting depth - and their over-reliance on Joe Root
- The opening partnership between Rahul and Rohit - a study in assessing the conditions
- Pujara and Rahane - facts v spin
- How Pujara has been turned into Test cricket's Batman
- The Ashwin decision - shouldn't India's greatest spinner be one of the first names on the team-sheet?
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
- Sledges, brawls and epic contests: inside the Karnataka - Tamil Nadu rivalry - 81allout podcast with Hemang Badani and Vijay Bharadwaj
- What's the story, Morning Glory - 81allout podcast about narratives that shape the game
- Jasprit Bumrah talks fast bowling with Ian Bishop and Shaun Pollock - Youtube.com
- Bharat Arun interview - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
- How Mohammad Shami flipped the switch on his bowling - Aakash Chopra - ESPNcricinfo
We preview the upcoming England v India Test series - that has had one of the most lukewarm build-ups in a time of Covid, The Olympics, and The Hundred.
It's a time of bio-bubbles, quarantines, injuries, mental health and player rotation. And hopefully some memorable cricket too.
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Talking Points
- The new Covid normal in cricket's landscape
- Separate teams for Tests and short-form cricket - the pros, the cons, and the economics
- The constant existential threat facing Test cricket
- How does one put a value to Test cricket?
- Monetizing stories, memory, and legacies
- Ben Stokes' absence and implications for mental health in cricket
- India's recent history in England - with their last win coming in 2007
- How 4-1 didn't tell the story of the close series in 2018
- India's fast bowling attack maturing over the last three years
- Bowling in England and New Zealand versus bowling elsewhere
- India's selection quandary - in the light of the feeble lower order
- Mayank Agarwal v Prithvi Shaw
- The temptation to pick Shardul Thakur
- England's thin top-order - and the wealth of seam bowling options
- Predictions
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Ken Barrington's demons - Gideon Haigh - The Cricket Monthly
'I've found my love for the game in the last couple of years' - Abhinav Mukund interview - 81allout podcast
'It's ok to take a break, it's ok to speak up' - Abhinav Mukund column - cricbuzz.com
'It takes time to understand what makes you tick' - Aakash Chopra interview - 81allout podcast
Test of time - Wright Thompson - ESPN
India have a tailender problem - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
The art of Bedi - Suresh Menon about his biography of Bishan Bedi - 81allout podcast
In this episode, we chat with the veteran cricket writer Suresh Menon on one of India's greatest cricketers - Bishan Bedi
Suresh talks about his early impressions of Bedi and the spin quartet, and explores his relationship with Bedi as a fan, a cricket writer, a biographer and a friend.
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Talking Points:
- The late 1960s and the inception of the spin quartet
- Bedi the prodigy - born to bowl spin
- Bedi under Pataudi and Wadekar - the blossoming of an artist
- Suresh's 2011 biography - Bishan: portrait of an artist
- The craft of left-arm spin - Bedi's digital manipulations
- Why Bedi v Pras might have been more logical than Venkat v Pras
- 'No Bedi, no Test'
- The Vaseline affair in 1976
- Bedi's knack for speaking his mind (and getting into trouble)
- Bedi - the father of cricket in North Zone and Delhi
- His various post-playing avatars - but always calling a spade a spade
Participants:
Suresh Menon (@surmenon)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Bishan: Portrait of an Artist - Suresh Menon's 2011 biography of Bedi - Amazon.com
Graceful and gracious - Suresh Menon on his favourite cricketer, Bishan Bedi - ESPNcricinfo.com
'I was obsessed with bowling' -Bishan Bedi interview - The Cricket Monthly
Never a cricketer of the year - Mike Brearley on Bishan Bedi -Wisden Almanack
Bedi v Kim Hughes - 1977, Sydney - YouTube.com
Sydney Test 1977, Day 4 - Jai Galagali's channel - YouTube.com
Bedi interview with Karan Thapar, 2000 - YouTube.com
Feeling is the Thing that Happens in 1000th of a Second - Christian Ryan - Amazon.com
From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - 81allout podcast with Vijay Lokapally
In this special episode, we chat with the veteran cricket writer Vijay Lokapally on India's 1996 tour to England.
Vijay relives the incandescent innings and spells he witnessed through the tour - both in the Tests as well as the tour games. He also gives us a detailed recap of Navjot Sidhu quitting the tour and remembers a special interview he did with Sachin Tendulkar.
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
(PSA: Thank you for contributing towards our fund-raising drive for Covid relief in India. We have matched your contributions and donated to Unicef, who are doing great on-the-ground work and helping those in need)
Talking Points:
- India playing a Test series after more than seven months of one-day cricket
- Vikram Rathour's string of runs in the tour games - and his reputation in domestic cricket
- The Navjot Sidhu fiasco - and Vijay's role in the series of events
- Tendulkar's symphony in the Edgbaston wreckage
- Devon Malcolm's fan-boy moment after Derbyshire's game v the Indians
- Sourav Ganguly's take-that moment at Lord's - and the pristine strokeplay
- Rahul Dravid's immaculate technique - as well as his love for books
- Venkatesh Prasad's break-out tour
- Sandeep Patil's challenges on his first assignment as team manager
- The captaincy changing hands and players who faded away at the end of the series
Participants:
Vijay Lokapally (@vijaylokapally)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - 81allout podcast with Vijay Lokapally; Ganguly all set to make his Test debut - Vijay Lokapally's piece on the morning of the Lord's Test in 1996; Navjot Singh Sidhu's sudden mid-tour retirement raises questions - India Today archive; Lele reveals why Sidhu walked out of 1996 tour - Times of India; The man who stole the show - Wisden Almanac profile of Dickie Bird; Golden debuts - R Mohan's report on the Lord's Test; Highlights of the 1996 Lord's Test - YouTube video; Rahul Dravid 95 at Lord's on debut - YouTube video; Interview with Sourav Ganguly after his debut hundred - YouTube video; Sledges brawls and epic contests - 81allout podcast with Vijay Bharadwaj and Hemang Badani; Meaning of Sport - Simon Barnes; Breath of Sadness - Ian Ridley
We discuss the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton.
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
(PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800)
Talking Points:
- The WTC and the extra layer it has added to gauging a Test side
- The abundance of fast bowling riches around the world
- The quality – and variety – of bowling on display
- Kohli opening up his stance, Williamson batting deep in his crease
- India's bowlers' choice of lengths and their exceptional control
- New Zealand's four-man pace attack - left, right, short, full, curve and swerve
- Rishabh Pant and the complexity of the risk-reward judgement
- Unsung Williamson, unsunger Ross Taylor, unsungest BJ Watling
- New Zealand's triumph coming at the perfect transition moment
- Fans from the Big 3 adopting New Zealand as their favourite team
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related
Not luck, not fluke: New Zealand deserve to be World Test Champions - Jarrod Kimber - ESPNcricinfo
Worthy World Champions - Mark Geenty - stuff.co.nz
World Test Championship a glorious tribute to cricket’s ridiculous allure - Andy Bull - The Guardian
New Zealand's climb to the top - Fidel Fernando - The Cricket Monthly
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
We celebrate the 100th episode of the 81allout podcast with an illuminating conversation with Gideon Haigh - the gold standard when it comes to cricket writing.
We could have spoken to Gideon about anything – cricket or otherwise - but we chose to focus on his brilliant book On Warne - a remarkably original take on a remarkably original cricketer. Gideon talks about Warne's ability to "make the unscripted look scripted" and why he was such a joy to write about.
(PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800)
Talking Points:
- Writing a book in 31 days
- Warne coming along at the 'perfect time'
- Would a cricketer like Warne have succeeded in the 1970s?
- The SSC Test in 1993 - when Warne found himself in international cricket
- The ball of the century - and the perfection of timing
- The theatre of Warne - and the art of manipulating everyone around him
- Warne and the media - a never-ending saga
- The post-retirement phase in Warne's life
- How the Warne legend is likely to endure
Participants:
Gideon Haigh
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
The man who became legspin - Gideon Haigh - ESPNcricinfo; The ball of the century - cricket.com.au; 'We dominated for over four days but lost in half a session' - ESPNcricinfo on the 1993 Sri Lanka v Australia Test in Colombo; Hits and myths of Shane Warne, a suburban hero - Gideon Haigh - The Australian; Legspin masterclass with Shane Warne - Cricket Masterclass video; 281-degree panorama - Shane Warne on VVS Laxman's 281 in Kolkata in 2001 - The Cricket Monthly
Books discussed:
No Spin: My Autobiography - Shane Warne; The Vincibles - Gideon Haigh; Mystery Spinner: The story of Jack Iverson - Gideon Haigh; Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket - Gideon Haigh; Crossing the Line - Gideon Haigh
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
(PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800)
In the latest episode we chat about India's historic triumphs against West Indies and England 50 years ago.
Cricket writer and author Nishad Pai Vaidya and veteran sports journalist Clayton Murzello join us to relive the heady moments through a series of anecdotes.
Talking Points:
- Indian cricket in 1971 and what the sport meant for a young nation
- The selection drama before the West Indies tour - Rusi Jeejeebhoy in, Daljit Singh out
- The 'great what if' around Kenia Jayantilal
- The dominating presence of Vijay Merchant in Indian cricket
- A largely unknown Sunil Gavaskar on his debut tour - and his glorious returns
- The inspired choice of Ajit Wadekar as captain
- The value of Dilip Sardesai across the twin victories
- Eknath Solkar and the never-say-die spirit - and that catch to dismiss Alan Knott
- Salim Durani's twin strikes in the Trinidad victory
- Wadekar getting the better of both Garry Sobers and Ray Illingworth
- The touching story of Saeed Hatteea
Participants:
Nishad Pai Vaidya (@NishadPaiVaidya)
Clayton Murzello (@claytonmurzello)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Twice Upon a Time: India's Fairytale Cricket Victories of 1971 - Nishad Pai Vaidya and Sachin Bajaj - Amazon.com
Sunny Days - Sunil Gavaskar - Amazon.com
The Beginning of India's Cricketing Greatness - Boria Majumdar and Gautam Bhattacharya - Amazon.com
My Cricketing Years - Ajit Wadekar - Amazon.com
India v West Indies, 1971 - Video - Jai Galagali's YouTube channel
The History of Indian Cricket - Mihir Bose - Amazon.com
India's day of glory - Martin Williamson - ESPNcricinfo.com
The Oval Test of 1971 - YouTube video (uploaded by Martin Williamson)
Ajit Wadekar recalls his Test debut and gift from Sobers - Cricketcountry.com
The other great '71 victory - Clayton Murzello on Bombay's triumph in the 1970-71 Ranjit Trophy - Mid-Day
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
In the latest episode we chat about Chennai Super Kings and the nature of fandom the team has inspired since the start of the IPL.
Three CSK fans share their experiences of being drawn to the team and take us through the highs and lows over the last 13 years.
(PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800)
Talking Points:
- The early impressions of CSK - and the importance of Tamil Nadu players for the team to form an identity
- The city at the center of the marketing, and the organic connection fans made with the franchise
- The rise of Dhoni in parallel to the rise of CSK
- The value of whistle podu - an anthem that captures so much
- Suresh Raina's importance to the CSK batting line-up
- The allure of the CSK run-chase
- The Aussie connection - from Watson to Hayden to Hussey to Bollinger
- The conflict in loyalties when CSK players turn out against India
- The gut-punch over the two-year ban
- The taint against the franchise and the burden the fans have to bear
Participants:
Aravind SA (Aravind_SA)
Tejas Jayaraman (Jazz_CB)
Ashoka (ABVan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
R Satish catch in the ICL - YouTube video
Dear CSK - Fully Filmy - YouTube film
How Chennai Super Kings kept the whistle alive - Varun Shetty - ESPNcricinfo
The allure of CSK - Kaushik Rangarajan - cricbuzz.com
Original Whistle Podu song - Aravind and Jaishankar - YouTube
What MS Dhoni said about CSK's two-year ban - Scroll.in
The greatest IPL performances - Suresh Raina's 87 off 25 balls - ESPNcricinfo
Which is the most popular IPL team? - Tariq Engineer - The Cricket Monthly
CSK and that special something - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - Sportskeeda.com
Chennai Rules - Suhrith Parthasarathy - The Cricket Monthly
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
(We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800)
Our special guest this week is Jai Galagali, a cricket fan who runs a YouTube channel focused on Indian cricket history.
Jai talks about falling in love with the game in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his quest to seek out clips from the Films Division of India.
"How do we remember so much from some phase of our life and so little from many others?" Jai explores this question through the conversation.
Talking Points:
- Discovering the inner child and love for cricket
- Seeing Chandra, Vishy, Prasanna and so many larger-than-life figures for the first time
- Watching cricket highlights in the cinema theaters in the 1970s
- Viswanath and the poetic essence of cricket
- The history of the Films Division and documenting a young nation's evolving cultural, political and social landscape
- Zul Vellani - the master of the universal Indian accent
- The difficulty of procuring archives from the Film Division of India
- The cancellation of his YouTube channel and Shashi Tharoor's role in its revival
- A personal trauma that propelled Jai towards his passion project
- Interviewing CD Gopinath about India's first Test victory
Participants:
Jai Galagali (@jaigalagali)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Jai Galagali's YouTube channel
India v West Indies, Bangalore, 1974 - YouTube
Vinoo Mankad: interviews - YouTube
Kapil Dev's first Test century - India v West Indies, 1979 - YouTube
Subhash Gupte original bowling action - YouTube
India v England, Golden Jubilee Test, 1980 - YouTube
Vijay Hazare radio autobiography - YouTube - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Now playing: vintage Indian cricket reels on YouTube - Kanishkaa Balachandran - The Hindu
The things we remember, the things we forget - 81allout podcast
From mustache to Mushtaq - 81allout podcast
What we talk about when we talk about cricket - 81allout podcast
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Our special guest this week is Hassan Cheema, the strategy manager at Islamabad United – the Pakistan Super League champions in 2016 and 2018.
Hassan talks about the rapidly evolving T20 format and gives us a peek into what franchises are doing to stay ahead of the curve. Having observed some of the top T20 players first-hand, Hassan brings forth the complexities of the game and the challenges involved in managing a team.
Talking Points:
- How West Indies revolutionized the approach to T20s
- The overwhelming importance of the toss
- Measures used to judge a T20 batsman
- The flexible batting order and how best to use an anchor
- Unlearning the lessons from red ball cricket
- Retiring out batsmen and tactical drops
- What constitutes a good over in T20?
- Tactics v execution: the tightrope walk
- How one builds a player's trust and the need to go beyond cricket
- The unquantifiable value of some fielders
- The grammar of T20 and what TV can do better
Participants:
Hassan Cheema (@mediagag)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
The flexible team - Tim Wigmore - ESPNcricinfo
How to watch a T20 game - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution - Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde - Amazon.com
'If you go searching for wickets in T20, you're playing into the batsman's hand' - Samuel Badree interview - ESPNcricinfo
T20 openers are more conservative than they need to be - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
Is a single in T20 the same as a dot ball in ODIs? - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Our special guest this week is Prem Panicker, a veteran journalist who has been writing on cricket for over 25 years. Prem was one of the founding journalists at Rediff.com and a pioneer with regard to online commentary and internet radio.
Talking Points:
- Falling in love with cricket in the late 1960s and '70s
- The granular detail with which one remembers games from one's childhood
- Listening to the radio and enacting the action based on the commentary
- The arrival of television to India and the magic it brought forth
- Entering the world of journalism
- The brave new world of the Internet - and the leap of faith it entailed
- Figuring out the internet while writing on cricket during the 1996 World Cup
- How Indian cricketers embraced the new reality of online coverage
- The BCCI's contradictory stance with respect to online portals like Rediff
- JY Lele and his famous quote that predicted India would lose 3-0 in Australia
- The match-fixing saga and falling out of love with cricket
- The lure of blogging and the flexibility it offered
- Twitter as a second-screen in the cricket viewing experience
Participants:
Prem Panicker (@prempanicker)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Prem Panicker's blog - Smoke Signals
Prem Panicker's column archive - Rediff.com
The Prem Panicker files - The Seen and the Unseen podcast with Amit Varma
Money in cricket - Prem Panicker and Gideon Haigh on The Seen and the Unseen podcast with Amit Varma
Prem Panicker interview from 2011 - Couch Talks
Lele unplugged - Faisal Shariff - Rediff.com
The day naivety, not football itself, died - Jonathan Wilson on Brazil's loss to Italy in 1982 - The Guardian
Radio Frequency - Srikanth Natarajan - 81allout.com
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Lead image from here.
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In our latest episode we talk to Amol Muzumdar, a legend for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and a bona fide domestic great. Muzumdar's illustrious career spanned two decades and he finished with 9,205 runs in the Ranji Trophy - which stands as the second-highest aggregate of all time.
Muzumdar scored 30 first-class hundreds and was the backbone of the Mumbai Ranji Trophy side through much of the 1990s and 2000s. He won seven Ranji Trophy championships with Mumbai and captained them to the title in 2006-07, when they rallied after a poor start and upstaged the rest of the competition.
Talking points:
- The importance of playing league cricket in England
- How helmets transformed batting techniques - and resulted in more players getting hit on the head
- Today's players preferring power-hitting techniques to an artistic approach
- The delicate balance with coaching - what to tell a player and when to pass on advice
- How players can be so vulnerable to advice, and change the techniques that have been working for them
- The case of Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal making tweaks to their batting technique
- The concern over lack of quality spinners in Indian domestic cricket – and its knock-on effect on batting techniques against spin
- How DRS has been a game-changer with regard to playing against spin
- Pujara's unique approach to spinners and why it works
Participants:
Amol Muzumdar (@amolmuzumdar11)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Amol Muzumdar's chat with R Ashwin - YouTube video
Amol Muzumdar interview - Sportsnasha.com - YouTube
Amol Muzumdar interview with Cyrus Broacha - Cyrus Says podcast
Ask Me Anything with Amol Muzumdar - NewsBytes - YouTube video
'When you step into the ground, it doesn't matter what team you are playing for' - Amol Muzumdar interview - ESPNcricinfo
Might they have played for India? - V Ramnarayan - ESPNcricinfo
Defence as the best form of defence - Sriram Veera on Sitanshu Kotak - ESPNcricinfo
Is the DRS a good thing? - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
Are umpires giving more lbws now than they did before DRS? - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
Cheteshwar Pujara interview - Subash Jayaraman - Couchtalks podcast
Abhinav Mukund interview - 81allout podcast
Buy War Minus the Shooting in:
India (e-copy only)
USA (paperback and e-copy)
UK (paperback and e-copy)
Australia (paperback and e-copy)
Canada (paperback and e-copy)
Germany (paperback and e-copy)
For the rest – please check your country-specific Amazon pages.
In the latest episode we revisit War Minus the Shooting, Mike Marqusee's book on his journey through the subcontinent at the 1996 World Cup.
Participants:
Sharda Ugra; Fidel Fernando (@afidelf); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related: War Minus the Cliches - Rob Steen's review; Why Cricket? - Mike Marqusee; Mike Marqusee's website with many of his writings; Madras Machinations - Benjamin Golby on Mike Marqusee's novel - The Cricket Monthly; 'You Little Beauty' - 81allout podcast on the 1996 World Cup
Books discussed: War Minus the Shooting; Anyone But England; Slow Turn; Pundits From Pakistan; Beyond a Boundary
We discuss the fourth Test between India and England in Ahmedabad.
Talking Points:
- India's terrific achievement across eight Tests
- A triumph of depth for the Indian team
- Axar's 27 wickets and his perfect debut series
- Why Ashwin's value to the side is double that of their best batsman
- Mohammad Siraj - the classic Indian fast bowler
- Rahane, Pujara and the problems of mortality
- Rohit Sharma's ability to tune his game as per the conditions and situation
- Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar and the value of time against pace
- Washington's possible future as a top-order batsman
- Looking ahead to the World Test Championship fina
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
A two-day shootout: India v England, 4th Test review - 81allout podcast
A tale of two series - Kartikeya Date
The full range of Rohit Sharma - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
Munaf Patel: A fast bowler and the slow life - Sriram Veera - Indian Express
Ravi Shastri sees glimpses of himself in Washington Sundar - Outlook India
What Rishabh Pant did in the last two months, no one would do that in a lifetime: Ravi Shastri - NDTV.com
Our special guest this week is Nishant Arora who, over two decades, has worked in multiple capacities within cricket – as a TV journalist, a player agent, a media manager with the BCCI, and a digital producer with ICC. We speak to Nishant about his career that has spanned over two decades and delight in some of his anecdotes from behind the scenes.
Talking Points:
- Playing junior cricket with Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh
- Big-hitting Yuvraj losing SG balls at the world's most elevated cricket stadium
- Yuvraj scoring 358 in a match when the opponents scored 357
- Harbhajan Singh's emotional day after taking India's first hat-trick in Kolkata
- The challenge for Nishant to separate his journalism and friendships
- The rare Dhoni interview in Islamabad
- Visiting Virender Sehwag's house and getting him to talk about his 155 in Chennai
- The challenges of interviewing Sourav Ganguly
- When Yuvraj's cancer was kept top secret
- The breakdown in the player-journalist relationship
- Why Ashish Nehra must be appointed the lawyer for bow
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Participants:
Nishant Arora (@NJA21)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
The Test of my Life: From Cricket to Cancer and Back - Yuvraj Singh, Amazon.com
Anatomy of a classic - Chandrahas Choudhury and Nishant Arora - ESPNcricinfo
When Singh was king - Karthik Krishnaswamy - The Cricket Monthly
Nehraji unfiltered - Breakfast with Champions - Gaurav Kapoor
We discuss the third Test between India and England in Chennai
Talking Points:
- Where did this pitch stand in the Premadasa-Sabina scale?
- The importance of consistent bounce in the ICC evaluation system
- England's misreading of the pitch and the selection of one specialist spinner
- Don't India have enough of an all-round bowling strength to not rely on turners?
- Rohit Sharma's ability to adjust to all formats
- The technique of playing spin - and what made Root, Foakes, Rohit and Kohli stand out
- Ashwin's off-break that looks like a straighter one - thanks to the remarkable drift
- Axar Patel's surreal start to his Test career
- Axar's ability to adapt his game to the conditions
- Memories of the Mumbai Test in 2004 - when Murali Kartik won India a low-scoring thriller
- The high-quality umpiring in the Test - and the performative challenge for third umpires
- The Joe Root DRS reversal - and what it captured about umpires' call
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
The ICC's pitch evaluation system - Kartikeya Date
Motera pitch could be a backhanded compliment to England - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
When Singh was king - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
Ashwin's two dismissals of Ollie Pope - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
England got themselves into a spin against Axar Patel - Nasser Hussain - The Daily Mail
Support 81allout: http://ko-fi.com/81allout
Our special guest this week is Osman Samiuddin, a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo and author of The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket.
One of the finest contemporary cricket writers, Osman has had a ring-side view of the triumphs and disappointments of Pakistan cricket over the last two decades. His match reports, profiles, and long-form features contain both a depth of research and originality of style – as well as a sense of timelessness that make them both a work of journalism as well as a draft of history.
Talking Points:
- Falling in love with Pakistan cricket in the 1990s
- The tumultuous years in Pakistan cricket: 2006 to 2010
- Fazal Mahmood's crazy confidence
- Imran Khan's influence on fast bowling - the seminal spell in Sydney in 1977
- Javed Miandad and the quest for Izzat
- Wasim Akram - the hero and a cricket writer's ideal
Participants: Osman Samiuddin (@osmansamiuddin); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related: Pakistan's quicks get into the swing; Ode to a magazine; Basit Ali's 127 (79); West Indies win in Bridgetown in 1988; Pakistan in 1999: the allure, the magic, and the heartbreak; The Imran Khan's I've Known; The Haal of Pakistan; Miandad's last ODI hundred; Imran Khan's 10/77 in Headingley; Rahul Bhattachaya on Wasim Akram's ball to Rahul Dravid; Akram's hat-trick in Dhaka, 1999; Akram's 5/49 in Antigua, 2000; England v Pakistan, Lord's Test, 1992; Shoaib Akhtar 6/30, Wellington, 2003; Mohammad Asif's six-for in Sydney, 2010
Books: The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket; Pundits from Pakistan; War Minus the Shooting; Not quite cricket; On Warne
Support 81allout: ko-fi.com/81allout
We discuss the second Test between India and England in Chennai
Talking Points:
- Was there anything at all wrong with the pitch?
- How Rohit Sharma tackled the tricky surface
- England's rotation policy - and would they have followed this during the Ashes?
- R Ashwin's glorious home Test in front of an adoring crowd
- Does Ashwin the bowler have the equivalent of 47 Test centuries?
- Ashwin's ability to do what he decides to do
- Ben Foakes' technique against spin on a turning track
- Rishabh Pant's improvement behind the stumps
- Kohli's skillful sequence – 74, 72, and 62
- The Rahane review - and England subsequently being handed back their review
- The consistently good home umpiring during the Covid months
- Is Anderson the Karunanidhi of cricket? Or the Tom Brady of cricket?
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
When Cook and Co. did the unthinkable - 81allout podcast on the 2012-13 India v England series
The theatre of spin - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
Pitched language - Kartikeya Date
The bias against spinning pitches - Jarrod Kimber
Madrasapattinam - R Ashwin's Chepauk memories, YouTube video
The Paaji effect - R Ashwin's chat with Bharat Arun, YouTube video
Ashwin talks about his variations - Sky Sports
Ben Foakes stands up to give keepers' union something to shout about - Andy Bull, The Guardian
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
In this episode, we look back to England's tour to India in 2012-13.
England had not won a series in India since 1984-85 and they began the tour as underdogs - especially after a heavy defeat in the first Test in Ahmedabad. The turnaround began in Mumbai – thanks to some splendid spin bowling followed by hundreds from Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen – and England went on to defy expectations in the final two Tests.
Talking Points:
- England's tours to UAE and Sri Lanka before the India series
- Kevin Pietersen's "reintegration" into the side
- Monty Panesar not playing in the first Test in Ahmedabad
- Sehwag's hundred, Pujara's double-hundred
- The Cook-Prior rearguard in the second innings
- Panesar's ball to Tendulkar on day one in Mumbai
- Pujara's masterful innings against spin
- Pietersen brutal hitting and the shock in the stands
- Tendulkar's innings on day one in Kolkata
- James Anderson's spell of reverse-swing
- The Cook marathon – with support from Trott
- Jonathan Trott's lesson in patience
- The slow Nagpur pitch
- The consequences of the defeat for India – and the end of many journeys
Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
The Wisden Almanack report for the series - ESPNcricinfo
The balls of the century - Monty Panesar to Sachin Tendulkar - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
First step to redemption, India go 1-0 up - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Cheteshwar Pujara: the worker ant - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
Dhoni's pitch flawed - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
Patient Tendulkar middles it this time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Quick wickets but no miracle this time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Post lunch, humble pie - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Pads on, DRS isn't watching - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Zaheer Khan. Left arm... over? - Karthik Krishnaswamy - Indian Express
Be bold, be practical, do the right thing - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
Dear Listener,
This website began as a blog where Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd) and I exchanged leisurely thoughts on Test cricket. When I suggested the name 81allout, Mahesh had said: “Can’t get a more symbolic name for a suicidal mission. Love it."
Soon we branched out into podcasting, inviting others to exchange their cricketing stories and perspectives. From the outset, the plan for the podcast was to recreate the mood outside a tea-shop. We felt serious cricket outlets often take themselves too seriously while the irreverent observers don't take cricket seriously enough. We wanted to find a middle ground, and are thankful for your continued feedback.
Over the last two-and-a-half years, this endeavour has run purely on passion. Now we are ready to take an upward step. We thought of approaching advertisers. We contemplated bringing on a sponsor. We considered various other options.
But none of those ideas inspired as much confidence as you. You understand how much the game means to us. We hope you can support us each month to help us reach the next level.
Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi
Thank you in advance. And we look forward to you joining us in this journey.
Regards,
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
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Related:
Blue Whale of a legbreak - 81allout archive
Joy and Curse of YouTube - 81allout archive
Ghostwriting for Imran, beach-cricket with Viv, working for Pataudi - 81allout podcast with Mudar Patherya
'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - 81allout podcast with Sharda Ugra
A golden age for watching Test cricket in Sri Lanka - 81allout podcast with Fidel Fernando
Sri Lanka's victory against Pakistan at Galle - YouTube highlights
We preview the upcoming India v England Test series which comes on the back of an epic series win for India in Australia, and a very impressive win for England in Sri Lanka. While the teams prepare for fresh challenges in Chennai and Ahmedabad, they still have to contend with bio-bubbles, quarantines, injuries, and player rotation.
Talking Points
- Context of the India-England rivalry over the years
- The difference between perception of England's performances in India vs their relatively impressive record
- Covid impact on the series - bubbles, scheduling, grounds, player fitness
- Unknowns around the pitches. Just two Tests in Chennai in the last decade. Revamped Motera.
- England's choice to rotate and rest players for a key series - what message does it convey and how could it affect the quality of their cricket?
- How much should one read into England's 2-0 win in Sri Lanka?
- How hard will it be for for India - both physically and mentally - to move on from such an epic series win in Australia?
- Ashwin's fitness concerns, and England largely finding a way to tackle him home and away
- How much would India miss Mohammad Shami and Ravindra Jadeja?
- Possible team combinations for both teams
- Would the standings in the World Test Championship have a say?
- Predictions
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Arj (@Cricvestigate)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
The Allrounders - 81allout podcast
Chepauk's accidental curator - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo
How Joe Root's risk-free approach kickstarted the biggest year of his career - Tim Wigmore - The Telegraph
Likeable England face formidable India - Sky Sports podcast
In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with journalist and author Bharat Sundaresan on his experiences of covering India's recent tour to Australia.
Bharat is a cricket reporter at cricbuzz.com and is the author of The Dhoni Touch: Unravelling the Enigma that is MS Dhoni
Talking points:
- Covering a Test series in COVID times
- Driving from one Australian state to the other, avoiding borders
- The uncertainty over the venues and itinerary
- Wearing masks in the press box
- A distracted press box as India collapsed for 36 in Adelaide
- The spate of injuries during the tour
- A relatively muted Boxing Day
- Ashwin's spell in Melbourne
- Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy
- Mohammad Siraj improving with every spell in Melbourne
- Siraj reporting poor crowd behavior
- Australia constantly threatening to break away... until India kept fighting back
- The net session when Pant talked to his bruised arm
- The Ravi Shastri effect on the youngster in the team
- Ashwin's innings in the battling draw in Sydney
- Vihari - the quiet achiever
- Covering the Brisbane Test from a radio studio in Sydney
- Australians convincing themselves of the Brisbane myth
- All the talk of the weather in Brisbane
- India putting themselves in a position to dictate terms on the final day
- The emotional charge to victory
Participants:
Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)
Related:
The unlikely script of the Gabba heist - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
Bruised but unbowed: India's mighty display of guts and gumption - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
The summer of Siraj - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
Washington Sundar: destiny's child - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
Rahane's personality-defining day out - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
Ashwin: The conscientious spin scientist - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com
List of Bharat Sundaresan's cricbuzz columns
We discuss the final day of the fourth Test in Brisbane, where India did the improbable.
Talking Points:
- Excuse me, what did we just see?
- India's greatest series win?
- Teams getting ambitious with fourth-innings chases
- The value - and strategic brilliance – of Pujara's innings
- Gill and Pant in their audacious element
- The Washington Sundar cameo
- Starc's off day and below par series
- Why isn't Lyon held to the same standard as other great spinners?
- How a great series lives on in the memory
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
A tragicomedy called 36 all out – 81allout podcast
The Melbourne bounceback – 81allout podcast
The victorious draw in Sydney - 81allout podcast
The Melbourne Miracle of 1981 – 81allout podcast
EPIC - Kartikeya Date
Bharat Arun interview - ESPNcricinfo
Australia's fury dashed against India's butterfly effect - Gideon Haigh, The Australian
Gill, Pujara, Pant showcase India's batting riches - Sidharth Monga, ESPNcricinfo
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We discuss the third Test in Sydney, where India held on for a valiant draw.
Talking Points:
- When a draw was like a win
- Steve Smith resumes normal service
- The versatile Mr Jadeja
- Rohit and Gill - partners in promise
- India's decision to pick Pant despite his wicketkeeping problems
- Is one allowed to get run-out in Test cricket?
- Pant's sizzling 97 on day five
- Ashwin and Vihari and the show of defiance
- Can India find 11 fit men for Brisbane?
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
A tragicomedy called 36 all out – 81allout podcast
The Melbourne bounceback - 81allout podcast
The Melbourne Miracle of 1981 – 81allout podcast
The draw that meant so much more - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, 81allout.com
Pujara's triumph: cricket, lovely cricket - Kartikeya Date
Bruised and abused, Indians make their own luck at the SCG - Sidharth Monga, ESPNcricinfo
Rishabh Pant's keeping - Ben Jones, cricviz.com
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We discuss India's memorable eight-wicket win in Melbourne and place it in context of some of the famous Indian victories in Australia.
Talking Points:
- Placing the victory in context
- Parallels with Melbourne '81
- Rahane's touch
- Ashwin's immaculate control
- Bumrah's skid and the ball to hoodwink Smith
- Gill v Shaw, Pant v Saha
- Siraj's debut
- Looking ahead to Sydney
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
A tragicomedy called 36 all out - 81allout podcast
The Melbourne Miracle of 1981 - 81allout podcast
Ashwin, Bumrah bowl India to MCG victory - Kartikeya Date
Ravi Shastri: India's triumph one of the great comebacks in Test history - Sidharth Monga, ESPNcricinfo
'No spinner has done that to me in my career' - Steve Smith on R Ashwin
Tactical tweaks, delightful drift - Amit Gupta on R Ashwin, Scroll.in
Saini and Siraj better placed than their predecessors - Varun Shetty, ESPNcricinfo
We process India's 36 all out in the Adelaide Test. Was it a tragedy? Or a dark comedy? Is it even something that can be explained?
Talking Points:
- The visceral shock that accompanies a rapid collapse
- Pain, grief, and decades-long hurt
- How does the emotional reaction to 36 all out compare with 81all out?
- The deadly duo of Cummins and Hazlewood
- How cricketing narratives are so batsmen-focused
- The role of luck in every single cricketing event
- The great Indian heartbreaks from years past
- Chennai '99, Kolkata '99, Barbados '97
- The discourse that accompanies a batting collapse - and how it has changed over time
- The urge to find a scapegoat
Participants:
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Australia's perfect storm catches India in the wrong place at the wrong time - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
Collapso relapso - Tom Eaton - ESPNcricinfo archive
Outliers - Kartikeya Date
A classic '90s heartbreak - 81allout podcast on the famous 81 all out in Barbados
India. Pakistan. Chennai. 1999 - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo
Heartbreaking for Jayasuriya, backbreaking for Indians - Arunabha Sengupta - Cricketcountry
We preview the upcoming Australia v India Test series, which has seen more headlines about bio-bubbles, quarantine, and player absences than the great rivalry between these two teams.
Talking Points: Impact of Kohli's partial absence for both commerce and cricket. How badly would India miss Ishant Sharma? India's choice of third seamer. The permutations and combinations for both playing XIs in each Test. Pattinson's workload and case for him to play at MCG. Lyon's effectiveness against India. Could this be the breakthrough series for Shubman Gill? Eminence of Steve Smith. A January Test at Gabba. Saha vs Pant. The never ending Shaun Marsh comebacks. Quality of Bumrah-Shami. Jaywant Lele's legendary prediction. Participants: Rav (@rav_man0) Ananthasubramanian (@_chinmusic) Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
In this episode, we look back to India’s tour of Australia in 1980-81.
India went into the Test series against a strong Australian team after playing merely one Test since the end of the home series against Pakistan in 1979-80. India suffered a thumping loss by an innings at Sydney, just about squeezed out a draw at Adelaide, and registered a miraculous win in Melbourne – overcoming a massive first-innings deficit, a near-forfeiture by their captain, and injuries to three of the four bowlers in their attack.
Talking Points:
Greg Chappell’s serene double hundred
Vengsarkar’s rough start to his Test career
Lillee playing against India for the first time
The allure of Pascoe’s pace and the charm of Kim Hughes
Sandeep Patil’s sparkling 174 at Adelaide
Gavaskar’s near-forfeiture and Wing Commander Durani’s timely intervention
Viswanath’s priceless hundred
Ghavri’s “rank long hop”
Doshi’s marathon spell in the first innings and bowling through pain in the second
Kapil’s miraculous spell powered by painkillers
Participants:
S Giridhar (@midwickettales)
Raja Swaminathan (@Raja_sw)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
In this episode, we chat with journalist, blogger, author, podcaster, vlogger – or in short, the Mark Waugh of cricket coverage – Jarrod Kimber.
We focus on a piece Jarrod wrote last year titled 'The Ugly Australian: the evolution of a cricket species'. He talks about his formative experiences with sledging and hyper-aggression at the club level and how his views on behavior and moral codes have changed over time. No other team treats cricket as a team sport like Australia does, says Jarrod, but they also stretch the limits of what team-mates must do.
Talking Points:
- The island that is Australian cricket - with moral codes and 'good bloke, bad bloke' conventions that combine into the 'Australian Way'
- Club cricket in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s - when the game was sometimes a violent, contact sport
- The atmosphere at Australian cricket grounds in the pre-2000s
- The culture of Australian cricket that built up to Sandpapergate
- The two sides to Allan Border's legendary quip to Dean Jones in the furnace of Madras in 1986: 'let's get a tough Queenslander out here'
- Cameron Bancroft and the demands of young players fitting in
- The ruthless punishments handed out post Sandpapergate
- How David Warner would have been seen in the Australia of the 1980s
- The drinking culture in Australian cricket
- The vastly different culture around Australian women's cricket
Participants:
Jarrod Kimber (@ajarrodkimber), Patreon
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Reverse-swing: cricket's ball-tampering in plain sight - Jarrod Kimber, ESPNcricinfo
The problem with the Australian Line of Control - Sharda Ugra, ESPNcricinfo
Crossing the Line - Gideon Haigh's book post Sandpapergate
Steve Smith's Men - Geoff Lemon's book post Sandpapergate
Man, Manlier, Manliest - Geoff Lemon, The Cricket Monthly
When a tie was a victory for Border's battlers - 81allout podcast with Michael Sexton
Kumar Sangakkara welcoming Shaun Pollock to the crease in the league game of the 2003 World Cup
Warwick Armstrong keeps Frank Woolley waiting - Arunabha Sengupta, Cricketcountry.com
Justin Langer's bail-nudging incident in Sri Lanka - YouTube video
Brad Haddin dislodging the bails before the ball hit the stumps - YouTube video
In this episode of the 81allout podcast, we zero in on the cliche that makes an appearance in all sporting contests: the moments that mattered. We discuss how for fans some moments take on more significance than others, why writers need to guard against falling into narrative traps, and how the struggling media ecosystem is fertile ground for turning cricketing stories into those of heroism and villainy.
We also discuss how one approaches writing about selection, and predict what sportswriting might look like five or ten years down the line.
Participants:
Sidharth Monga, assistant editor, ESPNcricinfo
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related pieces:
Against narratives - Kartikeya Date
What's the story, Morning Glory - 81allout podcast
Rahul Tewatia and the romance of the struggle - Sidharth Monga
Who removed my spinner - Sidharth Monga
The mother of all myths - Tom Eaton, The Cricket Monthly
Why there is no such thing as a finisher in ODI cricket - by Kartikeya Date
Clock ticking on Dhoni, the T20 finisher - Sidharth Monga
We are thrilled to be joined by two former India cricketers - Hemang Badani and Vijay Bharadwaj.
Hemang and Vijay enjoyed stupendous domestic careers and took part in some of the most memorable Tamil Nadu - Karnataka contests in the Ranji Trophy. There was no shortage of banter and competition when we paired them up for this podcast.
Talking points:
- Their first memories of playing against their arch-rivals
- The day when Karthik Jeshwant told Vijay Bharadwaj about the importance of scoring against Tamil Nadu
- The Ranji final in 1996 - when Karnataka piled on a mammoth score (as Hemang watched from the stands)
- A match in RSI grounds in 2001 when matters got heated and the players nearly came to blows
- The never-ending batathon at Tirunelveli in 1998
- The constant threat of D Vasu in these contests
- Dodda Ganesh and David Johnson: never short of fire in the belly
- The Cauvery politics and how it affected the players
- How Karnataka players benefited from playing league cricket in Chennai
- and much more...
*
Partipants:
Hemang Badani (ESPNcricinfo player page, Twitter handle: @hemangkbadani)
Vijay Bharadwaj (ESPNcricinfo player page)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Related:
From Bangalore's parks to the Indian team - Vijay Bharadwaj on the 81allout podcast
Travails of TN tragics - 81allout podcast about following the TN Ranji side
The Tamil Nadu - Karnataka rivalry through the ages - V Ramnarayan - ESPNcricinfo
When brothers were pitted against each other in the final - Deccan Herald
Karnataka retain title with innings win - match report of the 2015 Ranji final - ESPNcricinfo
Hemang Badani interview with Reena D'Souza
Vijay Bharadwaj interview with Karthik Jeshwant for Star Sports Kannada
In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with the photographer Mala Mukerjee on her historic photo from the tied Test in Madras in 1986.
Ms Mukerjee watched the last day of that famous Test from the stands in Chepauk and, while anticipating a thrilling finish, clicked a number of photos that captured the dramatic finish. The most famous of those was the shot she clicked at the very end of the match.
Ms Mukerjee has gone on to become an internationally renowned photographer and has held several exhibitions around the world. Her many accolades and awards include honors from the Photographic Resource Centre in Boston, the Academy of Visual Media in New Delhi, and the Bangladesh Photographic Society.
You can view her work here.
Talking points:
Memories of the final day from Chepauk in 1986
The circumstances that helped her be at the right place at the right time
The tension enveloping the ground in the final overs
The challenges posed by the fading light
The final ball and the historic click
A visit from N Ram, the editor of The Hindu
The Hindu front page the next day
The blatant copyright infringement that the photograph has suffered
The luck and skill involved in cricket photography
Participants:
Mala Mukerjee
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)
Related:
When a tie was a victory for Border's battlers - 81allout podcast with Michael Sexton
Scorecards of the tied Test – Chennai ’86
Madras Magic – a documentary on the Chennai tied Test
Martin Smith on how the tied Test ended the career of Vikram Raju
Arunabha Sengupta on the dramatic last day of the Madras Test
Dean Jones and the second tied Test at the Bradman Museum
The purple patch of Ben Stokes has provoked a lot of discussion about the greatest allrounders. We take a deep-dive to talk about the role of allrounders in Test cricket, the great allrounders over the years, and how to make sense of their immense contributions.
Our guests for the episode are Arj and Rav. They have recently started a cricket project called CricVestigate which aspires to uncover hidden cricket truths - past and present, and to provide alternative opinions and analysis.
Talking points:
What is a good definition for an allrounder?
The allrounder index created by CricVestigate to rank the allrounders
Batting allrounders vs Bowling allrounders
Great cricketer vs Great allrounder
The pitfalls of the allrounder obsession and its impact on team balance
Narrative fallacies around allrounders - mixing formats, aggregate career stats vs peak phase stats
Is it possible to nurture an allrounder?
Do the different skills of an allrounder necessarily add value to the team?
Are wicketkeeper-batsmen allrounders? Making sense of the Gilchrist phenomenon
Allrounders XI playing in their positions
Participants:
Arj
Rav (@rav_man0)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Lead image from Wisden.com
Related:
Cricinfo's S. Rajesh on Gary Sobers - an allrounder like no other and Imran Khan - A giant among allrounders
Gideon Haigh on Garry Sobers and Kapil Dev
Osman Samiuddin on Imran - the original transformer
Cricinfo's Greatest allrounder poll
Kartikeya Date on Kallis, a great batsman but no allrounder
CricVestigate's allrounder index:
Street cricket chronicles moves to Tamil Nadu and we were delighted to be joined by Tamil Nadu's promising wicketkeeper batsman Narayan Jagadeesan to talk about playing amateur cricket in his formative years in Coimbatore and the influence of tennis ball cricket on some of the TN legends. We also bring plenty of color from the street cricket culture in Chennai.
Jagadeesan opens up about his journey from Coimbatore to the Tamil Nadu Ranji side, playing alongside TN legends, being part of the CSK squad, and about working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni.
Talking points:
The hierarchy of balls: Rubber, Cork, Rubber-Cork, Tennis - Mercury > Cosco, Leather
First world problem of poor outfield in Coimbatore vs no field in Chennai
The legend who may or may not have taught L Balaji on how to grip a cricket ball
Boost-Bournvita bat, maavu bat, oil bat, oil sheet bat, modus operandi of seasoning the bats
Different dynamics of sodukku ball in Tennis ball vs Cricket ball
Transitioning from Tennis ball to professional cricket - influence of bat flow and the great horizontal swing
Common grounds of conflict - right arm over, edged but wide, constantly changing popping crease, line belongs to the umpire
Local cricket parlance - Idea batting/bowling, tough-a-podu, OC gajee, adeetail, maanga, bat-pitch, kaatu suthal
Characters of the game - Idea Mani, Veera Afridi, Switch-grip batsman
Imitating Dhoni-Gilchrist-Haddin, bowling like Mohammad Zahid, copying Dravid's classical leave and Azhar's flicks
International cricketers best suited for Chennai street cricket
Substantial rise in representation of district players in Tamil Nadu
Being part of TN team and CSK squad
Contrasting experience of working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni
Participants:
Narayan Jagadeesan
Ashoka Rao (@Abvan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Lead image from here
Related:
Ashwin talking about his street cricket experiences (From 20.57)
Glossary of street cricket terms in TN
Street Cricket Chronicles from West Bengal - 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi – 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Karnataka – 81allout archive
In our latest episode of the podcast we chat with former Bangladesh Test cricket Shahriar Nafees and ESPNcricinfo journalist Mohammad Isam.
Talking points:
- Street cricket in Dhaka
- Legends of tape-tennis cricket
- The value of age-group cricket in Bangladesh
- The period when cricket started to overshadow football in Bangladesh
- Memories of cricket from the 1990s
- The Fatullah Test against Australia in 2006
- A heady period for Bangladesh between 2005 and 2007
- The pressure of having to live up to expectations
Participants:
Shahriar Nafees
Mohammad Isam (@isam84)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Shahriar Nafees' YouTube channel
Unbelievable to have scored a T20 hundred - Shahriar Nafees interview
Nafees leads Bangladesh's brilliant charge - ESPNcricinfo report
When Mohammad Ashraful took on McGrath and Gillespie - ESPNcricinfo
That winning feeling - Rabeed Imam on Bangladesh's win over India in 2004 - ESPNcricinfo
In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with Michael Sexton on his latest book Border's Battlers, which provides a fascinating account of the iconic tied Test between India and Australia at Chepauk in September 1986. Michael has been a journalist, producer, and sportswriter for over three decades and been a part of ABC, BBC, and Channel Nine. He has written eight books and two of them on cricket - Chappell's Last Stand and Border's Battlers.
Talking points:
Contextualizing the state of Australian cricket and Border's captaincy coming into the Test series against India
Vaudeville reenactment of the last over of the tied Test by Greg Matthews
Dean Jones's magnificent double-century followed by an ambulance ride to the hospital
Getting the geographical specificity of Chennai and Chepauk right
Heroic efforts of Ray Bright and forever-on-the-field 13th man, Mike Veletta
Influence of Bob Simpson and the elephantine memory of Errol Alcott
Kapil Dev's brilliant counterattacking century
Murmurs of a headbutt and the rancorous spirit through the dramatic stages of the match
The camaraderie and consistency of Dara Dotiwala and Vikram Raju
Shivlal Yadav's six; a rational and calculative Ravi Shastri under immense pressure
Parallels and the differences to the tied Test in Brisbane in 1960
Participants:
Michael Sexton (@Michael_Sexton5)
Siddharatha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Scorecards of the tied Tests - Brisbane '60 and Chennai '86
Madras Magic - a documentary on the Chennai tied Test
Highlights of the Brisbane tied Test
Martin Smith on how the tied Test ended the career of Vikram Raju
Arunabha Sengupta on the dramatic last day of the Test
Dean Jones and the second tied Test at the Bradman Museum
Books recommendations from Michael Sexton:
Edging Towards Darkness - John Lazenby
Harold Larwood: the Ashes bowler who wiped out Australia - Duncan Hamilton
We started with Delhi, moved to Karnataka, and now head to West Bengal for our next edition of the street cricket chronicles.
Through this series we hope to bring out the cricket culture in different cities at the most amateur levels: whether it is on the streets, in the gullies and driveways and terraces, on beaches, or in the parks.
In this episode we chat with two guests who grew up in Kolkata and Asansol in the 1980s and 1990s.
Talking points:
Rubber, Deuce, Rubber-Deuce and Cambis balls
Influence of the long monsoon and early sunset on the street cricket dynamics
Seasonal switch between cricket and football
Genteel Kolkata and the not-so-genteel Asansol
Parents as match referees
Why Harbhajan Singh would have struggled in street cricket in West Bengal
Pocket money? What is that alien concept?
The contentious wide calls and the self-regulating rule
Bricks as stumps and real-time Hawkeye problems
Cricket as an individual sport and the near-universal chronology of batting and bowling line-ups
The popularity of Abdul Qadir in the '80s in Kolkata and how his bowling action was the most imitated in the streets
Mimicking Azhar's fielding, Srikanth's mannerisms, Hudson's batting stance
Participants:
Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42)
Shom Biswas
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Lead image from here
Related:
Abhishek Mukherjee's writings at Cricketcountry, Firstpost, Sportstar
Abhishek Mukherjee on Azharuddin's 182 against England at Eden Gardens in 1993
Abhijit Gupta on the glossary of gully cricket in Kolkata
Just another Bengali playing cricket on the streets
Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi – 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Karnataka - 81allout archive
Our special guest this week is Nadeem F Paracha, an historian, author, and cultural critic who writes a regular column for the Dawn newspaper.
NFP, as he is fondly known, has been a keen observer of Pakistan cricket for close to half a century. Drawing on his vast knowledge of history and culture, he brings a unique perspective when writing about the game. And he adds vital context with regard to the political and social conditions that have prevailed across the years.
Talking Points:
- Wasim Raja - a man ahead of his time
- Pakistan's historic win in Sydney in 1977
- Mushtaq Mohammad - a largely forgotten captain
- Zia-ul-Haq's love for television
- Javed Miandad's immortal six in Sharjah
- The 1987 World Cup - and Imran's retirement
- The ugly 1990s and the match-fixing scourge
- Inzamam and the Zia school of captaincy
- Misbah's ideology-free pragmatism
Participants:
Nadeem F Paracha (@nadeemfparacha); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Like Nation, Like Cricket: How Cricket Has Mirrored The Political Evolution of Pakistan - nayadaur.tv - Nadeem F Paracha; Pakistan cricket: A class, ethnic and sectarian history ; The biggest unfulfilled talent - Nadeem F Paracha on Wasim Raja; West Indies v Pakistan, Fifth Test, Kingston, 1977 - YouTube upload; Misbah's story: How the almost forgotten cricketer rose to become an icon; Cricket columns by Nadeem F Paracha in Dawn; The multi-faceted domestic giant - Gul Hameed Bhatti obituary - - Osman Samiuddin; With Allah on their side - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006 - Osman Samiuddin
Books discussed:
The Pakistan Anti-Hero: History of Pakistan Nationalism Through the Lives of Iconoclasts; End of past: An immediate eyewitness history of a troubled nation; Unquiet Ones; Cutting Edge; Imran: Autobiography of Imran Khan; Inside Out; Art of Captaincy
In our latest episode of the podcast we talk to Abhinav Mukund, who has played seven Tests for India and recently became only the second batsman from Tamil Nadu to cross 10,000 first-class runs.
Abhinav has not shied away from expressing his views on matters as important as mental health and colourism. In a wide-ranging chat, he opens up about matters both cricketing and non-cricketing and reveals a maturity that belies his years.
Talking points:
- Formative experiences around cricket
- The teenage prodigy Abhinav
- A triple-hundred at the age of 18
- The India call-up
- Tours to West Indies and England
- The dejection of being dropped
- Coming out of a funk
- The brief return to the national side
- Making peace with oneself
- The issue of mental health in cricket
- Why he came out strongly against colourism
- The dream of winning a Ranji Trophy for Tamil Nadu
- And much more...
Participants:
Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
It's ok to take a break, it's ok to speak up - Abhinav Mukund column on cricbuzz.com
Columns by Abhinav on cricbuzz.com
Abhinav Mukund's statement on discrimination based on color (2017)
'Getting to 100 Ranji games or 10,000 runs doesn't happen overnight' - Abhinav Mukund interview - ESPNcricinfo
Back-up man Abhinav makes peace with his role - Sidharth Mongia - ESPNcricinfo
The fall and rise of Abhinav Mukund - Arun Venugopal - ESPNcricinfo
Our special guest this week is Prof Surya Prakash Chaturvedi, a veteran cricket writer from Indore.
Prof Chaturvedi, a retired professor of English, chose to write about his passion in Hindi and went on to author 15 books on the game.
The 83-year-old Chaturvedi has had a chance to witness the great breadth of Indian cricket - starting with CK Nayudu and Mushtaq Ali all the way to the current generation.
Talking Points:
- The challenges of writing on cricket in Hindi
- The great Holkar team of the '40s and '50s
- The frightening presence of CK Nayudu
- Vijay Hazare - a study in courage
- Mushtaq Ali - a cricketer nonpareil
- Meeting a young Sunil Gavaskar
- The genius of Salim Durrani
- The decision to write in Hindi
- Coining new cricketing terms in Hindi
- Memories of a young Narendra Hirwani
- And much more...
Books by Prof Surya Prakash Chaturvedi:
Prof Chaturvedi's Wikipedia page - all available in National Book Trust
Prof Chaturvedi's Amazon page
Related:
Bengal v Holkar - Ranji Trophy final 1952-53
Hiralal Gaekwad: the southpaw who lost out to Vinoo Mankad - CricketCountry.com
Books discussed in the podcast:
The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus
EAS Prasanna - One More Over
Sandeep Patil - Sandy Storm
Our special guest this week is Mudar Patherya, a cricket writer for Sportsworld magazine through the 1980s - before he moved on to other interests.
Across five trips to Pakistan, visits to Sharjah, a tour to West Indies, and several assignments within India - Mudar made a name for himself as one of the finest writers on the game. The more we listened, the more we were convinced that he was the 'Forrest Gump of cricket' in the '80s.
Talking Points:
- Covering India's tour to Pakistan in 1982-83
- The fascination with Abdul Qadir
- Getting to know Imran Khan
- Javed Miandad's famous six in Sharjah
- The shock and disbelief in Lahore on that evening in 1987
- The World Cup final at Eden Gardens
- The fiery passion for cricket in a small corner of Calcutta
- Meeting (and shocking) a president of the MCC
- The genius of Mushtaq Ali
- The magnificent Mr Pataudi
- The craze for football in the Calcuta of the '70s and '80s
- When Sanjay Manjrekar was the Wall
- Sachin Tendulkar's first day in Test cricket
- Collecting cricket memorabilia
- and much more…
Related:
Lessons from a middle-aged cricketer - - ESPNcricinfo - Mudar Patherya
Does Kolkata still love Test cricket - ESPNcricinfo - Mudar Patherya
Third Ground - The Cricket Monthly - Mudar Patherya
A man of opposites - ESPNcricinfo - Mudar Patherya on Tiger Pataudi
Charmingly villainous - The Cricket Monthly - Mudar Patherya on Imran Khan
An Old, Old Cricketer Speaks - Wisden Cricket Monthly - Mudar Patherya interview with DB Deodhar
'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - Sharda Ugra podcast on 81allout
England XI v Australians in 1921
Victor Trumper's iconic 335 and a smashed boot factory window - Cricketcountry.com - Pradip Dhole
Books by Mudar Patherya:
The Penguin Book of Cricket Lists - Mudar Patherya and Barry O'Brien
Wills Book of Excellence: Cricket - Mudar Patherya
Ultimate World Cup Cricket Quiz - Mudar Patherya and Ravikant Srivastava
Books discussed in the podcast:
Another Bloody Day in Paradise - Frank Keating
Beyond a Boundary - CLR James
Our special guest for our latest episode is Clayton Murzello, group sports editor of Mid-Day in Mumbai.
A few months ago, we had chatted with Clayton about his journey in cricket journalism and of the stories surrounding club cricket in Mumbai.
This time we chose to ask him about the stories behind the stories – and the challenges that a journalist often has to overcome in the process of doing a story.
Talking Points:
- The pros and cons of working for a tabloid
- The preparation and approach to a cricket tour
- The importance of reading
- Meeting a paralyzed Winston Davis in England
- His first big story for Mid-Day - about Mohsin Khan
- Interviewing Michael Holding in the Dhaka airport
- Tracking down the family of a cricketer who mysteriously disappeared
- Knocking on an Indian captain's hotel room door late at night
- The economics of the media today
- and much more...
Participants:
Clayton Murzello (@claytonmurzello)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
Cricket in Mumbai: stories, legends, and folklore - 81allout podcast with Clayton Murzello
Winston Davis is paralyzed, but not in spirit - Clayton Murzello
'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - 81allout podcast with Sharda Ugra
In this episode, we chat with former India Test cricketer, columnist, author and commentator Aakash Chopra.
Aakash tells us about his initiation into the game – in the mid-1980s – and of learning the fundamentals from his legendary coach Tarak Sinha. He goes on to review his international stint and admits he hadn't fully understood his game until mid-way through his career.
Talking Points:
- Memories of Sonnet Cricket Club
- Thinking about the game from an early age
- The pressure he was under on his Ranji Trophy debut
- Cricket as a team game v cricket as an individual game
- Playing for the team v playing to one's strengths
- The gift (and curse) of Sachin Tendulkar
- Writing his first book Beyond the Blues
- The problem with being fully honest
- Writing for happiness
- Enjoying the game through the tough times
- Finding empathy during the course of criticism
- ... and much more
Participants:
Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Books by Aakash Chopra:
Beyond the Blues: A Cricket Season Like No Other - Aakash Chopra
Out of the Blue: Rajasthan's Road to the Ranji Trophy - Aakash Chopra
The Insider - Aakash Chopra
Related:
Aakash Chopra's ESPNcricinfo columns
Tarak Sinha's 40-year labor of love - Sharda Ugra
First time I was scared... - Aakash Chopra YouTube channel
In this episode, we chat with journalist and author Samanth Subramanian.
Samanth, an accomplished author and internationally renowned journalist, is a long-time cricket fan who began his career as a sub-editor at Cricinfo. He rewinds to the time he fell in love with the game – in the mid-1990s – and gives us a terrific overview of his relationship with cricket over the years. As a fan, a full-time cricket journalist, an observer from a distance, as well as someone who dips into the game to take in its pleasures.
Participants:
Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s, http://samanth.in)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related: The Confidence Man; India's Lavish Farewell to Sachin Tendulkar; Unknown Cricketers; 'You little beauty' (81allout podcast); Fly Lara Fly; The Star We Don't Know; 'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - Sharda Ugra; From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - Vijay Lokapally podcast; The things we remember, the things we forget - 81allout podcast
Books discussed: Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast; This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War; A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of JBS Haldane; Picador Book of Cricket; The Art of Cricket; Pundits from Pakistan; Chinaman - a novel; A Corner of a Foreign Field; War Minus the Shooting; Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer
A big moment for us at 81allout as we have an international cricketer on our podcast for the first time.
Vijay Bharadwaj played 3 Tests and 10 ODIs for India in the turn of the millennium. His high-point was during the LG Cup in Nairobi in 1999-2000 where he was named the Man of the Series for his all-round performances. He was a giant for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy and played a vital role in their three Ranji Trophy triumphs in the 1990s.
In this episode, Vijay chats about his formative experiences of playing cricket on the street and in the parks, and remembers a number of characters who lit up the Bangalore cricket scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Talking points:
The competitive nature of street cricket in the Bangalore of the 1980s
Graduating to the park
The deadly variations that spinners employed
A bowler who was a combination of Shoaib Akhtar and Muralitharan
The intensity of each net session
Pitch-catch out, beaten out, full-toss out
Copying Mohinder Amarnath
Dodda Ganesh, David Johnson and other street-fighters
The pressure of playing for Karnataka
Spinning to Ranji glory
Participants:
Vijay Bharadwaj
Karthik Shashidhar (@karthiks)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
*
Related:
A Vijay Bharadwaj interview from 1999 - Rediff.com
A feature-interview with Vijay Bharadwaj - Outlook India
Arch-rivalry between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy - via Star Sports Kannada
The TN-Karnataka rivalry through the ages - ESPNcricinfo.com
Vijay Bharadwaj's spell of 6-24 in the Ranji final in 1999 - YouTube
Vijay Bharadwaj 3-34 in the LG Cup final v Zimbabwe - YouTube
Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi - 81allout archive
In this special episode, we chat with veteran sports writer Sharda Ugra.
From interviewing star cricketers as a college student... to blazing a trail as a sports journalist in the early '90s... to writing on a variety of sports for The Hindu... to being the chief sports writer at India Today... to presently working as a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo... Sharda has been an inspiration for a number of sports writers around the world.
We chat with Sharda about her illustrious career – and are riveted by her range of experiences as well as her inexhaustible bank of anecdotes.
Talking Points:
- The magazines that hooked her on to sports
- The interviews she and her college buddies did with the stars of the 1980s
- Memories of Imran Khan
- Landing her first job
- Finding Sachin Tendulkar's number
- Covering sailing
- Watching Kenya's biggest cricketing moment
- The match-fixing shock
- The fall of Hansie Cronje
- The Azharuddin she interviewed
- Authoring a book with John Wright
- The Ganguly era
- Player access and the importance of stories
- Women's cricket - past, present and future
- And much, much more
Participants:
Sharda Ugra
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
The stolid buccaneer - Sharda Ugra on Mark Taylor
Hansie-gate - Sharda Ugra's piece on the King Commission hearings
What makes sportsmen go corrupt
Manoj Prabhakar? Love? - on a cricketer Sharda Ugra hated to love
All Indian cricketers should write books like this - Sharda Ugra reviews Sanjay Manjrekar's book
Girls aloud - Sharda Ugra on how TV is redefining TV commentary
Couchtalk with Sharda Ugra - interview with Subash Jayaraman
This is personal - Sharda Ugra's letter to Mumbai post 26/11
We are happy to kickstart a new series: street cricket chronicles.
Here we hope to bring out the cricket culture in different cities at the most amateur levels: whether it is on the streets, in the gullies and driveways and terraces, on beaches, or in the parks.
In this episode we chat with two guests who grew up in Delhi in the 1990s.
Talking points:
Tip-top and connections
Breaking windows, damaging cars
Spinning the Cosco cricket ball
Off-side only rules
Mimicking Mark Waugh, Lara, Aravinda et al.
Bet-matches for pizzas at Nirula's
Playing (and watching) cricket in the Delhi chill
Visiting the Kotla
Watching Sachin's 35th hundred
Participants:
Aftab Khanna (@aftabkhanna)
Prothit Sen
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
In this special episode, we chat with veteran cricket journalist and author Makarand Waingankar.
Over the last five decades, Makarand has been witness to the changing tides in Indian cricket. He has written extensively about the game – from the maidans as well as the giant stadiums – and carries with him stories and anecdotes to last several lifetimes.
Apart from his work as a journalist, Makarand played a key role at the BCA-Mafatlal Academy in the early 1990s - which produced cricketers like Abey Kuruvilla, Salil Ankola, Paras Mhambrey and Sairaj Bahutule. A decade later, he would play a vital part in the setting up of the BCCI's Talent Resource Development Wing, which would go on to unearth talents like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla.
We chat with Makarand about the various hats he has worn over the years, and he provides us with a wonderful portrait of how cricket was when he started his journey and how vastly different things are now.
Talking Points:
- Sunil Gavaskar's emergence in Bombay cricket
- Ashok Mankad's tactical genius
- Ravi Shastri's ability to rise to the occasion
- Frank Tyson, the gentle giant
- Abey Kuruvilla's meteoric rise
- The Talent Resource Development Wing
- Jagmohan Dalmaya's vision
- The current state of talent-spotting in India
- The lack of passion in Mumbai cricket
Participants:
Makarand Waingankar (@wmakarand)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
A million broken windows: he magic and mystique of Bombay cricket - Makarand Waingankar
Guts and Glory - Makarand Waingankar
Yuvi - Makarand Waingankar
Bombay Boys - Makarand Waingankar
Makarand Waingankar interview - cricketcountry.com
Makarand Waingankar columns since 2015
The cricketing memory is a strange beast. Sometimes you recall exactly where you were and what you were doing when you watched a cricket match 33 years ago. Words from the next day's match report are stuck in your head. The photographs are etched in your memory. They transport you to a time and place far, far away.
Then you try and recall a game that took place ten days back. You watched every ball of it. You had a lot to say on Twitter when it was happening. You saw the highlights too. But seem to remember very little now. The scorecard is a blur. The match report... did you even bother to read it?
In our latest episode, we chat with two guests who fell in love with the game in the 1980s. They are cricket tragics who have lived in various parts of the world – and they tell us about their experiences of following the game in the pre-internet, pre-cable TV years and their passion for tracking scores and devouring match reports.
Each explores their own relationship with cricket over time and they try and make sense of how they can remember so much... and yet at the same time, remember so little.
Participants:
Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam)
Subu Sastry (@suubsy)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - Vijay Lokapally interview in 81allout
From moustache to Mushtaq - 81allout podcast on random memories
What we talk about when we talk about cricket - 81allout podcast
Kapil Dev lofted shot flicker - posted by @suubsy on Twitter
Sportstar archive from 1987 Bangalore Test - posted by @suubsy on Twitter
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We review New Zealand's 2-0 series win against India in the recently concluded series.
Talking Points:
How NZ winning Tests within three or four days is bad financial news for their board.
Were the pitches too green or green enough?
When extra pace perhaps worked against India's fast bowlers.
The swing masters - Boult and Southee
The dangers of Pujara's natural game in specific conditions
Pant's indecision
Jamieson, the all-round star
NZ open up the World Test Championship
Participants:
Michael Wagener (@mykuhl)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
New Zealand's home advantage - Michael Wagener
How the Blackcaps became a powerhouse in their conditions - Michael Wagener
Shami needs a defensive trick up his sleeve - Karthik Krishnaswamy
A bowler for each batsman: how New Zealand plotted India's downfall - Karthik Krishnaswamy
New Zealand's finest brace for their biggest season - 81allout podcast with Michael Wagener
In this special episode, we chat with the deputy editor at The Hindu, Vijay Lokapally.
In his career spanning close to four decades, Vijay has had a ringside view of Indian cricket and written about the team and its performances from around the world. Long-time readers of The Hindu and Sportstar would have many fond memories from Vijay's reports and tour diaries, which he infuses with keen insights as well as his signature brand of humour.
We chat with Vijay about his illustrious career – from covering his first Test for a children's magazine, tracking Delhi's Ranji team in the '80s, and spotting a young Waqar Younis in the same game as Imran Khan did… to being present at so many historic moments in Indian cricket and establishing himself as one of the leading lights in the field.
Talking Points:
- His piece on Bishan Singh Bedi that got him his first break
- The characters in Delhi cricket in the 1980s
- His memories of Raman Lamba
- The world of cricket journalism in the 1980s
- Telegrams and trunk calls
- The 1992-93 tour to South Africa - their first home series after readmission
- The 1997 tour to West Indies
- How the player-journalist relationship has changed over time
- The challenges of writing on match-fixing
- VVS Laxman's 281
- The thrill of Virender Sehwag
- Observing a young Virat Kohli
- And much, much more
Participants:
Vijay Lokapally (@vijaylokapally)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Related:
Driven: The Virat Kohli Story - By Vijay Lokapally
The Virender Sehwag Story - By Vijay Lokapally
Not Quite Cricket - Pradeep Magazine's book on match-fixing
Obituary of Peter Roebuck - By Vijay Lokapally
How a photojournalist of The Hindu cooked for team India - By Vijay Lokapally
A recent Sunil Gavaskar interview - by Vijay Lokapally
A recent Kapil Dev interview - By Vijay Lokapally
We preview the upcoming 2-Test series between New Zealand – who have been formidable at home of late – and India – the No.1 team in Tests.
Talking Points
Is India v New Zealand a rivalry that needs more hype?
New Zealand's horror tour to Australia
Wagner the warrior
The trend of fielding first in Tests in New Zealand
India's happy headaches with regard to selection of openers
Should we read anything into Bumrah's ODI performance?
Participants:
Suhas Cadambi (@suhascadambi)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
New Zealand's finest brace for biggest season - 81allout podcast with Michael Wagener
Wagner pounds his beat to good effect - George Dobell
Rewind to India's tour to New Zealand in 1998-99 - 81allout podcast
In this podcast, we look back at India's tour of New Zealand in 1998-99.
India had pulled off a thrilling Test series win at home against Australia earlier in the year, followed by some memorable wins in ODI tournaments, before the disheartening loss in the one-off Test in Zimbabwe in the lead up to the NZ series.
Talking Points: Simon Doull's spell from hell. Azhar's brilliant back to the walls century. The Nash-Vettori partnership that took the game away. Tendulkar's peak that produced a dazzling century. A Boxing day Test without a tradition. McMillan's short balls. Srinath's fifer, Prasad's batting, and Dravid's twin hundreds.
Being a Tamil Nadu fan in the Ranji Trophy is not a journey for the faint-hearted. We talk to two ardent followers of Tamil Nadu's fortunes and chart their journey through the losses, moments of ecstacy, and eternal hope. We talk about the classic TN heartbreaks over the years, favourite games, the vibrant league cricket in Chennai, the struggles of early TN cricketers, the recent success stories, rise of CSK and N Srinivasan, and we cap off the chat by picking an all time TN XI. Participants: K Balakumar (@kbalakumar) Dipak Ragav (@dipakragav) Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
We talk to Michael Wagener about New Zealand's impressive Test results over the last 3 years and get a rundown of their strengths & weaknesses ahead of their series against Australia.
Talking points:
The pitches used for the England series
Is Tom Latham a bully?
The unYoutubable B J Watling
How Colin de Grandhommme found himself alongside the legendary Aubrey Faulkner
And the most fascinating bowler in the world - Neil Wagner
Participants:
Michael Wagener (@mykuhl)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Michael Wagener's super geeky cricket blog
And his Firstpost columns
From extreme to mainstream: How Neil Wagner has wanged his way to the top - Sidharth Monga in ESPNcricinfo.com
Black Caps make convincing case as New Zealand's best test side in history - Ian Anderson in stuff.co.nz
We are living in a golden age of Indian fast bowling. Pitches, conditions, match situation - nothing seems to matter. India's bowling attack is ruthlessly targeting the opposition, and summoning magic deliveries at will.
What better time to talk about our favorite quick bowling performances in Indian conditions - from Malcolm Marshall's devastating spell in Kanpur in 1983-84 to Javagal Srinath's 13-wicket-haul in a losing cause to Jason Gillespie's lionhearted effort in Chennai in 2001 to Dale Steyn's spell-of-a-lifetime in Nagpur in 2010.
And let's not forget the splendid feats of swing bowling from the likes of Roger Binny, L Balaji and Tim Southee – sussing up Indian conditions and knocking out batsmen on largely benign surfaces.
Participants:
K Balakumar (@kbalakumar)
Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
When Marshall Law was declared in Kanpur - Clayton Murzello in Mid-Day
India v West Indies series review by Tony Cozier - YouTube video
Dale Steyn spell at Nagpur 2010 - video from BCCI website
Javagal Srinath 8-86 spell v Pakistan in 1999 - Youtube video
West Indies rattle India after Kapil Dev's historic spell - Arunabha Sengupta in Cricketcountry.com
India v Australia, Chennai Test, 2001 - Youtube video
Umesh's spell of pace and fire - Karthik Krishnaswamy in ESPNcricinfo.com
How Southee outsmarted India - Aakash Chopra in ESPNcricinfo
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Between 1947 and 1971, only one Pakistani cricketer from the east of the country was picked in the Test team.
Then Bangladesh was born, and there were far more important matters to attend to than worrying about cricket.
But the passion survived in pockets and slowly, through schools and club cricket, the game made its way into the public consciousness.
By the early 1990s, several foreign stars were taking part in club cricket in Dhaka. And the Bangladesh national team gradually improved, before being granted Test status in 2000.
ESPNcricinfo's Mohammad Isam and BCB senior manager (media and communications) Rabeed Imam tell us how cricket survived through the '70s and '80s before finally dethroning football as the most popular sport in the late 1990s. They talk us through some of Bangladesh's famous wins and introduce us to cricketers who sustained the passion through the trying times.
Participants:
Mohammad Isam (@isam84)
Rabeed Imam (@rabeedi)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related reading:
The original premier league - Mohammad Isam
Reliving the 1999 miracle - Mohammad Isam
The defeat that launched Bangladesh's World Cup ambitions - Mohammad Isam
Javed Omar, no, yes, sorry - Hate to Love - Mohammad Isam
The unassuming hero - Mohammad Rafique
Victorious in Dhaka - revisiting the first Champions Trophy
81allout interview with Mohammad Isam from May, 2019
We preview the upcoming 2-Test series between India and Bangladesh – which will include the first ever day-night Test to be held in India.
Talking Points:
Bangladesh's tumultuous lead-up to the series
The Shakib Al Hasan shocker
Why would Bangladesh's greatest-ever cricket overlook something so fundamental?
How public sentiment fluctuated over the hectic few days between the players' strike and Shakib's ban
Mominul Haque's big challenge as captain
The novelty around the day-night Test, and how that could actually give Bangladesh a small opening in Kolkata
Will Taizul Islam and Mehidy Hasan fancy their chances against a batting order that is likely to go after them?
Participants:
Sakeb Subhan, sub-editor at Daily Star in Dhaka (@SakebTS)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
'What Shakib is going through is hard to explain in words' - Mohammad Ashraful interview
Bangladesh's steep learning curve against legspin - Mohammad Isam
Time for introspection - Sakeb Subhan on Bangladesh's Test loss to Afghanistan
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It was a year when everything came together... until it fell spectacularly apart.
There was something magical about Pakistan in 1999... till they time they crumbled.
For a generation of Pakistan fans, the year 1999 meant much.
Shoaib Akhtar emerged as a force of nature.
Shahid Afridi provided a glimpse of his otherworldly powers.
Wasim Akram was poised to turn into leader of the stature of Imran Khan.
Saqlain Mushtaq spun a web around the world's best.
Saeed Anwar scaled new heights.
Abdul Razzaq was one of the most versatile cricketers around.
The team won two Tests in India. They claimed the Asian Test Championship. They won ODI tournaments for fun. They reached the World Cup final. And they had the team to challenge that great Australian side.
They were pounded in the World Cup final. They lost the Test series in Australia 3-0.
The team were never the same again. And for many fans, it spelt a loss of innocence.
Ahmer Naqvi (@karachikhatmal) and Hassan Cheema (@mediagag) were two such fans.
They join Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee) to chat about the hope that the year brought... and the disappointments that left deep scars.
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Related:
Documentary on Pakistan's tour to India in 1999
The Haal of Pakistan - Osman Samiuddin
The Unquiet Ones - Osman Samiuddin
The most important sociopolitical trend in Pakistan in the 2010s - Ahsan Butt
We review India's dominating win over South Africa in the recently concluded home series.
Talking Points:
The superlative performance of the Indian fast bowlers
South Africa's inability to retain control while bowling, and the fierce test their batsmen failed to pass
Rohit Sharma's stellar start as a Test opener
The inspired decision to opt for the specialist wicketkeeper
A bold call on Mayank Agarwal
Kohli's cruise mode
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Saving the Test - Mike Jakeman
On the difficult of watching Kohli when he is cruising along - Karthik Krishnaswamy
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We are thrilled to bring you the 50th episode of the 81allout podcast.
Our special guest for the occasion is Clayton Murzello, group sports editor of Mid-Day in Mumbai.
We chat with Clayton about his journey - from running a bookstore, managing a cricket club, and covering local sports... before turning into one of the most recognized names in the field of cricket journalism.
Talking Points:
- The charm of the Kanga League tournament in Mumbai
- The stories and legends around Dadar Union Sporting Club
- Tendulkar's arrival on the club and first-class scene
- Schools cricket in Mumbai and the unreasonable expectations it puts on young men
- The legacy of Sunil Gavaskar
- The heyday of corporate and university cricket
- 'Airport duty' and a big scoop
- How a quiz helped a Mumbai cricketer get his pension
- The great storyteller – Raj Singh Dungarpur
- The thrill of collecting cricket books and memorabilia
- Etc
Participants:
Participants:
Clayton Murzello (@claytonmurzello)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Mumbai's cricket cradle - Clayton Murzello
A plateful of biscuits, and an unforgettable car-ride
Kanga League was Madhav Apte's most-loved tournament
How a Facebook quiz won an ex-Mumbai cricketer his MCA pension
We preview the upcoming 3-Test series between India and South Africa – where points count for the World Test Championship.
Talking Points:
A rivalry that often goes under the radar
South Africa's historically impressive record in Asia
An inexperienced batting line-up coming up against the world's best side
A chance for Markram, Bavuma and de Kock to step it up
The Rabada threat
The prospect of Maharaj and Muthusamy spinning India out
Bumrah's absence
Rohit's presence at the top of the order
Unlucky Umesh, unluckier Bhuvi
And can Kohli raise his game to Smithesque levels?
Participants:
Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Interview with South Africa's performance analyst Prasanna Raman - Rohit Sankar
India v West Indies series review - 81allout podcast
Deconstructing Rohit Sharma - Aakash Chopra
Maharaj hoping to learn from "best in the world" Herath - Andrew Fidel Fernando
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at South Africa’s tour of India in 1996-97.
India continued their winning run at home, pulling off a close win at Ahmedabad. South Africa came back with a dominating win in Calcutta. And India rounded off the series with a resounding victory in Kanpur.
We talk about the all-too-familiar orientalist attitudes of visiting teams of that era, the revolving-door of openers for India, the Test debuts of Laxman and Klusener, of Indian cricketers whose careers met an unlikely end in this series, Kumble’s perfect cover drive, Srinath’s breathtaking spells, and the singular thrill of watching Azhar counter-attack.
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Aftab Khanna (@aftabkhanna)
Deepak Rao (@RaoDepk)
In our latest episode we chat with ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent – and one of the finest cricket writers in the world – Andrew Fidel Fernando.
Highlights:
- A brief review of the recent Sri Lanka v New Zealand Test series
- Three great Test innings in the last five years - by two Kusals and one Dinesh
- A streak of 26 straight Tests that have yielded results in Sri Lanka
- The soundtrack of Test cricket in Sri Lanka (as well as the sounds that are being missed)
- Fidel's favorite moments from Test cricket in Sri Lanka in this decade
- Is it time to rename Galle as the 'home of cricket'?
Participants:
Andrew Fidel Fernando (@afidelf)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related pieces and podcasts:
'I try and give voice to the fans' emotions'- 81allout podcast with Andrew Fidel Fernando
Mendis' triumph over improbability
Kusal Perera bats with body, heart and soul in innings of a lifetime
Chandimal's anarchic mayhem lifts Sri Lanka
Dale Steyn, the greatest fast bowler of the century
Galle revels in perfect day
In our latest episode we are pleased to put out a random podcast on random cricketing memories.
Highlights:
- When Gavaskar and Dravid sported moustaches
- When Nayan Mongia wore a yellow helmet
- When Phil Tufnell went after Richard Blakey
- When Tim Zoehrer showed his backside
- When Tony Greig and Harsha Bhogle used Pythogoras Theorem to explain cricketing matters
- When the sun stopped play in Chennai
- Etc
Participants:
K Balakumar (@kbalakumar)
Sriram Venkateswaran (@sriram140)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
The truth about Nayan Mongia- Rahul Bhattacharya
Zoehrer scotches sacking claims
Sehwag: the last Samurai- Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
Mark Waugh's six over Vettori in Perth- Youtube video
Ball from Mushtaq Ahmed goes between off and middle stump- Youtube video
We review India's thumping win against West Indies in the recently concluded two-Test series.
Talking Points:
Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari bolstering the Indian middle order.
India's superlative bowling performance in the two Tests
Shannon Gabriel's under-par performance
Jasprit Bumrah's magic balls
The decision to pick Jadeja over Ashwin
The marvel that is Kemar Roach
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Related:
Jasprit Bumrah: India's golden goose- Subash Jayaraman
KL Rahul grapples with tweaked technique- Karthik Krishnaswamy
Hanuma Vihari: a chip off Dravid-Laxman block- Sandip G
In this episode of the 81allout podcast, we dive headfirst into the banal talking points that dominate our sports related conversations, how they propagate, and the deleterious impact these narratives can have on the popular discourse.
We also discuss the need for data transparency and how to use the data into defensible, digestible narratives that truly inform avid viewers of the sport. Is this a niche or a basic need? Would love to hear what our listeners think!
Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related pieces:
Should you teach your kids to bat like Steve Smith- Hussain and Sangakkara discuss on Sky Sports
Pujara swears by his survival guide- by Karthik Krishnaswamy
Shiv on the shore- by Rahul Bhattacharya
Why there is no such thing as a finisher in ODI cricket- by Kartikeya Date
The mother of all myths- Tom Eaton on South Africa's choking narrative
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast, we are delighted to be joined by Trinidad-based writer, editor, and historian Vaneisa Baksh.
We talk to Vaneisa about her experiences of writing about cricket in the Caribbean, the rampant sexism she had to battle early in her career, her research on the life and career of Sir Frank Worrell, and how West Indies have taken to T20s like a duck to water.
Also featuring: Vaneisa's ten-year fight to become a member of the Queens Park Cricket Club, and the enduring legacy of CLR James.
Participants:
Vaneisa Baksh
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Some of Vaneisa's pieces:
Christopher Henry Gayle. What can I say?
Inside sexism
Darren Sammy, WICB slayer?
West Indies' mentorship problem
Worrell becomes captain
Take one for the team
The shoulders of a captain
We preview the upcoming Test series on India's tour of West Indies which marks the debut for both teams in the newly conceptualized World Test Championship
Talking Points:
We meditate on the point and pointlessness of the World Test Championship. Talk (a lot) about the impact of Dukes ball on the dynamics of the series. Discuss India's dilemma of choosing between a 5th bowler and a 6th batsman. Can Ashwin get his mojo back as a batsman? Can the potent West Indies pace attack of Gabriel-Roach-Holder pounce on a vulnerable Indian batting line up? We also ponder over the possibility of West Indies playing Rahkeem Cornwall for both cricketing and non-cricketing reasons. And just how good is Jason Holder?
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at India's tour of West Indies in 1996-97. A mostly soporific series came to life for four days in Barbados, and handed the '90s generation of Indian cricket fans a heartbreak of such epic proportions that many have still not stopped thinking about it.
We talk about the lasting pain of cricket losses, the dramatic deterioration of the Barbados pitch, the no-ball (non) calls, the first hundred partnership between Dravid and Sachin in Tests, Sidhu's crawl to a double-hundred, the two unlikely all-time greats to rise from the shadows of Sachin and Lara, and the impact of this series loss on Sachin's captaincy legacy.
Also included: Karnataka domination of the Indian squad, Walsh's run out of Sachin, Chanderpaul bowling legspin from round the wicket, and spicy tidbits from R. Mohan's match reports.
Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Krishna Murali (@mkrishna23)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
In the latest edition of the 81allout podcast we discuss the application of Law 19.8 at the World Cup final at Lord's.
We go on to debate the distinction between cricket laws and societal laws; the idea of "spirit of cricket" and its relationship to the laws of the game; and the authority of umpires as more technology becomes part of decision making.
Participants:
Suhrith Parthasarathy (@suhrith)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
We review the World Cup final from the English perspective: the impact of such a monumental game on cricket in England, the role of Free-to-Air TV, significance of Jofra Archer bowling the Super Over, and New Zealand's misfortune of not winning the trophy even though scores were level (twice).
Participants:
Daniel Norcross (@norcrosscricket)
Chris Smith (@chirsps01)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
We review England's tie against New Zealand at the World Cup final at Lord's. We review the tie in the Super over. We also review the bizarre rule that handed England the trophy. In short: we review one of the maddest games of one-day cricket.
Talking points: England's lucky breaks, Williamson's choice of Boult for the 50th over, and all the drama off the very last ball.
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Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
We review New Zealand's win over India in the first World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford.
Talking points: Jadeja's blinder, Dhoni's elimination of risk, and New Zealand winning a game of inches.
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Participants:
Mithun Subramanian (@smithun0)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
The league stage of the World Cup is done. A good time to take a look at the teams that fell short (including those who were oh so close).
Many thanks to Peter Della Penna, a cricket journalist at ESPN and ESPNcricinfo, for joining us. Peter has been covering cricket in the USA for various publications since 2009. He has also reported extensively on Associate cricket, in particular the ICC World Cricket League.
Participants
Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
We review India's win over Sri Lanka in the World Cup match at Headingley.
Talking points: The Rohit juggernaut rolls on, Malinga bids adieu, and India's happy headaches for the semi-final
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Max (@maxdavinci)
We speak to three fans who have attended games during the ongoing World Cup, and chat about their in-ground experiences.
Highlights: The lack of World Cup buzz in England, the easy accessibility to the stadiums, and the overwhelming support for India.
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Participants:
Minal (@granger_gab)
Brinda (@itsbrinda)
Jaikanthan (@jaiunni)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
We review India's win over Bangladesh in the World Cup match at Edgbaston.
Talking points: Rohit continues to make most of his luck, Shakib continues to own the World Cup, and Pandya emerges as a genuine fifth bowler
Participants:
Mohammad Isam (@isam84)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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Related:
Mohammad Isam - All fizz, no fuss
Mohammad Isam - Shakib Al Hasan's simplicity keeps Bangladesh's complex challenge alive
Previous 81allout podcast with Mohammad Isam - Bangladesh don't have the habit of chasing 300-plus scores
We review England's win over India in the World Cup match at Edgbaston.
Talking points: Is Jason Roy the new Sehwag? Is Bairstow creating imagined enemies? And what was Dhoni trying at the end?
Participants:
Daniel Norcross (@norcrosscricket)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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(Lead pic from here)
We review India's win over West Indies in the World Cup match at Old Trafford.
Talking points: India's batting problem that is yet to be a problem, West Indies' neither-here-nor-there approach to ODIs, and Mohammad Shami bowling Shai Hope with a ball straight from bowling heaven.
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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Related:
Earlier 81allout podcast: Mid-tournament review
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We review Pakistan's win over New Zealand in the World Cup match at Edgbaston.
Talking points: Pakistan doing Pakistan things, Shaheen Afridi bowling the spell of the tournament, Babar Azam playing an innings four years in the making, and Hafeez doing, well, Hafeez things.
Participants:
Hassan Cheema (@mediagag)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
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Related:
Hassan Cheema: In the mountains, old-school Pakistan lives on
Earlier 81allout podcast: When data stops working with Pakistan
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We review Australia's win over England in the World Cup match at Lord's.
Talking points: England flirting with elimination, Australia hiding their fifth bowler and thatball from Mitchell Starc
Participants:
Peter Miller (@thecricketgeek)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
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Related:
Peter Miller and Dave Tickner: 28 Days' Data: England's Troubled Relationship With One-Day Cricket
Sriram Veera: Knock, knock, anybody home?
We review the first half of the World Cup and discuss some of the main themes from the last three weeks.
Talking points: England making the tournament interesting; rain, rain and more rain; teams trying to bounce opponents out; too many captains deciding to field first; and the growing separation between the good teams and the also-ran.
Participants:
Jarrod Kimber (@ajarrodkimber)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
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Related:
Australia's World Cup of gambles by Jarrod Kimber.
Bouncers to the fore as bowlers hunt wickets by Sidharth Monga.
We review India's win over Pakistan in the World Cup match at Old Trafford.
Talking points: Rohit's majestic hundred, Pakistan's strange tactics, and a most forgettable batting performance
Participants:
Ahmer Naqvi (@karachikhatmal)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
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Related: India v Pakistan in World Cups
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at the India-Pakistan rivalry in World Cups, from 1992 to 2015.
Highlights: Miandad v More in '92, Jadeja v Waqar in '96, cricket amid war in '99, Tendulkar's three shots in '03, the greatest anti-climax in '07, Mohammad Hafeez' brain-fade in '11 and Misbah's lone hand in '15
Participants:
Ahmer Naqvi (@karachikhatmal)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
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Related reading:
The Haal of Pakistan- Osman Samiuddin
It all began in South Africa- Rahul Bhattacharya
Pundits from Pakistan- Rahul Bhattacharya
We review India's win over Australia in the World Cup match at The Oval.
Talking points: India's clinical batting performance, David Warner's go-slow, and Kohli's gracious gesture.
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Ashoka (@ABVan)
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at the India-Australia rivalry in World Cups, from 1983 to 2015.
We chart the rise of this rivalry from its modest beginnings and talk about how the commercial rise of Indian cricket coincided with Australia's purple patch.
Highlights: The Indian team's depth in 1983, Chepauk's cracking ODI debut, Jadeja's diving catch, the institutionalisation of the Sachin-Sachin chant, Azhar's decision to bowl at The Oval, Gillespie's slower ball, Ponting walking on water, the Motera trap, and Smith's never-ending golden summer.
Participants:
Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam)
Aftab Khanna (@aftabkhanna)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
We review India's win over South Africa in the World Cup match at Southampton.
Talking points: Jasprit Bumrah's Test-match-style opening spell, KulCha's delightful drift, turn and dip, and Rohit Sharma's Nine-to-Five hundred
Participants:
Sriram Dayanand (@sdayanand)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
We review Pakistan's win against England in the World Cup match at Trent Bridge.
Talking points: The cosmic (as well as probabilistic) reasons for Pakistan's unpredictability, the reasons why Pakistan should not have won this match, and the end of England's glorious chasing streak at home
Participants:
Ahmer Naqvi (@karachikhatmal)
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast we are delighted to be joined by ace sports writer Rob Smyth, who has written for the Guardian, Wisden, ESPNcricinfo and a variety of other publications.
Rob is one of the most prolific over-by-over and minute-by-minute commentators, and has written multiple books on cricket – like The Spirit of Cricket and Gentleman and Sledgers– as well as on football.
He talks about his journey in sports journalism, the joys and challenges of live text-commentary, and the breed of cricketers he is drawn towards. He remembers England's woeful one-day adventures in the 1990s and 2000s, and puts the achievement of the current ODI team in perspective.
Also featuring: English fans' love-hate relationship with KP, Patrick Patterson's most violent spell, and England's "omnifiasco" in India in 1992-93.
Participants:
Rob Smyth
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Some of Rob’s pieces:
The scariest Test England ever player
The joy of Kevin Pietersen
The unimprovable game: Australia v South Africa, Edgbaston, 1999
Fumbles, fallouts and faulty planes: England's nightmarish 1993 tour of India
Recalling Duncan Spencer
The little genius in the corner: Graham Thorpe
Bharat Sundaresan's piece on Patrick Patterson
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We review the opening match of the World Cup between England and South Africa at The Oval.
Talking points: England's scary batting depth, South Africa's tame run-chase, and the value that Joffra Archer brings to a bowling attack.
How does any team beat this England side? Can South Africa bounce back.
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at the World Cup in 1999 when Australia came back from the dead to win the tournament.
We talk (a lot) about the most dramatic ODI match of all time, India's meltdown in the chase against Zimbabwe, Steve Waugh's brilliant century, the thrill of watching Shoaib Akhtar from the ground level, Warnie rising to the occasion just in time, Venkatesh Prasad's 5 wicket haul against Pakistan, Pakistan's pinch-blocking strategy, Dravid's glorious run, and Zulu.
Also included: Mark Waugh's serenity on the field, parochial plaint on Venkatraghavan missing out on the final, and Imran's wisdom.
Participants:
Krishna Murali (@mkrishna)
Suhrith Parthasarathy (@suhrith)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam)
In the latest 81allout podcast we look back at the 2003 World Cup where Australia put on a stellar show overcoming all the obstacles thrown at them to win back to back World Cups.
We talk about South Africa's tragicomic exit, the high voltage Ind-Pak match at Centurion, Windies going with 3 frontline bowlers, Nehra's spectacular spell against England, Kenya's dream run, Sachin's sublime batting in the tournament, Aravinda's still mighy wizardy, great bowling performances from a wide variety of bowlers – Andy Bichel to Collins Obuya. And the Ponting show.
Also included: Warnie being a good mama's boy, Why Nehra may sometimes be called Nehru, and Pedro Collins (not) taking a catch
Participants:
Sriram Dayanand (@sdayanand)
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Ashoka Rao (@abvan)
In the latest 81allout podcast we rewind to the World Cup in 1996 – when Sri Lanka refused to be beaten.
We remember Brian Lara's exquisite strokeplay, Aravinda de Silva's mastery, Tendulkar's magic with a sponsor-less bat, Jayasuriya reducing medium-pacers to offspinners, Paul Strang's wizardry and Ambrose getting stumps to fly.
Also included: Richie Richardson's sweep shot crashing into umpire BC Cooray's head, Mike Marqusee's seminal book 'War Minus the Shooting', and Sultan Zarawani walking out to bat in a hat and preparing to face Allan Donald.
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Participants:
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf)
In the latest 81allout podcast we rewind to the World Cup in 1987 – when Australia pulled off a sensational triumph.
We talk about Allan Lamb taking on Courtney Walsh in Gujranwala, Gavaskar scorching a hundred, Dave Houghton blasting 142, Navjot "Sixer" Sidhu clattering the big ones, Gooch sweeping India out of the World Cup, Gatting reverse-sweeping to his doom, and a young Australian side enjoying a fairytale ride all the way to the summit.
Also included: The behind-the-scenes stories to bring the World Cup to the subcontinent, Australia v Pakistan in Lahore being the cricket equivalent of Italy v Brazil 1982, and Walsh going home with a special carpet.
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
K Balakumar (@kbalakumar)
Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam)
(Lead pic from here)
In the latest 81allout podcast we rewind to one of the mostly fondly remembered World Cups – from 1992.
Why is this such a beloved tournament? Has there been a better collection of cricket jerseys at one event?
We talk about Mark Greatbatch's sixes, Martin Crowe's innovative tactics, Srikkanth's duck against New Zealand, Raju's premature celebration, David Boon's square cuts, thatJonty Rhodes run-out, Srinath's ball to Miandad...
Not to forget, the strange rain-rule. And those two balls from heaven.
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Max (@maxdavinci)
Anantha (@anantha)
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast, we are delighted to be joined by ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent Mohammad Isam.
Isam opens up about the terrorist attack in Christchurch, and how it has offered him a new perspective towards cricket. We go on to talk about Bangladesh's squad for the World Cup. And their problem with chasing big totals.
Also featuring: Jersey-gate, the Imrul Kayes riddle and Rubel Hossain's Bradman-esque (bowling) average
Participants:
Mohammad Isam (@isam84),
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
Ashoka (@ABVan)
Some of Isam's pieces:
'There's a shooting here, please save us'
The story of the Dhaka Premier League
On the campaign trail with Mashrafe Mortaza
Mohammad Ashraful profile
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast we discuss recent controversies around umpiring and the seemingly gradual erosion of umpires' authority.
Was Dhoni justified in walking onto the field and arguing with the umpires? Is there data to prove that umpiring standards in this IPL has been worse than in previous editions?
We touch upon the effects of technology on assessing umpires, the role of commentators on shaping the narrative and how it is impossible to sometimes say whether an umpire got a decision right or wrong.
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch),
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview),
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
Max (@maxdavinci)
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast, we are thrilled to be joined by podcaster and blogger Subash Jayaraman, as well as Kartikeya Date, a contributor for ESPNcricinfo, The Hindu and other publications.
We talk about Andre Russell's 13-ball 48 for Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bangalore, and debate whether it was an "astonishing" innings or one that should have come as no surprise. Have we even learnt how to judge a T20 innings? Do we have the grammar and metrics to judge a T20 performance without veering into hyperbole? Will the "quality" of bowling eventually cease to matter in a format so heavily skewed in favour of the bat. Questions, questions, questions....
Participants:
Subash Jayaraman (@cricketcouch),
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview),
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee),
Max (@maxdavinci)
In the latest episode of the 81allout podcast, we are delighted to be joined by ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent Andrew Fidel Fernando.
We talk about Fidel's experiences of covering Sri Lankan cricket and discuss the various aspects of putting together a piece on deadline. Fidel talks about what was going through his head when Kusal Perera was rewriting the history books in Durban, and the manner in which he 'joined the dots' after Sri Lanka's scarcely believable Test series win in Port Elizabeth.
Also featuring: Sandpaper-gate, Rangana Herath, Sri Lankan cricket administration, and much more...
Podcast participants: Andrew Fidel Fernando (@afidelf), Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee), Ashoka (@ABVan)
In Part 2 of our fun preview we discuss:
Rajasthan Royals' lack of spin options,
Royal Challenger Bangalore's propensity for comedy,
Mumbai Indians' ability to win tournaments every alternative year, and
Sunrisers Hyderabad's terrific balance.
We're delighted to be joined by Arnab Ray (@greatbong) with his insights and humor.
Other podcast participants: @sidvee, @anantha and @maxdavinci
The IPL is here! And in Part 1 of our fun preview we discuss:
Chennai Super Kings' chances to win another title with a team of golden oldies,
Delhi Capitals' chances of winning their first IPL with a new team name,
Kings XI Punjab's bizarre team combination, and
Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling riches (and worries)
We're delighted to be joined by Arnab Ray (@greatbong) with his insights and humour.
Other podcast participants: @sidvee), @anantha and @maxdavinci
In this episode of the 81allout podcast, we are delighted to be joined by BBC Test Match Special commentator Daniel Norcross and Kartikeya Date, an essayist for ESPNcricinfo and other publications.
We talk about the different ways in which we consume cricket and how our experiences have changed over time. What irks us the most when we watch the game? How easily are we drawn to cricketing arguments on Twitter? How do we react on hearing cliches on commentary? All this and much more come together in a lively discussion.
Podcast participants: Daniel Norcross (@norcrosscricket), Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview), Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee), Ashoka (@ABVan)
In the second episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with Saurabh Somani, Assistant Editor at ESPNcricinfo, on the recently concluded season of Ranji Trophy. We discuss the unprecedented scale of this year's Ranji Trophy, Vidarbha's impressive title defense, the controversial Karnataka-Saurashtra semifinal, and some fascinating stories that only a tournament of this magnitude can throw up.
In the first episode of the 81allout podcast, we talk to Vijay Arumugam, a cricket fan based in Sydney, and discuss the first-ever Test match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. Vijay and a group of friends drove from Sydney to Canberra, and he shares some of their experiences from the recent Australia v Sri Lanka Test.
Podcast participants: Vijay Arumugam (@vijayarumugam),Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee), Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd )