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)

*

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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)

*

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 review the fifth Test between India and England in Dharamshala – where India stamped their authority with a win by an innings and 64 runs.

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

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)

 

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

*

Lead image from here.

Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi

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

We review the fourth Test between India and England in Ranchi – where India sealed a series with a magnificent five-wicket win. 

Support 81allout at Ko-Fi

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

 

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

*

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

*

Lead image from here

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

*

Lead image from here.

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)

We review the third Test between India and England in Rajkot – where a terrific all-round performance helped India go 2-1 up. 

Support 81allout at Ko-Fi

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

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

We review the second Test between India and England in Visakhapatnam – where Jasprit Bumrah powered India to a 106-run win. 

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

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

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

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.  

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

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

 

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

*

Lead image from here

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