81 All Out - A Cricket Podcast

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. Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi 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. Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi 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. Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi 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