The Inner Athlete

Yashasvi Jaiswal is being talked about as one of the brightest young talents in world cricket. But there is another side of his game that is increasingly becoming part of the conversation his aggression. Cricket has always had its share of skirmishes, sledging and heated moments. But when they happen repeatedly, they can begin to overshadow a player's achievements. In this episode, we discuss...

India is heading into the 2026 Asian Games with a 492-athlete contingent — and there is plenty to watch. In this episode of The Inner Athlete Podcast, we take a closer look at India's Asian Games campaign and the bigger questions surrounding Indian sport. The conversation begins with the size of India's contingent and how it compares with the 655 athletes who represented India across 39 di...

What does it really take to build a career in sports? In this episode, Shruti shares her journey from petroleum engineering and fitness education to powerlifting, entrepreneurship and sports management. We talk about: • How Shruti discovered powerlifting • The difference between strength training and powerlifting as a sport • Why strength training becomes increasingly important as we age • Protein...

Should Rohit Sharma play in India's 2027 ODI World Cup team? Or is it time for Indian cricket to make room for the next generation? In this episode of The Inner Athlete, Sameer Pai dives into one of the biggest selection debates surrounding Indian cricket. The discussion looks at the reported debate around Rohit Sharma's availability for the 2027 World Cup, the role of experience and statu...

What does it really take to become an athlete? Is it talent? Hard work? The right sport? Discipline? Or simply the willingness to keep going when things get difficult? In this episode of The Inner Athlete, Sameer Pai sits down with Shruti Jahagirdar a national-level volleyball player, state-level powerlifter, petroleum engineer, fitness professional and host of The Curious Human Project.

The Duleep Trophy is back in a zonal format — but is the tournament still the best way to identify and develop India's top long-format cricketers? In this episode, we question the fundamental structure of the Duleep Trophy and explore a radical idea: What if IPL franchises entered long-format domestic cricket? The IPL has transformed T20 cricket through franchise ownership, investment, brandin...

India's 79th Independence Day. 80th year of independence. And what a sporting journey it has been. From beating our colonial masters 4-0 in hockey at Wembley in 1948 — to Manu Bhaker winning TWO medals at a single Olympics in Paris 2024 — India's sporting story is one of the greatest narratives in world sport. In this special Independence Day episode on Inner Athlete — we take you through...

To understand the health of Indian cricket — you need to understand Mumbai cricket. Tushar Dawang — the man behind the wildly popular TD Show, Mumbai's most dedicated chronicler of cricket stories — joins Inner Athlete for one of the most nostalgic, fascinating and commercially insightful cricket conversations we have done. From the origins of tennis ball cricket as a nursery for greats like C...

You asked. We answered. Inner Athlete's first AMA - with producer Jayashree Kumar filling in for Ronald Chetiyar who's on holiday. And it turned out to be one of our most radical episodes yet. From why futsal is India's football answer, to why The Hundred is a genuine threat to IPL, to whether bowlers should be allowed to chuck in tennis ball cricket — this episode covers it all.

IPL media rights — $6 billion per cycle. ICC media rights — $3.8 billion per cycle. Of that $3.8 billion? India contributes $3 billion alone. UK — the country where cricket was born — contributes just $260 million. Australia — $200 million. And ICC has conducted 14 major international tournaments in one four-year cycle — all funded by India. At Inner Athlete — we firmly believe 2026 is a watershed...

In America — sport is treated as almost as important as school. Coaches identify talent at six years old. Cross-training prevents injuries. College sports generates millions in broadcast revenue. The highest-paid employee at Louisiana State University is the football coach. And now — college athletes can even make money through endorsements. India? Our best cricketers stop going to college at 17....

India came 4th at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in football. Today — the ISL media rights are worth just 9.6 crores. Down from 275 crores a year. And yet — when Messi came to India, we were ready to spend 100 crores on a single event. This is the paradox of Indian football. But at Inner Athlete — we believe India can play a FIFA World Cup in three years. Not in the 11-a-side format. In FUTSAL.

You've thrown a frisbee on the beach. You've seen it in parks. You probably thought it was just a casual toy. But Ultimate Frisbee is a World Cup sport. A professional league sport. A sport where India just broke into the top 20 globally — after beating Germany, Australia and the bronze medallists at the World Beach Championship. Neha Vaingankar — Indian American, two-time India World Cup...

Two cricket stories that defined generations of Indian fans. The 1991-92 Mumbai vs Haryana Ranji Trophy Final — decided by just two runs, featuring young Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ajay Jadeja and Amol Muzumdar (as a ball boy) — is perhaps the greatest Ranji Trophy final ever played. The 1986 Sharjah last-ball six by Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma — which left a psychological...

Four minutes. Two goals. Two sides of the same man. Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal against England, four minutes apart - was the sinner and the saint. The cheeky hand of God. And then the greatest goal ever scored in World Cup history. And then 1995. A fractured nation emerging from apartheid. A president who had spent 27 years in jail and came out without vengeance. And a rugby...

"How long do I have to decide?" asked Amol Karadkar when offered specialization choices. "Two and a half minutes," said his editor."Two and a half seconds," said Amol. "Sport." The Deputy Editor of The Hindu — one of India's finest cricket journalists — is back on Inner Athlete. And this time we go deeper. Into his personal journey. Into Sports Katta. In...

Three rebel leagues. Three sports forever changed. And a pattern that keeps repeating itself. Kerry Packer in the 1970s took on the cricket establishment — gave us colored clothing, day-night cricket, helmets, multi-camera setups and ODI cricket as we know it. The Indian Cricket League in 2007 — backed by Subhash Chandra of Zee — threatened the BCCI so severely that IPL and T20 franchise cricket w...

India won the Thomas Cup in 2022. The current team just won a Thomas Cup bronze medal — seeded 8th, finishing in the top 4.And the players said they received almost no support. No recognition. No incentives. At the same time — two international badminton events in India have been cancelled. The Premier Badminton League is scrapped. And the sport that originated in this country is being ignored com...

Can Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar or KL Rahul get into today's Indian T20 side? The Deputy Editor of The Hindu — one of India's most respected cricket journalists — says the honest answer is probably not. And he explains exactly why. Amol Karhadkar joins Inner Athlete for one of our deepest, most wide-ranging cricket conversations ever — covering IPL's evolution, the auction problem, d...

Abhishek Bachchan has done some genuinely good things as a sports entrepreneur. Pink Panthers in Pro Kabaddi — brilliant. Invested in an organic Indian sport, brought star power, helped make the league popular. But the Euro T20 Premier League? That is a completely different story. And at Inner Athlete, we are going to call it out directly.

IPL viewership is down. Ad revenues are decreasing. Governance is under fire. And money is flowing out of Indian cricket into European T20 leagues that haven't proved their business model. Ronald Chettiar joins us for the most honest end-of-season IPL wrap-up covering everything from the governance crisis to the real threat of The Hundred, to why domestic Indian cricket needs urgent reform bef...

🏏 Our final IPL 2026 deep dive is live. MI had Bumrah, Rickleton & Tilak Verma and still had their worst season in years. RCB found their bowling attack and suddenly look unbeatable. KKR were dead and buried, now fighting for the playoffs. We talked about all 10 teams, what worked, what didn't, and what needs to change. One big take: stop dismantling teams at auction. Build. Develop. Stic...

You've been doing parkour your entire life — jumping over puddles, vaulting railings, climbing walls — without knowing it had a name. Today on Inner Athlete, we sit down with Dr. Rishi Prasad — emergency medicine doctor turned full-time parkour coach, co-founder of The Movement Academy, India's most prominent parkour facility, trainer to the Indian Army, and the man behind Hrithik Roshan&#...

Gyms are dying. Recreational sports are booming. And the age group driving this revolution might surprise you. Ronald Chettiar joins us for one of Inner Athlete's most practical and personal episodes — covering everything from why recreational sport is the future of fitness in India, to how to pick the right sport for your age, to the controversial world of peptides for injury recovery.

From Sachin Tendulkar playing a steady anchor role at 125 strike rate to Vaibhav Suryavanshi smashing a 36-ball century at 200 plus. IPL opening batting has undergone the most dramatic transformation in cricket history — and today we decode every phase of it with data, analysis and the teams that are winning because of it. Plus — KKR vs Punjab Kings. Two Bollywood-owned teams. Both know how to cho...