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...

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 | Th...

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...

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...

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...

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 morn...

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 wi...

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 T...

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 Bed...

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 81all...

We discuss the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton. Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi (PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800) Talking Points: The WTC and the extra layer it has added to gauging a Test side The abundance of fast bowling riches arou...

Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi We celebrate the 100th episode of the 81allout podcast with an illuminating conversation with Gideon Haigh - the gold standard when it comes to cricket writing. We could have spoken to Gideon about anything – cricket or otherwise - but we chose to focus on his brilliant book On Warne  -  a remarkably original take on a remarkably original cricketer...

Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi (PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India. We plan to match your contributions upto $800) In the latest episode we chat about India's historic triumphs against West Indies and England 50 years ago. Cricket writer and author Nishad Pai Vaidya and veteran sports journalist Clayton Murzello join us to re...

Click here to support 81allout on Ko-Fi In the latest episode we chat about Chennai Super Kings and the nature of fandom the team has inspired since the start of the IPL. Three CSK fans share their experiences of being drawn to the team and take us through the highs and lows over the last 13 years. (PSA: We will be donating all your contributions till the end of June towards Covid relief in India....

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 t...

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 complex...

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 gam...

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 Ran...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 fe...

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 Tes...

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 –...