Cricket with an Accent Podcast

Rahul Dravid's tenure as Indian cricket coach has had mixed results so far. With the ODI world cup coming up in 2023 we decided to break silence on this podcast and take a comparative look at Dravid the coach vs his predecessor Ravi Shastri.  Help me do the honors are podcast regulars Vijay Arumugam and Gurkirat Singh Gill. It's a rich conversation with lot of analysis and opinions.  Vijay Arumuga...

In this episode of the podcast we pay homage to the careers of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Pujara and Rahane may or may not play again for India but they both have been mainstays of the Indian team. It's only fitting we reflect on their respective tenures in the middle given how both men polarized the Indian fandom. Doing the honors are Aftab Khanna and Saahil Sharma as we look back thes...

Duncan Hamilton is the podcast guest for this episode where he revisits his award winning book on English cricketer Harold Larwood. Hamilton who is a three time winner of the prestigious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hill_Sports_Book_of_the_Year award has brought Larwood back to life through his maginicent account. Larwood remains one of the most tragic characters the game has ever seen gi...

In the latest episode of the podcast Aftab Khanna and Vijay Arumugam join Saqib Ali to look back at the impact and larger than life legacy of the late Shane Warne.  

On the eve of Australia's upcoming tour to Pakistan Abhishek Chopra( https://twitter.com/El_Chopernos ) joins the show this week to look back at the evolution of this test rivalry. Chopra is an avid reader - who shares his recollections of the early days of this contest dating back to the Aussies first visit to Pakistan in 1956. Context is king and Chopra provides a lot of it - be it the political...

Bollywood and Cricket are arguably two of the biggest forms of entertainment in India - yet the purist cricket fan is seldom satisfied as a movie fan when filmmakers try to tackle cricket. Uday Bhatia joins Saqib Ali in this episode to explore how sports especially cricket gets depicted in Hindi films. The conversation also takes a deeper dive into film criticism and its evolution as a discipline....

Jarrod Kimber joins me this week on the podcast as we discuss the conundrum of cricket commentary on Tv. The fan conversation has only gotten louder on the style of the commentary with notable names across the world struggling to add value to the hardcoure viewer. Kimber helps unpack this through layers of what the production houses can or cannot do improve this product. We use examples of Gavaska...

Vijay Arumugam(@vijayarumugam) is back on the pod to wrap up the year. This time he flies as a solo guest and shares his experience of living in Australia as an "Indian expat". Vijay is candid as always in his explanation of where cricket and culture coincides in the Australian society. He also recalls upon his journey of being a SCG patron since 2009 when South Africa played the New years test ma...

Mohammad Isam of ESPN cricinfo fame is the podcast guest for this episode. Isam is the digital voice of Bangladesh cricket as he has been covering the national team for almost a decade now. The episode takes a deeper dive to understand the political landscape of Bangladesh cricket - the academies, the domestic rivalries and political importance of cricket. Isam has helped unpack lots of background...

Fandom and journalism are two of the three integral components of any sports industry. In this episode we examine how the two disciplines have evolved over time and more interestingly how they interact with each other in the modern Twitter marketplace. Unpacking the arguments in this episode are noted sports journalist Ayaz Memon( https://twitter.com/cricketwallah ), ardent cricket fans Vijay Arum...

Since the dawn of the millenium cricket journalism has changed. The way we consume and cover the sport has new requirements in this digital world and Jaime Alter is the true digital content creator of today. Alter joins the podcast this week to talk about his love for the game and how the paths aligned for him to be part of the Sambit Bal lead cricinfo crew in 2005.  We explore the ever changing d...

Sanket Singbal and Gurkirat Singh Gill join the show to preview the squads of India, England and Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup. The duo breaks down the three teams based on the strengths and weaknesses of the respective squads given the conditions in the UAE.

Noted cricket journalist Sharda Ugra joins the podcast for a detailed conversation on many things including the changing landscape of cricket journalism, layers of fandom, brand value of a player and much more. Ugra has covered professional cricket since the late 80's. In this episode she recalls how the media relationship with the practitioners of sport has changed especially when it comes to hig...

A conversation that has gotten serious momentum on cricket twitter is whether the current era is the most difficult for test match batting. To better understand the question from the statistical bent of mind one has to acknowledge the two prevalent schools of thought from today's fanbases - The Stat merchant and his older cousin The Nostalgic merchant. Please join us in a fun deep diving discussio...

How well do we understand the discipline of Cricket captaincy? It's fair to stay the definition of captaincy has gone through a big change in recent years from the fan's vantage point. Is there an overestimation attached to the role of a cricket captain in terms of how it influences the outcome of a match? Can a good captain change the fortunes of a weak team? Do we need to unlearn some of the her...

Geoff Francis Lawson is a former Australian fast bowler who also coached the Pakistan national team. In a candid conversation Lawson opens up about his playing days. He takes a trip down memory lane to remember all the men he played under - Greg Chappell, Kim Hughes and Allan Border. In an era of packed cricket calendars Lawson reminds us of Ashes tours that lasted four and a half months long and...

Aftab Khanna joins the show to preview the India England test series. The kickoff point is the absence of Ben Stokes and how does that impact the balance of this English side. Aftab addresses the notion whether India are the favorites for this series or not given the missing status of Archer, Stokes and Woakes. Should India be playing two spinners at Trent Bridge and in this series in general give...

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan( https://twitter.com/sidvee ) of the http://www.81allout.com/ podcast returns to Cricket with an accent to recall the events surrounding the Rahul Dravid captaincy period. It is one of the semi forgotten eras of Indian cricket which still polarizes fans and media whenever the topic resurfaces. Vaidyanathan, who was a cricinfo journalist during that time helps unpack the mix...

Aftab Khanna(@aftabkhanna in twitter) returns to the podcast to join host Saqib Ali to discuss New Zealand's win in Southampton. The conversation looks at the tournament structure of this first edition and attempts at exploring how future FTP's may include a more level playing field. Is there room for a best of three WTC final given the already crowded cricket calendar. The focus shifts on to the...

Former India cricketer Surinder Khanna is the podcast guest. In this episode Khanna looks back at the roadmap of his cricket timeline from the grounds of the Hindu college to the ultimate honor in Indian cricket - playing for India. Khanna was a cricketer who was ahead of his times in how he approached his batting as a wicket keeper. We drew comparisons with the likes of Rishabh Pant and MS Dhoni....

Matt Roller of Espn cricinfo joins the show this week. Roller as a writer is versatile in his coverage of the sport where he covers all forms of the international game along with the domestic English county matches. Keeping the county coverage as a backdrop I asked Roller about the chances of one Matt Parkinson to make his test debut this summer. In this episode Roller talks about the space of cri...

Senior cricket writer Vijay Lokapally joins the podcast for an episode where he recalls some of the fascinating battles between Delhi and Mumbai. In the era of domestic cricket that rivalry was seen as a test match itself. The conversation also focuses on Lokapally's early cricket memories of the Kotla - home of the Delhi cricket team. Lokapally also takes us down the memory lane where we relive B...

Nakul Pande (@nakulMpande) of Guerilla cricket returns to the show to talk about IPL 2021. In this episode Pande helps preview the roasters of RCB, RR, PBKS and MI. 

Its IPL time of the year. In this episode Gurkirat Singh Gill(@gurkiratsgill) and Rahul Vishwanathan(Rv__97) join the show to help me preview the Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings. 

Former Australian captain and all time great Greg Chappell is the podcast guest. Chappell engages in a candid chat that covers his cricket journey as a player, captain, coach, selector and now columnist. The conversation explores the historic 1975 series vs the West Indies which was Chappell's first rodeo as captain. Other major talking point is the phase of his career where he swapped the captain...