Cricket with an Accent Podcast

Senior cricket writer Ayaz Memon returns to the show to talk about the 4th test between India and England.  While breaking down India's series win Memon highlights the contributions of Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant. In depth talking points include Sundar's potential as top order batsman and whether Pant should play the situation.  Memon also weighs in on the upcoming WTC finals be...

Aftab Khanna and Vijay Arumugam join the show this week to look back at the playing surface from the Ahmedabad test. Khanna and Arumugam are true students of the game who offered lot of statistical nuance and historical references to support their points on the rank turners vs green tops debate. The observations further touched upon the history of Indian test pitches over the last two decades. The...

Cricket analyst Gurkirat Singh Gill (@gurkiratsgill on twitter) joins the show to talk about the midpoint of  India England series. Gill breaks down some of the narrative based notions on what a good test match pitch is and how to succeed on those pitches. He further elaborates on the importance of toss and team compositions.  This episode's in depth feature is the return to batting form of Ravi A...

Espn cricinfo senior writer George Dobell joins the show as the guest analyst this week. In this episode Dobell looks back at the impressive win by Root and team in Chennai. We rank this win in terms of relevant context of English overseas performances of the last decade.  The conversation is inclusive of the new demand of covid cricket - player rotation. Dobell emphasizes how demanding the covid...

Bharat Sundaresan of Cricbuzz and Nakul Pande of Guerilla cricket join Saqib Ali to preview the India England series. This is Bharat's second appearance on the pod while Nakul makes his debut on cricket with an accent. The duo breaks down some of the burning topics from both sides of the rivalry. The conversation covers the playing surfaces, the matchups, rotation policy, covid calendar and the te...

Noted cricket writer Prem Panicker returns to the show to help break down some of the emerging topics and narratives from the recently concluded Border Gavaskar trophy. Panicker expresses his in-depth views on the Ajinkya Rahane captaincy through the prism of different leadership variables and how differently players may respond to a certain style. He also looks at the importance of Ravi Ashwin's...

On the latest episode of the podcast Himanish Ganjoo makes his debut as the guest analyst. Ganjoo has written for Espn cricinfo and some of his recent written pieces are listed below in the show notes. Like many writers of this generation Ganjoo relies on the stats to tell the actual story of the cricket rather than holding on to the cliched usage of adjectives that have been used to describe the...

In this episode we look back at the recently concluded Sydney test match. Cricket writer, historian and author Abhishek Mukherjee is the guest analyst, who helps break down the contest. Mukherjee addresses the many facets of the drawn test match from Rishabh Pant's batting to the defensive masterclass of Ravi Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari, and why this will go down as one of the match for the ages. The...

In this episode we review the Boxing day test between Australia and India. Sanket Singbal and Abhu Tyagi join host Saqib Ali to breakdown the happenings from MCG. The conversation focuses on Ajinkya Rahane's batting and captaincy. Was it his best knock as a test batsman? Md Siraj and Shubman Gill's remarkable readiness for international test cricket also gets discussed in the pod. Other topics cov...

Growing up in an adopted land is always a new experience for anyone and it has an additional layer if there is a sport that is common in one's country of birth and their new homeland. Kamran Abbasi one of the most prolific and poignant writers of all things Pakistan cricket is the guest on the podcast this week. Abbasi was born in Pakistan but was raised in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. His new boo...

Kartik Jayaraman is a cricket enthusiast and a true student of the game who also loves connecting statistical dots on cricket trivia. In this episode he makes his podcast debut for our series. Kartik is @elitecynic on twitter. The conversation revolves heavily around the Adelaide debacle from two days ago. Kartik looks back at what will possibly go down as an all time great Aussie pace attack of P...

Malcolm Knox is a senior cricket writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In this episode Knox joins the show to talk about the upcoming Adelaide test match between India and Australia. He also talks about the sudden decline of cricket in the Australian ecosystem of sports. Given that the Australian opening pair for the first test match is now an uncertainty with the concussion suffered by young hope...

Sidharth Monga is the assistant editor of Espn Cricinfo. For cricket readers he is one of the most prolific writers in this modern age of cricket. He does it all - be it a match report, short article or the carefully crafted detailed piece on the Cricket monthly. An all format writer! He joins the podcast as a guest to discuss the burning storylines of the India Australia series from the communica...

This episode of Cricket with an Accent we welcome former fast bowler Winston Davis of the West Indies. Winston Davis owned the best bowling figures in ODI cricket for more than eight years. He was the answer to the 7/51 trivia question. More than that he broke into the packed West Indies fast bowling unit, which was no easy feat considering the line up. In this episode Davis elaborates on the art...

Former England player Roland Butcher is the podcast guest this week. He has now taken a new role as the manager of the Barbados challenger Football club. Butcher had a long and successful stint with the Middlesex County Club. In this episode he talks about his formative years in England as a teenager. He looks back at the move from Barbados to UK when he was not sure if he will continue playing cr...

Andrew Fidel Fernando is the podcast guest this week. He has been a prolific writer for Espn Cricinfo and Cricket Monthly over the last decade. Fernando has this rare ability to connect with the reader and this clearly carries over when he speaks about the glorious past of Sri Lankan cricket. In this episode we take a look back at Sri Lanka's rise in world cricket. And there is no better period to...

MS Dhoni's rise as a top cricketer has been a fascinating case study. It has defied the logical course in terms of captaincy, batting and even his route to the Indian team. Who better than Siddhartha Vaidaynathan(@sidvee on Twitter) to unpack the legend.  Dhoni took over the reigns of the Indian team after the Chappell Ganguly era where the team was somewhat divided. His self assurance and leaders...

Mike Brearley OBE is one of the most decorated cricketers of all time and arguably the best captain England ever had. His work transcends beyond cricket to psychoanalysis and book writing. In this episode of the podcast he talks about leadership, captaincy and his upcoming book - Spirit of Cricket. In typical Brealey fashion he decomposes some of the complex topics that separate the laws from the...

Under Clive Lloyd the West Indies became one of the most dominant teams of all time. This transformation came at the heels of a 5-1 series loss against Australia in 1975-76. This loss changed the approach of West Indies team forever and it drove Lloyd to create his own pace battery of world class fast bowlers. And the rest is history. Simon Lister joins Saqib Ali on this episode to talk about the...

In this episode of the podcast host Saqib Ali is joined by longtime English fan Kevin Framp(@bigKev67 on twitter) and freelance cricket writer Edd Oliver(@Eddoliver1 on twitter). In an informal chat the trio talks about the recently concluded Wisden trophy. Jason Holder's decision to bowl first in the last two tests gets magnified in this episode. Framp and Oliver both agree that for the West Indi...

It is hard to imagine a more romanticized figure in Indian cricket than Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Cricket writer Ayaz Memon returns to the show to talk about the impact Pataudi had on Indian cricket. The conversation covers Pataudi's early days in England where he honed his cricketing education, the inescapable comparisons with his father and finally it shifts to tackle his accidental ascent to th...

In this weeks podcast Dilip Chavan joins the show. Chavan is the president of the Massachusetts Cricket league. He has been involved in the MSCL for twenty years now and has witnessed significant growth in the popularity of the sport during this time. In this interview he shares the numerous challenges of managing and running a statewide cricket league. Cricket in America is not a foreign sport an...

Imran Nazir is the podcast guest. He is one of the biggest talents to come out of Pakistan cricket in the last two decades. Nazir looks back at all the promise and opportunities of his career with no regret. He states that structural changes are needed to recreate the magic of world class teams pakistan had produced in the past. He also talks about how the aggressive approach of the white ball cri...

Freelance writer and blogger Ahmer Naqvi is the podcast guest this week. Naqvi known as @karachikhatmal on twitter is an established voice on Pakistan cricket. His work has appeared on Espncricinfo among other sites. In a very candid conversation he helps unpack the mythical Imran Khan - Javed Miandad relationship. He sheds light against popular wisdom on how the duo worked collectively towards th...

Free lance cricket writer Daniel Gallan returns to the podcast. As a resident of London, Gallan weighs on the certain goodwill aspect between the respective boards given the English summer is about to kick off with visits from West Indies and Pakistan. Gallan believes Dean Elgar is the leading candidate for South African Captaincy.  The podcast also takes a nostalgic turn as we recall South Africa...