The No Balls Cricket Podcast

We've come to the realization that our podcast is sort of a cricketing grim reaper. Apparently, the two of us, without even trying, have an outsized influence on events in the cricket world, an influence that ends up having some severe repercussions on high-profile cricketing figure (again, please remember that this is without us actually trying).  Why do we think this? Well. Our episode rele...

This was supposed to be another special episode, or at least one with a guest, since we're previewing the India vs West Indies series. Talking West Indies cricket usually means having a certain dentist from Guyana on, but, surprise surprise, Dr. Ian Jagan is a... (you know what the word is). Given the chaos that has gone on in Indian cricket recently, previewing any of their series is a difficult...

Okay, we had our serious episodes with the two-part Mohinder Amarnath interview, which of course we LOVED doing and are extremely proud of, but we had to get back to the basics after that. Which for us meant our favorite pastime: laughing at England. Welcome to our 2021 review show, which doubled up as an Ashes review show, and England featured prominently all around for how colossally embarrassin...

We hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our interview with Mohinder Amarnath! Sid and his dad were clearly enjoying themselves as they spoke to the legend about his cricketing days, and why wouldn't they be – sat in Goa chatting cricket with one of the best to ever play for India. That's the dream!   There's a lot more to come, with more tales from the 1983 World Cup and cricket around the world – here...

This is a big moment for No Balls Cricket: our first-ever interview with a cricketer! Sid's dad, Dr. Suchetan Pradhan (who, it should be noted, is our chief sponsor – or, to be more accurate, head dentist at our chief sponsor, Pradhan Dental Centre) does a bang-up job as a stand-in journalist. Our newfound in-house expert on 1970s and 80s Indian cricket has earned an official No Balls Cricket...

We know we're coming back from a break, but recent updates from the cricket world make us wonder if we should have stayed off the air entirely. Seems like these days every time we record an episode, Virat Kohli resigns (or rather, "resigns") or gets removed from Indian captaincy from one format. It's the end of an era for Indian cricket, and though we'd always like to see these things end on a hig...

Remember the time when Indian men's cricket was having a glorious moment? A miraculous series win in Australia, winning series across all three formats against England at home, reaching the World Test Championship final, winning (technically) a series in England...how long ago was that? What? Just this year? Hard to believe, when it seems like at the moment it's just going from crisis to crisis. W...

THE COWARD IS BACK! That's right, our resident Guyanese dentist, Dr. Ian Jagan, has finally decided to show up, after multiple efforts to get him back on were rebuffed because, we can only presume, he was too scared to talk about West Indies cricket. (He says he's been busy, but we know better.) Now that he is back, we can get stuck into the post-mortem of West Indies' disastrous T20 World Cup sho...

Does anyone know the difference between Himesh and Kamlesh? Two classic Gujarati names, so quintessentially Gujju that our supposedly "respected" journalist got the name wrong of someone fairly significant: Lord KAMLESH Patel, who is, as that title suggests, a lord, not of the Shardul Thakur variety but one of those actual English lords, but who also got misnamed by Aditya as Himesh. Also, he's fr...

The curse of the podcast production turnaround time strikes again: we bring you an episode recorded before India were officially knocked out, but could only be released after. Good thing we didn't make any bold predictions about India winning the tournament in this one. (That's not sarcasm/self-deprecating humor, we were actually that dejected about India's slim chances.) There's also a post-morte...

After a brief hiatus as we recovered from the disappointment of the last Test of the England-India series being cancelled, we are back! (It was especially disappointing for Sid, as he was going to dress up as Mario one last time for that match, and now Manchester has been deprived of that Test as the ridiculous rescheduled Test has been handed to Edgbaston. We're also still pissed off in solidarit...

Well, it only took one Test to get us back into gloating mode. In the midst of selection controversies, covid scares, and the specter of batting collapses, India produced a stunning turnaround from the third Test – and even within the fourth Test itself – to take a 2-1 series lead heading into the final Test.  Siddhant is guaranteeing rain in Manchester for that final Test, which of...

So, uh, that'll teach us to gloat too much. India's batting collapses left some egg on their players' faces, and some more on ours – which is a particularly bad look if you're dressed up as Mario. As Siddhant was while in attendance at Headingley.  If you want to see how that looks, check out our Instagram...and Mario was back for a brief encore on the pod. Which was back down to its par...

We've ditched our 20-minute format this week, because 20 minutes is not enough time for the amount of gloating we want to do. Not after the way  India beat England in the second Test. Plus, if Jasprit Bumrah can take what is supposed to be a 6-ball over, turn it into a 10-ball over, and that extra time is what ends up defining the match, we think that's a template we can follow too. We might...

We are back! After a hiatus due to...well, life, as well as avoiding talking about that one Test match that happened in June that might have been somewhat important, we decided to jump back into action just in time for the India-England Test series. And by in time, we mean after one Test and Day 1 of the 2nd Test is already done. That makes sense, right? While you ponder that question, you can che...

The moment two years of Test cricket has been building up to is here. And so, just in time, hours before the World Test Championship final is set to start, we have a podcast to preview it. If you're wondering why so late, well, please check in with our new panelist Phil for an answer. Key points: Niket is not on this pod, but more importantly, he had nothing to do with the pitch for the final, whi...

Some of you may have noticed that though we claimed to love our new concept, a pod in 20 minutes, we often (code for always) go over our self-imposed 20-minute time limit. You're absolutely right. And to know what we think of anyone pointing this out or, even worse, complaining about this, well, meet our newest panelist, Phil. Phil has a handy response to all such criticism.  Speaking of crit...

If anyone thought we couldn't find something to talk about even when there's almost no cricket on, well, you haven't been paying attention. Clearly, we love to talk, and we will find our ways. And thanks to some good old-fashioned ineptitude, drama, and sexism from the BCCI, we had an episode's worth of ranting.  Women's cricket has been shafted yet again by the powers that be in India, with...

The IPL is off for the time being, after the powers that be finally saw sense and realized how big a risk this whole endeavor was in the middle of a pandemic...especially after the pandemic started hitting home.  So our latest T20 in 20 discusses the fallout from the postponement and where the tournament could end up being played in the meantime, along with a round-up of the world of cricket...

We've convinced ourselves that our T20 in 20 format is a genius idea. It certainly rolls off the tongue, and sounds exceedingly clever — 20 minutes to talk about a 20-20 game, how smart! — and there's nothing we like more than a clever, smart-sounding idea. So without further ado, Siddhant and Aditya are back for a second round of talking about the IPL and asking the important questions, like...ar...

IPL season is upon us, and in the spirit of the times, we have a new format for our round-up of the best, biggest, most significant tournament in cricket: T20 in 20, where we round up the week that was in the IPL in 20 minutes. How is this episode still 32 minutes long? Well...we found a loophole.  Niket, Siddhant, and Aditya pat themselves on the back for their preseason predictions bearing...

We mentioned last week that Rob Moody was our first guest on the pod (speaking of which, please check out Episode 12 if you haven't already!) because we were sure Niket was going to be on again at some point. Little did we know how soon that was going to be proven true.  Yes, the man who said the Chennai pitch was going to be "English-looking" (the English did like the look of it for the firs...

We are BUZZING after this episode. It's our coolest one yet! For the first time, the No Balls Cricket Podcast has a guest! (We're not counting Niket, who 1. Fucked up his pitch tips so badly we'd rather forget him and 2. Is supposed to be a regular contributor more than a guest, and will be back soon.)  Rob Moody, of the robelinda YouTube channel fame, with his extensive archive of highlight...

It's rapid fire time. We tried setting a time limit on ourselves. And failed, but not that badly, so maybe we actually succeeded? We'll leave that one up to you. Aditya's back to round up the India-England ODI series with Siddhant, who along with dunking on the England cricket team, is also taking the challenge to an English royal. With good reason, we believe. Surely he's sexier than Prince Willi...

This episode carries special meaning for us, as friend of the pod Rohan Das tragically passed away last week.  In his honor, Siddhant was joined by fellow friend of the pod Aayushraj Soni, with Aditya and Ian out this week and Niket still in hiding (we haven't forgotten about his completely bogus inside information about the pitch for the Chennai Tests).  But Sid and Aayush didn't miss a...