The No Balls Cricket Podcast

There was a big update from West Indies cricket just after we recorded our last episode, and we thought we might do a live episode to react to that. So we did. Except, four days later. And not live. Great job, us.  But now that we finally got ourselves together, Ian took his chance to gloat about West Indies' 3-0 win over Sri Lanka in the ODI series and react to the Test captaincy change, and...

Ian's back, which can only mean one thing: we're talking about the finer points of dentistry in Guyana. Like, for example, whether West Indian batsmen have the precision to deal with good spin bowling. Or if the ultimate blunt force tool that is Chris Gayle still has a place in West Indies' T20 squad, sacrilegious though such a question may be.  Yes, we're doing another West Indies focus this...

Lend us your ears, we come to bury England, not to praise them.   That's right, India wrapped up a series win, booked their spot in the World Test Championship final, and Aditya and Siddhant are here to celebrate. There is some hint at serious analysis along the way, but largely we've taken the same tone as some of the shitposters who have made Ravi Shastri's supposed drunkenness a source of...

The whole point of this podcast is that we get together and troll whoever we want to troll in the world of cricket. This time, we didn't even have to do anything - that Test match trolled itself, England, cricket in general. Our best way of paying tribute to a Test that lasted only two days was to do an episode with only two people. Some combination of the Chennai pitch inside man and the official...

Do you like the IPL? We like the IPL. Sort of. Siddhant hates it but loves the entertainment it provides. Aditya appreciates how it's helped a lot of cricketers but doesn't really care about it day-to-day as long as Mumbai Indians are winning.   We both do care enough about it to take time off in the midst of an India-England series with implications for the championship round of the only for...

Big news - we're moving up in the world. We're now on Spotify! And Anchor, Pocket Casts, and Podcast Addict as well. In honor of this huge moment of a plucky, fun-loving group doing big things, we have a special theme for Part 1 of this episode: the West Indies. We even have a Guyanese guest on the pod! Tune in to watch us run the rule over the West Indies' stunning whitewash of Bangladesh, and th...

Long before he became respected journalist (and now disrespected former journalist, apparently), back when Aditya was just starting off as a sportswriter, he had a client who liked to say: expect the unexpected. It’s a lesson that should have stuck, so that you can avoid egg on your face from doing stupid things like predicting a 4-0 whitewash of England only for India to lose a home Test against...

In the true spirit of India’s upcoming series against England, we’re one-upping the London busses: no podcast for two years, then two episodes in two weeks. If that particular cliché made you groan, wait until you get to the end of this episode, where we showcase our sense of humor at its finest. In the meantime, we have a new third man, better than the old third man in so many ways, but most impo...

The team was down a key man. Others weren’t in the country, either. And so, it looked hopeless, if not already over. We mean us. We’re baaaaaaaaaaack. As far as overcoming absences and coming back when it never looked possible, can you really top a podcast returning after no episodes in two years, with one member deciding to bow out entirely and the other two leaving for different parts of the wor...

This is an archival episode from June 5, 2019. We’ve redefined the concept of a World Cup preview, in that we waited until almost every team has played a game, and some teams have played two, to get started. Hey, if it works for the Indian cricket team at the World Cup, why can’t we do it, too? First off, a special message to one of our favourite Pradhan Dental Care patients, Virat Kohli: win or l...

This is an archival episode from March 24, 2019. Bad news: we’ve lost our stats and analytics man, technical producer, junior pro cricketer, and resident bad analogy merchant, Siddharth Solanki, who needs a break from cricket as he struggles to deal with the difficulties of trying to have a life while living in the far reaches of Kandivali. But the show must go on, even after a two-month delay. An...

This is an archival episode from January 22, 2019. Let’s face it. Virat Kohli is always the biggest story in cricket. Either he’s letting his bat do the talking, or he’s actually talking. So we decided with our 2018 review pod: no talking about Kohli. That’s right, the man who has just become the first player to win all three of ICC’s main mens’ awards in the same year features the least in our ep...

This is an archival episode from December 5, 2018. We are back after a long hiatus, having enjoyed a well-earned vacation. 10 episodes seemed like an achievement. But here we are, just in time for the India-Australia Test series! Basically, this episode is all about who’s the king of cricket. Whether it’s wondering if Test cricket is like the monarchy (yeah, we don’t get it, either), or if Ki...

This is an archival episode from October 25, 2018. ICC’s bid to fix Test cricket comes under the scanner, as we take a look at the Test Championship, with all its vagaries and kinks. And speaking of fixing, news of corruption in the game has been in the limelight in recent weeks, and so we drift away from the evil that India has inflicted upon West Indies in recent Tests to the actual evils ailing...

This is an archival episode from October 4, 2018 covering the 2018 Asia Cup. India won the Asia Cup. Apparently this was important. They also have a Test series against the West Indies going on. Apparently this is also important. Oh and Australia are playing Pakistan in UAE. (You know where this is going…) But yes, well done to the Men in Blue, especially for the amazing achievement of making us s...

This is an archival episode from September 26, 2018 covering the 2018 Asia Cup. This episode is entirely about Asian cricket, since that’s the only thing that matters. Right now. Possibly in general. India and Pakistan have played each other twice in the last week thanks to the Asia Cup, with the Men in Blue handing out a thumping both times – plus a third, in a lesser-known contest between commen...

This is an archival episode from September 16, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. We’re mixing things up a bit, splitting this episode into parts. Supposedly this is supposed to make your life easier. So, the Test series is over. We’d like to forget about it, but we have to talk about it first, so we did. That, plus the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri power nexus comes under scrutiny – or is tha...

This is an archival episode from September 6, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. We’re as lost as India at the moment, after the disappointment of the fourth Test. So, the series is gone, and after one more match, Alastair Cook will be, too. But we don’t think the former England captain’s retirement is the biggest one to make headlines this week. More on that, as well as our preview...

This is an archival episode from August 29, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. We figured waiting until the end of the fourth Test would be depriving you of our dulcet tones for an inhumanely long time. That, or we just like the sound of our own voices. So, here's a quick preview of the Southampton Test, where we run the rule over some of India's young guns and wonder what England are doi...

This is an archival episode from August 24, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. India finally showed up, blowing England away to make the Test series a little more competitive at 2-1. It was such a good performance that we completely forgot about Jos Buttler's maiden Test century. That's what happens when significant achievements are also inconsequential.

This is an archival episode from August 14, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. Does anyone really care about cricket anymore? Seeing India’s shambolic performance at Lord’s, we wished we didn’t. We certainly didn’t want to talk about it too much. A brief summary: everyone sucked, cricket sucks, life sucks. But we did enjoy taking a trip down memory lane and thinking about our favorite lef...

This is an archival episode from August 9, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. Virat Kolli got his first Test century in England. Unfortunately, everyone else in his team forgot how to bat. That, plus Sam Curran's wizardry with bat and ball, saw India lose the first Test by 31 runs. Listen to us talk like experts about the first Test, preview the second, and more in Episode 2 of our podcas...

This is an archival episode from July 29, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England. India had questions to answer before their warm-up game ahead of the first Test against England. They have questions to answer after it. Thankfully for them, the big question about the Test series at the moment has absolutely nothing to do with them. England stole the headlines by picking Adil Rashid in their squ...