The Cricket Slouch (SP)

Reminiscing about Sachin's Desert Storm twin innings and what makes them special even after all these years. 

Today we talk to Pramod Gandhi, who is a dentist by profession and has stayed active playing cricket at even at the young age of 43, hustling the youngsters with his accurate bowling, and balancing responsibilities of being a dedicated professional as well as a loving father and husband. He doesn't have time for social media or the IPL.

I talk to Sandeep about his memories, anecdotes, and his recollections and views on the ODI trends that emerged during the 1987 World Cup. 
Turns out skipping classes and smuggling transistors into school is one way to get noticed and be the cool guy on campus !

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch and this is SP, your usual host.

Today I am joined by my recurring collaborators, Shounak and Sandeep, and we pay our respects to a few cricket personalities that left us last year and also look forward to what we most look forward to in 2023 from a cricketing perspective.

Similar to the last episode, we have a book mentioned today, and that is called -

The Unforgiven, Mercenaries or Missionaries – by Ashley Gray. It is available in hardcover and as an e-book on Amazon 

https://www.amazon.com.au/Unforgiven-Ashley-Gray/dp/1785315323

We also highlight a small personal milestone for the podcast - of reaching 1000 unique downloads - and this would not have been possible without the support of all the listeners. Hopefully TCS can continue this year too with the sort of eclectic content that we have done so far and are open to suggestions by the listeners.

Thanks as usual to Noman and Umangi for their contribution to the podcast artwork.

In this episode, Sandeep, Shounak, Ajith and I talk about the aspects of the sport that frustrate and annoy us the most, about why cricket sucks as a sport, especially to someone new to it.

This one is about how cricket can become more standardised in its implementation of the laws and regulations and just do away with silly things like "fair play" codes.

We also touch up a bit on the recent international series and the u-19 womens T20 World Cup briefly, and coin a new word "Mankwin" !

FYI, Shounak is on @Shounak_WA and Ajith runs his own podcast named The Armchair Cricket Podcast, and he can be found at @ArmchairCricPod.

I am on @Cricketing_Conv as usual.

Acknowledgement to Noman and Umangi for their excellent artwork for the podcast cover art.

Today I am joined by our regular collaborator James, and our esteemed guest Dan Weston.

In this episode we talk about England’s rise from (since) the Ashes in tests, and their superior performances in white ball cricket that has led them to hold two WC concurrently.

We also talk about the upcoming series against NZ, the Ashes obviously, and where does Eng cricket go from here, esp with the rise of their stock in various white ball leagues.

So sit back and relax and enjoy the conversation with your favourite English tea and scones.

Dan tweets from the handle @SAAdvantage and his substack is https://danweston.substack.com/

Credit for the podcast artwork to Noman and Umangi for their detailed capture of the essence of this podcast. 

A preview of the India-Australia series with Bhavin.

We talk about the likely team compositions, playing XIs, venues, pitches, missed selections and a likely outcome of the series. It appears that our curse has struck again and Hazlewood was pronounced injured soon after this podcast was recorded.. ouch.. 

Our twitter handle is @Cricketing_Conv

Credit to Noman and Umangi for the podcast artwork.

After a gap of almost a month, Sandeep, Shounak and I catch up to recap some of the main cricketing events, results, talking points and anecdotes over the last month. 

We also give a shout out to a recent episode of The Red Inker by @ajarrodkimber where he talks about the origins of 'The Mankad' dismissal and I would highly recommend listening to this episode. 

In this episode we have a special guest who has joined us all the way from the land of the rising sun, the samurais, the sakuras, the anime, manga, ramen, Takoyaki, etc. 

Today we have Alan Curr, Head of Operations at Japan Cricket Association, here to talk to us about the state of the game in Japan, the hard work that his team and players have done to spread the game, build a domestic structure and compete strongly in the east asia pacific region. 

Please support them by listening to their podcast, watching their matches on YouTube, engaging on social media, spreading the word about cricket in Japan, and in any other way that you can.

Essential links 

Website - https://cricket.or.jp/en/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/japan_cricket/?hl=en

Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/CricketJapan

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0tgPt9NuYVUQlG8lpZeOxO?si=61c0323db99b4008

In this episode, I am joined in this episode by Shounak, a regular on this podcast, and along with us is our special guest, Amol Karhadkar, assistant senior editor with The Hindu.

Our topic of discussion today is journalism in cricket, and both Amol and Shounak will provide personal insights based on their experience. We talk about the changes seen in the digital age, the difficulty of access to players and teams, the rise of social media snippets, news aggregators, click-baits, and the potential role that AI may play in the futgure. Also, Amol shares a few anecdotes

Amol’s and Shounak’s twitter handles and links to their respective websites are below.

Amol tweets using @karhacter

His podcast can be found on https://twitter.com/CCBKMarathi

and their YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/c/coffeecricketaanibarachkaahi

Shounak tweets from @shounak_wa

And he writes for https://emergingcricket.com/

Thank you for listening to this episode and I’d be grateful if you can please share it with other people who share a similar interest. Sharing is caring, after all, and every little tweet or share goes a long way in attracting a few new listeners and broadening the audience base.

Credit for the artwork to Noman and Umangi.

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch and this is the one-year anniversary episode. As we began the podcast on Sachin’s birthday with an episode dedicated to his Desert Storm innings , we will celebrate the anniversary with something related to the great player. 

And to lend credibility to this episode, I have a very special guest appearance, a cricket and Sachin fan known to quite a few people across the cricketverse and its various message boards, the one and Only Vijay Arumugam. 

Vijay can be found expressing his views on Twitter @vijayarumugam

Podcast art credit to Noman and Umangi, as usual. 

The first episode of Season 2 !

In this one, i sit down with Sandeep, and Ajith from the Armchair Cricket Podcast, to preview the WTC Final between India and Australia, a bit prematurely but wanted to get this done while everyone else is focussed on the IPL final four. 

Ajith can be found tweeting using the id @ArmchairCricPod

We are at @Cricketing_Conv as usual. 

In today's episode, Sandeep and I are joined by Damien, our long awaited Australian contributor. We talk about the WTC final thus far and parse the Indian and Australian performance over the first 4 days and discuss the possibility for the final day. 

In this episode, I am joined by Damien to discuss the first Ashes test, Ricky Ponting's wine, Broad's likely record for most 6 sixes in an Ashes career, England's ageing side, and a likely Aussie win.

Twitter interactions on @Cricketing_Conv

In this episode, I am joined by Sandeep and Shounak, returning collaborators to talk about the ongoing CWC Qualifiers, the pathway to WC qualification, which team has impressed and who hasnt, our usual ICC bashing, and talk of potential things that can be done to market the game better. 

TCS can be found on twitter @cricketing_conv

Welcome to the review episode for the 2nd Ashes test, where i am joined by James and Damien, my Ashes regulars now.

In this one, we talk about the cricket and non-cricket drama from the second test of the men's Ashes series. We brush on politics, the loss of Windies from the WC 2023, Border's recent diagnosis, and our expectations from the next match.

Long may the shenanigans continue !

The Cricket Slouch is on Twitter @cricketing_conv

In this episode, we do a preview of the India-West Indies series.

We talk team squads, the arbitrary science of selection, player fitness, Indian bench strength, squad development for the next major tournament, nostalgia about the Windies, press box gossip and the very high probability of India winning comfortably.

To discuss this, we are joined by a new guest, Rahul Patil, who wears many hats. He is based out of NZ and writes for the Cook Islands news outlet as well as Sportsfreak, a NZ based sports website. He also manages the Cook Islands mens team, commentates on the side and has a few spicy stories to share. 

The Sid Monga article on Sarfaraz can be found here -

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/why-is-sarfaraz-khan-not-being-selected-in-india-test-squad-1384618

Rahul is on Twitter @rahulpatilnz

The Cricket Slouch is on Twitter @cricketing_conv 

This episode was recorded before the final match of the CWC Qualifier final between SL and Netherlands, which is a mere formality to decide which team ends in which group for the Ten Team Tournament.

It has been a fascinating competition thus far over the past 3 weeks with more than a tournament’s fair share of highs, lows, heartbreaks and feel-good stories.

To help talk about this further and share their joy over the developments, I have Shounak, who is an Emerging Cricket correspondent, and Ajith from the Armchair Cricket Podcast. 

Shounak is on Twitter @shounak_wa

Ajit can also be found on Twitter @ArmchairCricPod

The Cricket Slouch is on Twitter @Cricketing_conv

This episode focuses on the 3rd Ashes test post-mortem.

We talk about Mitch Marsh's return, Stokes heroics, Wood's and Woakes' contributions, Murhpy's baptism, Bairstow's and Warner's poor form, poor cricket tactics from Australia, and possible selection dilemmas and expectations for the 4th test match. 

Greetings and welcome to all listeners to the Cricket Slouch podcast.

Today we will touch upon some of the salient events of the past 6 weeks, such as the series wins by Sri Lanka and Pakistan womens teams over England and South Africa respectively, Heath Streak’s passing, and the Indo-Pak section of the ongoing Asia Cup and then discuss India and Pakistan’s WC squads.

Today I am joined by Sandeep, as usual, and we have a debutant, named Hamza.

Twitter handles are as below -

The Cricket Slouch - @Cricketing_Conv

Sandeep - @Sportsfan3791

Greetings everyone.

After starting the Ten Team Tournament preview with India-Pak the last time round, and with next one planned for Aus-Eng, this has become the Meat-in-the-Sandwich episode, and it is a big chunk of meat too as we discuss the squads put forward by New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Afghanistan. 

We talk using food metaphors, sarcasm, fond nostalgia, play on words, and end with the meaning of Shardul, who is cricket's Rajnikanth.

The article by Aryan Surana re: factors affecting swing at Pallekele is to be found at the following link.

https://www.guerillacricket.com/69493,how-seam-movement-authored-the-pallekele-chapter-of-asia-cup

As always, The Cricket Slouch is on X (ex-Twitter) @Cricketing_Conv

Sandeep is there too @Sportsfan3791

Ajith joins us there @ArmchairCricPod

And Rahul doesn't post much but can be found @rahulpatilnz

Please follow, chat, engage and help spread the word about the sport !

Hello and welcome to all our dear listeners..

This is the last in a 3-part series previewing the teams participating in the ten team tournament, also known as the ICC cricket world cup 2023.

Eng and Australia were the last remaining teams which we had not covered earlier, and to help even that out I have James and Damien with me to share their thoughts on matters related to the squad selection and chances of each team. Damien, however is only available via text rather than speech, what a shame... 

Welcome to another edition of The Cricket Slouch.

Why do we need to talk about ODIs ?

In today’s episode Shounak, Sandeep and I talk about the recent comments made by Mark Nicholas on the decline of the ODIs and that perhaps we should stop playing ODIs altogether, other than the World Cup.

We look at this from the view of a common cricket fan, like us, and try and parse that statement down from various angles and contemplate on the reason for this, as well as come up with reasons why continuing with the format is equally important for the global health of the sport, especially among Associate countries.

I hope we have been able to encapsulate this from the viewpoint of an average cricket fan and done justice to the discussion.

We then segue into whether acceptance as an Olympic sport will be of any  benefit to existing and emerging countries, the cons of this, and how much funding is likely to come in. 

The Cricket Slouch - @Cricketing_Conv

Sandeep - @Sportsfan3791

Shounak - @Shounak_WA

Mark Nicholas’ comments can be found on this Cricinfo page.

Links to articles penned by Shounak on the Emerging Cricket website.

Article 1 – Five Rings, Five Hundred Grand

Article 2 – Cricket makes its long awaited return to Olympics

Kimber’s viewpoints reference in this show can be heard on his YouTube channel.

Kimber’s Double Century podcast on Player FM  and Apple Podcasts

In this episode I am joined by Sandeep, Hamza and Ajit for a quick recap of the India-Pakistan match and other interesting results from the 2nd week of the tournament so far, and give our prediction for the Ind-NZ , and Pak-Afg match.

We also talk about Netherlands' surprising show against SA, and England's disappointing one thus far. 

The Cricket Slouch - @Cricketing_Conv

Sandeep - @Sportsfan3791

Ajit - @ArmchairCricPod

Welcome to week 4 of the WC 2023, or the Ten Team Tournament, where I and Shounak recap the main events and close finishes of the past week, India's strong performances, Australia's upturn, England's downturn, Bangladesh's disappointing show and heartwarming performances by Afg and Netherlands. 

Shounak - @Shounak_WA

The Cricket Slouch - @Cricketing_Conv

This one is a bit Anglo-Australian in its theme and focuses more on the fortunes of the Australian and English teams in the World Cup, and for that very purpose I have roped in James and Damien to share their views on the teams’ progress thus far in the tournament.

We also talk about the Angelo Matthews' dismissal, Maxwell's golfing accident, Warner's choice of shaving kit, Afghanistan's performances, Pakistan's chances of making it to the semis, and a re-prediction of the semi finalist spots.

As we approach the end of the league phases of the CWC 23, and head into the knock out phase, Sandeep suggested we talk about memorable knock out matches from the ODI World Cups of the past.

And to do just that, Sandeep and I are joined by other regular contributors Ajit, of Armchair Cricket and Guerilla Cricket fame, and Shounak, a regular contributor at Emerging Cricket website.

Matches discussed -

4:10 - India vs England 1987 WC semi final 

18:25 - Pakistan vs New Zealand 1992 WC semi final

31:50 - India vs Pakistan 1996 WC quarter final

47:30 - Australia vs West Indies 1996 WC semi final

61:30 - Australia vs South Africa 1999 WC semi final

86:30

Welcome to 2024 dear listeners !

The Cricket Slouch podcast hosts Sandeep (@sportsfan3791) and Hamza in this episode for a round of commiserrations and to explore what are the barriers to India winning a series in SA and Pakistan winning one in Australia.. or even at home for that matter, ha !

And in our usual meandering way, we go on and talk about the politics of cricket, Boards, preparation, financial incentives, individual responsbilities, and finally bow out with a dig at England and their excuses when they lose. 

Minor error correction - Rohit Sharma did win the T20 WC in 2007 as a newbie. 

I guess some things never change :)

Find us on X at @Cricketing_Conv  and follow us for cricket related chats, banter, posts, and updates for when new episodes are out. 

Have a lovely New Year ahead all !

Greetings to all listeners.

In today's episode, I sit down with Shounak , from Emerging Cricket website, and talk about the rise and growth of cricket in the African region, with special emphasis on its development in Nigeria. We also touch on its decline in Kenya, which is a tragedy in its own right. 

Shounak's interview with the Nigerian Cricket Federation president can be found HERE !

A huge thank you to all the listeners for helping The Cricket Slouch cross 3000 unique downloads and for your continued support and patronage over the past couple of years. We truly appreciate it !

In this episode Shounak and I capture the joy and the emotions following West Indies magnificent win at The Gabba and what this could mean for the team and the players. Will ths herald the rejuvenation of West Indian Cricket or will this be another false dawn that follows a typical pattern that we have seen in the past. 

We then talk about the difficulties they have had with resources, broadcasting, the financial support for the team and the wider ramifications of this win. 

In this episode, I sit with Alan Curr, Head of Operations at Japan Cricket Association and talk about the rise of Cricket there in the past 12 months, astonishing batting feats in the domestic leagues, their emerging talent, Charlie Hinze, improved fan and social engagement, developing strategic partnerships with MKI and Mizuno, and what the Olympics inclusion means for cricket there, and whether there is a possibility of Japanese robots doing mundane administrative tasks and bats made out of Japanese Willow !

We also talk about their upcoming assignments starting with the ACC Challenger Cup in Thailand and other tournaments this year. 

Website - https://cricket.or.jp

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/japan_cricket

X-Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/CricketJapan

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@japan_cricket

In this episode, I talk to Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming and Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake about their record breaking feat and what it is like to be world record holders, to have that spotlight on you, and what this means to the upcoming generation of players in Japan.

They also discuss various opponents, budding rivalries, the difference in playing International cricket and Grade Cricket, and future aspirations for the Japan national team. 

JCL matches are streamed live on their YouTube channel

Apologies for the delay in pushing this out due to availability of the speakers, but we finally get round to having a detailed discussion about the performance of the Indian cricket team in the recent India-England test series. 

Ajit, Shounak and Sandeep give their views and share their observations in this episode. We talk about the name of the series, individual performances if most players, strategies seen, areas for improvement transition of the team, future prospects, DRS and give due credit to the Selectors and the Coaching staff of the team. 

The blog article on DRS written in 2011 can be found here. 

Ajit's podcast can be found here on Spotify.

And this links to the Guerilla Cricket website. 

Shounak's articles can be found at Emerging Cricket website.

Big thank you to all the listeners for your support and patronage. 

Welcome everyone to the Seond Anniversary of The Cricket Slouch.

As per tradition, we have done a special episode while the IPL is in full swing, and this time we talk about the important milestones - players, events, administrators - in the evolution of Indian Cricket over the past 5 decades, which was a conscious decision for the sake of brevity. 

Sandeep, Ajit and Rahul share their valuable input, views and insights towards this discussion that spans India's first win in the Windies and England to the doldrums of the 90s to where they stand now in global cricket. From players like Gavaskar and Sardesai to players like Kohli and Bumrah and everyone in between. 

Rahul's latest Snickometer channel can be found here.

The article on Amar Singh and Mohd Nisar is to be found here.

The books mentioned by Sandeep are named Elephant in the Stadium by Anurabha Sengupta, G R Vishwanath's Wrist Assured, and John Wright's Indian Summers, which are all available on Amazon and probably other book retailers too. 

Welcome to the 1st episode of Season 3.

Today we have a slightly different topic of conversation, one that took roots a while ago when  Dan Weston  and I started contemplating this discussion. Dan Weston has previously worked with Kings XI Punjab, Leicester and B’ham Phoenix, and comes with a noted reputation in cricket as a highly valued analyst and strategist.

Today he talks about what goes into the making of a champion team - the building blocks of the team, the players, the analyst, the support staff , the culture and the how to ensure the legacy across subsequent years. 

Dan is on X (twitter) and can be found here.

His Substack is to be found here.

The article referred to in the discussion is to be found here !

In this episode, I sit down with Shounak and Nate Hays to discuss the upcoming Cricket T20 World Cup from an American perspective. We talk about Nate's foray into cricketing fandom, the Big Innings podcast and his venture with Jomboy, the Ball in Play League.

We fawn over USA's first ever series win over Bangladesh and then move on to discuss the various venues for the World Cup, some politics, fan expectations, chances of the USA team, rivalry with Canada, and Nate's involvement in the WC as an Announcer at the grounds, and whether attending the opening match is more important than his daughter's birthday.

Some chit chat about other new teams in the tournament then wrap up the episode.

Both Shounak and Nate write for Emerging Cricket and Nate's podcast can be found on the website as well as his channel on Youtube.

Hello everyone. In this episode, I am joined by a new guest, Aryan Surana, who writes regularly for Guerrilla Cricket’s website, and occasionally tweets. He had also started Cricket Beyond Borders, a podcast that has sadly gone MIA for a while now.

We talk about the Indian squad in some depth and Aryan shares his views and observations about the players from the recent IPL, as well as talking about the most likely combination for the playing XI, the role of the spinners, and most likely approach of the team, on their way to the semis.. He isn't confident of predicting beyond that.

Please enjoy the discussion and feel free to write to us at our X/Twitter handle - The Cricket Slouch

Hello all listeners,

Please join us for an absolute laugh riot recapping and reflecting upon the first week of the T20 Cricket World Cup, that has been a real hoot and full of interesting action and unforeseen results !

I am joined by Sandeep and Shounak, both of whom are regular collaborators.

We talk about the important moments in the first week, individual and team performances, light ICC bashing, some hilarious takes on a few scenarios and our expectations of the imminent Ind-Pak game !

Please help support the podcast by word of mouth, and also support other local and global cricket initiatives if and as you can !

Have a Happy T20 World Cup !

Hello everyone.

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch. I am joined today by Sandeep and Shounak to discuss India's amazing win over South Africa in the T20 World Cup final and talk about the highlights of that match - Kohli's innings, Bumrah's bowling, Arshdeep's and Pandya's contributions and that catch by SKY among other things.

We also talk about the tournament as a whole, its success, and then segue into talking about Afghanistan and whether they have done enough to overcome the political and moral virtue signalling and get invited to bilateral series with the big boys..

We start the episode talking about Frank Duckworth's passing and wrap it up with a thank you to Dravid and his contribution thus far to Indian cricket.

Enjoy and share the episode with your fellow cricket loving friends.

Hello and Greetings everyone and welcome back to another episode of The Cricket Slouch.

Today’s episode is going to focus on the East Asia Pacific T20 Regional sub-qualifiers A, and even more specifically on the Cook Islands team and their performance and their heartbreak at the tournament.

I am joined by  Rahul Patil for this episode as he discusses the team’s performance, heart break at the last game, cricket in general in the Cook Islands, their recent progress domestically and internationally as well as attempts that are being made to introduce the game to the youth. He also gives his view on the recent ICC change to the pathway from sub-regional qualifiers to the World Cup qualifiers.

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch.

Today I am joined by Sandeep and Estelle Vasudevan to talk about Sri Lanka's recent test win against England at The Oval and whether this win has enabled Sri Lanka to save test cricket or not, their chances of possibly winning the series this time, and what does the future look like for the men's team.

We also talk about their leading players in a bit of depth and whether Angelo Matthews can be timed retired by the selectors and where the bureaucrats are missing out on cashing in on fostering great rivalries in the subcontinent.

Greetings and welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch !

Today we have Estelle Vasudevan on board again and this time we talk about the upcoming women's T20 World Cup and go through the different squads whilst narrowing down on the final four and eventual prediction for a winner. The women's game has grown in leaps and bounds and the quality now is much better than what it was 10 years ago and there are no easy games expected in the upcoming tournament.

Will Australia win again, or will it be England's turn this time round ?

Or will Sri Lanka spring a surprise and make it to the last four at the expense of India? Can Windies do it again with the return of Dottin ?

Find out as the discussion unfolds !

In this episode Sandeep and I are joined by Aryan Surana, who writes features and match reviews over at Guerilla Cricket, to talk about the return of cricket to Gwalior, the Ind-Bangla series, the potency of the Indian test attack and other notable points.

We also pay our respects to the late Ratan Tata, may he rest in peace.

Aryan's two recent articles on cricket in Gwalior can be found here -

Article 1 - general return of cricket to Gwalior

Article 2 - Interview with Mr Scindia

Sandeep and I are joined by Rahul Patil from Sportsfreak to talk about two of New Zealand's major cricketing achievements in the modern era - namely the women's T20 World Cup win and the men's test win in India.

Although this was meant to be a NZ-centric discussion, it quickly meandered into familiar Indo-centric territory.

We talk about the toss, the tactics, the batting collapse for the ages, NZ's sharp bowling and fielding, Sarfaraz's innings, Ashwin and Jadeja's declining fortunes, rise of the young brigade and the slow fading of old legends, and how to tackle spin bowling.

And then we turn our attention to the the women's team's triumph in the T20 World Cup and how NZ beat all odds and expectations to emerge Champions and why we need to retain this format and not cave in to the Big Three.

Hello all, The Cricket Slouch podcast is back with a broad post-mortem review of New Zealand's historical whitewash over India in India.

I am joined by Shounak and Aryan in dissecting what NZ did well and where India fell behind in this series and wondering what may have been if certain events had panned out differently.

Whilst NZ did the basics well, this series loss was a perfect storm of things going wrong for the Indian side and we ponder whether this side is now ready to transition towards youngsters. We talk a little about the squad for the BGT and how India are likely to perform there.

Take away message - Paternal obligations are the secret to away wins !

Shounak writes features for Emerging Cricket.

Aryan writes match reports and feature articles for Guerilla Cricket.

Hello and welcome everyone to another episode of The Cricket Slouch. I am joined by Shounak for this episode, in which we talk about India’s unexpected and astonishing win at Perth and going 1-0 ahead in the 5-match BGT series and the major talking points from the match including both sides’ bowling, India’s top order finally playing the way they were expected to, Bumrah’s magic, NKR’s promising talent, a couple of controversial issues from the match, and finally discussing potential changes for the Adelaide Test.

Towards the end we talk about Cricket Australia investing in the future of Pacific Cricket and what this actually means and how it could have been a bit better.

Enjoy !

Hello and welcome every one to another episode of The Cricket Slouch, a podcast where opinions are dime a dozen and stats are secondary.

Today I am joined by regular collaborators Sandeep, Shounak and Ajit.

After the dizzying high of the win at Perth, the Indian team has seemingly hit a trough again at Adelaide, the venue of their ignominious 36 all out in the last tour. We talk about the batting failure, lessons not learnt from the past, Australian bowlers being superior in this match, couple of controversial incidents and India's changes of getting to the WTC Final in 2025.

We also talk about whose turn it might be to go on paternity leave, which could perhaps boost India's chances of a win at The Gabba ;)

Enjoy !

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch, and I am joined by Sandeep and Shounak to discuss the drawn Third test at the Gabba in this BGT series.

We talk about India's repeated first innings failure, sub-par bowling being a problem where Bumrah has to do the salvage job over and over again, Rohit's under-par captaincy, and perhaps a wrong call at the toss, Head being India's latest bogeyman and why Hazelwood's injury might not actually benefit India at Melbourne.

We also lament Ashwin's retirement and poke fun at Isa Guha's recent comment on Primate-related issues.

Sit back and enjoy !

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch.

Sandeep hosts this week's episode and he has captained the team much better than Rohit in recent times. He is joined by the regular duo of Shounak and Ajit to discuss the fantastic test match that we have witnessed at the MCG where fortunes fluctuated and wobbled more than a Pat Cummins' wobble ball !

We talk about the dramatic finish in the last hour of the game, how Australia forced a victory in what appeared to be a match heading to a draw, Pant's shot selection, Rohit's captaincy and his poor form along with that of Kohli, Jaiswal's controversial dismissal, Kohli's joust with Konstas, the Rise of Reddy and finally the possible Playing XI for the final test at Sydney.

Sit back and enjoy !

Welcome to another episode of The Cricket Slouch.

Sandeep once again hosts this week's episode and he is joined by the regular duo of Shounak and Ajit to discuss the series finale of the BGT at Sydney, a test match that was done within 3 days on a spicy deck. A lot of What If's plague the fans and management alike, but there are bigger questions to be asked, and answered here.

Such as the fate of seniors like Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja and Rahul, what the spin dept will look like, which pacers need to be given a chance, and the composition for the England tour. A spotlight is also shone upon Gambhir's role and whilst it is early, is he the right person to be the head coach?

Australia take the plaudits here, but was this a really good cricket series and where does the new plan to have a 2-tier system fit in if the Big Three are the only ones in the top tier?

This and much more in this episode !

Hello and welcome to the The Cricket Slouch, a podcast for fans of all persuasions.

We apologise for the long hiatus since the last episode at the conclusion of the BGT and today, we bring you our 3rd anniversary episode where in I am joined by my usual buddies Sandeep,  Ajit and Shounak to talk about a range of topics.

Some of these are -

1) Consolidation of power among the Big Three in the ICC via the likely proposal of two tier test cricket calendar.

2) Saudi entering the game with their Grand Slam model.

3) More Associate teams playing multi-nation tournaments now, thus bringing more context to those encounters.

4) WPL's success heralding a better future for women's competition and payment.

5) MLC looks set to be a fixture on the calendar and thus it could usher in American style professionalism and accountability in the sport. 

6) The uptake of data and analysis by most teams now, esp in T20 franchises. 

7) Amazon purchasing broadcasting rights (in Australia) to Asia Cup and u-19 tournaments.

8) ICC launching a Challenger Trophy. Also ICC creating a task force to look into best supporting Afghan women's cricket. Allowance for using one ball per innings instead of two.

As usual, a heartfelt and sincere thank you to all the contributors and listeners, without whom we would never be able to continue doing what we do.