✍️ Akshay Ramesh reports on the economics and culture of the street vendors outside India’s cricket stadiums who sell knock-off jerseys in the tens of thousands.
“In the [multi] billion-dollar ecosystem of Indian cricket, where official kit sponsors like Adidas shell out hundreds of crores for the right to the Indian crest, a shadow economy thrives in the dust outside the stadium.
If 10,000 fans pass through the turnstiles, 8,000 of them are likely wearing “unofficial” threads.”
✍️ Alex Malcolm behind the scenes on the choice of Sophie Molineux, the surprise new captain of Australia Women. And yes, I absolutely stole that title from Twitter.
“It was a tight decision,” [national selector Shaun] Flegler said. “You can see she’s pretty calm. What you don’t see is she’s pretty cheeky as well. She’s got a bit of white-line fever at times when she’s extremely competitive, but she also brings people together, and we think Soph is the right person for this time.”
“We’ve got T20 tournaments coming up in the next few years. That’s the key format, and Soph has had success with the Renegades doing that.”
✍️ Sarthak Dev on the breakdown in regional relations in South Asian cricket.
“Australia and several other teams threatened to boycott their Sri Lanka matches [at the 1996 World Cup]. The island was in the middle of a civil war anyway, and the bombing had draped Colombo in a cloud of ash.
So India and Pakistan did something that would be unimaginable today: they formed a joint team, flew to Colombo, and played a match against Sri Lanka. At the press conference, Mohammed Azharuddin and Wasim Akram—India and Pakistan captains—spoke like old friends: “This proves to the world we’re all together.”
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“Axar Patel’s time is now”
✍️ Nagraj Gollapudi has an in-depth chat with Axar Patel about being a part of India’s last World Cup side, and being a leader in the current setup. -
“The Concrete Ceiling”
✍️ Edward Fitzgibbon has a detailed look at the basic problem that associate nations face to catch up; it’s bloody expensive to build stadiums. -
“We need to talk about Klaasen”
📊 Divyansh Peswani analyses Heinrich Klaasen’s sudden slump in T20s. -
“Back to familiar territory”
✍️ Tristan Lavalette behind the scenes on Perth Scorchers’ BBL dominance.
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“NSB breaks the WPL’s Hundred curse”
📊 Neha Shetty breaks down how NSB tore apart the WPL’s best (and perhaps best ever) bowling unit to score the tournament’s first ever century. -
“A bowler-led victory ≠ good bowling tactics”
📊 Raunak Thakur proves that despite their bowler-led victory versus UPW (ending their two-game mini-drought), RCB’s bowling tactics were abysmal. -
“How GG have overrun the powerplay all season”
📊 Raunak Thakur looks at how GG have perfected their powerplay batting this season – regularly scoring 10-15 more runs than everybody else regardless of pitch.
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“KL Rahul Opens Up ”
📽️ Kevin Pietersen talks to KL Rahul about his career; his injuries, his dropping, his criticism, and how he keeps pushing forward. [YouTube] -
“Protected by Design: Sport and Assaulters”
🎤 PCCI Pod discuss the Yash Dayal case, RCB retaining him, other assault cases in sports, & sports’ general disdain for female participants and fans. It’s an amateur discussion, but an interesting one. [Apple/Spotify] -
“Why Australia Is Failing Spin Bowlers”
🎤 Andrew Menczel & Stuart MacGill discuss the problems in Australia’ selection system, including the faltering of spin. [Apple/Spotify] -
“The Psychology of the Sh*t Ball”
📽️ Jarrod Kimber & Robin Uthappa discuss why terrible balls – like the begging-to-be-hit full toss – get batters out so often. [YouTube]