1
The man who refuses to be wrong
✍️ Shayan Acharya & Ayon Sengupta interview Lalit Modi on the IPL’s past, present & future (with a decent dose of Modi-esque self love thrown in).
“Vijay Mallya was a showman. His brand was associated with the spirits business, and he spent out-of-proportion money building the base with a liquor brand. With the Mumbai Indians, the Mukesh Ambani family went out of their way. N. Srinivasan did a very smart thing with India Cements buying Chennai Super Kings. A lot of investment was done in building fan bases,” he said.
“None of the other teams did significant brand extension or marketing. They built the team based on personalities and media rights and did no brand building at all.”
2
The IPL’s most interesting tactical choices
📊 Karan Jain breaks down the most interesting tactical choices from 2025’s middle-to-lower table teams; RR’s bowler reset, MI’s Bumrah (mis)use, LSG’s Rishabh Pant shuffle, & CSK’s overseas player distrust.
“In 2025, Bumrah bowled 28 isolated overs and 20 consecutive overs across all phases. His bowling SR in isolated overs was 23.86, while his SR in consecutive overs was 11.09.
By choosing to split his overs up across multiple phases – thereby making him a firefighter rather than a primary threat – MI are potentially misusing a generational bowler for damage control.”
3
Scout’s Notebook
✍️ CS Chiwanza puts together an impressive dossier on youth talent in the Eastern Cape – and will get to the rest of SA’s provinces soon enough.
“There a well-told story of a young Jacques Kallis. It is said that coaches went to watch him bat in the nets in the mid 90s, before his Proteas debut. According to lore, the coaches watched Kallis face three deliveries. He shouldered all three. The coaches walked away in agreement that he was a future star.
Looking back, I think they looked at his set up and foot movement, and they also noticed his awareness of where his off-stump was. [Corbin] Tidbury has the same effect. You don’t need an over of deliveries to tell that the Graeme College youngster is a serious player.”
4
The best of the rest
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“The imprisonment of Imran Khan”
✍️ Nick Miller contextualises the importance of Imran Khan to Pakistan, and the costs of this imprisonment on the ex-PM and his country. -
“Anatomy of a fall”
📊 Rahul Iyer on Varun Chakravarty’s sudden and steep decline. -
“Gujarat’s Titanic Loophole”
📊 Rudransh Khurana on GT’s poorly constructed batting order, as too much burden falls on Shubman Gill & Sai Sudarshan. -
“Where’s your front leg?”
✍️ Simon Hughes analyses Zak Crawley’s failing red ball technique.
5
🏆 Our Best RCB/IPL Coverage of the Week 🏆
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“A bowling unit to take advantage of Chinnaswamy”
📊 Tarun Pratap on how RCB have built a team that is uniquely suited to their home comforts. -
“A reason for CSK optimism”
📊 Aadityan Ganesh/Atharv Tambade on CSK’s rookie potential in the midst of a rough season. -
“The boy wonder strikes again”
📊 Sharath P analysed how Vaibhav Suryavanshi demolished RCB – he’s hard to bowl to, but RCB made it harder than it needed to be. -
“RCB’s one-man middle order”
📊 Tarutr Malhotra on RCB’s struggles in the middle order, and how Rajat Patidar is holding it all together single-handedly.
6
The best videos and podcasts
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“Playing With Sachin, Beating Cancer & Hitting Six Sixes!”
📽️ Michael Vaughan talks to Yuvraj Singh about the IPL’s impact, his India career, & his cancer diagnosis. [YouTube] -
“THAT Semifinal Knock”
📽️ Cricket by JB have their annual catch up with Jemi Rodrigues, and discuss the World Cup winner’s transformative 12 months. [YouTube] -
“How RCB Rebuilt under Mo Bobat”
📽️ AB de Villiers talks to Saurabh Somani & Shashank Kishore about their new book on RCB coming out later this year. [YouTube] -
“The future’s bright”
🎤 Katya Witney digs into the state of Yorkshire women, including chats with their coach and batters. [Apple/Spotify]