81 All Out - A Cricket Podcast

We discuss India's memorable eight-wicket win in Melbourne and place it in context of some of the famous Indian victories in Australia.

Talking Points:

• Placing the victory in context
• Parallels with Melbourne '81
• Rahane's touch
• Ashwin's immaculate control
• Bumrah's skid and the ball to hoodwink Smith
• Gill v Shaw, Pant v Saha
• Siraj's debut
• Looking ahead to Sydney

Participants:

Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Related:

A tragicomedy called 36 all out - 81allout podcast

The Melbourne Miracle of 1981 - 81allout podcast

Ashwin, Bumrah bowl India to MCG victory - Kartikeya Date

Ravi Shastri: India's triumph one of the great comebacks in Test history - Sidharth Monga, ESPNcricinfo

'No spinner has done that to me in my career' - Steve Smith on R Ashwin

Tactical tweaks, delightful drift - Amit Gupta on R Ashwin, Scroll.in

Saini and Siraj better placed than their predecessors - Varun Shetty, ESPNcricinfo

In the latest episode of the podcast we chat with Ajesh Ramachandran, the Executive Producer at the ICC and their Broadcast and Content Lead. Ajesh takes us through the typical day in the life of a TV producer, and goes on to explain the intricacies of a live cricket broadcast.

Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.

Talking Points:

• The responsibilities of an executive producer before an ICC event
• Hiring the crew and inspecting the venues for suitability of broadcast
• The broad vision for the broadcast - melding journalism and entertainment
• Rostering the commentary queue on match eve
• The importance of time-management during pre-match routines
• The producer-director chemistry - and how that often shapes the coverage
• Understanding the rhythm of the contest to guide the storytelling
• Briefing the commentators about the context and gravitas of the tournament
• Being in the commentators' ear through the match and balancing various voices
• Memorable moments from a 20-year career in broadcasting

Participants:

Ajesh Ramachandran (@Edged_and_taken)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

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Related:

These pictures brought to you by - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo

ICC looks to entice a new generation of viewer - Will Strauss - SVG Europe

Remember the game - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - The Cricket Monthly

'I really get annoyed with one-sided cricket' - Ian Chappell interview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan - ESPNcricinfo

Pitch perfect - Harsha Bhogle interview by Arun Venugopal - The Hindu

Mohammad Rizwan match v nets - ICC

Wahab Riaz spell to Shane Watson in Adelaide in 2015 - ICC

World Cup final Super Over at Lord's in 2019 - ICC

What do broadcasters have to do with ball tampering - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo

We review the India v Pakistan match in Ahmedabad - and chat about the other themes developing in this World Cup.

Support 81allout on Ko-fi

Talking points:

• India's enviable bowling attack for the conditions
• Jasprit Bumrah - the magician
• Kuldeep and Jadeja keeping Pakistan quiet
• Siraj and the cross-seam attack
• Rohit Sharma's evolution as an ODI batter
• Shreyas Iyer's approach to playing spin
• The joy of the Australian collapse
• New Zealand's deceptive dominance in the early stages of the World Cup

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo

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Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)

India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)

Australia (paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Related:

• India demonstrate their all round strength, hammer Pakistan - Cricketingview substack
• India's bowling unit: Gods of small things - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
• 81allout preview of the 2023 World Cup
• Previous 81allout episodes on World Cups - 2011, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003
• Buy War Minus the Shooting by Mike Marqusee - Amazon
• War Minus the Shooting - Revisiting the 1996 World Cup through a classic book - 81allout podcast
• Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar by Mike Coward - Amazon

We chat with Karthik Krishnaswamy and Kartikeya Date about the role of luck in cricket and how we can better describe the game by separating actions from outcomes.

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

Talking Points:

• Luck v skill - and why the two are not opposed to each other
• The traditional method of describing cricket - by ascribing reasons for outcomes
• Why it is hard for fans to accept 'luck' as a major part of a sporting contest
• The luck component in different sports - and the 'optimal' luck cricket needs
• The brief phase in each ball when neither batter or bowler is in total control
• India's loss to New Zealand in 2020 against an attack best suited for the conditions
• England's strategy v spin in the 2019 World Cup compared to their strategy in the 2023 World Cup
• The model of the game that views contest without the layer of chauvinism
• The post-facto analysis that accompanies most discussions around captaincy

Participants:

Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk) | ESPNcricinfo page

Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo page

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

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Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (recently republished by 81allout)

India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)

Australia (paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

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Related:

• What's luck got to do with it: a control review of the World Cup - Kartikeya Date - ESPNcricinfo
• Virat Kohli's battle with himself - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
• The Virat Kohli century that was a trip back in time - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
• What we talk about when we talk about pressure - Podcast with Abhinav Mukund - 81allout
• What we talk about when we talk about cricket - Podcast with Daniel Norcross - 81allout
• Are some points in Tennis more important than others? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview substack
• Luck and skill untangled: the science of success – Michael Mauboussin interview – Wired
• Why it’s so much harder to predict winners in ice hockey than basketball – Vox – YouTube

Support 81allout: ko-fi.com/81allout

We discuss the second Test between India and England in Chennai

Talking Points:

• Was there anything at all wrong with the pitch?
• How Rohit Sharma tackled the tricky surface
• England's rotation policy - and would they have followed this during the Ashes?
• R Ashwin's glorious home Test in front of an adoring crowd
• Does Ashwin the bowler have the equivalent of 47 Test centuries?
• Ashwin's ability to do what he decides to do
• Ben Foakes' technique against spin on a turning track
• Rishabh Pant's improvement behind the stumps
• Kohli's skillful sequence – 74, 72, and 62
• The Rahane review - and England subsequently being handed back their review
• The consistently good home umpiring during the Covid months
• Is Anderson the Karunanidhi of cricket? Or the Tom Brady of cricket?

Participants:

Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Related:

When Cook and Co. did the unthinkable - 81allout podcast on the 2012-13 India v England series

The theatre of spin - Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

Pitched language - Kartikeya Date

The bias against spinning pitches - Jarrod Kimber

Madrasapattinam - R Ashwin's Chepauk memories, YouTube video

The Paaji effect - R Ashwin's chat with Bharat Arun, YouTube video

Ashwin talks about his variations - Sky Sports

Ben Foakes stands up to give keepers' union something to shout about - Andy Bull, The Guardian