PCCI Podcast 🏏

Tim Wigmore is a sports writer for The Daily Telegraph and has also written for The Economist, The New York Times, ESPN Cricinfo, and The New Statesman, among others. We sat down to discuss his latest book - Test Cricket - A History, which is his most fascinating book yet. There is a unique mix of history, context, aesthetics, race & class which another writer could have easily papered over. Tim excels in his ability to weave stories across centuries with this one and making the history of the game we love not as overwhelming.We discuss the following -1. Legitimacy of Test Matches early on2. Fast Bowling Quartet3. Decline in Spin bowling4. Overperformance of Captains while they are Captains5. Resilience of Test Playing Nations to play after long gaps6. Role of Amateurs and Professionals in Cricket's long history7. Moral Victories8. Lovely references on Aesthetics of batting in the book9. Non-development of the women's game10. 4 Day tests and restructuring of the WTCYou can buy Test Cricket - A History from pretty much every good bookstore across Cricket playing nations along with Amazon as well.Buy the Book - Test Cricket - A HistoryAmazon USAmazon UKAmazon IndiaCrickonomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket:Amazon USAmazon UKAmazon IndiaCricket 2.0: Inside the T20 RevolutionAmazon USAmazon UK Amazon IndiaThe Best: How Elite Athletes are MadeAmazon USAmazon UKAmazon IndiaWhite Hot: The Inside Story of England Cricket’s Double World ChampionsAmazon USAmazon UK Amazon India Second XI: Cricket In Its OutpostsAmazon US Amazon UK Amazon India In our previous chat with Tim, we had asked him for Book Recommendations. Those are below.Pundits from Pakistan by Rahul BhattacharyaBeyond a Boundary by CLR JamesThe Unquiet Ones by Osman SamiuddinDifferent Class Duncan Stone

The only way to honour the memories of those who lost their lives in the stampede at Chinnaswamy on 4th of June is to continue talking about it. We speak to Sarthak Dev, who wrote an excellent piece for News Laundry. You can read The story of a disaster: An IPL win, a city’s joy, and a tragedy that was waiting to happen here.Tarutr runs BestofCricket Substack where he publishes a Daily Newsletter with the best cricket stories (text, audio & video). You can read & subscribe here.

Trigger WarningMentions of the Tragedy at Chinnaswamy are discussed at multiple points in the episode. There is an outline and trigger warning at the start of the episode.We are joined by Dave, Shay, Richa, Aditya, Tarutr & MV in this episode and there are 5 RCB fans who sent in voice notes on how they felt about winning the first league title.What is covered in this episode?1. RCB Fans from across the world share what it felt to win the first IPL title. (1:48 to 9:42)2. We speak to Tarutr Malhotra from BestofCricket about the tragedy at Chinnaswamy, the commotion, lack of communication and why he decided to exit the celebrations. (9:42 to 36:13)He has also written a piece. Read it here.3. We start the IPL review with introduction of the guests (36:38 to 38:07), speak about the tragedy at Chinnaswamy (38:07 to 45:07) & Move to the IPL review which continues right till the end!

In this episode, we have long time listeners Saurabh, Shay & Fahad to discuss their memories of the IPL.It’s a great mix of folks from varying age groups and their association with the league. While Saurabh is largely neutral despite having a soft corner for SRH & RR, Fahad loves CSK & Shay is an RCB fan from North India. It gives us an insight into how the IPL has evolved and how the evolution affects the people watching it. Are they still as chuffed at watching the IPL from their first viewing of the league? Listen in.

We sat down to record the Origin Story of our love with the game.

We discussed -- Our first playgrounds (societies, mohalla etc)- How our teams were decided?- What were the various toss instruments?- Specific rules for batting (1D, 2D) and bowling (fast, knee height no balls etc)All of the above across the country since the panel was diverse and we wrapped up with our favourite story of playing Cricket.

In our series of episodes dealing with the lack of cricket in Indian cricket coverage and the rise of jingoism and demi-god worship in cricket media, we have with us accomplished cricket analyst and writer, Gurkirat S Gill.

Sarthak is a writer and music composer. He writes a Substack called Lines on The Grass, and you can find some of his other written work at IndianExpress and EuroSport. He uploads his music on Instagram and YouTube, but only when his morning coffee hits the right spot.Read Lines on the Grass Listen to Sarthak's music here & you can follow him on Twitter as well.In this episode, we have both the Adityas, Raj & MV.We discuss -- The Hero Worshipping of Dhoni, Kohli & Rohit- Twitter Fanwars as an extension of how Cricket is packaged- Inceldom and the violent nature of Cricket discourse- The Loss of Tenderness in sport- No room for the stories of 7/10 cricketers (The Hanuma Viharis & Mayank Agarwals)- Sexualisation of Women in & associated with Sport with Cameramen & how society reacts to 5 second clips of Women in stadia- Lack of Narrative & History in Cricket Commentary- BCCI's lack of interest in Women's Cricket

Today, we have with us Sharda Ugra, a sports journalist for over 30 years who now writes what she wants, when she wants and where she wants. You can read her work in the Hindustan Times and her coverage of the BCCI in The Wire and The Caravan, amongst other publications.Along with Sharda, we have Swaroop who has been with The New Indian Express for over a decade and a Red Ink Award winner. He has covered multiple Hockey World cups, Asian Games, Cricket World Cups and, very recently covered the World Chess Championships. Richa, Aditya & MV join them to discuss - - BCCI Central Contracts for Women , CA's plan for women's cricket and grassroots investment- Why are Ranji Cricketers are paid so little, and why does the BCCI want Int'l cricketers to prioritise domestic over IPL- Saudi Money & Golf - How will they move forward with Cricket- IPL salaries vs the World's best leagues (Swaroop's piece is linked here)- Indian Cricketers Association - The Late Anshuman Gaekwad and current President V Chamundeswarnath, a sexual harassment accused and also an IPL Governing Council Member.RecommendationsSharda Temples, Tombs, & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz Acquired Podcast on IPL (It's only 4.5 hours long)Sky Sports Podcast with Nasser & Athers Zeteo Podcast founded by Mehdi HasanSwaroopThe Business of Sport Podcast - Listen here.Indian Summers by Sharda Ugra & John Wright, which he used as reference material for his Master’s thesisAditya - The Book of Awesome by Neil PasrichaRicha - Mystery novels by Tana French

In this episode, we have Richa and MV joined by Tarutr Malhotra from Best of Cricket.---Best of Cricket scours the internet for the best cricket stories and brings them to you straight to your Whatsapp. If that's not enough, they also publish original stories themselves and deepdives into the cricket media landscape and how the game is covered since they're looking at everything from a Bird's eye view and up close, daily. You should subscribe if you haven't already.During the WPL, they covered all the games with reporters from all over the world talking about stories beyond the scorecard. You can find their WPL coverage here.--On to the episode -- MI are WPL 2025 Champions!- We start with the final. What went right for MI & what went wrong for DC?- Gujarat's last minute run to the playoff spot- We’ll talk about scheduling and what should change next year- moving away from this to the home and away concept? - ⁠Revisit the teams at the bottom of the table what went badly for them - We discuss Retentions for each team We finally end with Awards for the Season - Moment of the SeasonBest Young Gun ⁠Best Redemption Arc Who won the Ashes? Did Australian players do better or English players? 1 Retention and 1 Discard for each team 

Trigger Warning & Disclaimer: Gambling, Betting, and Fantasy sports involve risk. A lot of information shared here might be triggering for those who gamble or in recovery. We recorded this to bring forth the issues involved with Gambling, Betting, and Fantasy Sports. Same goes for all the links in the shownotes.In this episode, we have MV and Aditya who are joined by Swaroop Swaminathan from The New Indian Express.Swaroop has been with the daily for a decade and has covered two Asian Games, two Hockey WCs, the recently concluded Chess World Championship, the 2016 T20 World Cup, 2023 ODI World Cup & was there for the WTC Finals in 2023. He won the Red Ink Award on Mariappan Thagavelu who won a Gold Medal for India at the Rio Paralympics.We go down memory lane to the origins of Fantasy Cricket with Super Selector to season long IPL fantasy to Dream 11 and now the plethora of Betting Websites openly out and about the Indian internet and all around us.Some Notes about Fantasy Sports in India -In FY23, 18 Crore (180 million) users were playing fantasy sports. By FY27 - it will be 50 Crore (half a billion)40% users are between ages 25-34 - the so-called demographic dividend of India (Statista)India fantasy sports market is projected to witness a CAGR of 20.88% during the forecast period FY2024-FY2031, growing from USD 751 million in FY2023 to USD 3423.54 million in FY2031. (Markets and Data)Links to Swaroop's pieces- Swaroop's piece on Fantasy Cricket from 2023 - State of Play - Swaroop's piece on Surrogate Advertising in Cricket- On Ban Cloud over BCCI's partners - here.- On Illegality of betting but rampant tips on Instagram reels - here.Other Links on Gambling/BettingJohn Oliver on Daily Fantasy Sports (Youtube Link)Guardian's flagship Football podcast - Football Weekly spoke to a Gambling Addict and reporters covering Gambling. First person account of a Gambling Addict by James Grimes in The GuardianUseful Links for help for Gambling AddictionThere are numerous resources on the internet to go through and understand responsible gambling. We strongly suggest you take a look. https://www.responsiblegambling.org/https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/INDIAWe found that HOPE TRUST helps with Gambling addiction in India.