Our guest for today is a true sporting legend in his own right, having represented India, and led Hyderabad Cricket for 10 years in a truly all-round sense!

Mr Narasimha Rao, affectionately known as Bobjee, played for India at the highest level and represented Hyderabad for 17 years before retiring a champion post the pearl city’s triumph over Delhi, Hyderabad’s third and last ever Ranji trophy win in 1987, a mind-numbing 37 years ago!

Armed with an excellent cricketing record that proudly ranks alongside Hyderabad’s greatest ever players, Bobjee Garu was a fine all-round cricketer, performing multiple roles as player, leader, mentor and cricketing visionary, all rolled into one!

Post those heady days in India, Bobjee Sir forged on to conquer new challenges laced with Northern Irish flavour, building bridges, growing the game, guiding developmental efforts, and laying foundations that drove Irish Cricket’s international rise, culminating in them becoming Test Cricket’s 11th member in 2018!

During this time, Bobjee Garu also contributed greatly towards attempting to develop Hyderabad Cricket, offering coaching expertise, & pushing the organisation towards operational & sporting excellence.

He has since published ‘Bobby - India & Ireland A Love Story’, a thorough piece of work that takes readers through his cricketing journey. 

Bobby - India & Ireland …. A Love story            

https://www.amazon.in/Bobby-India-Ireland-Love-Story/dp/1910827142

Twitter (now X) - @Bobjee169

For most of us growing up, knowing your cricket did matter, but India’s most popular sport was never a professional option for young fans. To understand this, we sit down with Sidhartha Vaidhyanathan, cricket writer, author and podcaster to discuss how a regular Bengaluru huduga like himself went on to make this a profession and rub shoulders with global sports stars.. Part of the team that launched ESPN’s digital magazine – The Cricket Monthly, he’s contributed to various publications including the Guardian, Forbes, AOL, The Hindu, Indian Express, India Today, and more. He’s also at the forefront when it comes to reviving forgotten cricket literature through 81allout publishing and talking cricket on a delightfully named podcast called 81allout.

A Finalist for the Restless Books Prize for Immigrant Writing (2018), Sidvee is currently based in the United States. We use the time today to listen to his journey, get a feel of what it takes to be a cricket writer, talk to him about the 90s, Test Cricket, Bangalore, RCB, Seattle, life & more. 

X (formerly Twitter - @sidvee @81allout 

Podcast -  81AllOut - Talking Cricket with Siddhartha Vaidyanathan 

tinyurl.com/5h4jdbpk

https://www.81allout.com/

Article Repository - https://www.espncricinfo.com/author/siddhartha-vaidyanathan-32

Books -

https://tinyurl.com/y4uyzcpr

http://tinyurl.com/3tsjstnm

http://tinyurl.com/bdcujt4k

For Episode 3 we sit down with Mr Lalith Kalidas, a young sports journalist & editor. He’s just finished a stint with the iconic Sportstar Magazine and is looking to continue on with this passion driven profession of his. Profiled on the web as someone who primarily writes on cricket and loves watching tennis, with other interests including playing cricket, relishing long drives and having an affinity for photography!

Journalism is a challenging field, and it gets tougher if you’re in a niche area like sport, where being at the top of one’s game usually means getting noticed & trusted within the fraternity. Not one of those ‘bankable’ professions, it has more to do with building relationships with celebrated personalities before gradually beginning to opine and become a trusted media voice. 

To start-off, salaries can be low and low-level journalistic work takes a lot of patience & dedication, often driven by an intense passion to present our sport. Once ensconced into the system, navigating a path to professional success is not easy and depends on networking the right contacts, delivering consistently on the quality of work, gaining acceptability within the community, and fighting hard to stay relevant in the modern age. So, what does it take to be someone like a Lalith Kalidas?

We sat down to speak with him about his profession, on how he managed to become a sports journalist, life as a reporter, advice to budding reporters, memories of working with the Sportstar, anecdotes or anything he feels he wants to put out there for our pod audience. 

Thanks for listening!

The Don Bradman of cricket match archival, Rob started his career in 1982 and has amassed close to 70,000 hrs of recorded cricket footage!

Rob went on to run robelinda, a super successful Youtube channel that had all this fantastic footage available online for absolutely free! The channel ran for 14 years and gave us cricket fans around the world their own free-to-air cricket-Netflix, prior to being unfortunately terminated.

Watching cricket videos is the easy part, but actually recording & uploading the stuff is no mean feat. Most times, archival footage is the sole property of cricket boards & broadcasters who don’t have to deal with potential legal implications. However, not everything is available on demand and this is where passionate individuals like Mr Moody come to our rescue. 

Many other unsung online warriors exist, but what makes Rob special is the motivation to do this minus any monetary benefit This is what makes today's pod special - the opportunity to speak with an unselfish super-fan! 

Follow Rob Moody on X (formerly known as Twitter) @robelinda2

A native of Kolkata, West Bengal, TC grew up in the city of joy in the 1980s as a huge sports buff, primarily cricket & football, two pastimes the city’s well known for. After a decade & a half of a  corporate career, Trinanjan finally decided to seriously pursue his passion for writing and release a first book on cricket history. 

We use the pod to discuss One Day International cricket, a format that is now at a crossroads. Once the go-to staple for limited overs, dwindling viewership, less than acceptable returns, and stiff competition from a more hip cousin have made its  existence endangered. 

Join us for a chat on how the limited-overs format lived through the years, and if it still does & will do.. 

Lastly, 1Bat2Balls much appreciates the listening time you’ve given to us for our first ever episode and do stay tuned for our next episode with Rob Moody, cricket archival Guru! 

For any information related to the show or episode, DM @SportRadioAS1 on X (formerly known as Twitter) - 

Forgotten Sons https://www.amazon.in/Forgotten-Sons-Untold-Stories-Cricket/dp/1648999646

Trinanjan Chakraborty 

Twitter Handle (now known as X) -  @TrinanjanChakr4

The Paperclip

https://thepaperclip.in/

Twitter Handle (now known as X)  - @Paperclip_In

Cricket-Connect with 1 Bat 2 Balls and listen to legends, players, journalists, fans & cricket tragics from across the universe offer memories on the game. 

Binge-listen to host Kirti G brew & spew interaction with just the right pinch of beer-spice, while offering guests the chance to couch-talk cricket across the world!

We offer conversations around the game, including with current & former players, starlets, coaches, trainers, writers, journalists, super-fans, SM influencers, & administrators, etc.

Jump in to hear us cheerfully chat cricket, instead of wondering how much longer your Hyderabad metro destination will take to arrive while idiot-reeling through Instagram … 

or spend quality time with 1 Bat 2 Balls and successfully survive rush-hour traffic during minute 12 of signal attempt 6 at the Silk Board signal in Bengaluru!

or maybe secretly listen to us broadcast cricket talk, while attempting to stay awake during a KPI presentation designed to improve organisational productivity. 

See you every two weeks, folks!