Couch Talk

In this episode, author and cricket historian Gideon Haigh talks about his new book, “On Warne” which was published on October 24, 2012. He also discusses the motivation behind the book, club cricket culture, cricket journalism, his favorite sports books etc. He also gives advice to the budding writers and explains how he has continued to maintain an independent voice.

In this episode, the editor of Wisden India, Dileep Premachandran talks about  the lack of long form features in cricket writing, the reasons behind it, the issue of journalists’ access to cricketers and administrators amongst other things.

In this episode, Wright Thompson, writer for ESPN.com and Grantland.com, who has been writing long form features on cricket in the last 18 months starting with the 2011 Cricket World Cup, talks about the evolution of the cricket fan and cricket writer in him, his writing technique and methods, sports writing, cricket administration, cricket media in general and his favorite cricketer/team amongst other things.

In this episode, the former Australia fielding coach and current fielding coach of the King’s XI Punjab, talks about his transition from his Baseball roots to Cricket, the new philosophies he brought in to improving fielding skills, his experiences of coaching International players, and also about the Youth Clinic he is holding in Maryland shortly.

In this episode, former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop talks about the motivation behind becoming a fast bowler, what it takes to be a fast bowler, current state of West Indies fast bowling and the injuries that curtailed his career. He also talks about the toughest and hardest batsmen he had bowled to, breaking Robin Smith’s jaw, and the memories from the 1997 West Indies – India Test match at Barbados.

In this episode, ESPN Cricinfo’s South Africa correspondent, Firdose Moonda, talks about her experiences of her first trip to England to cover the England vs South Africa, the smugness she encountered from some of the English media at the beginning of the series, the injury to Mark Boucher, the South African performance so far in the series, the Kevin Pietersen situation, amongst other things.

In this episode, editor-in-chief of ESPN cricinfo, Sambit Bal, talks about the role of his organization in cricket’s vast landscape, their editorial processes, cricket media in the internet age, evolution of sport journalism among other things.

In this episode, South African cricketer Paul Harris talks about how he got to become a spinner, whether he feels hard done by the team preferring Imran Tahir over him even after 4 years of service to the team, his thoughts on people calling him a “buffet bowler” etc. He also talks about his debut test (vs India in 2007) and bowling to Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, sledging, and Herschelle Gibbs’ comments about cliques in the South African team. He tells us the keys to the South African win in the test series vs England, the loss of Mark Boucher, and gives his prediction.

In this episode, former captain of India who represented the nation in six world cups, and Arjuna Award winner Anjum Chopra, talks about the various issues facing the women’s game, especially in India, struggles she has faced as a budding cricketer, what the road ahead is, the upcoming T20 World Cup, and also her ventures outside of the cricket field.

In this episode, USA Cricket Correspondent for ESPN Cricinfo and DreamCricket.com, Peter Della Penna, talks about the T20s recently held in Florida between the West Indies and New Zealand, and compares them to the ones held between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at the same venue in 2010 in terms of fan experiences, media coverage etc, and elaborates on the long- and short-term impact on the overall development of Cricket in the USA.