Couch Talk

In this episode, former Tamil Nadu Ranji wicket-keeper Vikram Kumar talks about his career path in cricket, from age level cricket to Ranji, the pressures on young cricketers, his reasons to give up playing first class cricket, how the cricketers are cared for in the Indian domestic set up and whether his decision would be any different if he were to make it in the current climate of T20 leagues. Vikram is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Economics in the United States.

In this episode, arguably the greatest fast bowler cricket has ever seen and most definitely the greatest left hand fast bowler of the game, Wasim Akram, talks about his dismissal of Rahul Dravid in the 1999 Chennai test, what it takes to be a very good fast bowler, bowling with Waqar Younis, how he managed his health issues during his career, his views of Pakistani cricket amongst other things.

n this episode, former India cricketer and bowling coach, and the current assistant coach for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Venkatesh Prasad, talks about his coaching stint with India, the role of coaches in cricket, the state of fast bowling in India, and also foreign coaches vis-a-vis Indian coaches. Prasad discusses at length the need for the Indian bowlers to bowl a lot more to develop bowling fitness rather than just gym fitness, and the need for players to spend time playing first class cricket before being selected for India A or the Indian team.

In this episode, Ed Cowan, the Australian test opener, talks about his test debut on Boxing day 2011 at the MCG, the step up from domestic cricket to international arena, the media scrutiny, Australian first class cricket system, getting to play with and against cricketing legends, his book “In the firing line: Diary of a season“, future of test cricket, T20 leagues etc.

In this episode, Dileep Premachandran, the editor of Wisden India talks about the launch of Wisden India, their goals and ambitions in capturing the interest of the Indian cricket fan, his plans for Wisden India to be different from Wisden Almanack, their recent website launch and answers listeners questions.

In this episode, the editor of The Cricketer Magazine and former U.K. editor of ESPNCricinfo, Andrew Miller, talks about his career move and what he hopes to achieve at The Cricketer, the challenges to his vision, cricket journalism in the era of social networking, and the purchase of Test Match Sofa by The Cricketer, amongst other things. Follow Andrew Miller on Twitter at: @miller_cricket.

In this episode, Victoria/Australia/Netherlands fast bowler Dirk Nannes, currently with the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the IPL, talks about his late start to cricket, the choice he had to make picking Australia over the Netherlands, the IPL grind, training in the IPL, mercenary aspect of some of the T20 players (including himself) and his team mate Chris Gayle, club vs country debate and his post-retirement plans.

In this episode, the sports editor of the television network CNN IBN, Gaurav Kalra talks about the quality of cricket reporting in Indian media, BCCI, India’s selectors, Decision Review System (DRS), role of bloggers and sports journalism in India, in general.

In this episode, Cricket South Africa’s Youth Cricket Manager Neils Momberg joins Couch Talk’s South African host Ant Sims, to talk about the challenges faced by Youth Cricket programs in South Africa in terms of funding, the amount of youth leaving South Africa, the influence of T20 cricket on South African youth cricketers and also the spin bowling prospects there.

In this episode, former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O’Brien talks about his battle with depression, mental health issues faced by cricketers, the support system for the players, and how it is looked up on within the cricket community and society in general.