Shourov is replaced by Brian's mate Dean, and the boys recall a famous Test match with a memorable finish. After making more than 500 in the first innings, the English were laid low in the last innings by an astonishing performance from the great Shane Warne. More than the pitch or the conditions, it was Warne's energy and passion for cricket that singlehandedly turned the game, and it leads into a discussion about how love in all its forms can conquer against the odds. 

Today's game - Australia vs England, December 1-6, 2006

Bangalore, New Years Eve 1983. A star-studded West Indian team is playing a benefit game against an Indian XI for perhaps the least known Indian Test captain. In the audience is a wide-eyed ten-year-old enjoying the best winter of his life. Abhik reminisces about an unusual pitch invasion, Shourov finds a connection to Orwell's 1984 and the boys fondly look back on those things that you just don't get to do anymore.

Today's game - West Indies vs India, December 31st 1983

Shourov brings in another famous game that left its mark - one of the biggest comebacks ever in sport - but admits to being a demoralized Indian cricket fan who had given up on his team. The boys admire the faith of the diehard fans like the Barmy Army who keep turning up even when their team is being thrashed. Does a focus on results cause us to miss the joys of the experience? We finish up by recapping some legendary comebacks closer to home in our own lives and discuss the magic power of never giving up. 

Today's game - Australia vs India, Mar 11-15, 2001

Abhik picks another obscure game featuring an elegant entertainer. It is the early nineties and Australia were settling in for a long period of dominance against an English outfit fraught with internecine warfare and studded with colourful characters - smooth Gower, funny Tufnell, grouchy Gooch and his favourite larrikin Wayne Larkins. We reminisce about other odd couples in our own lives and what it is that makes opposites attract.

Today's game - England vs Australia, Dec 26-30 1990

Alan Border and Dean Jones put on one of the most dazzling displays of One Day International batting in January 1985 when they took on Sri Lanka and scored a double-century partnership. Abhik, Shourov and Brian reminisce about the game and an extraordinary ending that left Deano high and dry on 99 not out. They go on to make (slightly) unkind comments about past cricketers and find a strange analogy between cricket and human reproduction, before turning their razor sharp minds to speculation about why some countries are so damn good at sport.

Today's game - Australia vs Sri Lanka, January 28th, 1985

Shourov brings an iconic game to this week's podcast - England vs Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup Final. Brian remembers uncharacteristically skipping school to see the game and Abhik dissects that famous spell from Wasim Akram. The victory was Imran Khan's finest hour, at least until he became Prime Minister of Pakistan. The boys go on to speculate about other cricketers who might have become politicians and finish with a deeper discussion about peaking late in life.

Today's game - Pakistan vs England. March 25th 1992

And on special request from Abhik - Like a Tiger :)

In 1983 Australia toured Sri Lanka for a single Test and David Hookes scored his one and only Test century. This was a man who loved cricket and the Australian cricketing public loved him, but why did he never really make the step up to Test cricket? We talk about highlights from David's career before his untimely death in 2004 - and ponder the intangible quality that marks those who perform at the top level.

Today's game - Australia vs Sri Lanka, April 22nd-26th, 1983

Abhik reminisces about the time that Abdul Qadir took 72 wickets in Melbourne district cricket and Brian tells us about his magazine posters. Shourov remembers the heartbreak of not getting Shastri's autograph and the unconventional stroke-making of Krishnamachari Srikkanth. In a world of centralised control, automation and homogenisation, are the days of the iconoclast over?

Today's game - Australia vs India, Melbourne, 3rd March 1985

Abhik talks about a domestic one-day game from the late eighties that led to a life-long obsession and an unhealthy and unfashionable persistence with the popped collar look. Brian recommends we read Robin Hobbs, and Shourov muses on the nature of obsession and the Aussie habit of making "role models" of our sportspeople.

Today's game - Queensland vs NSW, February 21st, 1988