Athletes, Superstars and Demigods

This week's episode is a departure from what we cover on the podcast. We have two father's joining the show to talk about the sporting journey of their respective kids - who are honing their skills in other sports. Deepak Rao from UK and Ahmed Hussain from US join host Saqib Ali to talk about a parents role in this journey with Squash and Baseball as the disciplines of practice. Deepak's daughter Aditi is a ranked junior in the UK Squash system and competes in junior events across Europe. Ahmed's son Farzad has been pitching and playing little league games for more than 5 years now. This is probably a similar exercise of a cricket family anywhere in the world. It is an enjoyable conversation given how much we all treasure the behind the scenes process in sports. Deepak and Ahmed are candid enough to let us in their private bubbles, where both families have prioritized and centred their routines around the chosen sports their kids fell in love with.  Deepak Rao on twitter - https://twitter.com/RaoDpk Saqib Ali on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba Cricket with an accent on twitter - https://twitter.com/Cric_pod  

Vishal Misra is the podcast guest this week. Misra and the late Travis Basevi are considered the founding fathers of stats and cricket data. In this episode we revisit Misra's famous contributions while working at Cricinfo - which eventually changed and shaped the cricketing discourse forever. Misra and Basevi were the architects of live scoring, archived scorecards and Statsguru. In spite of being a stats Guru, Misra is a man of multitudes especially when it comes to viewing the game as a whole. He believes the stats do not tell the complete picture and context matters. He also gives his views on Cricinfo, democratization of data and continuous evolution of stats. Tune in for the complete conversation. Vishal Misra on twitter - https://twitter.com/vishalmisra https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/vishal-misra-the-birth-of-proper-ball-by-ball-commentary-on-cricinfo-637331    

In the opening act of the new year we discuss many layers of sports stardom. To narrow it down as a group we were fascinated by the notion when does an athlete becomes a Demigod. What does that even mean in the sporting universe? Does this happen in some societies more than others? Does this happen more in team sports compared to individual sports? Is glamour part of the demigod status equation? What happens to a fallen Demigod? Host Saqib Ali is joined by Kandarp Mehta and Andrew Burton to discuss this topic at length. Kandarp is a return guest who is an avid cricket fan. Andrew is a regular voice on the Tennis with an accent podcast. It was an interesting discussion without any concrete conclusion given the vast nature of the topic. Both Kandarp and Andrew came prepared with examples spanning across different sports and cultures. Please tune in! Andrew on twitter -https://twitter.com/burtonad Kandarp on twitter - https://twitter.com/kmacts  Kandarp's work can be found here -https://kandarpmehta.wordpress.com/ Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

Indian cricket team is visiting South Africa for the ninth time since the readmission of South Africa to international competition. I am joined by a special guest in Neil Manthorp along with podcast's regular voice Vijay Arumugam to look back at some of the memorable chapters and incidents that have shaped the rivalry. Manthorp has covered all things South African cricket since he started his career as a cricket writer and broadcaster in 1988. His work can be found here - https://manners-on-cricket.com/ The podcast touched upon rich but uncomfortable topics like The Mike Denness affair to Sachin Tendulkar's farewell test which came at the expense of a boxing Day test match in South Africa. Of course we also discuss some on field brilliance of Tendulkar and other Indian batters who have scored impressive knocks in South Africa. Neil Manthorp on twitter - https://twitter.com/neilmanthorp Vijay on twitter - https://twitter.com/VAAChandran Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

South African legend Mike Procter returns to the podcast for a candid conversation on all things Monkeygate, Kerry Packer and the South African readmission to cricket. He joins host Saqib Ali and resident podcast guest Vijay Arumugam. The conversation is a rich account on many phases of Procter's cricketing life where he was a player, coach, commentator and a match referee. Enough reading ....start listening please! https://www.amazon.com/Caught-Middle-Monkeygate-Politics-Autobiography/dp/1785312162 https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/mike-procter-46793 Vijay on twitter - https://twitter.com/VAAChandran Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba      

We look back at the WC batting legends in this episode. The names that dominated the discussion were Aravinda de Silva, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. Vijay Arumugam and Kandarp Mehta joined host Saqib Ali to look back at these distinguished world cup champions and their respective careers at the big event. This type of conversation had a lot of potential for digressions and digress we did! Other names that were mentioned in this exercise were Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi and Viv Richards. Vijay on twitter - https://twitter.com/VAAChandran Kandarp on twitter - https://twitter.com/kmacts  Kandarp's work can be found here -https://kandarpmehta.wordpress.com/ Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

In the latest episode of the podcast we take a deep dive into world cup nostalgia using miscellaneous topics. Podcast regular Vijay Arumugam returns to the podcast to talk about unsung heroes, underperforming legends, memorable WC match and organizational issues of the BCCI. In a rich conversation Vijay recalls upon lot of memories from the late 80's to the mid 90's of world cup competition. Names like Desmond Haynes, David Houghton, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Simon O'Donnell make this conversation a lot more nostalgic than it was intended. Tune in for a detailed listen. 

In the latest episode of the podcast we talk about Rivalries. Rivalry is quite an integral facet of how fans engage with a sport. Not only it can be an entry point for new fans but it is also an everlasting feature for many fans - be it a team sport or an individual sport. Host Saqib is joined by podcast regular Aftab Khanna and first time guest Kandarp Mehta. The conversation explores the meaning of the word rivalry for each panelist and then further attempts to address issues such as partisanship and evolution of fandom. India Pakistan rivalry is a benchmark of this discussion as its part of trio's formative cricket experience as fans. Cross sports examples from Football, NBA and Tennis are used to further elaborate the connection. Tendulkar, Lara, Akram are among many names discussed as examples. Please tune in and let us know what are your favorite and most impactful rivalries as fans. Aftab on twitter - https://twitter.com/aftabkhanna Kandarp on twitter - https://twitter.com/kmacts  Kandarp's work can be found here -https://kandarpmehta.wordpress.com/ Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba    

Professor Ratnakar Shetty is the podcast guest for this episode of Cricket with an Accent. He had served in the BCCI for more than thirty years in which he had donned many a hat - be it back room administrator, touring team manager or WC host team tournament director among other positions. In this deep dive of a conversation Professor Shetty shares his insights from his book - ON BOARD TEST, TRIAL AND TRIUMPH: MY YEARS IN BCCI. The book is a detailed account of a long serving career who had the best seat in the house to witness the rise of the BCCI. The name BCCI can polarize many a discourse even in the partisan Indian fan base and this episode brings out quite a few fascinating accounts of the corporations date with destiny.  Ratnakar Shetty on twitter - https://twitter.com/RatnakarShetty Saqib Ali on twitter - https://twitter.com/Saqiba https://www.amazon.com/BOARD-TEST-TRIAL-TRIUMPH-Years/dp/9355202873

As Cricket with an Accent reaches a 100 episodes, @aftabkhanna takes over the moderator’s chair and along with Saqib, Vijay and Saahil, we look ahead to the future of cricket podcasting. We try and understand how fans engage with digital media in cricket, the factors driving niche content creation, the challenges with standard mass braodcasting and how cricket can learn from bigger sports like the NBA. Thank you helping us get to the 100th episode and we hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed doing this! Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba Aftab on twitter - https://twitter.com/aftabkhanna Vijay on twitter - https://twitter.com/VAAChandran Saahil on twitter - https://twitter.com/faahil