Cricket conversations
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan There is a certain type of cricket fan, perhaps you are one such, who spends a lot of time in front of mirrors. Life-size mirrors to be precise – that hang in your bedroom or in trial rooms of clothes shops or in washrooms in upscale restaurants.
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan Shane Warne has died. These are not words I expected to type in combination. “Shane Warne has tweeted” feels apt. Or: Shane Warne has suggested. Or even: Shane Warne has messed up. Shane Warne was not meant to die. Not in my imagination. Surely not when he
We are delighted to announce the republication of War Minus the Shooting: A Journey Through South Asia During the 1996 Cricket World Cup by Mike Marqusee. First published in 1996, the book is a vivid portrait of a subcontinent in ferment during an extravagant tournament that foreshadowed the great shifts
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan Something happened at Lord’s on Monday afternoon. Something visceral yet cerebral, raw yet refined. A spectacle but also an art form. Thrilling to watch yet difficult to explain. It arrived with an intensity that few would have foreseen and it overshadowed most of what had come before.
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan I grew up at a time when India won (nearly) every Test at home and lost (nearly) every Test abroad. The phrases that punctuated newspaper reports back then: ‘designer pitches’, ‘underprepared pitches’ and ‘doctored pitches’. The players were ‘tigers at home, lambs abroad’, prospering on tracks they
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan Late in January, Australia lost a Test in Brisbane. The three words ‘Australia’, ‘lost’ and ‘Brisbane’ had last been uttered in combination in 1988. Of the 31 subsequent Tests at the venue, 24 had ended in Australia wins, the other seven in draws. Then along came a
Dear Reader, This website began as a blog where Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd) and I exchanged leisurely thoughts on Test cricket. When I suggested the name 81allout, Mahesh had said: “Can’t get a more symbolic name for a suicidal mission. Love it.” Soon we branched out into podcasting, inviting others to
By Rohit Naimpally Raging infernos aside, living in Berkeley, California has proven a blessing over the past few months. The weather is conducive to being outdoors at a time when indoor spaces are petri dishes. More importantly, it has allowed me to indulge two obsessions: a lifelong one of cricket
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan Two years ago, I revisited the Chennai Test between India and Pakistan in 1999. To mark the 20th anniversary of that momentous match, I spoke to some of the players who had taken part, some journalists who covered it, and some fans who were at the stadium
By Aftab Khanna In mid-December last year, as I sat in a hospital room holding my two-day old son in my arms, I asked myself what kind of cricketing legacy I would be passing on to my children. You might wonder why among all the things in the world did
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