With the 3 fancy teams & their vociferous and entitled fanbases being out of the competition, this IPL final is the 1985 MCG (India v Pakistan) equivalent of you-know-what.

Who's coming up with such a banner tonight in Chennai for these two unfancied IPL sides?

#ipl2024

More than Java, Python or Kubernetes, English is the most important skillset for the people of India. It's not just a language.

Those who want to reduce the presence of English in Indian schools, they either have generational wealth or they live in London or in Manhattan.

The Indo-saracenic architecture in the background adds a bit of nice touch to this promo from Chennai. The Marina beach is fine.

But they could travelled another 8 KM south to the Edward Elliot's beach (aka Besant Nagar Beach) for the photoshoot.

#IPL2024Finals

Many congratulations to Kandarp Kandarp for bagging the best actor award at the International Alicante Film Festival in Spain for his performance in - L'Àvia i El Foraster (In English - The Grandmother & the Foreigner).

Kandarp is a professor at a business school in Barcelona.

Aravinda de Silva was in India during this Test match in 2007-08.

He compared Yuvraj Singh with Brian Lara.

Yes, Brian Lara, as a Test batsman.

Make of that what you will.

A fantastic pod on Andre Agassi on Tennis Accent. Thanks, Saqib, for getting Gil Reyes on board. Was a great experience listening to him. podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ten…

R Mohan wrote a piece, 'Who's lying?' for Sportstar in 1995, when the news surfaced that Salim Malik had offered money to Shane Warne & Tim May to bowl badly in the 1994 Karachi Test (Aus v Pak).

That piece had a photograph of Salim Malik & another photo of Warne & May.

Vijay A Kevin Framp Saqib Cricket With An Accent 07sanjeewa Aditya Joshipura Thomas Sutcliffe Ramachandra.M| ರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ.ಎಮ್ The Cricket Slouch V Manjunath collossus79 Prabhanjan Badami Enjoyed the podcast. Interesting when you spoke of history of condescending attitudes towards India and Gavaskar’s role in changing it.A reverse situation in football/soccer. US is more interested in the game than ever but

When India toured Australia in 1999-00, Steve Bucknor didn't umpire in any of the 3 Tests.

How did Bucknor give incorrect decisions to Tendulkar in Australia in 1999-00, when he wasn't on the field?

Storytelling is a skillful art; but a bit of fact-checking won't hurt.

Commentators are the soundtrack of our favourite game - and this one was fun!

Always a pleasure to chat with Saqib and Vijay.

Hope you enjoy! 👍

Lovely episode Saqib Vijay A and Kevin Framp 👌. Highly recommended for anyone who loves listening to commentary. Some of the tennis references also warrants exploring text commentary portals for tennis too . Good discussion. 🙏🏼

Kev Kevin Framp & I joined Saqib on this Pod to discuss the evolution of Commentary in cricket.

Gavaskar's seminal moments in Aus in 91-92 to his relevance in T20; Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell & Dicky Rutnagur. Barry Davies & Seoul '88.

#crickettwitter

podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/our…

Even the New South Wales diehards will have to acknowledge that Suncorp is the best Rugby League Stadium in the world.

#Magicround #nrl

The earliest exponent of upper cut was Eddie Barlow of South Africa.

At 1:45:17 of this Pod, I asked Mike Procter about this.

He confirmed that it was Barlow, who invented this stroke in Australia in 1963-64.

Saqib Cricket With An Accent

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mik…

Indian doctors should be paid more &their working conditions should improve.

Private hospitals are expensive to run. They need to make money for quality output.

India should invest more in public health, for affordable care, across the board.

These 3 aren't mutually exclusive.

In the 2012-14 phase, Mats Hummels was a key man in bridging the Bayern-Dortmund groupism in the German set-up, to go with his ability.

In 2024, Nagelsmann has dropped him because he won't be a happy camper to be on the substitute bench.

Life has come a full circle for Hummels.

Ponting has no Test or First-class coaching experience. He's been an interim coach for the Aussie T20 & ODI sides briefly.

Fleming has no international or FC coaching experience.

Both of them have IPL coaching experience.

Hope is not a strategy.

Is BCCI hoping against hope?

People of Indian Origin (different to Non-Resident Indians) don't have voting rights in India. They should be more involved in the politics of countries of their residence.

However, the power of diaspora is a potent soft power, especially when they are as qualified as India's.

The County cricket is the last bastion of a domestic cricket tournament in the long format, being well supported by its club members & general fans.

It's one thing to have a round of pre-season games in the UAE; it's another thing to have 2 rounds of the championship over there.

Rob Rob Moody has created a false memory for a few Indian fans with this Ch9 footage aired in Australia. Those, who watched it in India are now certain that they heard Tony Greig for this segment.

Unfortunately, it was Slater & Gavaskar, who were on air for Star Sports.