PCCI Podcast 🏏

In this episode we have Richa, MV, Nishant, Vatsal and Asad to preview the teams. Highlights from the discussion include:Gujarat Titans get the Dr. Watson treatment from Asad capable, dependable, but forever in someone else's shadowMV finds yet another excuse to crowbar Succession characters into a cricket conversation, to no one's particular surpriseVatsal braces KKR fans for what looks like another season of frustrating mediocrityNishant isn't buying what the Punjab Kings are selling this yearSarthak, Nishant, and MV talk about the absurdity of Ryan Rickleton's age and QdK's selection chances. Not to miss their chat about Rohit and the short-haired man.Richa & MV discuss the madness behind the trade of Sanju Samson and what lies aheadListen in!

In this episode, we dive into detailed previews of RCB, CSK, DC, LSG, and SRH as we gear up for the season.Richa kicks things off with a deep dive into Royal Challengers Bangalore.For the Delhi Capitals segment, we’re joined by Arvint and Karan from Capitals Blood, alongside Raghav, as they break down the squad, key storylines, and what to expect this year. Vatsal takes the lead on Lucknow Super Giants, analysing their balance and potential combinations, while Sarthak covers both Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, looking at how these teams are shaping up.

In this pod, we have Vatsal, Asad, Raghav & MV discussing the Great IPL Performances of all time in a snake style draft. We discuss the memories and thoughts around the performances we've selected, how much of the IPL is actually forgotten, and probably a full list of 20+ other performances that never made it to the picks. The IPL is a blur and that is very well showcased in the chat and i'm sure the listeners are going to remind us of the many performances we forgot to discuss altogether.

In this episode, Sarthak, Aditya and MV catch up on nostalgia of jerseys, Independence Cup and review the World Cup's fantastic group stage where in fans across the subcontinent attended the games in great numbers and how the Associates lit up this World Cup every single day. This WC is a success despite the game's inherent objection towards the J word - Jeopardy.You can read S Gomesh's fantastic piece here.You can read Sharda Ugra's piece here.

Are you tired of the jingoism and ‘badle ka muqabla’ type narratives around India-Pakistan games? If yes, then this one’s for all you cricket lovers. We bring on people from both sides of the border, to hear their perspectives as people who have grown up loving the game and what this fixture has meant to them. This one should warm the heart, enjoy!We would like to thank Nawab Hassan Hussein Qureshi, Neha Shetty, Akshay, Assad Hasanain, Siva, Samee Siddiqui, Shubha Dutta, Rohail Salman, Saurabh, Raghav B, and Prateek Jha for featuring in this episode.

In what can only be classified as a coup (and as South Asians, we don’t use this term lightly), we have Sharda Ugra, Ahmer Naqvi, and Mohammad Isam to talk through the recent crisis in international cricket. We often explore these themes through Shah Rukh's movie metaphors, starting with K3G and ending with Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The episode serves as a reminder that we need to keep lines of communication open between the public, and it’s even more important to do this with the current media landscape. We briefly touch upon the associates at this World Cup and who we are most looking forward to watching. Our guests are joined by hosts Richa, Nishant, Sarthak, and MV.

We have a star studded line up for this! Richa is joined by Tarutr Malhota from Best of Cricket StoriesNeha Shetty from Never on the Backfoot PodcastPraatibh from Cricket by JBShayan Ahmad Khan from CommboxWe discuss RCB’s win (some of us still can’t believe it), talk about each team and even crown Sophie Devine as Falguni Pathak, worry about UP-W, wonder what went wrong with MI-W and end with some fun awards and a draft of the team of WPL 2026 which includes an uncapped player in this edition.

India-Pakistan cricket tensions are back in focus after Pakistan’s announcement of a boycott of the February 15 clash, raising fresh questions about the future of cricket diplomacy and global governance in the sport.To discuss this and more we spoke to Senior Journalist Chander Shekhar Luthra who has been covering the sport for over 30 years and long time friend of the pod, Behram Qazi.There are a ton of tangents but that's how it is, isn't it?

We had a freewheeling chat with Sushant Singh about Bangladesh’s omission from the T20 World Cup, ICC as the BCCI’s Dubai office, Hindutva and its reflections on how Indian cricket functions, sport’s culpability at letting oligarchs trample through the field, and lots of cricket memories.Sushant Singh is a journalist, author, and lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University. He is the Consulting Editor at The Caravan, a columnist with The Telegraph and The Morning Context, and his work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, and The New Yorker. Cricket fans have more recently seen him on videos of The Caravan and read his writing on Cricket Et Al.His piece on Mustafizur Rahman's exit from the IPL hereYou can follow him on TwitterSushant's RecommendationsFree by Leah Ypi Assembling India's Constitution: A New Democratic HistoryBook by Ornit Shani and Rohit DeOsman Samiuddin's seminal piece - The Haal of PakistanMohammed Hanif’s vlogs on BBC - HereLinks to Books, Pieces discussed on the PodEhsan Mani's moving tribute to IS BindraPundits from Pakistan (yes, again)War Minus The Shooting (yes, again)H-Pop : The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars by Kunal PurohitCorner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra GuhaValkyrie

The PCCI pod brings on a cricket fan who goes by the name @vibeyseagull on twitter to talk through the allegations against Yash Dayal and the wider implications of how this case has been handled by the organisations that employ and are affiliated with him. We talk through other such cases in sport, how they have been handled, and the impact on women’s safety and participation in sport at all levels.Books mentioned on the podThe Day I Became a Runner by Sohini ChattopadhyayWhole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us about Modern India by Rukmini S