In our series of episodes dealing with the lack of cricket in Indian cricket coverage and the rise of jingoism and demi-god worship in cricket media, we have with us accomplished cricket analyst and writer, Gurkirat S Gill.

Sarthak is a writer and music composer. He writes a Substack called Lines on The Grass, and you can find some of his other written work at IndianExpress and EuroSport. He uploads his music on Instagram and YouTube, but only when his morning coffee hits the right spot.

Read Lines on the Grass

Listen to Sarthak's music here & you can follow him on Twitter as well.

In this episode, we have both the Adityas, Raj & MV.

We discuss -

- The Hero Worshipping of Dhoni, Kohli & Rohit

- Twitter Fanwars as an extension of how Cricket is packaged

- Inceldom and the violent nature of Cricket discourse

- The Loss of Tenderness in sport

- No room for the stories of 7/10 cricketers (The Hanuma Viharis & Mayank Agarwals)

- Sexualisation of Women in & associated with Sport with Cameramen & how society reacts to 5 second clips of Women in stadia

- Lack of Narrative & History in Cricket Commentary

- BCCI's lack of interest in Women's Cricket

Today, we have with us Sharda Ugra, a sports journalist for over 30 years who now writes what she wants, when she wants and where she wants. You can read her work in the Hindustan Times and her coverage of the BCCI in The Wire and The Caravan, amongst other publications.

Along with Sharda, we have Swaroop who has been with The New Indian Express for over a decade and a Red Ink Award winner. He has covered multiple Hockey World cups, Asian Games, Cricket World Cups and, very recently covered the World Chess Championships.

Richa, Aditya & MV join them to discuss -

- BCCI Central Contracts for Women , CA's plan for women's cricket and grassroots investment

- Why are Ranji Cricketers are paid so little, and why does the BCCI want Int'l cricketers to prioritise domestic over IPL

- Saudi Money & Golf - How will they move forward with Cricket

- IPL salaries vs the World's best leagues (Swaroop's piece is linked here)

- Indian Cricketers Association - The Late Anshuman Gaekwad and current President V Chamundeswarnath, a sexual harassment accused and also an IPL Governing Council Member.

Recommendations

Sharda

1. Temples, Tombs, & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz
2. Acquired Podcast on IPL (It's only 4.5 hours long)
3. Sky Sports Podcast with Nasser & Athers
4. Zeteo Podcast founded by Mehdi Hasan

Swaroop

1. The Business of Sport Podcast - Listen here.
2. Indian Summers by Sharda Ugra & John Wright, which he used as reference material for his Master’s thesis

Aditya - The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Richa - Mystery novels by Tana French