It’s that point of the yr once more, when the Indian Premier League (IPL) dominates sports activities pages in India throughout a few months. When it involves sports activities broadcasting — and more and more, podcasting — followers are divided into two teams. One group, old-school, likes former gamers sharing anecdotes from their enjoying days, tales about up to date cricketers and the way they have been ‘discovered’, et cetera. A more moderen technology of followers prefers a extra scientific strategy, listening to analysts, individuals who crunch the numbers and give you essentially the most essential elements and phases that outlined the gameplay that day.
The all-new KimAppa podcast seeks to mix these two features and to this point, has delivered one of the best of each worlds. The podcast options author and cricket analyst Jarrod Kimber alongside former Team India batter Robin Uthappa, who was a part of MS Dhoni’s T20 World Cup-winning crew from 2007, and represented India in one-day worldwide cricket as effectively (the identify of the podcast is, after all, a portmanteau of their names). KimAppa is hosted on Kimber’s ‘Good Areas’ YouTube web page in addition to on Uthappa’s personal channel. There have been 4 episodes of about 70-80 minutes apiece to this point, and new episodes are recorded reside on the weekend, overlaying the complete week’s IPL motion.
Breaking down the facility recreation
From the primary episode itself, it was apparent that Kimber and Uthappa take pleasure in an easygoing rapport. They’re each deep thinkers of the sport, they’ve each labored with IPL groups and different franchises all over the world. And they’re good sports activities, typically talking.
In the second episode, Kimber launched himself by saying, “I’m Jarrod Kimber, a writer and podcaster and other things that no one cares about, and with me is Robin Uthappa, former Team India opener who in the 2007 ODI World Cup scored 3 against the mighty Bermuda team”. To his credit score, Uthappa laughed on the reference, arguably the most-photographed second of his profession, as a result of his dismissal towards Bermuda concerned a spectacular one-handed catch by Dwayne “Sluggo” Leverock, a potbellied Bermuda policeman who in some way glided a good option to his proper like a gazelle for this one play.
Jarrod Kimber (left) with freelance author Sam Collins
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Special Arrangement
So a lot of T20 cricket nowadays revolves across the energy recreation practised by the batters, and Uthappa does an incredible job of breaking down hitting method. During the second episode, Uthappa talks about his personal recreation towards spinners, and the significance of studying size accurately — and early. This is high-quality evaluation that attracts from different sports activities resembling baseball as effectively, in its biomechanical antecedents. The inevitable sense of machismo related to prolific six-hitters like M.S. Dhoni and Andre Russell can also be alluded to in a tongue-in-cheek method, when Kimber asks Uthappa, “How does it make you feel as a man when you see M.S. Dhoni coming in to bat as low as number 9?”
Mental well being and ending faculties
If like me you take pleasure in trying on the greater image in terms of sports activities and geopolitics, KimAppa has you coated. There’s a wonderful evaluation of the recently-revealed Saudi Arabia’s plans to make main investments in cricket. We realized final month that the dominion is planning a multi-billion-dollar franchise match, that negotiations across the identical have been underway for some time now. What would this Saudi league appear to be, and what would that imply for the cricketing panorama basically? Does such a large and time-consuming league sign the start of the tip for worldwide cricket’s primacy on the calendar? The podcast presents insightful solutions to questions like these.
Robin Uthappa takes a bow after hitting the stumps in a bowl off
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Getty Images
For me, nevertheless, essentially the most spectacular section to this point was the one the place Kimber and Uthappa discuss concerning the psychological well being of professional cricketers, particularly these thrust into the limelight throughout their teenage years. Uthappa gained the World Cup whereas nonetheless 20, and as he places it himself on the podcast, he was “lost” for a very good 4 to 5 years. At one level, he whips out an previous {photograph} and reveals it to Kimber — an unrecognisable Uthappa is not less than 30-40 kilos heavier than normal, with haunted eyes attempting his finest to faux a smile. Uthappa additionally speaks poignantly about rebounding from a suicide try. I feel the episode ought to be required listening/waiting for very younger cricketers.
In an identical vein Kimber and Uthappa additionally discuss concerning the latter’s concepts for a “finishing school” for younger cricketers. “Table manners, how to talk to the press, how to handle investments, how to read contracts, what skills they are developing outside of cricket,” stated Uthappa, “all of this stuff should be taught to youngsters so that when they eventually stop playing professionally, they have something to move towards, something that will set them up for life after the game.”
For diehard cricket followers, I can not advocate KimAppa extremely sufficient. And even in case you are extra of an informal fan and don’t observe the sport significantly carefully, I feel you’ll discover a lot to curiosity you on this podcast.
The author and journalist is engaged on his first e book of non-fiction.
Published – May 02, 2025 12:32 pm IST
