'A match that you watch from the stadium is a sacred thing': an interview with the historian Mukul Kesavan

In this episode, we chat with author, essayist, and perceptive cricket columnist Mukul Kesavan.

Besotted with cricket for over five decades – and viewing it through the lens of politics, sociology, and history – Mukul talks about his magnetic attraction to the game and its many pleasures.

Talking Points:

An Anglophone middle-class initiation into cricket in the 1960s
The post-facto skepticism built into the way we receive legends and lore
Viswanath – ‘this extraordinarily skilled and beautiful Teddy Bear playing cricket’
India’s tour to Pakistan in 1978-79 – and Pakistan TV’s coverage of the matches
The utterly unmemorable Feroz Shah Kotla – and the contrast with Chepauk
Learning cricket as a process of being socialised into English
Cricketing depravity – and Delhi Daredevils’ first IPL game
Watching Imran Khan bowl live for the first time
The “neat perfection” of Sunil Gavaskar
An aesthetic case for cricketing greatness – Laxman v Rahane v Gill
Neville Cardus – and “everything undesirable about cricket writing”
Cricket and politics – what should we expect from our athletes?
Leading Indian cricketers tweeting in unison regarding the farmers protests
The thunderous silence around Wasim Jaffer
The IPL in Delhi during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic
The significance of Mohammad Siraj – and how we watch cricket in a charged political landscape