Cricket as a novelty, an obsession, and as literature: interview with Samanth Subramanian

In this episode, we chat with journalist and author Samanth Subramanian. Samanth, an accomplished author and internationally renowned journalist, is a long-time cricket fan who began his career as a sub-editor at Cricinfo. He rewinds to the time he fell in love with the game – in the mid-1990s – and gives us a terrific overview of his relationship with cricket over the years. As a fan, a full-time cricket journalist, an observer from a distance, as well as someone who dips into the game to take in its pleasures. Participants: Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s, http://samanth.in) Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee) Related: The Confidence Man; India's Lavish Farewell to Sachin Tendulkar; Unknown Cricketers; 'You little beauty' (81allout podcast); Fly Lara Fly;  The Star We Don't Know; 'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - Sharda Ugra; From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - Vijay Lokapally podcast; The things we remember, the things we forget - 81allout podcast Books discussed: Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast; This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War; A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of JBS Haldane; Picador Book of Cricket; The Art of Cricket; Pundits from Pakistan; Chinaman - a novel; A Corner of a Foreign Field; War Minus the Shooting; Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer