ROUNDUP RANT: Associate countries suck, right?
How NZ got revenge for 2024, an analysis of associate nations’ competitiveness across WC, & how RCB-W built their 2026 team.
Good morning!
Today’s a packed edition to kick off the WC - rightfully so after the phenomenal first weekend. But, I wanted to take a minute to appreciate Andrew Leonard.
Before the games started, I saw a bunch of writers and journalists I respected shouting out one particular broadcaster; “Go well, Taklu Dai!” The 1st tweet seemed like a friendly appreciation, but by the 10th I was equally intrigued & confused. Why were so many calling out a last minute addition to a star-studded broadcast team?
One over of the NEP-ENG thriller answered that question immediately. Unless I’m analysing a game for BoC (which we did for AFG-NZ yesterday), I tend to watch the games on mute. I just can’t stand the nonsense that keeps being spouted. But, due to a combination of getting stuck editing the morning game’s piece and eating a late lunch, I only really tuned into the ENG game at the end.
10 off 6 remaining. A win predictor heavily favouring the underdogs. The hilarity of England being the first major team to go down after a weekend full of heroic losses for the associate nations. It’s the definition of must-see TV, and I was just scrambling to open the app in time to see the finale.
I knew nothing about Nepal when I switched it on. Six balls later, I knew about Karan KC’s role in popularising the sport, about their secondary base of support in the mountains, and - most catchily - about their beautifully apt nickname; The Cardiac Kids, because they’re going to have your pulse racing every game.
The associate nations are doing their part to make these games unbelievably watchable, and through sheer luck we’ve got a broadcaster who knows them well enough to give us the context of their greatness.
From what I understand talking to veteran journalists, Leonard has been a champion of covering the associate nations for years - even while working at the ICC and before gambling companies started propping up endless franchise tournaments. In fact, Leonard is so beloved in Nepal that apparently multiple fans were walking around with face masks of the Irish broadcaster during NPL games!
The Cardiac Kids is already an iconic nickname; everyone’s using it on Twitter, multiple outlets have it in their match reports, and it’s even in the headline of ESPN’s match reaction piece. This is the impact of good journalism & smart decision-making by the authorities - a combination we rarely get in cricket.
I love it, and I’m definitely unmuting every game with Leonard on comms. Go well, Taklu Dai!
[Quick postscript; the Cardiac Kids nickname was created by Peter Della Penna back in 2018. You can read that christening here!]
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Associate countries suck, right?
🏏 Cricket Roundup: How NZ got revenge for 2024, an analysis of associate nations’ competitiveness across WCs, & the best jerseys.
T20 WC Match Reactions:
NZ beat AFG by 5 wickets, ENG beat NEP by 4 runs, & SL beat IRE by 20 runs.
🇳🇿🇦🇫 | 🚨 Our team went beyond the headlines on AFG-NZ; Arnav Jain on AFG’s Zadran problem, Dom Murray on Ferguson 3.0 and Seifert improving via franchise play, & Tarutr Malhotra (me!) on NZ’s poor bowling strategy. Meanwhile, Alagappan Muthu looked at Glenn Phillips’ spin-hitting.
🏴🇳🇵| Nagraj Gollapudi on how NEP ran ENG very close, Matthew Henry on whether this win was proof of an ENG coach willing to adapt, & Shankar Narayan on Jacob Bethell showing glimpses of his promise.
🇱🇰🇮🇪 | Andrew Fernando on Kamindu Mendis finding his T20 feet, & 🔒 Jarrod Kimber & Shayan Khan have headline stats from all three games.
T20 WC:
🚨 Aditya analysed whether associate nation games are actually as uncompetitive as Ashwin derided them to be (before this weekend’s fun!), while 📊 Sruthi Ravindranath analysed why teams score slower in the WC v franchises.
Alagappan Muthu/Deivarayan Muthu profile ITA’s Thomas Draca and his AUS connections, Firdose Moonda with SA’s Dewald Brevis about finding the fun in cricket again, & Narbavi R with Brian Bennett about growing up in ZIM.
Ildiko Connell has the most important question of the WC; who has the best kit?
The Cricket Roundup:
Abhijato Sensarma has the IND view around Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s 175 (!) in the U19 World Cup final, Simon Hughes has the ENG view on the prodigy, & Katya Witney names five other potential stars from the youth tournament.
How the WPL champions were rebuilt
📚 Best Features: How RCB-W built their team, Ian Harvey on T20s, & a tech revolution in local IND cricket.
“How RCB built their WPL juggernaut”
✍️ Shashank Kishore goes behind the scenes to reveal how RCB rebuilt their losing team from 2025 to win this year’s WPL (without Ellyse Perry!).“AB’s baby”
✍️ Alagappan Muthu/Deivarayan Muthu talks to Ian Harvey, the original T20 pioneer, about his time in the game.“India’s quietest revolution”
✍️ Suhail Bhat has a fantastic deep dive into the consumer tech that is revolutionising everyday cricket in apartments, streets and maidans in India.
🗞️ Quick News: A potential end to the boycott, the cost to cricket, & the RCB offers.
The BCB, PCB & ICC have convened in Lahore to discuss ending the IND-PAK boycott, as rumours float that PAK will play the game. Tim Wigmore on the cost to international cricket, while Vijay Tagore clears up the many varied valuations of this single game.
Venkat Ananth reports on the many offers to buy RCB including (shudderingly) from Manchester United owner Avram Glazer.
Sikandar Raza’s look back and forward
📺 A/V: Raza on ZIM, T20 WC team maps, & a WPL mega review.
“The Zimbabwe Dream”
📽️ Beard before Wicket host Sikandar Raza about his T20 exploits, and his dreams for ZIM cricket. [YouTube]“Team Maps”
📽️ Jarrod Kimber has his always fun team maps for the T20 WC (though, they are a little small on the frame). [YouTube]“WPL 2026: Mega Review”
🚨 🎤 PCCI Pod got a bunch of the BoC writers together (including yours truly!) to look back at the WPL season; each team got grades and analyses, and we end with a snake-style draft to pick a 12-woman roster to beat the champions. [Apple/Spotify]
That’s it for today!
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