’It struck me that you can score 574, declare twice, and still lose a Test’ - Allan Border

We talk to legendary Australian captain and batsman Allan Border about his experience of touring the subcontinent in the 1980s - taking in the tied Test in 1986, the World Cup win in 1987, and the controversial tour of Pakistan in 1988.

Joining Border is veteran journalist Mike Coward, whose classic book - Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - we recently republished via 81allout Publishing.

Buy Cricket Beyond the Bazaar:

India (hardback) | India (paperback, e-copy)

Australia (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

For the rest - please check your country-specific Amazon pages.

Talking Points:

• The cultural shock in the subcontinent for Australians of Border's generation
• Coming to grips with the heat, the noise, and the way of life in India
• The pressure that Border was under in the lead-up to the tied Test
• Dean Jones' epic innings and the role Border had in it
• The final day of the tied Test - when players and umpires felt the heat
• Bob Simpson's contributions as manager of the team during the 1987 World Cup
• Defying the odds in Lahore as Steve Waugh silenced the capacity crowd
• Gatting c Dyer b Border 41 (and the moment when a World Cup final turned)
• How Mike Coward managed to be both empathetic towards the players and ruthlessly objective when reporting the crisis in Pakistan in 1988
• The legacy of Frank Tarrant and the pioneering Australian tour of 1935
• The institution of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: its cache and its future

Participants:

Allan Border

Mike Coward

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Related:

Cricket Beyond the Bazaar: the revival of a classic book - 81allout

A lifetime in cricket writing - 81allout podcast with Mike Coward

The subcontinent beyond the cliches: revisiting a landmark cricket book - Dan Brettig and Russell Jackson discuss Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - 81allout podcast

Embracing the East: Suresh Menon on Cricket Beyond the Bazaar - ESPNcricinfo

Mike Coward's books

The Final Frontier: Mike Coward - The Greatest Season That Was podcast

'It long irked me that sports writing, in this country, has been devalued' - Mike Coward's speech at the ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2015