Carry on, KimAppa

The Hindu

02-05-2025

It's that time of the year again, when the Indian Premier League (IPL) dominates sports pages in India across a couple of months. When it comes to sports broadcasting — and increasingly, podcasting — fans are divided into two groups. One group, old-school, likes former players sharing anecdotes from their playing days, stories about contemporary cricketers and how they were 'discovered', et cetera. A newer generation of fans prefers a more scientific approach, listening to analysts, people who crunch the numbers and come up with the most crucial factors and phases that defined the gameplay that day.
The all-new KimAppa podcast seeks to combine these two aspects and so far, has delivered the best of both worlds. The podcast features writer and cricket analyst Jarrod Kimber alongside former Team India batter Robin Uthappa, who was part of MS Dhoni's T20 World Cup-winning team from 2007, and represented India in one-day international cricket as well (the name of the podcast is, of course, a portmanteau of their names). KimAppa is hosted on Kimber's 'Good Areas' YouTube page as well as on Uthappa's own channel. There have been four episodes of about 70-80 minutes apiece so far, and new episodes are recorded live on the weekend, covering the entire week's IPL action.
Breaking down the power game
From the first episode itself, it was obvious that Kimber and Uthappa enjoy an easygoing rapport. They're both deep thinkers of the game, they've both worked with IPL teams and other franchises around the world. And they're good sports, generally speaking.
In the second episode, Kimber introduced 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, Uthappa laughed at the reference, arguably the most-photographed moment of his career, because his dismissal against Bermuda involved a spectacular one-handed catch by Dwayne 'Sluggo' Leverock, a potbellied Bermuda policeman who somehow glided a fair way to his right like a gazelle for this one play.
So much of T20 cricket these days revolves around the power game practised by the batters, and Uthappa does a great job of breaking down hitting technique. During the second episode, Uthappa talks about his own game against spinners, and the importance of reading length correctly — and early. This is high-quality analysis that draws from other sports such as baseball as well, in its biomechanical antecedents. The inevitable sense of machismo associated with prolific six-hitters like M.S. Dhoni and Andre Russell is also alluded to in a tongue-in-cheek way, 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 health and finishing schools
If like me you enjoy looking at the bigger picture when it comes to sports and geopolitics, KimAppa has you covered. There's an excellent analysis of the recently-revealed Saudi Arabia's plans to make major investments in cricket. We learned last month that the kingdom is planning a multi-billion-dollar franchise tournament, that negotiations around the same have been underway for a while now. What would this Saudi league look like, and what would that mean for the cricketing landscape in general? Does such a massive and time-consuming league signal the beginning of the end for international cricket's primacy on the calendar? The podcast offers insightful answers to questions like these.
For me, however, the most impressive segment so far was the one where Kimber and Uthappa talk about the mental health of pro cricketers, especially those thrust into the limelight during their teenage years. Uthappa won the World Cup while still 20, and as he puts it himself on the podcast, he was 'lost' for a good four to five years. At one point, he whips out an old photograph and shows it to Kimber — an unrecognisable Uthappa is at least 30-40 pounds heavier than usual, with haunted eyes trying his best to fake a smile. Uthappa also speaks poignantly about rebounding from a suicide attempt. I think the episode should be required listening/watching for very young cricketers.
In a similar vein Kimber and Uthappa also talk about the latter's ideas for a 'finishing school' for young 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,' said 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 fans, I cannot recommend KimAppa highly enough. And even if you are more of a casual fan and don't follow the game particularly closely, I think you'll find plenty to interest you in this podcast.
The writer and journalist is working on his first book of non-fiction.