81 All Out

In this episode, we chat with journalist, blogger, author, podcaster, vlogger – or in short, the Mark Waugh of cricket coverage – Jarrod Kimber. We focus on a piece Jarrod wrote last year titled 'The Ugly Australian: the evolution of a cricket species'. He talks about his formative experiences with sledging and hyper-aggression at the club level and how his views on behavior and moral codes have changed over time. No other team treats cricket as a team sport like Australia does, says Jarrod, but they also stretch the limits of what team-mates must do. Talking Points: The island that is Australian cricket - with moral codes and 'good bloke, bad bloke' conventions that combine into the 'Australian Way' Club cricket in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s - when the game was sometimes a violent, contact sport The atmosphere at Australian cricket grounds in the pre-2000s The culture of Australian cricket that built up to Sandpapergate The two sides to Allan Border's legendary quip to Dean Jones in the f