An unquiet history: an interview with writer Osman Samiuddin

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Our special guest this week is Osman Samiuddin, a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo and author of The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket.

One of the finest contemporary cricket writers, Osman has had a ring-side view of the triumphs and disappointments of Pakistan cricket over the last two decades. His match reports, profiles, and long-form features contain both a depth of research and originality of style – as well as a sense of timelessness that make them both a work of journalism as well as a draft of history.

Talking Points:

• Falling in love with Pakistan cricket in the 1990s


• The tumultuous years in Pakistan cricket: 2006 to 2010


• Fazal Mahmood's crazy confidence


• Imran Khan's influence on fast bowling - the seminal spell in Sydney in 1977


• Javed Miandad and the quest for Izzat


• Wasim Akram - the hero and a cricket writer's ideal

Participants: Osman Samiuddin (@osmansamiuddin); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Related: Pakistan's quicks get into the swing; Ode to a magazine; Basit Ali's 127 (79); West Indies win in Bridgetown in 1988; Pakistan in 1999: the allure, the magic, and the heartbreak; The Imran Khan's I've Known; The Haal of Pakistan; Miandad's last ODI hundred; Imran Khan's 10/77 in Headingley; Rahul Bhattachaya on Wasim Akram's ball to Rahul Dravid; Akram's hat-trick in Dhaka, 1999; Akram's 5/49 in Antigua, 2000; England v Pakistan, Lord's Test, 1992; Shoaib Akhtar 6/30, Wellington, 2003; Mohammad Asif's six-for in Sydney, 2010

Books: The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket; Pundits from Pakistan; War Minus the Shooting; Not quite cricket; On Warne