'Every generation needs its writers to tell its stories' - interview with Sharda Ugra

In this special episode, we chat with veteran sports writer Sharda Ugra.

From interviewing star cricketers as a college student... to blazing a trail as a sports journalist in the early '90s... to writing on a variety of sports for The Hindu... to being the chief sports writer at India Today... to presently working as a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo... Sharda has been an inspiration for a number of sports writers around the world.

We chat with Sharda about her illustrious career – and are riveted by her range of experiences as well as her inexhaustible bank of anecdotes.

Talking Points:

• The magazines that hooked her on to sports


• The interviews she and her college buddies did with the stars of the 1980s


• Memories of Imran Khan


• Landing her first job


• Finding Sachin Tendulkar's number


• Covering sailing 


• Watching Kenya's biggest cricketing moment


• The match-fixing shock


• The fall of Hansie Cronje


• The Azharuddin she interviewed


• Authoring a book with John Wright


• The Ganguly era


• Player access and the importance of stories


• Women's cricket - past, present and future


• And much, much more

Participants:

Sharda Ugra

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Related:

The stolid buccaneer - Sharda Ugra on Mark Taylor

Hansie-gate - Sharda Ugra's piece on the King Commission hearings

What makes sportsmen go corrupt

Manoj Prabhakar? Love? - on a cricketer Sharda Ugra hated to love

All Indian cricketers should write books like this - Sharda Ugra reviews Sanjay Manjrekar's book

Girls aloud - Sharda Ugra on how TV is redefining TV commentary

Couchtalk with Sharda Ugra - interview with Subash Jayaraman

This is personal - Sharda Ugra's letter to Mumbai post 26/11