Cricket – The Sports Fan Project

Conversations with Sports Fans – James Rowlands

September 17, 2026September 17, 2026DouglasTHillLeave a comment

**^{Englishman James Rowlands celebrates his visit to Tropicana Field, marking the 30th MLB park he’d seen a game in. (Photo by James Rowlands)}**

The mysterious way people are connected continues to amaze me.

Nearly 13 months ago, I attended a soccer match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at River Plate‘s famed Estadio Mas Monumental. Among the fellas who were part of that tour group attending the match was Tim Walker, an English ex pat who was living St. Petersburg, FL.

During the ensuing year, Tim and I have remained in contact.

We trade occasional WhatsApp messages about whatever sporting event either one of us recently attended. Tim was even kind enough to join me on a previous episode of Conversations with Sports Fans (S:4, E:59) when he totally buried the lead by failing to divulge early in out chat that he once had a business meeting with then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

That aside, it’s been terrific to get to know Tim a bit better and, in fact, he’s joining me for the 2027 Daytona 500.

So it was a pleasant surprise when he called me late this summer about a fellow Brit he’d just met through a mutual friend: James Rowlands.

“I think he’d make an excellent guest for your podcast, Doug,” Tim began.

He then went on to inform me that, despite living in Leeds, England, James had just visited his 30th MLB ballpark with a visit to Tropicana Field. Oh yeah, Tim went on; he’s also been to FIFA World Cup finals, countless English soccer grounds, Cricket World Cups, and Rugby World Cups. And he’s seen quite a few music acts live.

What Tim didn’t disclose early in the discussion (or maybe he did and I’ve just conveniently forgotten) is that James is a long-haul pilot for a major commercial airline and thus has major logistical and financial components (flight and lodging) covered by his employer.

So Tim put us in contact with one another, and the result of that contact is the episode you find before you today.

In the event you needed any more reasons to listen, James has also attended golf’s four major championships, eight Formula 1 circuits, four European Soccer Championships, a Super Bowl, a soccer match in all 92 English soccer league grounds, and more.

Talk about a man after my own heart!

^{My Conversation with James Rowlands.}

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Conversations with Sports Fans – Shamit Desai

February 19, 2026February 19, 2026DouglasTHillLeave a comment

^{One of Shamit’s favorite spectator sports is MotoGP.}

I dive into the wayback machine for this episode of Conversations, tapping a long-ago work colleague of my wife, Carol, from her days at the old Gateway Computer stores.

Shamit Desai and Carol both worked at the Gateway store in Roseville, MI, at the turn of the 21st Century and, as life happens, sort of went down separate paths after their time together.

Shamit wound up in Washington, DC, London, Hong Kong, and India (twice!), which is where I caught up with him for this long overdue catch up on his life as a sports fan.

To say Shamit’s fan life is varied would be a tremendous understatement!

We talk about his introduction to American sports in the greater Houston area upon arriving as a youth with his family, his fondness for Hakeem Olajuwon, attending an Oilers’ game in the Astrodome, and then about his eventual move to the Detroit area where, as a parking valet at a downtown hotel, he had opportunities to hob-nob with many sports legends.

He loves all motor sports so there’s plenty of auto – and motorcyle – discussion and, of course, cricket, which he is actively playing as a bowler for a local team. Much like previous guest, Nikhil Kulkarni, Shamit oozes patience in attempting to continue educating me on the rules of the game.

^{My Conversation with Shamit Desai.}

Conversations with Sports Fans – Nikhil Kulkarni

January 22, 2026January 22, 2026DouglasTHillLeave a comment

^{My Summer of Cricket author Nikhil Kulkarni joins me this week on Conversations with Sports Fans.}

Confession Time: I know very (very!) little about the sport of cricket.

And I suspect many of my listeners are not unlike me

Having said that, we are – most-assuredly – in the minority. There’s an estimated 2.5 billion (yes, that’s billion with a B) cricket fans worldwide, making it the second most followed sport on the planet. It trails soccer by an estimated 1 billion.

Side Note: You might be interested in seeing the Top 10 and where your favorite sport resides (or doesn’t) as of this 2024 report.

So, when I was approached by an Australian book publicist about having author Nikhil Kulkarni – a self-proclaimed cricket tragic (more on this in a moment) – contact me about having Nikhil as a guest to discuss his book, My Summer of Cricket: Three tests, one fan, and decades of stories, I was more than game.

Especially after I asked Google to give me the definition of a cricket tragic: “an extremely passionate, almost obsessive fan of cricket, someone whose life revolves around the sport, experiencing deep emotional highs with wins and devastating lows with losses, often sacrificing other things for the game and knowing every detail, from stats to folklore.”

This is my kind of guest!

Just over a year ago, Nikhil attended three of the five test matches in the bilateral India-Australia Border-Gavaskar Trophy matches in the Australian cities of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. Following his nearly 3 weeks immersed in national cricket competition, he set out to write the memoir-esque book noted above, My Summer of Cricket.

Understandably Nikhil and I discuss cricket – and he’s exceedingly patient with me! – but we also discuss the life of a passionate (e.g. tragic) sports fan and the communal nature of being one which is universal no matter the sport your fandom fancies.