The Sportageous Podcast

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you an exclusive conversation with Mahin Qureshi, a rising tennis player from Pakistan. At the age of just 18 she has represented her country in many International Tennis Federation(ITF) events. In this episode, Mahin talks about her journey towards International events and why most of the youth don't adopt tennis.  She shares some great ideas how Tennis can be promoted among young girls in Pakistan.

We bring you an exclusive conversation with the CEO of the PCB, Wasim Khan. Wasim shares the story of his journey from playing county cricket for Warwickshire to becoming CEO of Leicestershire CCC to currently the PCB. Emphasising the importance of his current regimes strategic plan, Wasim takes us through disabilities cricket, the women's game and the ICC Future Tours Programme, including an English Tour. Cricket fans this is one you don't want to miss!

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you an exclusive conversation with Shaun Martyn, founder of Fairbreak Global. FairBreak Global aims for a world where people have fair and equal access to opportunities that enable them to succeed in their chosen endeavour, independent of gender or geographical location through cricket. Their mission is to create opportunities in sport, business, media, arts and education to achieve gender equality on a truly global scale.  In this episode, Shaun shares his insights into the progress of the women's game, the ICC Women's T20 World cup, the Blackwell-Mir Trophy and more!   Get involved with FairBreak here: https://fairbreak.net/

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you our conversation with none other than the President-elect of Cricket Scotland, Sue Strachan. Sue Strachan is a kidney doctor by-day, a masters squash champion, and now the president of Cricket Scotland.  In this episode, she shares her story of everything from mental health and wellbeing in sports, gender pay parity in squash versus cricket, and joining the leadership team at Cricket Scotland.

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you an insightful conversation with the founder of Tifo Football, Neil Klerck.   Neil shares the long journey of how he founded TIFO on YouTube, created consistent high-quality and engaging content until its recent sale to The Athletic.   To get in touch with Neil Klerck follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-kler...

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you part 2 of our conversation with cricket coach extraordinaire, Richard Pybus.  In part 1 Richard Pybus, shared the story of his own cricket career and his role in developing cricket at the domestic level in South Africa. This time around he talks about his time with Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Indies cricket as a coach and as the director of the West Indies Cricket Board. We then talk about his new coaching platform, Cricketlab, which you can visit here: https://www.cricketlab.co/. This is part two of our three-part series on Richard Pybus with our partners at Bullpen: https://www.bullpen.com.au/

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you a conversation with the founders of MAAT SPORTS, a football management company in Finland. Musa Thompson and Adeolu Adediran founded MAAT sports to provide footballers, initially from Nigeria, but now across Africa and Europe with a support system to enable them to succeed in their careers during and after football.

In this episode of Sportageous Podcast, we bring you a conversation with none other than cricket coach extraordinaire, Richard Pybus.  He has coached international teams such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and the West Indies, he was formerly the director of the West Indies Cricket Board and arguably one of the most influential coaches in South African domestic cricket.

Mina Markovic is a professional Slovenian climber and also a 3-time combined World Cup winner, former European Lead champion and one of the finest athletes of the sport. In this SPECIAL episode of the Sportageous Podcast, we catch up with Mina to hear about her career, climbing during the COVID-19 Pandemic and much more.

Marcus Dunn is a research fellow of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University. He has worked with various organisations to develop and grow movement analysis in sports. His groundbreaking research has enabled the growth of the VAR and Goal-line technologies in FIFA. He is also one of the Directors of the International Sports Engineering Association. In this episode, we caught up with him to talk about his work in human movement analysis, his travels around the world testing Goal-line technology with FIFA, working with the ITF and engaging women in sports engineering. 

Drew Lilley is a sports journalist with years of experience in  broadcasting and commentary. Currently working with Tennis Australia,  Drew has a breadth of knowledge on the sport. In this episode we caught  up to talk about  tennis in the UK, gender pay parity, the role of  commentary in sport, mental health and much more

Jenny Duncalf is a retired professional squash player with a career-high ranking of 2. She is currently a PSA presenter and the performance pathway coach for Squash Australia. Having represented England in over 100 games, won the Qatar Classic in 2010 and now coaching the game, Jenny shares her breadth and depth of knowledge on the game from working with squash players in Australia, her own battles with Nicol David during her career and the future of English and Australian Squash. You can follow Jenny on Instagram here.

Tom Scollay is a professional cricketer and the Founder of Cricket Mentoring, a coaching platform that is taking social media by storm and helping develop young cricketers across Australia and beyond. In this episode, Tom shares his motivations on developing Cricket Mentoring, their rapid growth on social media, his own journey in cricket and sport, as an athlete and what he aspires to achieve moving forward with Cricket Mentoring.

We catch up with one South East Asia's finest climbers. Liting Xu is a bouldering fanatic, and one of the veterans of the climbing scene in Singapore. In this episode, she shares her personal climbing story, how and why she prefers bouldering over other disciplines, what goes into her sport and passion and much more!

Kaveh Arya may be known as the Unlikely Poet, after this conversation, we learn why this name makes so much sense. Kaveh, is anything but ordinary, a former pro-kickboxer, martial arts coach, academic, cafe owner, refugee, mental health advocate and poet, Kaveh is many things, but over the course of this podcast, you learn, he is a passionate individual who has spent a lot of time working with the youth and marginalised. He shares his insights into the toll that it takes to be a sports coach, the flaws and misgivings of the fitness industry in Australia, and his life as a man of many talents and passions.

Bhavi Devhchand moved to Australia from Zimbabwe when she was 8 years old. She hails from an Indian background so cricket has always been a part of her childhood. In this episode, she talks about her career as a cricketer, her journey in coaching, playing for the Perth Scorchers in the WBBL, women's cricket and being a woman in the sport. One, not to be missed by cricket lovers worldwide!

Jennifer Madu is an American-Nigerian sprinter, who has represented Nigeria at Rio 2016 in the 100m sprint and the 4x100m relay. She grew up in the US, where her immigrant family instilled values into her life that has enabled her to achieve her dreams. Jennifer shares insights into her career from College track at Texas A&M to picking a country to represent all the way to preparing for Tokyo 2020. Her story as a woman of colour who has excelled at her sport is intriguing, exciting and fascinating. She also talks about the evening she hung out with Usain Bolt, and her experiences meeting a range of other athletes. Definitely one not to be missed!

Elana Withnall may be from a small town in New South Wales, Australia (Old Bar), but her sporting career has been anything but small. She is a former professional heptathlete and bobsledder, fitness coach, model, sports journalist and now vying for a place in the Olympics, with the Australian women’s Rugby 7s team. The story of her passion for sport and her love for fitness is not to be missed! In this episode she shares her injury struggles, how she continues to work towards representing her country in the Olympics and how sport takes up various aspects of her life. Tokyo is not out of her radar, and she’s working away, this time at a team sport, to make this happen! Tune in to the Sportageous Podcast, to hear all about her incredible story as a strong, proud and fearless woman in sport!

Zeeshan Ahmad, by profession, is Doctor, but his first love is cricket. In this episode, he discusses what it was like to play cricket in Canada, where the local populace is not familiar with the game. Later on, the discussion includes his experiences of watching cricket in Australia after moving here. He expresses his feelings about being a Pakistani cricket fan and also discusses the issues facing the cricketing nation and makes suggestions on how to resolve them.

Genevieve Gregson holds the Australian record in the women's steeplechase and has represented her country in London and Rio. In this episode, she talks to us about overcoming injuries and getting ready for Tokyo 2020. She goes into detail about how she started running, and what it was like to study for college in the US, where all her sports needs were taken care of. Not to mention, her final race at University was days before qualifying for London, which almost didn't happen. Her story is one not to miss, and her story of persistence and dedication is as inspiring as you could imagine!

Tatenda was the youngest ever captain to lead a test team, but it was not exactly a smooth ride. He discusses his troubles while playing cricket in Zimbabwe and enjoying his time on the field, despite the struggle.  In this episodes, he puts the rumors to rest on why he retired at the age of 29 from international cricket in 2012. Furthermore, he discusses his book 'Keeper of Faith' and covers the different incidents in his life candidly. He also discusses what the future of Zimbabwe cricket looks like and makes predictions for world cricket in the new decade. 

Mary Konstantopoulos may be a lawyer by day, but she has made it her mission to support, grow and enable women in sports across Australia. Having launched Ladies who League, Mary now runs more passion projects that have become far more than just a passion, including Ladies who Legspin, Ladies Who Lineout and Ladies who Leap! In this episode, Mary chats to us about how women’s sport has changed in Australia, what needs to be done for it to grow further and how she is doing her [BIG] part in making all of this happen!

Shehzar Mohammed is leading the trend of fitness in Pakistan. Coming from a rich cricketing background, being the grandson of Hanif Mohammad and son of Shoaib Mohammad, Shehzar is carrying the torch of cricket development in Pakistan. Shehzar also plays cricket himself, he is a batsman and 3rd generation cricketer from his family to score a double century in first-class cricket. He attributes his resurgence in the form to his newfound approach and fitness, of course. Shehzar is currently playing for Sindh under the revamped structure of Pakistan first class. He is the man behind the fitness transformations of Sarfraz Ahmad, Asad Shafiq, Shan Masood Anwar Ali, and Azam Khan.

When it comes to snow sports, there are many innovations that we have seen over the past few years. With the advance of technology, many will argue that the difference Anti Ordinary will be bringing to skiing and snowboarding is second to none! Rob Joseph is the co-founder of a company that does exactly as the title says. Helmets can be frustrating to wear when you're trying to get your best out on the snow, and with this new invention, a slick Kickstarter campaign, and solid leaders, Anti Ordinary's beanie is changing all of that.

Simon Taufel may have been voted ICC Umpire of the year, a record 5 times, but in this candid podcast, you come to learn about his life after cricket, life away from cricket and much more! He tells us about who he is as a person, a family man and a human being. We discuss everything about what he’s been up to since he called it quits on his umpiring career, and also the launch of his new book, ‘Finding the Gaps’, which is now available in Australia, the UK and New Zealand!

Geoff Wilson talks about and discusses sports strategy. What it is, what goes on behind the scenes to engage fans and what is done to make their experience better.  He also expands on how digital growth is changing fan experience and the need of the hour is to develop new strategies to engage fans. Geoff expands upon his own sports consultancy firm and how he has had the opportunity to devise sports strategies for a range of sports including football, basketball and MMA. He also shares his experience on the social impacts of sports and how it can help the youth on the streets to stay away from crime. 

Former English cricket international and recently the coach of the Rajshahi Royals, who were successful in winning the Bangladesh Premier League, Owais Shah features on this episode of the Sportageous Podcast. Owais tells us about his journey from being a kid who played on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, to showing his prowess to, and playing for, Middlesex, and eventually representing England in every single format from his youth to taking up a stint as the coach for the Rajshahi Royals. He covers a range of topics, such as being a British Asian in English cricket to the differences in playing the 3 formats of cricket and the advice given to him by Australian head coach, Justin Langer, in their early days as players.

In this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, Shannon Gove, Co-Founder of Event Workforce Group and Rosterfy chats with Sportageous about how two sports management students saw the lack of opportunities for other students in their field, and ended up creating a business. A few years down the line, and with a new sports platform, Shannon and his co-founder Bennett Merriman, are working with the likes of Tough Mudder, the Super Bowl, the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup 2020. More recently though, they have branched out to areas much broader than sports management such as the Dubai World Expo 2020. Shannon shares his struggles and successes with running not just one, but two large organisations, and having to manage startups that have grown rapidly while elaborating on the launch of Rosterfy 2.0. If you want to learn from some of the best in the business in Australia, who have branched out to 15 countries, including, but not limited to, the USA and the UAE, check out this episode!

Mohammed Arif has been playing, promoting and driving the sport of cricket for over 3 decades. He has previously worked for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as their National Growth Manager for Diverse Communities. Arif is also a tape-ball cricket enthusiast and avidly promotes the game around the UK and also in other parts of the world. He works closely with an organisation called Chance to Shine as a Community Cricket Coach, inspiring the young generation on the streets to play the game. We sat down to chat with Mohammad Arif about his career, tape-ball cricket and his decades of work in the sport!

In this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, Andre Duarte, founder of AirCourts, chats with us about how his sports booking platform has made life easy for anybody and everybody interested in booking a court, field or pitch for numerous sports in Portugal. He tells us about his journey as a SportsTech founder, how his business requires two completely different streams to be functioning successfully at the same time, and what could happen if Cristiano Ronaldo got onboard for AirCourts. We cover everything in this incredible story about how technology can build bridges and enable professional and amateur athletes, along with local sporting clubs, to easily provide and find a means to easily book their evening football, tennis or padel game. And also chat about the European SportsTech market.

In this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, we chat with Tanzim Alam of Knightwatchmen Sports and the Boys in the Cave Podcast about a range of things cricket; cricket in Australia, Bangladesh Cricket (both domestic and international), domestic Bangladeshi-Australian cricketers, Shakib Al Hasan and his ban, and spirituality and sports, amongst several other things! Don't miss this episode if you like anything cricket, and in particular, Bangladesh cricket.

Mickey Malhotra has played senior-level cricket around the world, in places like Oman, India, Australia, New Zealand and of course, his home country, Canada. Despite the lack of opportunities, funding and support in Canada, Mickey's love, passion and dedication for the game led to the foundation of the Brampton Premier League. An Indoor tournament in the winter months in Canada that brings across the summer teams to play on astroturf and keep the game of cricket alive! Mickey chats to us about cricket around the world, how his experiences in playing the great game have enabled him to set up the Brampton Premier League, and the young talents that are found in the sport in Canada. This is a story of grit, determination and sheer passion for the sport!

Edward Van Gils is the man who took street football to the mainstream.  A tattooed street footballer, with a Hip-hop swagger about him, whose love for the game saved him from a life of crime. You can be forgiven for considering him to be an enigma. However, he is anything but! In this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, we chat to Edward about his street footballing career, his experiences working with the likes of Ronaldinho, Gilberto Silva, Kevin Kuranyi and Juan Pablo, and what it's been like for him to feature in FIFA 2020s Volta. Edward Van Gils has dedicated his life to two things: street football, and empowering the marginalised youth. Streetkings was founded by Edward in 2010 and now consists of clinics in over 25 locations across the world. This candid discussion with Edward covers everything from street football, 11-a-side football, American hip-hop culture, critiques of the media industry, working with the youth, football skills and techniques and of course Edward's life from the streets to the mainstage.

Artificial intelligence and sports analysis? Machine learning is changing how we do medicine, art, and media. Sports is no exception to this rule. GAMEFACE.AI is bringing analytics to sport, as we’ve never seen it before! In this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, Jalal Shaik, founder of GAMEFACE.AI, talks about how his exciting and innovative startup is bringing accurate and efficient analysis to sports such as football and cricket. Next year, they will be announcing collaborations with several big sporting teams and clubs. However, you too can access GAMEFACE.AI And all you need is the software and a standard camera to solve all your sporting analytics.

This episode of the Sportageous Podcast features Fox Sports Australia commentator, Simon Hill. If you want to hear about football (soccer) in all its glory from a man who has spent his life in the game, this is the podcast for you! Simon is a Brit, who has lived in Australia for 16 years. He has covered football for the BBC and Fox Sports. With this, come many fascinating perspectives of Simon’s career as a sports presenter and commentator. A life-long Manchester City supporter and a huge advocate for the league that he loves, the A-League, Simon talks to us about the differences in footballing culture in Australia and the UK, the Socceroos rising stars, how the A-league needs more investment, and of course, various topics on the English Premier League (this podcast was recorded prior to the sacking of Unai Emery, from Arsenal, and only two games after Jose Mourinho took charge at Tottenham, but there are some fascinating insights into Emery’s potential successor and the Spurs under Mourinho).

Founder of Wylas Timing, William Ferguson sat down with us to talk about running a SportsTech business, the Sports industry in Australia and how his product has radically changed swimming around the world. He talks about the successes and struggles of running a start-up that now sells in 13 different countries on 4 different continents, and shares some of his personal experiences as a software engineer who ended up in the SportTech space.

Pro-climber, Kyra Condie features in this episode of the  Sportageous Podcast, with host, Zushan Hashmi. Kyra is often called 'Reckless Abandon' by sport climbing commentators for her willingness to take risks while climbing. In this episode, Kyra talks about how she started her climbing journey in Minnesota, what her career has on the horizon, and how she is preparing to qualify for the Olympics. Kyra also tells us about her favourite Netflix show, and what she enjoys watching.

Pro-climber, Sierra Blair-Coyle features in this episode of the Sportageous Podcast, with host, Zushan Hashmi. Sierra is a professional climber, who has represented the USA in various climbing tournaments, across the three competitive climbing disciplines of bouldering, lead climbing and speed climbing! Sierra tells us about her journey as a climber, how the sport has changed in the last few years, and what she has coming up on her climbing calendar. 

Pro-cyclist, Ismail Saeed features in the first Sportageous Podcast with host, Zushan Hashmi.  Ismail is an architect by day, and a cyclist by 'early morning', morning, afternoon and night. His cycling journey has taken him from Islamabad to Brisbane and back to the highest border in the world, the Khunjerab Pass! In this podcast, Ismail discusses how he manages his life as a business owner, architect and cyclist, while elaborating on his cycling career, and his cycling aspirations in 2020, including Pakistan's new Annual cycling event - The Tour De Khunjareb. At an elevation of 4500m, this is no easy place to be, for a professional cyclist, let alone an ordinary person hiking up the hills! Tune in to hear about how Ismail hopes to bring his two beloved nations, Australia and Pakistan, together on a cycling spectacle filled with music, culture, dancing and most importantly, height!