The Duleep Trophy is back in a zonal format — but is the tournament still the best way to identify and develop India's top long-format cricketers?

In this episode, we question the fundamental structure of the Duleep Trophy and explore a radical idea:

What if IPL franchises entered long-format domestic cricket?

The IPL has transformed T20 cricket through franchise ownership, investment, branding, analytics, coaching and professional team management. Could that same ecosystem be used to reinvent India's premier domestic long-format tournament?

India's 79th Independence Day. 80th year of independence.

And what a sporting journey it has been.

From beating our colonial masters 4-0 in hockey at Wembley in 1948 — to Manu Bhaker winning TWO medals at a single Olympics in Paris 2024 — India's sporting story is one of the greatest narratives in world sport.

In this special Independence Day episode on Inner Athlete — we take you through every great moment, every great miss and every trend that tells you why Indian sport has never looked more promising than it does right now.

To understand the health of Indian cricket — you need to understand Mumbai cricket.

Tushar Dawang — the man behind the wildly popular TD Show, Mumbai's most dedicated chronicler of cricket stories — joins Inner Athlete for one of the most nostalgic, fascinating and commercially insightful cricket conversations we have done.

From the origins of tennis ball cricket as a nursery for greats like Chandrakant Pandit and Sachin Tendulkar, to the economics of the format today, to Mumbai's legacy clubs and their untapped commercial potential — this episode covers it all.