As 2020 ticks over to 2021, we sit in the middle of another engrossing Test series between two heavyweights of international cricket – India and Australia.

Today, an Australia v India Test series can only be rivalled by the Ashes for prestige, quality of competition, and the level of interest from fans around the world. And that’s without talking about the economics any time the two countries meet.

But it wasn’t always like that.  

2021 marks twenty years since the famed 2001 Test series between India and Australia, Steve Waugh’s final frontier mission and the extraordinary efforts of a golden generation of Indian cricketers to thwart it.  

To recognise this, The Greatest Season That Was presents a new series ‘Final Frontier’.

This the story of how the Australia and India rivalry went from strangers to fever pitch in just a few years, and the story of how it was all consummated by the magic of  2001.

Over the next few weeks we’ll talk to the players in the middle who defined this new rivalry, but also about how the experience changed perceptions and relationships between the two countries.

In this the first episode  we talk to the voice of Indian cricket Harsha Bhogle about how Indian perceived Australian cricket, and the historical touchpoints that had Indian cricket fans ready to embrace this new rivalry by the 90s long before their Australian counterparts understood what the new era of cricket was going to look like.

Subscribe to The Greatest Season That Was to listen to each new episode as it goes live, but now Harsha Bhogle joins us to discuss the building of the rivalry on TGSTW presents - The Final Frontier.

The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.