Stumped

Charu Sharma, Jim Maxwell and Nikesh Rughani preview the Women’s Big Bash League final. They discuss the dominance of the Adelaide Strikers captained by Australia all-rounder Tahlia McGrath who have won 11 out of 14 matches. They will be playing their final against the Brisbane Heat at the Adelaide Oval for the first time and are hoping for a record crowd. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has...

Alison Mitchell, Brett Sprigg and Sunil Gupta look back at the Men’s 50 Over World Cup final and debate if Travis Head will be the next superstar of Australian cricket. He sits amongst legends Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist as only the third Australian man to make a century in a World Cup Final. We also discuss who will be the next generation of India cricket stars. Plus Pat Cummins has had a st...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma discuss Virat Kohli's World Cup record breaking semi-final performance. Kohli helped India reach the final by becoming the first player to score fifty One Day international centuries, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar's record. They also ask if India have been challenged so far and can they claim the ultimate title in their own backyard? We also look back on...

Alison Mitchell is joined by the Chief Executive of the ICC, Geoff Allardice. He is challenged on the plight of the Afghanistan women’s cricket team who fled the country when the Taliban regained control in 2021. Allardice also tells us about cricket's inclusion in the Olympics and the future of the One-Day format. (Geoff Allardice spoke to Stumped before Sri Lanka was suspended by the ICC due to...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Sunil Gupta are joined by Catherine Dalton who is the first female coach in the Pakistan Super League. She will also be the first female fast bowling coach of any professional men’s team when she joins the Multan Sultan's. She tells us about the significance of the role, why she did not have any reservations about taking the job and the differences between coaching...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Sunil Gupta are joined by Afghanistan assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai. He was part of the Afghanistan team that progressed to the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifiers. In 2010 he retired from playing and took up a coaching role within the team. He tells us the secret to their success after their two shock wins over England and Pakistan in the Men's Cricket World Cup. Plus,...

Please note: This programme contains discussions about alcoholism and references to mental health. If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org Alison Mitchell speaks to South Africa wicketkeeper Sinal...

How do you mentally prepare to win the Cricket World Cup? Alison Mitchell, Sunil Gupta and Jim Maxwell speak with the man who helped mastermind India’s 2011 World Cup victory on home soil – Paddy Upton. The mental conditioning coach takes us inside the psyche of the victorious team, discusses how to prepare to face your biggest rivals and outlines how he motivates some of the game’s greats, Sachin...

Over the next 46 days, the sport's biggest tournament will showcase the world's top ten 50-over teams and with India starting their campaign against Australia, Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Sunil Gupta all look ahead to the mouthwatering clash. Plus Tim De Leede, the Netherlands most capped player with 237 appearances, joins us on the programme. He’s featured in three previous World Cups, inclu...

Pakistan’s Nida Dar discusses her incredible year. The 36-year-old has become captain of the Pakistan Women's team, made her 100th ODI appearance for her country and broke into the top ten of the ICC All Rounder rankings. She tells Stumped about her journey to the national team and how vital next year’s launch of a Women’s Pakistan Super League will be for the growth of the sport in Pakistan. Plus...

Stumped’s Alison Mitchell is joined by South Africa's wicketkeeper Quinton De Kock to discuss why he has decided to retire from one day cricket after the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Plus he explains why he likes to avoid being in the limelight and his reasons for not ‘taking the knee’ with the South Africa team at the T20 World Cup two years ago. De Kock tells Stumped that players ‘are not just pa...

In a month where South Africa's women's team toured Pakistan for the first time, we speak to interim captain Laura Wolvaardt about how she is adjusting to the role after a difficult period for South Africa with a number of retirements, including Lizelle Lee.and Dane Van Niekerk. She also gave her reaction to the fact that international match fees for women will match men for the first time in Sout...

On Stumped this week, Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma speak to 16 year-old Vaishnave Mahesh who has become the youngest player, male or female to take 50 T20 international wickets and she’s still at school. The United Arab Emirates leg break bowler is also the youngest female cricketer to represent the UAE in 50 T20 international matches. Vaishnave chats about taking the record break...

Sunil Narine, the Trinbago Knight Riders spinner has made unwanted history by becoming the first cricketer to receive a red card during a Caribbean Premier League match. Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma discuss the new rule and whether we could see this being introduced in the Indian Premier League. The legendary England bowler Anya Shrubsole joins Stumped to reflect on the perfect fi...

A post-match football game against the opposition, a beer, and a limousine drive up a mountain. That’s how New Zealand fast-bowler Neil Wagner celebrated his side’s incredible victory over England in February. Wagner took James Anderson's wicket to beat the tourists by a single run earlier this year, and two weeks later he ran alongside Kane Williamson in their final-ball victory over Sri Lanka. H...

As recently as three years ago Spencer Johnson was working as a greenskeeper in Australia, supplementing his income as he recovered from a nightmare spell with injuries. Doctors had doubts over whether he would even be able to run again. Fast forward to the present day and he has just been called up for Australia’s T20 matches against South Africa, with a place at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup s...

Four-time Ashes winner Lydia Greenway joins us to discuss how she’s been working on the design of the first performance shoes for women cricketers in the UK. Due to be launched in January, Greenway says it’s a much needed development for the women’s game and may help with the prevention of injuries. With under two months until the start of the Men's Cricket World Cup in India, Alison Mitchell, Jim...

The England vice captain Ollie Pope joins us to reflect on a dramatic Ashes series. Pope was ruled out of the contest after dislocating his right shoulder in the second Test. He discusses his recovery and the influence of Stuart Broad on his career. Plus, he reacts to England being docked World Test Championship points for a slow over rate during the Ashes series. Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and...

Is the two-match ban given to India captain Harmanpreet Kaur by the International Cricket Council sufficient? Jim Maxwell doesn’t think so. On this week’s Stumped, Jim states that her behaviour following her dismissal in a One Day International against Bangladesh brought the game into disrepute and he advocates for a year-long ban in addition to her being stripped of the national team captaincy. H...

We’re heading to America to meet the co-owner of a Major League Cricket franchise. Anand Rajaraman is an entrepreneur who has sold businesses to Amazon and Walmart, as well as being an early investor in Facebook. His latest start-up is the San Francisco Unicorns and he aims to make cricket a mainstream American sport. The first question is: Why has he named his team after a mythical creature? Plus...

Alison Mitchell is joined by Clint Wheeldon and Sunil Gupta to reflect on an exhilarating Ashes series across both the men’s and women’s game, with more thrills still to come. England looked down and out in the women’s multi-format series after losing the one-off Test at Trent Bridge, but they have rallied and inflicted three consecutive defeats on the reigning world champions Australia. One win f...

Where has it all gone wrong for West Indies? Charu Sharma, Jim Maxwell and Nikesh Rughani discuss the decline of a once-great cricketing nation as they failed to reach the World Cup in India later this year. The two-time champions were beaten by Scotland, Netherlands and Zimbabwe in qualifying matches and won’t appear at a men’s 50-over World Cup for the first time ever. The third Ashes Test betwe...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma all react to the landmark review into cricket in England and Wales, which says racism, sexism, classism and elitism are "widespread" throughout the sport. We also ask, how England can find a way back against a dominant Australian team in the Women's Ashes. With the second Test coming from the Home of Cricket at Lords, Alison Mitchell speaks to Australi...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma discuss the drama of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston - from Ben Stokes’ shock first-innings declaration, to Pat Cummins’ match winning performance with the bat to what’s next for England’s bowlers. Plus Australia’s Usman Khawaja tells Alison Mitchell just what it was like being in the away dressing room when Cummins’ scored the winning run. And with...

Alison Mitchell, Jim Maxwell and Sunil Gupta meet at Lord’s to look back on the World Test Championship final and preview the upcoming Ashes series. We’re joined at the home of cricket by former Australia opener and coach Justin Langer, who reveals the player he thinks will be the key in the men’s Ashes, what it’s like facing the very first ball of the series, and how he’s finding life after coach...