The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Season 20, Episode 15: A big week in India, as Virat Kohli led the way in second consecutive IPL win for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Also this week, some moves from the ICC board meeting, including a new appointment; Ireland host a rare Test; England cricket tries to take control of its media product; and the Aussies go down to battling Pakistan. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, an ancient tradition that predates cricket entirely, yet has accompanied the game through every match that has been recorded, leads us to a Monte Carlo casino in 1913, and Geoff's pet topic of probability. Also, a spinner's day that didn't work out, Bradman's dalliances with the pen, and a crime...

Season 20 Episode 14: It has been a long time coming, but here we are: one of the Final Word’s all-time favourites, Will Bosisto, joins the show. Gracious enough to enjoy being a cricketing cult hero, worldly enough to have drawn wisdom from his many experiences in the game, Will is as insightful a guest as we could have hoped. Catch up with him on the pressure of expectation, the redefining of sa...

Season 20 Episode 13: Cricket Australia are pushing a line about needing more money coming in, but that didn't stop a bunch of money going out, after a technology executive was accused of funnelling contracts to their own company. Meanwhile, the whistleblower who reported the problem was sacked. Things aren't going well at head office. Also this week, Jacob Bethell's broken finger opens up an Engl...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, those rare away wins keep on coming up, as does a score that shouldn't lead to defeat still manages to do so. We have a wicketkeeping double act, a life of service following a tough beginning, and another look at a different aspect of the series that at least one of us loves the most. Your Nerd P...

Season 20 Episode 12: Charlotte Edwards is one of the most respected people in all of cricket. With her career in the game now entering a third decade, she’s now in the job she always wanted since finishing as a superstar player and captain in 2016: coach of the England Women’s Team. Taking over at a low ebb last year, we find a mentor who has found the empathy needed for a role like this, but als...

Season 20 Episode 11: England’s Test squad is out, and the end has indeed come for Bazball’s mascot. Elsewhere, Australia’s captain Pat Cummins gets stroppy at media reports, but isn’t it more likely to be people he knows who keep using his name? Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/thefina...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, a cryptic dance that ended up being far more geographical, the historical evolution of big days out, a deep dive into Australian sin taxes, and Adam has not seen The Crying Game. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 2.35 - Michael Blesic 2.22 - Debashish Biswas 3.50 - Sean Moynihan 14.20 - Nick Ibis Support the show with a Nerd P...

Sports photography isn’t just about the right lighting or composition, but forging relationships with the subjects and an understanding of the context that can turn photographs into stories. Gareth Copley-Jones has been behind the camera for some of England cricket’s most iconic images: Ben Stokes at Headingley, Jofra Archer’s delirium at Lord’s, Chris Woakes walking out to bat with his arm in a s...

Season 20, Episode 10: A big news story this week claims discontent at the top of Australia's player ranks about the fact that private cash is not imminent in the BBL - but how real is that, and whose interest is served by reporting it? Also this week, squads aplenty, a big game for some of our Bangladeshi faves, and major moves in the county round along with a hat-trick on debut, so we'll intervi...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, Andrew Fidel Fernando joins the show for an unlikely tale of an unlikely nap, one with real consequence. There's also a Welsh excursion for a squad of Western Australians, the kid who won player-of-the-match from well down the pecking order, and a return to one of the faves of faves. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 11.33 - E...

Jon Hotten is one of the most engaging writers our game is blessed with, so any topic he turns his pen to is going to be worth reading about. His latest book, Vinciness, is unusual as the subject isn’t really what he’s writing about. Not all the time, anyway. For the “decadent and depraved” majesty of cover driving to so much more, Daniel Norcross steered the conversation with this outstanding aut...

Season 20, Episode 9: Stand down, defenders of the realm. The brave Queenslanders have come to the aid of New South Wales (did we ever doubt them?) and that means that with 33% of the states now off the idea, Cricket Australia can't take the Big Bash to the sale yard to get a price. Everybody is seemingly pissed off with somebody. Is this a good outcome, bad outcome, head in the sand, resolute bel...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, a player we've just learned about who had a compelling tale either side of the Great War, a big day in the East for the West, a brief but wild innings with the ball, and is this still the greatest run chase of all time? Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 9.83 - Niall Taylor 5.67 - StuG 4.38 - Paul Batfay 8.62 - Matt Gaynor Supp...

The mighty Max Bonnell returns to Book Club to discuss his acclaimed title from last year about an oft-discussed character on Story Time, leggie Charles ‘Father’ Marriott. Naturally, there’s so much more to this man than the curiosity that his only Test netted him the stunning match figures of 11/96, the of his life so well told in the pages of Father Marriott’s Summer Holidays. Daniel Norcross pi...

Season 20, Episode 8: Note: an earlier version of this podcast confused NRMA motoring association (not a CA sponsor) with NRMA insurance (CA's major Test series sponsor). They're different companies with shared branding. Apologies. Nonetheless, this story is strange, with CA chair Mike Baird planning to double up that job with being CEO of NRMA motoring association. How is that possible? Also this...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, the greatest run of free lunches in a particular journalist's history. An adopted hero, a distant memorial, a new era beckoning for Bangladeshis bowling fast, and there's only one thing in this world that Virat Kohli can't stand. Your Nerd Pledge numbers for this week: 2.14 - Harsha G 3.51 - Not The Run Machine 6.00 - Alex 4.10...

Season 20, Episode 7: Live from Lord’s at the annual MCC Women’s Day. Adam Collins brings you a series of chats from prominent women in cricket, proving that it’s not just what happens on the field or on TV that keeps the juggernaut of the women’s game rolling. From Meg Lay, the first woman to prepare an international cricket pitch, record-setting German international Tina Gough, Dutch captain and...

Season 20, Episode 6: A new investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has brought to light the extremely serious risk that rottenness has consumed cricket administration in that country. The ICC, of course, has hands in pockets while whistling. Also this week, Tom Decent joins the show to update us on Cricket Australia's campaign to win over the state associations and sell the Big Bas...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, a 77-year dynasty of decent boring men, a piece of pure cricket slapstick in the middle of a tough streak, an accidental stumbling onto someone's favourite player, and the moment when a legend in the making passed the biggest one of all. Your Nerd Pledge numbers for this week: 3.00 - Andrew Cooper 18.46 - Calum Evans 13.00 - Sim...

Season 20, Episode 5: We love a tradition on The Final Word, with one of those our annual chat with Lawrence Booth, the editor of the little yellow bible of the game, every year in the MCC Library before he and Adam go across the road to the Long Room for the launch dinner. Once again, the book is a tour de force – we expect nothing less. And as ever, the man who steers the ship is on top form, be...

Season 20, Episode 4: Another big week, do we keep saying that? Laura Cardoso from our favourite cricket team claimed the best bowling figures in T20 history this week with 9 for 4, so let's break down how it happened and hear, briefly, from teammate Roberta Moretti Avery. Making the news for less salubrious reasons was Dave Warner, blowing twice the legal limit into a breathalyser over Easter. Al...

It's Story Time, your weekly walk through cricket history. This week, why is it accepted wisdom that bowlers in limited-overs formats should only get 20 percent of the overs each? Let's have a look. Also this week, a little-known WACA classic, a storied ground whose stories have run out, and the curse of the Mitchells. Your Nerd Pledge numbers for this week: 2.00 - Joel Emonson 9.10 - Ben Helliwel...

Season 20, Episode 3: We find the Australian Test opener at The Oval, where he’s set to play for Leicestershire against Surrey in the county championship – a gig he only found out he had a couple of weeks ago. It’s emblematic of the 31-year-old’s fascinating and unconventional career so far, which has taken the left-hander far and wide from his Northern Territory home, all in pursuit of his Test d...

Season 20, Episode 2: This won't be the practice every week, but why note spend half an hour talking about the county round to begin the first episode of county season? Red-ball cricket is back in the north, baby, and past Final Word guests are outdoing everyone else. Also this week, tremulous responses to Pat Cummins' back scan, Vaibhav Suryavanshi is the talk of the IPL, South Africa have some c...