The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 6 – Bangladesh with Aminul Islam. It's difficult to believe that it took Bangladesh until 1999 to make a World Cup, but they made up for lost time, knocking off Pakistan, which turbocharged their push to become a Test-playing nation as a consequence of how they performed at this terrific World Cup. Aminul "BulBul" Islam led their campaign 25 years ago, recalling i...

Season 15, Episode 19: It's a beautiful day in Sydney, and time to catch up on a lot. Danyal Rasool joins the show, the Pakistan correspondent from Cricinfo giving his perspective of the tour that was. How will Australia pick a new Test opener? We'll look over the India-Australia women's series after a slew of matches influenced by Phoebe Litchfield and new 300-gamer Ellyse Perry. Plus, dubious de...

Season 15, Episode 18: Running Australian cricket will never be an easy job. Nick Hockley’s path to the chief executive chair was from left field, slotted in when administrators were getting taken out during the pandemic. A few years on, established in the role, he talked us through his backstory, his hopes for cricket’s future, and a range of the issues that have landed in his in-tray. Recorded i...

Australia v Pakistan, Sydney Day 4: It's all over. David Warner Week ended with David Warner Day, as the man of the hour got to take centre stage for one last Australian Test innings. Then he had plenty to say in support of this format of the game into the future. Pat Cummins was Player of the Series, in a contest where Pakistan were much more competitive than 3-0 suggest. So it ended, in traditio...

Australia v Pakistan, Sydney Day 3: Is this Jamal's Ashes? By god, it was for a while, as the Pakistani wonder produced another stunning passage of play, while Mitchell Marsh produced another fine chapter. With the match as beautifully poised as it could be, nobody could have quite imagined the stunning performance that came next. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get...

Australia v Pakistan, Sydney Day 2: You're not going to believe it, but there was the tiniest bit of rain at the Sydney Test today. We still got 46 overs in, and we still had enough time for Pakistan to show some mettle, make some mistakes, and leave themselves broadly in the Test match, while Australia's openers did their best to contribute to the contest. Meanwhile, across the Indian Ocean, far...

Australia v Pakistan, Sydney Day 1: A very watchable, and rainfree, day at Sydney to begin Warner Week, although the man himself did not feature until the final over of the day. Pakistan were all over the place then fought back brilliantly with the type of innings down the list you could watch time and again. Meanwhile, another 5fa for Cummins. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/th...

Australia v Pakistan, Sydney Day 0: Happy new year. It's time for the first Final Word of 2024. And it finds Adam and Geoff kicking back in the backyard one day ahead of the third Test, after an eventful day of press appearances from Pat Cummins and Shan Masood. Let's run the tape over it all. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get Sydney live show tickets for for 7 Ja...

Season 15, Episode 17: Happy New Year. As we wrap up what was a huge one in 2023, and roll over blinking into the new light of 2024, we take our annual look back on what stood out for the right reasons and what stood out for wrong. Plus we catch up with the Australian women's Test in India, and the Indian men's disastrous first Test in South Africa. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.c...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, our title story takes us all the way back to 1997, to a magical island where strange creatures roamed. Was it Jurassic Park? Kinda, but with added Big Jim Wilson. Also this week, have we traced the Wally Hammond misadventure right back to its source? And how did a junior wicketkeeper end up at AE...

Australia v Pakistan, Melbourne Day 4: It was real, it was raw, and it was on until the last hour of the day. Shan Masood batted like a dream, Babar Azam bashed back into some form, and Mohammed Rizwan was his usual unpredictable delight. Nathan Lyon got ambushed, Pat Cummins bowled like a dream, and it was only when the extra half hour was called that we could feel sure about how this would go. S...

Australia v Pakistan, Melbourne Day 3: What a day of Test cricket. Pakistan scrapped and clawed in the first session with the bat, then started with a glorious burst of left-arm fast bowling. Swing, seam, stumps ascatter. From on the ropes, Steve Smith absorbed and Mitch Marsh counterpunched. Then they fell. Three days of fine fast bowling and conditions doing plenty, and this game is still on the...

Australia v Pakistan, Melbourne Day 2: Sunshine! Glorious sunshine, as Pakistan found some mojo to work through seven Australian wickets in the long first session. Then it was time for new captain Shan Masood to put the foot down. But you can never quite bank on Pat Cummins being out of the game. It tilted, it slipped, and it will need some more fun from Rizwan to re-balance a rollicking Test day....

Australia v Pakistan, Melbourne Day 1: It was damp, it was drizzly, and that still didn't stop 62,000 people and their friends from coming down on Boxing Day. Pakistan chose to bowl, and while they didn't dominate on a dark and cloudy day, maybe it was still a tactical win. David Warner made some interesting decisions, Umpire Gough did as well, and Steve Smith didn't believe his. Also, do you know...

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 5 – India with Harsha Bhogle India, but not at all as they are today. A quarter of a century ago, before their financial might dictated practically every decision made in the global game, the men in blue were just another cricket team. A very talented team, with a group of prodigiously capable batters, but a side that would ultimately fail to reach the business en...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This time, Adam and Geoff are trying something unusual. It's a quadruple header, and it involves a quadruple ton. Then from Slammin' Sammy Northeast we go back nearly 100 years to when Wally Hammond let his balls do the talking on Test debut. Also, Indonesia-Japan relations via the NSW towns of Lismore, Hay...

Season 15, Episode 16: Back from Perth, the numbers are flying around as CA looks to ink in its schedule for the next five years. There's a new 10-over IPL on the horizon, joy of joys, as the IPL and WPL player auctions roll out. India's women demolish England in a Test and aim to do the same to Australia, while there are more brilliant performances in women's cricket from Pakistan in New Zealand...

Australia v Pakistan, Perth Day 4: The wait was all about Nathan Lyon's 500th wicket, and eventually it came around. Not before Pakistan challenged Australia with the ball one more time, Steve Smith furious with yet another dismissal, before Khawaja and Marsh kept on as they have been going. After that it was time for Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, and Pakistani running between the wickets to have an...

Australia v Pakistan, Perth Day 3: For a while, the resistance was building. Imam did his thing, Babar was rising alongside. Then things changed quickly. David Warner went ton and none, Marnus Labuschagne got fingerbanged. The pitch is starting to do tricky things and we've got a couple of days to go. Also, does club cricket really affect anything, and what's the deal with tiny arm guards? A very...

Australia v Pakistan, Perth Day 2: Would it be Mitchell Marsh Day in front of his home crowd? It kind of was, and it kind of wasn't. It was also kind of Ameer Jamal day, as the inexperienced right-armer picked up six wickets. Pakistan could have fallen apart, but they played staunch instead, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq doing a job before Shan Masood played the laconic amateur. A long way to...

Australia v Pakistan, Perth Day 1: Australia won the toss and chose to bat, and we know how that tends to pan out. David Warner had one of those David Warner days, which ended in David Warner style. Varied subplots of relevance for each of Khawaja, Labuschagne, Smith and Head, while Pakistan found a way into the contest at times, and out of it at times. There is still room for things to go in eith...

Australia v Pakistan, Perth Day 0: The Australian Test season is about to begin. Geoff and Adam get together in Perth to run the rule over the respective teams, the difficulty in remembering what this show is called, and the ICC machinations responding to Usman Khawaja's humanitarian statement. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get Sydney live show tickets for for 7 J...

Season 15, Episode 15: The Perth Test is coming, and once again the local authorities are apparently worried about whether people will show up unless JL waves the sceptre. One person on the way out is WACA boss Christina Matthews, soon to end her long tenure. Shan Masood makes a double ton as Pakistan's new skipper while Matthew Renshaw tons up in the PM's XI runfest. Rain wrecks the Big Bash, Ama...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, with Geoff and Adam away from the desk it's Daniel Norcross and Bharat Sundaresan in charge - the first ep in Story Time history with not one but two summer newsreaders. What did they get up to? I'm looking forward to finding out when listening to the episode myself. What I know is they spoke for...

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 4 – Andrew Flower: It never got better for Zimbabwe than their run at the 1999 World Cup, storming into the Super Six stage after thrilling wins over South Africa and India. Their star wicketkeeper-bat from that memorable campaign, Andy Flower, joined us for an extensive and tender conversation about the tournament, his homeland, and his career's abrupt end at the...