The Final Word Cricket Podcast

England v New Zealand, 2nd T20, Birmingham 2023: Jeremy Coney, our newest co-host, is thrilled that New Zealand are back in the series but isn't best pleased at spilling something on his new shirt. He's with Alex Hartley at Edgbaston after the Black Caps got one back, their batting finally clicking. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Sign up to learn about all the Lord...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, a Zaheer Abbas extravaganza that ends up having nothing to do with Zaheer Abbas. Confused? So are we! Also, the oldest first-class cricketers, the greatest all-rounders numerically speaking, and a loop back to French cricket in the modern style. Enchanté. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 6.80...

England NZ Daily - 1st T20, Manchester 2023: If Harry Brook is the best, then how doesn't he go to India for the World Cup? We consider this, New Zealand's struggles and Cam Ponsonby getting into a WhatsApp group with Wandsworth Jofra after another mismatch, this time at Old Trafford. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Sign up to learn about all the Lord's Taverners pr...

Book Club 1: Tom Hicks - Bowler's Name? The Life of a Cricketing Also-Ran. Welcome to a new version of The Final Word! The plan is to feature books and authors that capture the game from a wider perspective than just the international game that we cover. So we come to our author today, Tom Hicks. In many ways he has led a charmed life as a player. A first-class skipper by virtue of Oxford Universi...

England v New Zealand, 1st T20 at Durham: If the plan over these four matches is for Jos Buttler to learn a few things and for players to put pressure on selectors, that’s exactly what he got in the series opener at Durham. It was a carve up of the Kiwis, nowhere near their best. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Sign up to learn about all the Lord's Taverners project...

Season 14, Episode 37: In the closing stages of a close ODI between two Full Member nations, a non-striker run out by the bowler is a big story but not the biggest of the match. The times are indeed changing. In other news, Heath Streak is much more alive than first anticipated, Virat Kohli's beep test is a state secret, Meg Lanning is on the comeback trail as the injury list swallows up Glenn Max...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, who is the greatest French cricketer you've never heard of? This story comes thanks to historian John Peck. Daniel Norcross tries to untangle a slew of distinguished 1930s signatures on a bat, we detour via Esther Williams and 1920s silent film, develop a heavy Dutch theme, and look at some of th...

Season 14, Episode 36: Today’s episode is about Scotland, a nation we’ve not given enough time to over the years. Complicating this is the current mess surrounding Cricket Scotland off the field. Following allegations from national players, the board commissioned a report with its authors concluding in July 2022 that cricket in the country was institutionally racist. The board resigned en masse, a...

Season 14, Episode 35: As time wears relentlessly on, archives and artefacts begin to vanish. That is why this week brings about an important foray into a historical moment of great import: the cricketing intervention of Plucka Duck. Speaking of flightless birds, the Kiwis get overturned in one of the great upsets. Jasprit Bumrah is back ahead of the World Cup, the organising of which continues to...

Season 14, Episode 34: This has been on our wish list for a long time - Adam sits down with Indian great Cheteshwar Pujara. And contrary to reports, he's far from done as a Test batter, determined to get back into the side to add to his 19 tons. In this expansive conversation at Hove, where he's dominating for Sussex in county cricket, the 35-year-old goes back to the very start, explaining how bo...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. MCC Cowdrey walks down the MCC steps in the final over of the Test in 1963 against the fearsome Windies with a broken arm... one of the bravest acts in Test history, right? Daniel Norcross, in for Geoff with Adam this weekend, explains why this tale isn't quite how it seems. Then on to Chuck Fleetwood-Smith...

Season 14, Episode 33: The most predicable coming-out-of-retirement tale is complete, with Ben Stokes doing as we all knew he would – he’s going to India for the World Cup in October to help England defend their World Cup. A lot more, from our night at The Hundred for Adam’s birthday to Wahab Riaz’s own retirement from international cricket… which he hasn’t played for over three years. Throw in In...

Season 14, Episode 32: One of our favourites from the earliest days of the pod, and one of the most likeable people in the game - Grace Harris. A international career that started in a hurry before stopping just as quickly, the hard-hitting Queenslander is now back in business at the top level. She’s also making the very most of her opportunities on the short-form circuit, winning fans aplenty in...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Buongiorno from the Eternal City, where history never sleeps and neither does this history program. No Italian cricket on the show but for some reason a lot of Greg Chappell. He could have been one of those bearded Roman soldiers, right? Also, the White Lightning finishes off a classic one-dayer, we squeeze...

Season 14, Episode 31: Bharat is home to meet his chickens, Geoff is notionally on holiday, but that doesn't mean there aren't still some cold Ashes ashes to rake over. Usman Khawaja has a curious interpretation of what efficiency means, and Mitchell Marsh has a new temp job. Australia have a preliminary World Cup squad, India still have NFI when the World Cup matches will be, and Alex Hales has n...

Season 14, Episode 30: In their new book, White Hot, journalists (and Final Word regulars) Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller have documented the dominance of the England men's white-ball team, looking at how they went from relative easybeats at the 2015 World Cup in Australia to dual world champions in the same country seven years later. It's a great tale superbly told both in print and in this intervie...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Back in the saddle after the Ashes, although technically this episode was not recorded after the Ashes. We bring in Wisden Cricket Monthly Phil Walker for his Mastermind subject, hear from the subject of one of the pledges himself, and take a long tour of northern Queensland trying to figure out just how fa...

Season 14, Episode 29: He is just about everybody's favourite, and it's obvious why. Stephen Fry has been a comedy and literary hero for Geoff and Adam, starting with his work on Blackadder and with Hugh Laurie, and building through the decades. He also adores cricket, even though from childhood he hated all other sport. So all these years later he ended up spending a year as president of the Mary...

Season 14, Episode 28: There are World Cups coming out our ears, with details of the schedule for the men's T20 version next year starting emerge even while the BCCI is still changing the 50-over schedule that is due to start in two months. "Relax!" they're saying. "Go with the flow!" We also check in with our USA correspondent Cam Ponsonby about Major League Cricket and the mysterious New York st...

The Ashes, just in general: We knew it would be big. It always is. We didn't know that four of the five matches would be in balance into their final hour. So much conversation, irritation, celebration over the course of six weeks. Time to look back over it all. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Find out what you can do fo...

The Ashes, 5th Test at The Oval, Day 5: IT IS OVER. We started the day with a chaseable target remaining for Australia. We stopped in the middle for a long time for rain. But either side of that, the series built to the kind of climax that it deserved. Steve Smith was there. So was Moeen Ali. Ben Stokes was involved. As was Travis Head. Chris Woakes did his thing. Todd Murphy was terrific. And at...

The Ashes, 5th Test at The Oval, Day 4: It was all about Stuart Broad as the fourth day started at The Oval, but not so much when the bowling began. Australia were supposed to be cooked, but not yet. Usman Khawaja and David Warner put on their best stand of the series before rain once again intervened. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalw...

The Ashes, 5th Test at The Oval, Day 4: While we were recording the Day 3 Daily show, Stuart Broad decided to retire. Not a helpful piece of timing for podcasters, but very good timing for Broad, who explained his decision as eloquently as ever and has a strong rationale. One of the great Ashes competitors, amongst a far broader career that deserves to be recognised as well, we thought that Stuart...

The Ashes, 5th Test at The Oval, Day 3: Halfway through the last Test of the series and Bazball was still blazing. Pat Cummins battled, Todd Murphy performed beyond his years, but this was England's day, with Crawley and Duckett starting off the top before Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had their say. We have one, perhaps two, bumper days to come. And yes, Stuart Broad announced his retir...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Fine, it hasn't exactly been weekly in the middle of the Ashes, but we didn't manage to put together this episode. Featuring an innings that left everybody speechless, a detour back to some very early Ashes stories, prodigious feats on a first visit to foreign soil, and another regular six-hitter tallies up...