The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Don't forget, this Thursday is our Final Word Live show online with Stuart MacGill. The biggest turner of the ball the game has seen, an exhilarating operator, with 208 Test wickets, the same initials as the cricket ground where he most excelled, and many more interesting facets to his life beyond cricket. If you've ever wanted to sit in on a Final Word interview, now's the time. We'll interview S...

This week our history wander takes in the famous 1960-61 West Indies tour of Australia, two different times that Zimbabwe finished with scores level, some very cryptic clues, the bird with the largest wingspan, Adam’s Forgotten Fifties series, Metallica, and some times that Blocker Wilson would rather forget.   After that comes the Extended Edition interview from some months ago with Jarrod Kimber...

Season 9, Ep 6: Our first long interview in 2020 was with Ebony Rainford-Brent, when the world looked very different. Nine months on, the former England player has been a prominent voice as cricket addresses the Black Lives Matter movement, and has received a big boost to the ACE program that she initiated to get more black English players into the game. It was another revealing conversation with...

Another weekend with the world in flux, another edition of Story Time to take you back to a happier time, deep within the belly of cricket history. From the Battle of the Ridge to some of Lancashire’s finest, we have you covered this weekend. Then, a conversation with the always funny Dan Liebke, who has a new book out. Your Nerd Pledge numbers are:  5.42 – Tom Stewart 5.65 – Niall Duxbury 6.06 –...

Season 9, Ep 5: This week, the entire board at Cricket South Africa finally gave in to outside pressure and resigned. The extent of wrongdoing via a recent financial investigation remains hidden. Investigative journalist Lungani Zama joins us to analyse the developments and what comes next. In better news for South Africa, England’s tour will go ahead. India’s squads for Australia are named, the W...

For the footy fans in our ranks, it is Grand Final weekend! Geoff can’t be in Brisbane to watch his beloved Cats play off for the flag, in Sydney instead to call the WBBL. But before he turns to that, into cricket history we go once more. The highlight? Something to do with a fragrant harbour and some barramundi. Then a discussion with Tim Wigmore whose new book studies why some sportspeople are m...

Season 9, Ep 4: Last week we had the positives of T20 with the IPL up and firing. This week we’re looking at the downsides of the many other leagues, a newly developed Wild West that Jarrod Kimber has explored professionally and personally and can now offer a frank appraisal. Speaking of T20, we’ve got our full preview of all the teams in the Women’s Big Bash League which starts in the coming week...

Wil Anderson has been one of our biggest supporters and our interview with him was one of our most fun. Beforehand, fill your boots with cricket history – a strong Welsh theme, as well as both Kirsten brothers featuring alongside Ireland, Froggy Thompson, the first Test match, and a mysterious zero pledge that was worth more than zero in the end. Your Nerd Pledge numbers are:  3.23 - Tim Gilkison...

Season 9, Ep 3: It’s the halfway point of the Indian Premier League, the time when you can start to see the trends, the patterns, the improvers, the declines. This week we get T20 analyst Ben Jones to give us the in-depth info on all of that and more. We’ll also look at the ODI winning streak from Australia’s women, the start of the Sheffield Shield, and top it off with Happy Birthday Sachin.   Yo...

It's Story Time, where we wander through the history of the game. This week, Slasher Mackay's less noted strength, the highs of cricket in Florida, why the 2010-11 Ashes didn't matter, what Emily Drum did for the Kiwis, another road back to the underarm, Fabian Allen going nuts, some 1950s Indian magic, when Tim Wall set an Australian record, and every cricketer mentioned by William McInnes. Once...

Season 9, Ep 2: Steve Smith is giving out free love on the free love highway and good on him for it. Something about those Dubai hotel rooms. In the same part of the world, Ashwin is preparing himself to Mankad, we’re also with him all the way on The Final Word. Back in England, the strangest summer has come to a close – we speak with The Guardian’s Ali Martin about how it happened and what the fu...

Gather round. It’s that time again, where we take you down the winding road of cricket history – it’s weekend Story Time on The Final Word! Check in to learn a thing or two about Jack Gregory and Warwick Armstrong, or Hugh Tayfield and Alan Border. They all make an appearance. As does Patterson Thompson, who kept his foot behind the line for us. And when that is all done, enjoy our chat with James...

Season 9, Ep 1: It's a new season! Cricket starts in Australia and the dial turns. What did we do in the last week week? Geoff has been calling the Australia-NZ games in Brisbane, Adam the Bob Willis Trophy Final in London. Oh, and he also bought a Batmobile. That’s nowhere near as impressive as our guest Lloyd Scott doing the Three Peak Challenge in a deep-sea diving suit – to be filed under good...

Dean Jones has left us. The One-Day King. There is nothing we’d rather do with this episode than talk about Deano: the career, the influence, the swagger, the way he made us feel. Thanks for everything.   Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 8, Ep 30: Measured, erudite, and always the best prepared in the game – Alison Mitchell has become one of the most broadly heard voices on cricket around the world. That didn’t happen by accident. Starting nearly two decades ago when she was the runner on Richie Benaud’s TV broadcast, Ali has worked her way through the county reporting circuit and assignments in distant countries all the wa...

Story Time! Many and varied they are today. Adam can't stop talking about George Headley. Geoff believes that at last, at last, he has caught up to a long-elusive quarry. What does US political analyst Nate Silver have to do with Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Why are we talking about Lionel Richie and a former host of Getaway? Who was the last player to join an exclusive club, and who was the fastest to j...

Emergency! Maxi time! The Final Word's fave made one of the best hundreds we've seen in one-day cricket to win a ridiculous run chase and win a series decider in England. No big deal, right? We had to drop everything and record our response. Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...

Season 8, Ep 28: Two years ago the Seven Network bought TV rights to great fanfare. Now they're refusing to pay. The free-to-air broadcaster has Cricket Australia in a tough spot, by withholding the cash required to run the game unless CA agrees to rewrite the contract. And it all sounded so rosy when both parties were talking up the hundreds of millions to be spent not long ago. We have ESPNcrici...

Heroes and villains. Rational or fair or otherwise, we have them on Story Time. Geoff meets his nemesis, Adam explains the greatest work of the greatest, we solve a Netherlands conundrum, and try to get lateral. Afterwards is a reboot of our conversation with Universe Jos – recorded at Lord’s during last year’s World Cup – to learn about the ridiculous things he does with bat in hand.   Your new N...

Season 8, Ep 27: That was quite the choke. Australia's T20 series against England started with a dominant position that somehow turned into a loss. England bossed the second, and Australia got one back via Mitchell Marsh when both teams were changed up for the third. Adam came straight from the comm box to this show via a few wrong turns on the motorway with all the details. In other news this wee...

Pat Cummins is a special cricketer and a great fella. We had a lovely time talking with him in Derby this time last year, decked out in his skin-tight and long-sleeved Australian jumper - an image you quickly forget. En route to that, it’s a story time with a lesson: age is no barrier for tweakers with mad skills. Some sad tales from the history of the game, some fun ones too - it’s always a mixed...

Season 8, Ep 26: Trent Woodhill is one of the most versatile people in cricket: coach, trusted mentor, adviser, ideas man. This was a good time to pick his brain, from the bubble in Southampton where he is currently on tour as one of Justin Langer’s assistant coaches. Before getting to him, with Daniel Norcross riding shotgun, we looked at the T20 internationals this week and next, reviewed the le...

Story Time! We have a new chat with England opener Jason Roy about missing the IPL, which comes after the customary weekend wander through cricket history. In this episode, the link between ancient spinners Don Blackie and Bert Ironmonger, the record that Sachin couldn’t reach, Jenny Owens turning the ball both ways, Virat Kohli doubling up, the endless quest for 557, Curtly Ambrose cuts sick at t...

Season 8, Ep 25: That is the sound of inevitability. No matter who didn't believe it, James Anderson's march did not stop towards the mark that only three spinners had achieved before, 600 wickets in Tests. The Final Word this weeks looks at his work on the last day of the Pakistan-England series, as well as others like Azhar, Buttler, Crawley, Babar and Rizwan. The Australian men take the first e...

Story Time! This week let us take you through more tales of Ravi "Careless Whisper" Bopara, the human sax solo; some Sehwag madness, an Anzac connection; the 2005 end of Australian Ashes dominance for the women's teams; the least successful promotion to Test level; a reason to love the Gabba; and some excursions back to the Wills Trophy when India used to host every team that was available. Our en...