Wisden Cricket Weekly

The panel react to South Africa's resounding win over England at Lord's. Mark Butcher shares his assessment on Zak Crawley and compares the youngster's struggles to those he faced himself in the early parts of his Test career. Ben Stokes joins the show to talk about his upcoming documentary, Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes, that is set to be released by Amazon later this week. There's also some...

The panel preview the England-South Africa Test series, with Dean Elgar telling everyone he is definitely not worried about Bazball even after his side were smashed by England Lions. They look at South Africa's selection dilemmas, including whether county cricket titan Simon Harmer will play. The also discuss the Ollie Robinson v Stuart Broad conundrum, and what the series could mean for Ollie Pop...

Mark Butcher, Jo Harman and Taha Hashim join Ben Gardner to discuss England's fourth-place Commonwealth Games finish, Lisa Keightley's legacy as she steps down as head coach, and the implications of Tahlia McGrath appearing in the final despite testing positive for Covid-19. They also discuss what to expect from incoming ECB chair Richard Thompson, the opening stages of The Hundred and the One-Day...

Mark Butcher gives his thoughts on England's T20I series defeat to South Africa and assesses the Proteas' chances of challenging at this year's T20 World Cup. He also wonders what the immediate future of international cricket looks and where bilateral cricket fits alongside the growing power of T20 leagues. Elsewhere in the show, Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana react to England's Test squad fo...

Mark Butcher gives his views on England's drawn ODI series against South Africa, including Sam Curran's potential with the bat in white-ball cricket. The panel of Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana talk up England's chances at the Commonwealth Games, review the most recent round of the County Championship, discuss the possibilities of England recalls for Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed, and run thr...

Mark Butcher, Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana react to Ben Stokes' retirement from ODI cricket and discuss whether or not there is actually too much international cricket for the 'Big Three.' The panel also do their best to make sense of England's downturn in form in ODI cricket, talk about a chaotic Finals Day, the omission of Tammy Beaumont from England's Commonwealth Games squad, pick out...

Author Alex Preston and CEO of the Ukrainian Cricket Federation Kobus Olivier join the show to tell us about the recent history of cricket in Ukraine, how the sport has been affected by war and how next week's decision from the ICC about whether to grant Ukraine ICC membership could change the sport in the country forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Butcher, Ben Gardner, Cameron Ponsonby and Yas Rana react to the first five games of the England-India white-ball series. They look back on a string of impressive performances from England seamers, a stunning knock from Suryakumar Yadav and wonder what the future of ODI cricket looks like. There's also discussion on a gripping round of County Championship action, a brief preview of Finals Day...

Mark Butcher, Phil Walker, Jo Harman and Yas Rana react to England's latest victory under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, a thrilling seven-wicket win at Edgbaston. They discuss Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow's form, the logic behind McCullum's philosophy and where India went wrong in Birmingham. There's also discussion on England women's drawn Test at Taunton last week where a number of new faces i...

Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Mark Butcher dissect England's latest ridiculous Test win, which featured 10 wickets for Jack Leach and an extraordinary counterpunch from Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton. NZ Herald sports reporter Andrew Alderson joins the show to give the Kiwi perspective on the result, discuss what's next for Kane Williamson and wonder where the Black Caps go from here. They also l...

Mark Butcher, Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana react to England's dominance in the opening two ODIs of their series in the Netherlands. They also look forward to Jamie Overton's Test debut at Leeds and discuss what to expect from the Surrey speedster. There's plenty of chat on the T20 Blast, England women's upcoming Test against South Africa, Chris Silverwood's initial success with Sri Lanka...

Mark Butcher, Jo Harman, Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana do their best to make sense of England's extraordinary win at Trent Bridge, one that saw them bounce back from conceding 553 in the first innings and needing 160 from the final session to make it two wins from two in the new Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era. You can get 20 per cent off at Charles Tyrwhitt either in store or online with...

Matt Parkinson joins the show to tell us all about his Test debut at Lord's, one that saw him go from readying himself for a day trip to the Lake District to padding up at Lord's over the course of a few hours (we apologise for the audio quality for that part of the episode). Another England spinner – Charlie Dean – joins us later in the show ahead of the Charlotte Edwards Cup finals day to talk a...

England beat New Zealand at Lord's to give Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes a winning start to their leadership of the Test side after Joe Root's fourth innings hundred helped them chase down 277 at the Home of Cricket. The panel of Jo Harman, Yas Rana and The Telegraph's Tim Wigmore react to the Test and talk about some of the questions that are explored in Tim's new book – Crickonomics: The Anato...

Phil Walker, Taha Hashim and Yas Rana preview the first Test of the England-New Zealand series that gets under way later this week. Mark Butcher also joins the show to give his views on the upcoming series as well as the County Select XI's victory over New Zealand at Chelmsford. The panel also talk about Eoin Morgan's future as England white-ball captain, the opening rounds of the T20 Blast, the I...

Mark Butcher, Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana look back at the biggest talking points from the latest round of County Championship action and reflect on the opening block of the competition as a whole. They also preview the T20 Blast that gets under way this week. The panel talk about the IPL, Charlotte Edwards Cup and the ongoing Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Test series as well as their favourite sta...

Mark Butcher, Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana discuss the announcement of England's 13-man squad for the first two Tests of the summer against New Zealand. James Anderson and Stuart Broad are back, Matty Potts and Harry Brook are two new faces in a group that is otherwise similar to those selected over the winter. The panel also react to the appointments of England's two new head coaches, Bren...

The panel of Phil Walker, Jo Harman and Yas Rana round up all the latest County Championship action and have a stab at selecting the England XI for the opening Test of the summer. Phil tells us about his recent conversations with Mark Waugh and Marnus Labuschagne, Jo reflects on his interview with in-form Kent batter Daniel Bell-Drummond and Yas gets excited about young Durham quick Matty Potts. M...

Mark Butcher gives his view on the decisions made by Ben Stokes in his first week as England's full-time Test captain, while Ben Gardner and Yas Rana are joined by CricViz analyst Ben Jones to round up the latest County Championship and IPL action. CricViz Ben also provides an analytical view on the major selection debates around England's top seven heading into the first Test of the summer. Georg...

It's been a busy first week in the job for England's new managing director of men's cricket Rob Key. Multiple outlets are reporting that Ben Stokes is set to be named England Test skipper and Key has already outlined that the head coach role will be split in two. The panel of Mark Butcher, Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana react to those developments and round-up all the latest action from the C...

The panel of Mark Butcher, Lawrence Booth, Phil Walker and Yas Rana react to a massive week in English cricket, one that saw Joe Root call time on his reign as Test captain and Rob Key appointed to the role of managing director of men's cricket at the ECB. How should Root's captaincy be remembered? What should we expect from Key at the helm? At the 44:30 mark, Wisden Almanack editor Lawrence Booth...

On this week's show, the studio panel of Phil Walker, Jo Harman, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana look back at a run-filled opening round of the County Championship and discuss Rob Key's status as the frontrunner for the vacant England men's director of cricket job. At the end of the show, they pick their 'Uncapped County Championship XI of the Century'. They also celebrate Anya Shrubsole's career after E...

The panel discuss Australia's dominance in women's cricket and how England and the rest of the world can possibly catch up, after Meg Lanning's side won their third consecutive world title. Mark Butcher brands the domestic schedule "horrendous", explains why producing quality pitches is so hard, and gives his take on the race to be the ECB's managing director of England men's cricket. There's a bu...

After England's heavy defeat at Grenada extended their winless run, Mark Butcher, Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana ponder what comes next for England and specifically Joe Root's tenure as Test captain. They run through the possible candidates to replace Root should he leave the role. There's also discussion on what went right for West Indies and the women's World Cup after India's dramatic ex...

This week's show comes directly from Barbados. Mark Butcher talks to Yas Rana to give his immediate thoughts on the game from the ground before a panel of Yas, Ben Gardner and freelance journalist Cameron Ponsonby go over the Test, discussing a particular encouraging debut from Saqib Mahmood, Kraigg Brathwaite and Jack Leach's pair of record-breaking displays of endurance, the future of Chris Woak...