The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Season 16, Episode 1: After two Test caps and about a hundred tours on the bench, Michael Neser has lost his Australian contract and is way down the pecking order. Is it over for the hashtag man? Various South African players are actively dodging contracts, while Jason Gillespie has left South Australia and may be bound for Karachi. Also this week, it's a new season - the English county season will begin with nine matches on opening day. Nathan Lyon will play a reduced part after Cricket Australia clipped his wings. There will be plenty of attention on the use of spinners and the work of wicketkeepers. Bangladesh women struggle against Australia, as do New Zealand against England, but Papua New Guinea’s women had their biggest result. Plus our very tangled IPL wrap.Your Nerd Pledge number this week:39.70 - Jeremy BrownSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket.Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.ukGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwRun or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steve Cannane - First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards That Made ThemSteve Cannane has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and the ABC's senior foreign correspondent in Europe since 2021. But aside from his important work, his passion is cricket - for decades, he charged in every Saturday as an opening bowler. And it was with his club side, watching a teammate's unorthodox batting technique, where a question was planted: how much do the childhood backyards of players influence what we eventually see at the top level? The answer was a beautiful and much-loved book, First Tests. Originally published in 2009, but just as relevant now, we revisit these stories as Steve prepares to return to Australia. Appropriately, given how much he's loved hanging out in Soho while living in London, it was in a pub in the heart of town where Adam and Daniel Norcross recorded this most fulfilling interview.Get the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Tests-Australian-Cricketers-Backyards-ebook/dp/B004JHZ4ZQ Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, disregard all fakes - this involves one of the fastest REAL centuries in first-class cricket. We hunt for a phantom spell via a bowling feat rarer than a double hat-trick, look at some less famed examples to more famed counterparts, and consider the adventures of the Channel Island Over-50s.Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:3.63 - Slim Johns & Damian Sharry4.00 - Alex Brown6.04 - Lee Geldard2.87 - Greg SykesSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 9 – Lance Klusener. At the 1999 World Cup, Lance Klusener stole the show. During a golden era for South African one-day cricket, the Proteas men were meant to fulfil their destiny in England by holding up the trophy for the first time. Being seen as the best team in the world was heavily due to their left-handed brute, the man they called Zulu. Across a long conversation, Lance joined Shannon Gill, Dan Brettig and Adam Collins to tell this bittersweet story in his own words.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 31: It's the season finale! That's because the Mr Sheffield Shield is done, and we don't need to tell you who won. Also, Western Australia has locked in the first Test of the summer for the next six years, with CA getting the schedules done well in advance. Go West, life is peaceful there. Plus we'll have a women's Ashes Test at the MCG. In other news, we go local with Carlton's incredible premiership performance against South Melbourne, we go England with Alec Stewart to hand over the running of Surrey, we go to the grudge match with twin tons as Sri Lanka tour Bangladesh, we go through the women's game with Australia in Bangladesh and England in New Zealand, and we go global with the first edition of The Final Word IPL Weekly Wrap of the Bits We Could Be Bothered Watching! Exciting.Your Nerd Pledge number this week:8.64 - Dannish BabarSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwSort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthdayRun or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 8 – with Tim Lane. You’ve heard from plenty of players as we’ve gone through this sensational tournament, like Alec Stewart, Geoff Allott and Andy Flower, as well as Harsha Bhogle who was documenting India's journey on telly. Australia also had a broadcaster throughout the seven weeks: Tim Lane. One of the finest all-round commentators the country has produced, back in ’99 Tim was behind the mic with BBC Test Match Special, simulcast into Australia via the ABC. We realised it would be essential to get his perspective and Dan Brettig did a fine job. We think you’ll find Tim a great counterpoint to the players.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, not just one long-time rival but two storied combatants return to the show to lay down their challenges once again. But this time, we might just be their equals with a couple of rollicking tales. Also, one of our pledgers turns his hand to poetry, while another will learn the story of the Forrest Gump of cricket.Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:20.83 Rob O'Neill6.94 - Ramaswamy4.56 - Jimit Raja4.42 - Angus DigbySupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 30: Tasmania's new stadium might depend on this weekend's state election, but with over 100,000 members for the new footy club, it'll be a tough promise to rescind. Meanwhile Queensland's government doesn't want to spend bulk cash on anything at all. Ellyse Perry is still the best, proving it in Bangalore's WPL title run, while Pak Bean and Imad Wasim literally lit up the Pakistan league. Cricket Aus bail on more Afghanistan fixtures, the Shield final is set up, and Jess Jonassen is a surprise omission from the Australian squad.Your Nerd Pledge number this week:3.45 - David Smith & Patrick HargreavesSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwSort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthdayRun or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 29: Across all of our Story Time episodes, a few names come up more than any others. One is Glenn Turner, the New Zealand opening bat who churned out runs from the 1960s to the 1980s. Highest percentage in an innings, carrying his bat, twin tons, a hundred hundreds, a thousand before the end of May? Check, check, keep checking. Beyond the numbers, Glenn is a storyteller with a life to draw from, travelling the world since his teenage years, taking on the establishment to change how players were treated, and winning over an Indian Air Force father-in-law along the way. With Geoff and Bharat at his kitchen table overlooking the lake in Wanaka, a special Final Word.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwSort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthdayRun or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Daniel Norcross slips back into the co-host chair with Adam, and up Mt Kilimanjaro they trek - a world record fixture for unusual reasons. And why is the Big V superior to Perth? You'll find out right off the top. Later, the career of one of Australia's finest Test openers, and the international journey of a bowler who burned brightly but briefly.Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:7.60 Joel Emonson2158 - Ed Fowler58.61 - Peter Brown5.75 - Richie BSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordGet that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfwSort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthdayDonate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's TavernersAll links at linktr.ee/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices