The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Season 17, Episode 32: The English season is upon us, with the county championship starting this week. And in keeping with the comprehensive coverage we’ve given to that competition over many years, we thought this would be the right time to roll out a series of feature interviews with some of the best county pros out there. One man who meets that criteria is Middlesex opener, Sam Robson. A man who played Test cricket in 2014, he's been an enduring presence at the top of the list at Lord’s, earning a testimonial year for 2025. Another interesting part of his story is that he’s an Aussie too, having decided to carve out a life over here after playing for the Australian Under 19s. And as you’ll hear now, Sam has also earned a lot of respect as someone who is both intelligent and thoughtful. The ideal player to chat with as season 2025 begins.

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It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Cameron Ponsonby joins Geoff to make his Story Time debut, representing a younger generation of badgerdom. And we do badger: detouring from Australian legends to patchy West Indies number threes, encouragement from Australian legends to promising West Indies number sixes, and an unexpected discovery of one of the most bonkers first-class scorecards we have yet unearthed on this program.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:

13.68 - Liam James

2.37 - Manish Achuth

2.60 - Nick Cimdins

5.11 - Daniel Kelly

6.70 - Thé Rod

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Book Club 9: Jarrod Kimber - The Art of Batting: The Craft of Cricket’s Greatest Run Scorers

Jarrod Kimber was a trailblazer in how the modern game was covered, disrupting press and commentary boxes in the best possible way. But throughout his interesting career, he’s always been an author, and his latest offering includes all the passion and insight you would expect as he goes deep on a simple yet essential topic – making runs. Once he and Adam have finished with that, they move onto another area that has dominated much of their lives over the last little while, neurodiversity. And within that, how they’ve written books by harnessing how their brains are hardwired rather than letting it become an unclearable hurdle.

Pre-order The Art of Batting from bloomsbury.com/uk/art-of-batting-9781399416542

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Season 17, Episode 31: Yes, we said the wrong episode number. Let's all be grown-ups about that. We're leading up to the Mr Sheffield Shield final, while Queensland's former captain Usman Khawaja smacks down his home state association for putting out false stories. Meanwhile, the sackings have started after England's surrender tour of Australia for the Women's Ashes, we have some new nonsense for the World Test Championship structure, and then the first segment of a season regular: the IPL with Ben Jones.

Your Nerd Pledge revisit for this week:

3.21 - Ed Henty

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It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Bharat Sundaresan joins us for tales from the beginning of India's national team, and the inadvertent birth of the BCCI. Gandhi flashes some kneecap, before we turn back twice through the tale of a heist-master who had one more job in mind.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:

5.93 - Rama Subramanian

8.05 - Michael Holden

6.26 - Cam Tero

3.39 - Nick Mildenhall

3.01 - Matthias Hine

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Book Club 8: Stephen Brenkley - A Striking Summer: How Cricket United a Divided Nation

99 years ago, England was in turmoil, leading to unprecedented industrial action. What kept the country together? In no small part, so goes the thesis of Stephen Brenkley in his beautiful new book, a terrific last-gasp Ashes victory - the first time they had defeated the Australians in a series since before the First World War. A Striking Summer – How Cricket United a Divided Nation, paints a vivid picture of post-war Britain and the tourists who made the 1926 Ashes something to behold, with champions filling both teamsheets. He joins Adam.

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Season 17, Episode 30: In November 2023, we interviewed with David Gower for over an hour and a half but still had plenty of his massive story still to tell. With Adam speaking with the former England record run-scorer at a Lord’s Taverners event in London last week, they picked up from where they left off, moving from the 1989 Ashes through to the end of his playing career then on to becoming one the game’s most substantial broadcast voices. A man we have a lot of admiration and respect for, not least due to the remarkable amount of time he puts into the Tavs, where he’s serving a fifth year as president in 2025. Enjoy.

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Season 17, Ep 29: It wasn't a good week for Stu MacGill, with a guilty verdict in court but on a pretty minor criminal count. That doesn't begin to reflect how strange the story was though, with family conflict, kidnapping, and the inevitable dodgy conduct from NSW police. In other news, Saudi Arabia's entry into cricket is being teased again, via a tournament whose proponents including the Australian players' union. Yep, it's a weird week. All the news we could find, as the final Shield round wends towards its conclusion.

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It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, an all-time thrilling finish involving a classic Australian side, a trip back to rare winter cricket under the roof, the high craft of a maligned spinner at his best, and all the cherubim and seraphim who come to mind via a heavenly fast-bowling presence who an English county is unaccountably trying to thieve.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:

2.26 - Ryan Smith

11.75 - Rhys Morgan

3.55 - Justin English

6.29 - Craig McGowen

2.21 - Graham Parker

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The Greatest Season That Was - The Final Frontier season finale

During the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia, The Greatest Season That Was pod focused its attention on the relationship between the cricketing giants over the decades, some 20 years from the staggering 2001 encounter in India. After speaking with a range of excellent guests, it was time to end the story with a conversation between Adam Collins, Shannon Gill and Daniel Brettig about what they had learned making the series.

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