Stokes bowling & Bumrah rested – do England have a chance? Fourth Test preview | Wisden Pod #INDvENG

0:00 Intro
0:28 INDvENG fourth Test preview
24:46 DRS
32:29 Other cricket
40:09 West Indies
44:16 Johnny Grave interview – West Indies CEO
59:16 Wisden Cricket Monthly
1:06:24 Outro

With news emerging that Ben Stokes may be able to bowl in the fourth India-England Test at Ranchi and that Jasprit Bumrah is likely to be rested, how much of a chance do England have of forcing a decider?

Phil Walker, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana preview the Ranchi Test and look at the other big stories from the world game over the last week.

Part of Dan Gallan’s interview with Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave is played in this episode – to read the full interview, pick up issue 75 of Wisden Cricket Monthly.

//

Issue 75 of Wisden Cricket Monthly is out now! A wall chart for the 2024 English summer is included with the magazine.

Get the magazine: https://wisden.com/shop/wisden-cricket-monthly-issue-75-copy

If you just want the wall chart, head here: https://www.thenightwatchman.net/buy/wisden-cricket-monthly-2024-wallchart

The digital version of the magazine is also available for just £2 a month at https://pocketmags.com/wisden-cricket-monthly-magazine#5c1cd17fa0b05

//

You can follow Wisden Cricket on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok:
https://www.facebook.com/WisdenCric
https://www.instagram.com/wisden_cricket/
Tweets by WisdenCricket

@wisdencricket

#Cricket #EnglandCricket #IndianCricket

Hello and welcome to the Wiz and Cricket weekly podcast we’re two days away from the ranchy test Ben Stokes is back bowling and Jasper Boomer is out how much of a chance do England have of forcing a decider we’ll be previewing that test catching up with everything

Else from the world game over the last week or so and we’ll also hear from Cricket West Indies Chief exec Johnny grave about massive month for the men in Maroon I’m yaas R and with me today a Phil Walker and Ben Gardner um let’s start with England Ben

Stokes is back bowling at the time of recording he’s not been confirmed as being able to bowl in the fourth test but the journal out there are saying that he’s been bowling 100% today for um a few long spells Ben you think that with Stokes being available available to bowl they

Might just play an extra spinner uh yeah and from what they’re saying about the pitch that would also seem sensible and and I think Boomer not being there feeds into that if there were a time when you might think okay normally Boomer is your is your point of difference now he’s not

There so you need to spin be a point of difference so kind of maximize how different they can be I can guess I guess Olli Pope described it as almost having like a like being two pitches kind of joined together in the middle so half lengthways with one half having

Like loads of plated cracks he called them and he said they’re wetting it so it gets even drier and the other half actually being how does how does that work how does wetting it to make it dry well I I guess it’s a bit like when you moisturize your face you’re not supposed

To just um put water on there because uh it’s like if you put that on then the heat dries it away and that evaporates maybe brings a bit more more out I guess um I mean I trust OE Pope I think he’s a you’ve pulled that theory out your ass

Really impressively there that’s really good um so uh so yeah and and the the those plated cracks it’s the cracked side is on the bit that is uh outside the right hand is off stump so quite useful for an off spinner of which uh India have have quite a good one and

England have one in Basher as well so that’s another reason to bring him in I suppose so yeah Stokes Stokes if Stokes can bowl a few over and that lessons need for a second seamer also the pitch is likely to turn more given Burma’s absence and given what they have said

About the pitch and they were pretty happy to play three spinners for the first two tests as well so I reckon that would be the way they go um Phil how would you balance um a side on on a two- face pitch that is dry but they’re wetting it to make it more

Dry it seems like a big gamble to expect Stokes to bowl a more than a few overs uh but then they started the series with one seamer anyway and so if What We Gather about this pitch is true as Ben says then perhaps they will just

Go in just with the one seamer if they do go in with the one sea the question is who should that SEMA be Mark Wood’s done pretty well overall but he’s and he’s bowled 60 something overs which isn’t an enormous amount of work missed obviously that second test match uh but

Daram Salah comes quick after this one and daram Salah up in the north uh higher altitude ball Zips through it’s the best pitch to bowl best conditions to bowl in if you’re a SEMA so perhaps they will hold wood back that would probably be the way that I would go the

Other thing is Anderson got through a lot of work in the last test match for very little reward uh to play three back-to-back I know they had a week off but three back to back and potentially then knobble him energy wise for the fifth test so I can

See Ole Robinson coming in here I can see Ole Robinson coming in doing a kind of a a sort of a a Workhorse job uh not going for that many doing an Anderson light job really um you can’t see him doing a wood and bowling running through

The top order on the first day necessarily but you can see him offering a degree of control if he’s fit and he should be uh then perhaps he can do that kind of mopping up job um holding an end down as best as possible which then that frees up England Spinners because what

You saw in the last test match was that they had no control and this wasn’t a reflection on their quality more a reflection on their experience and the reality of coming up against probably the best young cricketer in the world um and some other pretty good ones as well

So I think I would go with Robinson um only Stokes knows how how much he can get through realistically it would be very stokesian to go out with the new ball wouldn’t it on Friday morning win the toss well win the toss back yeah a the TOs and B to that would be

Quite St that would be stoking yeah yeah anyway uh I can see them going in with one and a half half Seamus then and and playing and playing bashier in there as well yeah I suppose the other thing with with Robinson um we talked about his skill

Set being quite similar to Anderson but on pitches where there there has been some inconsistent bounce he’s the tallest of any bowler across the two sides and it is likely to be the the sea to get the most out of that if that’s an offer um he’s got he’s got a point to

Prove as well right like um you know it’s interesting how far he’s fallen down the pecking order yeah and as much as you know when when we speak to him he’s he’s pretty genial and happy to sort of be in amongst the group and you know they play People based on

Conditions he’ll be sitting there thinking like you know I’ve got you know 70 wickets at 20 or in test Cricket uh and yet you know the last time I played I had to limp off with a with a back spasm and there are these questions over

My fitness and questions over that I can do it in these conditions and I’m you know I’m not I’m not yet First Choice uh maybe if there was a three but when there’s a two he’d want to be that guy and he wants to be the guy that shows he

Can lead the attack in all conditions when we do finally enter the the post Anderson era so he will come in with with quite a lot to uh to sort of fire him up from that point of view as well so if he does play it be intering to see

How he goes it’s a really good point because um he was only given a one-year Central contract um several uh less experienced seamers were given two-year Central contracts I suppose some of those play other formats as well but also I was just thinking head to what will the England bowling attack look

Like for the first test of the summer and in theory the guys the incumbents are all really old right Anderson Wood and w we everyone’s forgotten about WS he’s not here but he was you know player of the series last time England played he having a lovely time at home he’s

Having a great time he’s having a great series I’m sure um but also you know attention after this series will start to look ahead to that ashes tour that it’s less than two years away um and it’s not exactly clear who will be in that seam attack and also you’ve got

Matt pots knocking on the door from the outside who just had an exceptional ignor Lions tour Sam Cook continues to average under 20 so it’s pretty competitive you still got Josh Tu to come back so it is a really big if Robinson does get a go it’s a it’s a

Huge moment for him there’s no reason why he can’t return to the form that we saw in Pakistan in particular in that winter but the summer before that as well uh I thought he he was given more criticism than he deserved over the ashes personally I thought there was a

Lot of noise around him obviously because he put his foot in it and gave kaaja that graceless sendoff but I thought he did fine at Lords um and was just getting into his work at headingly and then they series was done that was that um the the Pakistan model is a good

One because if if he is going to play this upcoming test match because while it’s well known and you often say it rightly that there’s huge differences in terms of the pitches nonetheless they are both dry and they are good generally good to bat on for the first couple of

Days in Pakistan they’re good to bat on for five days but he found some life from those pitches in Pakistan and famously cleaned up babaz arm twice in the same test match no one’s ever done that before and to break his defenses twice with Cutters break backs there’s

Not much in the air but there is stuff off the pitch and he’s a very very skillful manipulator of a cricket ball in conditions that help him but also those that don’t um what he did against Australia in that Lords game I thought was was a good model as well for what

Stokes might be looking for in this test match and that he he wasn’t especially incisive but he bowled a 13 over spell on day three or four whatever day three I think that afternoon and was hard to hear hard to get away and because he is

Accurate you can rely on him um just as Anderson has done that job in certain conditions for many many years so Robinson can come in he doesn’t quite have the same Shimmer and class as Anderson as we know but he can offer a similar kind of role and so I think

There’s some logic to him the the murmurs are that he might be in line to play this one yeah it looks looks that way um just looking at the venue ranchy so like the previous two venues it’s only hosted two tests before the numbers are actually quite similar to viag and

Rajot in the India have scored massive totals and the opposition have often been bundled out for not many so I’m not sure what it really says other than India have been better um but yeah it it looks like from what the England players are saying at the moment that uh it’s

Probably more similar to the hyroad pitch that we saw in the first test match what we seen in the last two that said Ben I I was thinking after the last test you know Ben Stoke said something I don’t think we covered on the Pod he said that on the day that England

Collaps so day three um that he wanted at the start of the day for England to be bowling by the end of the day and the pitch didn’t end up breaking up in the way that he would have predicted when he had that thought and it occurred to me

That there have been a few times as winds going back to the World Cup where England have got conditions just massively wrong in India less so in the test series sure but I think they have um they’ve definitely prepared the pitches that have turned more than than

They actually have um and I think that has played a part in um their struggles in the last two tests yeah um and this even goes back to when they picked the squad you know we said it was a squad that was picked with a degree of inflexibility over how they could sort

Of balance the the 11 even if it gave a lot of options to the attack with you know few rounders in there and kind of neglecting the the idea there could be a Pitch like we had in in Pakistan that was sort of Flat Earth and that where

You want you know lots of bowling options and that sort of thing um and I guess there’s also a certain element where there’s almost feels like there’s like a SL clash in the messaging there where if you’re telling your batters that we want to be batting again tonight

How do that fit into the you know go out and play with like sort of complete freedom and take on a situation as as you see it it’s not really freedom is exactly that’s that’s a team instruction and and it is and especially I mean look

Who who who am I to question Ben Stokes but you wonder if that if actually that was where you said like SC and bat really really really long because you know they are down a bowler they’ve got another bowler on a a dodgy hamstring uh and and let’s see what happens if they

Have to you know do a long long stint in the dirt and they went a different way um but yeah you’re right as well about the about the conditions but it’s from from what they’re saying about this pitch I think it’d be quite hard to misjudge it possibly but yeah I don’t

Know um Phil Neil asks something that I haven’t seen brought up yet it’s Neil McDonald it is Neil McDonald yeah he’s good he good is good as well the top three are doing well the next three less so the top three weren’t in the World Cup the next three were is there a

Carryover uh possibly possibly um it’s it’s more generally it’s flipped predictions that the expectation was that England’s top three may may get found out a little bit uh get bummer out um and especially Crawley didn’t have a great reputation against the Turning ball um and Pope didn’t have any kind of

Record against India it’s been flipped on its head uh uh root besto Stokes Stokes has played okay in Parts but root and beo have blown out so far um is there a pattern it’s hard to say and each individual is different but certainly this is a recurring theme in

Cricket that especially as a batter there’s a point at which you can’t keep digging deep all the time and it’s and when you when you feel like when the rhythm is out then the the energy levels drain as well and and you get into a point of a kind of a sense of

Inertia it happens more I think with players who only play white ball cricket and there’s a there’s a kind of familiarity of it that breeds contempt if you are just if you’re an opening bat in 20 over cricket and you’re just playing traveling traveling playing playing traveling and it’s the same old

Stuff and your job is simply to smash hell out of it for 20 odd balls and if you get to 40 your job’s done there’s a kind of wearing similarity or sness to to that and you’ve seen it with certain certain players I got that sense with J

With Jason Roy um brilliant player on his day but his days were becoming so predictable that it was hard to really get yourself going because it was just the same old stuff and you get jaded after a while I don’t I can’t think that there is a legit case here but it’s possible

That residually the misery of That World Cup and the traveling element of it as well could perhaps be dragging them down a little bit certainly somebody like besto who would have gone into that World Cup hit a six in the first over and since then hasn’t really found any

Kind of form had a a an iffy World Cup as we know he he he’s the kind of player who thrives on a bit of support and a bit and an arm around the shoulder it’s been a long stretch now where he hasn’t got any runs and Joe is the same Joe Joe

Had a poor World Cup as well so it’s it’s it’s possible that residually psychologically there is some kind of Hangover it’s a good point by by big Neil you know he’s R he’s rarely off off kill we have no idea what Neil looks like um I can imagine sort of Adonis

66 bowls bats runs up the hill and then gets the beers in the other thing I guess is that these are the three who have more memories of kind of bad times in India I know the previous tour in India was bad but I mean this is getting

Quite pop psychology but I wonder if it was so different in terms of how the whole tour was surely not uh that um that it’s been slightly easier to wipe out because this is just a different experience touring India this time whereas you know those three they played

What two test between that 2012 Tour and then they had the whole of that 2016 tour I Ducket was on that one as well wasn’t 2021 I just wonder if there’s a little bit more of the of kind of a Here We Go Again nature or kind of like a

That actually could be those three that have built up the conditions more than the top three who okay had that one tour but are also more kind of children of McCullum and Stokes than no I think I think it’s a fair point and I think it’s related to the conditions Point as well

In that I think this England team has at its best when it’s reacting to what’s in front of them and actually quite a lot this tour they are not reacting to what’s in front of them they they have these preconceived ideas of what’s going to happen and aren’t necessarily

Reacting to the the particular situation the best news that say Joe root has had all week because that bumra is not playing in this test so we had a question on this so n asked it’s hard to understand the mindset of elite sports stars but do you think the absence of

Bumra will give rout in particular AB boost he’ll never admit it but but what do you think well yeah it has to it has to if you have a player who looms large uh and who clearly statistically uh has the wood over you then his absence is going to give you a

Bit of pep in your step has to why wouldn’t it um obviously as as your boy quite rightly says uh it’s not the kind of thing that you admit but in your in your your quieter moments you’re relieved that you that he’s not on that team Sheet he also does LOM large for

Darham Salah so you know this you feel like England’s England series is on the line here and just going back very briefly to the election policy I don’t think you can HED your bets too much if they feel that when they look at the pitch the morning

Out that there is a bit in it for the seamers potentially then you have to play your best seam attack as well I think because you know you can’t just pre what might be happening a week hence could down you know this is the series England have made that mistake before

Down under two years AG where Mark Woods rested for 2-0 you know I mean he looms large psychologically B but also looms large because he is a bowler who just has Root’s number a bit right like Ro is more to get a big score because there is

A bowler that he struggles against not in the side this time and also be boosted by the fact if Ben Stokes is bowling and they do end up going with three Spinners that’ll be less workload on him with with the ball as well which was a very fair point that Butch raised

On the last pod so that you know I wouldn’t be I mean obviously wouldn’t be surprised for guys that made SW maybe there’s a some smart money we had there I don’t know how much um of a difference do you think it makes now that Boomer’s out India still favorites but that Gap

Is much smaller uh yeah It’s tricky because that I don’t is the gap smaller than would have been before the last test considering the size of the victory in that last test probably still still is smaller that India that that that margin has come in slightly

Um and I guess also there’s the thing that yes a they might go for a spinning track because they think okay we can just pick the one seer in Sage we know that if we go with mkes Kumar is’s not going to do much in in any sort of

Conditions that might be the feeling after how he’s gone this series um but that spinning track could bring England more into the game I mean the one game game they’ve won this Series has been on the pitch that’s turned the most and that is where the the philosophy should

Sort of have the biggest impact because the The Challenge on those pitches is mental it’s about putting aside the ones that spin past your outside as that you could never get near out of your head and being able to then reverse sweep the next one because it’s there to be hit

And that is something that how they play allows them to do more than you know any England side we’ve seen previously really so actually a a a pitch obviously there were result pitch pitch that even more favored towards the bowlers actually that brings England bat is more

Into it in a weird way because they might be less lik to make a big total but they’re more like to make a fighting total um so that aspect as well I still if if IND go with the one SEMA I guess they have to go with with a pitch that helps the

Spinners a lot um I still think it’s the right call to play AAR as the as the extra bowler to come in for bura rather than mesh Kumar but it is a so m is the only other seamer in this a deep as well actually who was in the last Squad ahead

Of mes maybe he maybe he’s jumped ahead of him in the pecking order but mesh Kumar took 10 for in the ri trophy between those two times so and also maybe we shouldn’t be writing off a guy like mesu when I saw him in South Africa

Or be on a pitch where they played the shortest test match there’s ever been he looked he he looked quite handy so you know he’s he’s got where he is for a reason and he hasn’t been given a huge am huge chance in the series let alone

You know given even though he’s wasn’t hugely impressive in those limited chances if he gets a bit of a spell under his belt we could do um Phil we had a few questions on England’s tendency to name an 11 24 hours out why do you think they do

That uh or do do you like it I I don’t see the point at all I think especially when you’re playing away from home and pitches can change complexion quite quite at the last I don’t really see what benefit there is aside from it being you know a kind of element of

Kidology uh it’s it’s it’s in keeping isn’t it right you know Balls to the floor this is who we are we don’t care who you are we we only care about ourselves uh we’re the Lords and saviors of the future um I don’t quite understand it but you know it’s it’s

It’s small beer it’s small beer in in the end and and India don’t really need to concern themselves too much with whether whether England play two SP two seamers or one or three Spinners or two um best though is there a question mark for you either of you two uh no I mean

Well there’s a question mark but sure but do you I would answer the question by saying besto should play Still yeah I’d play him you know he looked good couple of tests ago um he is the sort of player who you know has it in him to completely change a test match very

Quickly um it’s not as if you’ve got a guy outside the side who scored lots of runs in these conditions um Dan Lawrence hasn’t played any Red Bull Cricket for quite a long time um and it’s almost just it’s such a you know it’s almost a

Discussion not worth having cuz I just I think the chance of England doing it is so low um you know they they’ve only dropped one batter in the two years that they’ve been in charge so I can’t see them doing I can’t see them stranding

Best on on 98 or 99 test caps how however he goes um cook was dropping him after really after that test match um shrouded or rather clouded in that classic xpros line of to protect him he’s he’s taking him out the firing line to protect him you’re dropping him let’s

Just call it as it is Aon went the other way of course I think the prevailing mood is that that you go the other way uh McCullum was quite clear I think in his chat building up to the game that you know he’s he remains the sort of the

Archetype of what they’re trying to do and his record since they began is good and and his record is good since since they began his record post the injury is less good um there was a question on TW that I saw this morning um rather sort

Of salty but if he does get to 100 tests uh is he perhaps in the lowest rung of players who have who have managed to get 100 test matches with with the cavat that to get to 100 test you have to you got to be good you got

To be good got be good yeah I mean we discussed this in the office and I guess the conversation would involve Carl Hooper I guess who was a servant for West Indian cricket but has not a not exceptional record I think you you could probably a very very similar test record

Obviously hoop B bestt but with the bat it’s almost identical number hundreds number 50s average yeah it’s I think Hooper averaged 36 point something he was too good that was his problem he was too good we he couldn’t live with how good he was just whacked it up in the

Air we we we spoke a lot about this during the last test match so I wondered um again this sounds harsh but to be in this conversation you must be a bloody good player but but basically uh has anyone had as many craps series is best though um because he’s obviously a very

Streaky player and if you do it on a metric of number of Series where you’ve averaged under 25 with the bat he is right up there but number one that we found was actually a great in Hashim mler who had a very difficult start to his career and had a difficult end to

His career for memory but yeah amler despite averaging what high 40s I think um had maybe 16 or 17 sub 25 series across his his career best I think is 14 that’s including a couple of one off appearances yeah is is on the 11 thing

Is the benefit of it not that it gives a player like besto just Clarity a day out from a test match two days out if he’s in that Squad and they but but you can announce it in the dressing room yeah but then you’re still not if you

Announce it to the media as well then what the player isn’t doing is seeing on their phone speculation about if they should be dropped the night before when the 11 is but they already know that they’re in uh because they’ve been told yeah but you’re still reading the negativity you’re still scrolling your

Phone seeing people saying if you’re in the team you’re seeing people saying he shouldn’t be do you not is and but but the negativity is going to swirl around and in fact it might even swirl around more if you announce the team 24 hours early and you’re in it and a lot of

People think well you shouldn’t be possibly then you’re going to be reading there’s going to be all the more pressure right I’m I’m just trying to pause the thinking and I wonder if if if that might actually have more of a an aid that that they feel than than we

Think the other thing on besto Career that was looking up so uh half of his test hundred came in that eight test streak um in in in 2022 um which you know you can you can use that stat either way you know that’s someone who

Hasn’t scored a lot of test 100 in in 92 tests um but when he when he’s good there are very few I mean the two really good streaks you had streaks that are almost unrivaled you know in 2016 um he scored more runs as a wicket keeper back than anyone in history of

The game and that little run in 2022 is again right up there with anything even Bradman did yeah so and if you just split his career into uh years which are divisible by six which is 2016 and 2022 uh it’s a vast difference to the rest so

Just wait until 2028 and he’s going to be a God tossa uh K rul is still out so Raj padar is set to continue in the middle order for India um there are some comments from Ben Stokes in the aftermath of the test about DRS that caught people’s

Attention well done to Friend of the Pod cam Pon B on talk sport for getting these comments out of Stokes um so he first said that he had a conversation with the match referee Jeff Crow who explained that in the fourth inning Zack Crawley’s marginal lbw um decision was

The correct decision but the image shown on Hawkeye and ball tracker was wrong it sort of looked like ball tracker had it missing but it was still given out um pushed on his thoughts on DRS in general Stoke said my personal opinion is that if the ball’s hitting the stumps the

Ball’s hitting the stumps they should take away umpire’s call if I’m being perfectly honest but I don’t want to get too much into it because it will sound like we’re moding and that’s why we’ve lost before we talk about unire Co Ben how does the because I I don’t think I

Know this how does it actually work the the ball tracker for Drs on lws well okay so from a very basic point and this is is this is an oversimplification but they basically you can identify the the bounce point and you can identify the impact point on the pad and with that

And a few other measurement you can get the velocity of the ball as it bounces and that’s basically all you need to calculate the projected path of the ball that’s just a physics formula because uh you have the the formula for the path of a projectile given that you know

Gravitational pull is always the same you can just you can just do that now there’ll be a bit more in that where they can maybe if the ball moves a bit after pitching perhaps or uh um and that sort of thing but yeah so so for example to clear one misconception people some

To say well what if a pitch is bouncing variably how can DRS handle that but each time it sort of calculates the bounce so it doesn’t matter if it bounces you know lows one ball and discusses on the floor the next ball because it just calculates the bounce it

Just takes it from the the bounce point and then just measures the path from that and that’s how it does it um yeah and then why is there onp cool because there’s a viral video of Nas saying explaining that it’s to do with the margin of error and the fact that these

Are potentially flawed projections you don’t think that explanation is is actually 100% accurate No and just to touch on Stokes it’s confusing that if Stokes is worried about the act of the technology he wants to do away with umpire’s call that’s that that’s confusing to me but anyway uh the margin

Of error this is what ha would say the margin of error is is Tiny which is is certainly much less than the the half stamp half ball width that DRS currently accounts for and actually if you think about how DRS works that you can kind of

Infer that from some of the protocols so uh if unire with f margin of error you wouldn’t need it for pitching and for impacts on the because those are things you calculate not you project um the margin of error is the same depending on how far there is between point of impact

Uh bounce point and the stumps which you wouldn’t be You’ think You’ need more margin be if someone was hit you know not right in front of the stumps and a bit further down and most crucially I think is that if a ball is projected to

Just miss the stumps that is still not umpire’s call which it should be because if it’s about margin of error and it’s just missed the stumps then maybe that’s just hitting who knows but that’s not how it works in D that tells you it’s not about margin of error and actually this is

Back in 2015 Paul Hawkins who’s the inventor of Hawkeye he put the margin of error at about 5 millim which is what half a fingernail or so um so is there a case to be made then that having 51 or 49% of the ball and therefore that dictating the final

Decision do you think that that margin of error is too large well no like I I’m perfectly fine with unp’s call but I think the technology is a lot more accurate than saying n Hussein uh explanation gives it credit for uh but I think you need umpire’s call as it is

Because otherwise the game would just be sure ridiculous right but but could you reduce the margin of error to a smaller percentage and then have so that that would in effect make the STS bigger right which would just mean more lbw which I don’t think the game needs

Essentially I think that the balance is about right between bat and ball the number of lbw you get essentially so so why is their RP call if the margin of era is that small so so so I think that I basically in as far as I can tell it’s

To um it’s because you it’s there for the howler right that’s the that was the original uh reason for bringing in DRS is that you didn’t want the uh you know the ridiculous ones where it’s pitch mares outside leg to uh to to stay to

Stay out and uh and this is the way that it does that and I think that you know I think we can say that decisions that are reasonable but not howlers I think that’s actually quite that’s nice and fine that those stay with the Umpire so is it’s a philosophical call almost

About what they want technology to do it’s it’s to get rid of very obvious mistakes not to overturn decisions that are on the margins basically and it’s nothing to do it’s not really to do with the margin of error no and especially that that 5 mimet figure that was back

From 2015 Hawkeye would say that has got a lot more accurate since then you do still see the odd error but those are error errors not margin of error errors if that makes sense as in they they’ve put the spot where the ball pitches is wrong or something like cool it’s good

To clear that up um also this week I found this quite interesting it was reported that um BCCI secretary J Shaw has written to players in India underlining the sanctity of domestic Cricket um he wrote that there is a trend that has emerged and it is a cause

For concern some players have begun prioritizing the IPL over domestic C Cricket a shift that that was not anticipated domestic Cricket has always anticipate that this this guy’s in charge of all Cricket uh domestic Cricket has always been the foundation upon which Indian cricket stands and it has never been

Undervalued in our vision for the sport he’s basically said you can’t have the glamour of the IPL without the grind of the Randy trophy um and I think we we often when we talk about the power of Indian cricket we sort of forget that it’s concentrated in the administrators

Like the players are actually not that powerful um like if you’re an Indian player who’s a very good white player um but doesn’t play for India you you’ve got very you don’t have have any options to play White B Cricket around the world like you know someone who’s I don’t know

Like a Pakistani player like usam air who’s not always in the the squad he can play everywhere unless you want to Gig in the 50 over one day cup in August over here that’s true that’s true but but and also does it suggest that the next power battle within world cricket

Now that the BCI by far the most powerful board is actually going to be within India the BCI perhaps versus the IPL team owners whether at some point they want to rest control off that League from the BCI and think that we’re the ones who you know have built this

League up we want to be the ones who are reaping the rewards that that could be something that that we see further down I think possibly and and also just seeing a player who’s outside the international Reckoning actually break away from the BCCI and Indian crcket at a relatively young age that’s not

Happened yet and I guess the dream is that you can earn so much money by being a big name IPL player and as long as you got that in front of you it makes it a very hard thing to reject but you know there’s so many opportunities elsewhere

In the world now yeah and and it’s worth pointing out that for all it’s natural I guess and inevitable to speak out the side of one’s mouth a little bit about the power that India has the preeminence of the IPL and how it dominates the landscape nonetheless they play a hell

Of a lot of test Cricket around the world and you mentioned that Johnny Graves interview with Dan gallen’s going to feature a little bit later on I don’t know if you’ll follow if the extract will feature this bit but one of the things he says in the magazine piece

Which goes along side this interview is is we can’t ask anymore of India’s touring team they can of course ask more of the ICC regarding how the the money is distributed and you can definitely ask the question regarding whether the the host team and whether the the

Visiting team can can can share that money a little bit more fairly because the West Indies in particular get disproportionately hit by that but in terms of the number of test matches that India play the commitment that they give boots on the ground to multi-day Cricket that can’t be

Argued against 100% they are the most prolific touring team um out there you know in the last couple of years they’ve B they’ve basically gone anywhere in the last two years um you know just just looking now they’ve gone to Bangladesh the Caribbean um isand Zimbabwe you

Know the big three get lumped together in this regard but actually India by far the best of the big three actually traveling everywhere um um so they definitely deserve credit for that um elsewhere in the international game this week New Zealand won the second test of their Series against South Africa though

It was much closer than the first New Zealand was set 267 to win in the fourth Innings and a thir hundred of the series from Kane Williamson ensured that the black caps won that by seven wickets eighth in 10 games it is it is mad averaging 86 is it is completely mad so

Um I think Ben referenced some of Williamson stats in the last pod um so just to go over those again so since the start of the pandemic 18 tests he has 1100 and 150 and Ben what was that 50 that was 51 out to win the World test

Championship final so so in that time he averages 78 at home in that period he averages 117 with 9 hundreds from nine matches overall bigger picture he’s on 32 test hundreds that’s three more than Coy from 15 fewer test matches it’s two more than root from 40 fewer tests he’s

Now 11th on the all-time list his career average stands at 55.9 Which is higher than Callis of the guys that play more than 25 tests since the war only barington weeks soers sangakara Hutton Walcott and Smith average more um it’s a run to rival Smith’s Peak I’d say but if you’re being

Especially harsh um but I think it’s valid to point this out he’s only got 100 from Seven tests against India and England in that time and he’s not played Australia yet so it’ll be fascinating to see how he goes in this um run of form against Australia in the series that

Starts very very soon and and Smith’s run as well included two completely absurd overseas Series in India and in England and I don’t the closest I think you could find for C and again this is Harsh because he doesn’t get to play the same amount of long series but I guess

The series win in the UAE when no one had won there for for absolutely age and he was brilliant in that series that’s the closest you could come but those were still those aren’t Super Bowl conditions that are testing your Technique those were hard to win in for

For several reasons but batters were making runs there so that that is something as well but but yeah I mean and he’s didn’t play a lot more test this year right yeah he’ll play a lot in the next year or so yeah so so and you

Know if if his elbow issue is is fixed he could properly end up really high on that list of of alltime tests well he’s nine matches away from being number two on the list Yeah well yeah uh well Across The Tasman Australia beat um South Africa by an innings in 28 4 runs

Sou Africa were bowled out for 76 and then had Australia 12-3 but the a still managed to score 574 a Lissa Healey hit 99 Annabel Southerland hit 210 the fourth highest individual score in women’s tests um Healey getting out for 99 that is the same high score as her

Husband Mitchell Stark um they’re the two of the 12 people to have a higher score of 99 in in test Cricket um Ben we were watching some of that test match and um Australia doing really interesting with a slip cording I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in a test

Match before so G and brown were bowling um really good classical away swing bowling and the slip Cordon they were all two spots apart from each other um which I sort of don’t re don’t really understand why they doesn’t happen more because they’re basically backing them

To to cover that to cover that ground so they effectively had three players covering five slips worth of of um of space yeah and and there for the slice drive as much as for the kind of the genuine edge off a defensive shot yeah um Annabel souland looks absolutely

Terrifying and just just at the point when you might see sort of like a of of light in the Australian armor so like you had a St yeah so so I think it’s so they’ve in T20 eye Cricket they’ve lost five in their last 11

Having gone I think 24 unbeaten in a row leading into that and in ODI Cricket they’ve lost three games in the last year having lost one in the five years preceding that so they are still the best team in the world but maybe that Gap has closed slly and you know they

They lost that test match for IND year as well didn’t they but then Annabel souland early days but if they’re looking for an Elise Perry replacement strong signs that she could be that I guess um the PSL started uh this week or the end of last week with a

With a bit less Fan Fair than usual um there’s a very good piece on quick info by Danielle rasul sort of outlining that the PSL has very quickly gone from number two T20 competition in the world to maybe number three in February um why the il20 and sa20 didn’t exist until

Last year both of them can offer a lot more money even the Bangladesh Premier League um offers a lot of money for really short stints as well so just securing players is really difficult um it’s always had the problem of being quite close to the IPL so um it’s quite

A good point in the calendar for players to to out of yeah um and and also there is just quite a lot of international cricket as well it’s just a very very hard time it’s a very compact part of the international schedule and the franchise schedule so it is just just

Very hard for that competition to maintain that not Supremacy but essentially be number two um but I guess what has in its favor is it always has fun players that emerge from nowhere who are instantly great to watch you you were watching Kaa is the latest one

Comes in with absolutely no record and inside his first uh his first eight balls he sort of played a a pickup shot and then an uppercut of Harris Ralph for six had the upper cut he is so far off the ground and then ends up winning the

Game with 16 out off off 30 I think so he’s I think yeah 22 years old no one Mar knows where he’s come from I think there’s stories that people saw some videos batting on Facebook and that got him a a gig in the BPL and now they

Realize he’s you know he’s as a domestic player in in the PSL but yeah I mean who knows whether he’ll be the next bazam will be fun for a few weeks but they just always seem to to bring this and also every fast bowler is just bowling

Yorkers basically and that watch it is really fun to watch and also they always just spawn out new uh 90 mile Quicks who 17 or 18 every year y so this this time they got a guy called Muhammad Zan who’s 17 he uh did well in the under 19 World

Cup he’s 6′ five or something that 67 uh rapid um you’ve also got the three sha Brothers all on the same team and H I think is he’s he’s not playing but you’ve got a cha who was in the9 World Cup he’s quick he’s not he’s not he’s

Not theim level but he’s he’s very exciting Vince watch where’s he at I knew you’re going to ask that he’s currently 17 off 17 for the Kings against zi yes mate um he’s batting with SH Malik um of course he is forever forever more and pull odds in

Next oh beautiful it never ends um Phil yeah there is a new magazine out oh yeah right and I think this is my this is up there with my favorite ever cover I think come on then let’s get it up let’s get it up for our YouTubes there you go look at

That why do you like it so um I mean it’s an iconic image and I think it is a uh the the correct but not necessarily obvious call to in the midst of a high-profile series like England India to go with Shamar on the coverage on the cover because that that is the

Moment of the year so far I think so I think so so it’s a West Indies special uh Dan Gallen as you say uh did a really excellent thing um trying to get a sense of the the overall landscape in light of the Shamar Joseph moment at the Gaba one

Of the Great Moments in recent years uh and he spoke to various people involved in West Indies cricket at the sharp end and those observing it as well from Ian Bishop to Johnny grave to Craig brawe even um and pulled together the intro to this this special section um we

Also spoke to santoki who’s one of the co-host of the Caribbean Cricket podcast about uh the love affair that you have to indulge if you’re if you’re going to stick at it Vana batch as well whose book that we’ve mentioned a few times now on this show son she’s on the podast

Recently okay so she she’s written a couple of pieces actually for this issue um comparing actually the 61 tide test in uh Brisbane to the 2024 Heist if you like um so that’s lovely and various other bits and Bobs as well really um hard to know where to

Start we’ll give you a bit of time to think uh because we’ll we’ll play a section of Dan chat with the Cricket West Indies Chief Johnny grave found it really interesting yeah you can the full interviews in the magazine but I found it really interesting hearing him

Outline uh what we and others have talked about a lot but from his perspective and sort of um really pinning the blame on on the the the the the the pay structure that of international cricket you know as we mentioned earlier he he says that the the big boards like England and India

Are actually pretty good at at touring and it sort of outlines the sort of um the sort of costs that you might not think about about you know he he outlines how it is the for West Indies it is much more expensive for them to get around the world compared to

Everyone else because of where West Indies is yeah and and the other point and again it may he may be coming on to it right now but the other point that really jumped out for me is that you have a centralized uh TV Revenue fund not fund

But you have a broadcast deal uh which is generally centralized so obviously the UCB has its deal with sky and the BBC but in the West Indies in the Caribbean there’s 15 different regions all with their own requirements all with their own boards or with their own uh profits

And losses agendas really and so finding a sort of centralized broadcast deal which ties in all of those facets is very very difficult very challenging um and he he puts it far more eloquently than me I mean he lives this stuff but that again it seems like the West Indies

Because of the geog graphical nature or makeup are penalized more than other countries um disproportionately so and certainly the point about sharing the revenues of Tours um is a very very key one um he’s really good is Johnny grave weirdly I’ve known him for a long long

Time because he works at sari and then he works at the PCA and then he was a left field appointment the CEO of the West Indies but he he’s he’s smart and he’s pragmatic and he gets it uh and he’s being listened to more and more um

So it’s well worth listening to this definitely worth picking up the magazine yes absolutely uh so here is some of uh Dian gallen’s chat with Johnny grave and as Phil said you can read the whole interview with grave in the magazine do you get a sense that there’s

Been anything other than joy and hope that West dis Cricket kind of returns do do you think that the organization has spoken of in patronizing terms of times no I think generally the teams um are loved by the world I think we’re the second everyone’s second favorite team

And and I don’t see that changing in the short or or medium term or even long term and I think what we saw uh in Australia was that you know falling back in love maybe um with the West Indies you know having on the back of having

You know rare tours there let’s be honest and and when we have to they’re um not unlike anyone else um struggling um and I think I think that’s probably what Bish and others have noticed that you know New Zealand can go there as almost World test Championship winners

And get beaten up by the Australian side and bold out cheaply and lose you know within two or three days and England obviously have done that in the past in N year series and lose 5-1 but that’s all very well and good but when the West Indies come the The Narrative tends to

Be pathetic while they even playing while they’re playing even playing test Cricket you know yeah if Australia and England have five or six debutants they’re the exciting you New Rising Stars of their teams and the future and when we go there why are we sending such inexperienced you know youngsters they

That shouldn’t even be playing international cricket and I think it’s those different situations particularly people like a bishop who are in the media who hear it um not just on the commentary or in print but hear it in the corridors and I think everyone’s a bit sick of you know the phrase world

Cricket needs a strong West Indies when we definitely feel that world Cricket is doing everything they can in almost every level to make sure the West Indies cricket are never strong again and I think that’s the the born of the frustration of that as Bish says a sort

Of in his own words a s patronizing tone it’s well if you really want a strong West Indies cricket it wouldn’t actually be that hard to to do a bit more and look ICC are giving us more money in headlines but our percentage of revenu

Is going from 7% down to 5% um which we struggle to understand how that’s going to help us help grow the game uh India couldn’t really tour us anymore nor could England they’ve been fantastic within the current structure but obviously you know even when they’re doing all that they can do and it’s

Still you know odds stacked against us I think that’s when we start to say well look the models wrong you know BCCI can’t do anymore um they played us in 22 they came back in 23 England have come twice in two years that’s when we make our money but it’s still very very

Difficult and challenging then surely we’ve got to address the model and the philosophy where if we all just are self-interested and and looking after ourselves then are we really acting as a community are we really putting the best product on the field because we firmly believe that in order for a cricket U

Match to be compelling you need two good sides and it takes two teams to create a cricket contest and the more there is jeopardy the more there is high quality Cricket then the better our sport is and the better our sport is and you know the better the product is the more people

Are going to want want watch and and pay money to attend so um we see it in that ecosystem which is very North American you know I’ve used the phrase before and interviews you only his strong as your weakest team is the sort of philosophy in American sport is the most successful

Commercial commercially uh and certainly the most developed commercially and we we just think we need a bit of that and it will still be difficult in the West Indies and we would still be significantly smaller and we’d still have a higher cost bace than everyone else because of the nature of the 15

Different countries and and how we can move people around but it it it could we think be so much better and and that’s I guess what we’re we’re trying to lobby for and have done since we wrote a paper in 2018 do you feel that South Africa West Indies Pakistan Shen all the

Smaller Boards New Zealand would they be able to put pressure and kind of go to the bigger boards and say guys without you we can’t change things you the change needs to come from those who have their hands on the leave of power yeah I

Think so I mean I I think I’m having everyone having a slightly more Global Perspective helps I think the fact that I worked for you know 17 years in English cricket and now yeah seven years in West Indies I’ve seen it and lived it so you you you understand firsthand how

Difficult it is and all the lazy narratives of well you know West Indies crickets own it’s their own problems and they’re self- creative we we can’t in our probably in a lifetime change the economic prosperity of our region as a cricket organization we cannot change the ability to travel into irand um cost

Effectively you know we can’t necessarily get hotel rates to to come down to not be um High season tourist rates so that there are there are things that people say well West Indies need to change and it’s all their own doing West Indies need to go and get better deals

You know it’s it’s not as simple as that and um I think that’s the point we’re trying to make and and then some just really obvious ones you know West Indies will spend more on international flights and domestic flights and any other board just to participate in these international events bilateral Cricket

So the world chest Championship you know if if people think about it for Sri Lanka for example for many of their tours they’re just hopping to Bangladesh or to Pakistan or to India or at best their one flight Long Haul flight away in the main most of our matches are

Three Long Haul flights away so we’re we’re talking and and many of those routs of very expensive popular tourist routes of which there’s low competition um so therefore prices tend to be significantly higher so just in terms of our ability to participate on an even playing field in those tournaments our

Cost base is higher than everyone else from flights and hotels when you then compound that with very small populations um in the Caribbean there isn’t and different Sovereign Nations there isn’t a TV network in the region that would produce our cricket let alone produce our cricket and pay a rights fee

So again sort of we we we probably spend four or five mli US dollars a year just on producing the cricket the DRS all the coverage that we do and we invest heavily in that but we can’t monetize that in our region so we have to reine

Overseas rights where again if if if fans think of what English Cricket would look like if if they were turning Sky check into a you know5 million pound a year cost line it looks very very different and that’s effectively you know what we have here and I don’t think

People understand because we quite often get comments well why don’t you change it but not as simple as that we can’t just create a a TV network overnight that’s going to um going to be pan cam Caribbean and and and be able to generate the subscriptions and the and

The ad Revenue to to afford to pay us a rights for and to pay our production costs am I am I just a a fist in the air socialist or or is it actually as simple as changing the revenue system sharing sharing income with the touring side to

Make it to to incentivize them to tour and having that and a collective Kitty as it were where I don’t know teams were paying a percent of their income like a tax as it were to keep test Cricket you know the basics flights hotels what training facilities Etc I mean like is

Is it that simple if we had a more egalitarian economic model this thing could survive and without it it it might not I mean is it that simple or am I being naive our view is that not only can test Cricket survive we actually think with with some minor changes is it

Can actually Thrive and and we’ve seen it thrive in recent times in certain markets and we definitely think that if everyone who plays test cricket collaborates and works together more it really can improve as a product we in in our in our lobbying and papers we’ve written have talked about having you

Know minimum of three match series we talked about um uh 20% of the revenue generated from test Cricket going either into a fund or or or to the the opposition side to help cover uh their cost we talked about um centrally paying for for air fares just um so that you

Know that that could be booked more centrally probably more efficiently on bigger economies to scale discounts and and you know baggage deals and everything else which again sound incons insignificant but you can know for the amount of kit that you got to take to Australia on three trans Atlant or three

Long Haul flights you can talking about you know up upwards of $50,000 just on excess baggage so it’s not insignificant when you’ve got multiple teams now across our we got two Academy teams we got two under 19 teams we’ve got um women’s ODI women’s T20 and obviously

Three men’s uh plus 80 there so much cricket being played now which is great but at the same time obviously the the operational cost of of that and particularly with test Cricket you know in order to have any sort of chance of producing a good test team you’ve got to

Underpin it with a pretty robust first class um structure and first class Cricket here as you can imagine flying teams across different Islands again is is is very very expensive so I think you know all of us when people say you know do West Indies even want to play test

Cricket you know it’s a difficult question for us because we are doing so much for Red Bull Cricket at such expense where it almost makes no sense to do it but we’re doing it because our traditional fans want to play test Cricket we’ve seen what test Cricket

Means um to the Caribbean and people around the world when on the back of um what happened at the Gaba so um we know we’re doing the right thing it’s just and and we’re not waiting for the World to Change we we continue to Lobby because it’s not just lobbying about

West Indies cricket as you alluded to we are trying to speak on behalf of South Africa Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka the other test playing Nations um to say that you know the last few years the the models you know the gap’s got bigger the divides getting bigger and the way the

Game is currently structured um the poor will get poor and the rich will get richer so this problem is only going to get worse in our in our view and therefore we we like the idea of a test fund that could you know at least take any commercial consideration out of

Running first class Cricket the operational cost of Hosting three test matches versus two test matches all those things could easily be done with a test fund and there is enough money in the game for it so I’m not saying that the revenue model for ICC should change

But if the revenue model stayed the same but suddenly you took a significant chunk out of that Revenue share model because it underpinned an equal share of a test fund then we would have a more even uh system and a More Level Playing Field to play and I certainly think you

Know I can understand why some boards have have had to cancel 18 tours and reduce that I can see why first class Cricket would need to be reduced but but ultimately that’s just you know in the long term or medium term that’s just weakening your test side and what we’re

Trying to do and be very disciplined about is invest more in 4day cricket we’ve introduced Red Bull Cricket at under 17 level as well as under 19 uh we’re trying to play more Red Bull Cricket for our Academy that’s new and for our a team because big part of I

Think our all the reasons why we were successful in Australia outside of what’s been spoken about and there’s been lots of positive stories coming out of it which are are obviously ring true but the A Team Series we played against South Africa um the Andre Cody the head

Coach LED that Jimmy Adams and Sean T R on a support staff and the nucleus of those players were on that including Shamar Joseph himself and Josh Silva and a few others that that was a really important part of I think you know being able to to have that performance at the

Gabber including going down to Australia on the 28th of December you know so much ahead of time to prepare because so often you’re going into the series you know with with seven days of prep a best and a four day game and for some of our players who don’t have the experience

And don’t play the volume of test Cricket that the the bigger three teams do your preparation uh and a climatization is is is really important if you want to have a hope of of trying to um win matches what is preventing this very obvious change from happening

Well I think it it is leadership um I think and I think you sort of alluded to it before when you said could the uh the so-called smaller boards get together I think we all need to get together it can’t be the big three uh versus the rest and that’s certainly not the

Culture and I think everyone is becoming increasingly aware that it takes two teams to play in a cricket match and and the closer those two teams are in terms of competition the better the product is the more Jeopardy there is as I said earlier the more chance there is of of

Either sides winning or uncertainty on who can win and that creates the excitement and the compelling product I also think the broadcasters have a big part to playing it um it’s never really spoken about but um if the domestic broadcasters in the big markets only want to give all of their budgets for

Cricket for 12 months to the home boards or outside of that only write big checks to the big three and you know basically leave it to the last minute to offer Crums to the to the smaller boards um then they’re not really investing in their own home markets they’re investing

Hundreds of millions into the home series that cannot only feature um the other two teams um in terms of The Big Three uh and they rely on us to when they come you know they want us to be competitive they want us to have a compelling product because they’ve invested so much

In the Home Market if they don’t see the need to invest through bilateral Cricket rights in those opposition boards if they see it just in pure short-term commercial eyes of what’s the least that I can pay and can I only cherry pick for England broadcasters you know when when

England Are Tour in the Caribbean and I’m not interested in West Indies cricket after that if if they don’t see that as an investment into the cricket system um in those home markets then you know that’s very very different again we’re very lucky that um coming out of

What most of the boards you mentioned was a long-term seven or eighty year agreement with Sony 10 sports we came out of that and have got you know very good broadcast relationships in most of the major markets and and get good support from TNT and Super Sport and and

Fancode and India and others but um you know we don’t currently have an Australian TV deal so and haven’t done for a while so again you know at some point we we need those bigger markets commercial markets to to at least support us in some long-term meaningful

Way if they want to when we return to their home Market at some point in the future uh to give them a really good product do you want to have a little think about what else is in the mag yeah right okay briefly uh randomly brilliant

New feature with Rob Smith uh also SM we need to find out actually how to say his their name the the guardian legend that is Rob Smith I’m going with Smith uh who came to us a couple of months ago and said I’ve got this idea he’s been mining

The cric viz data archive which goes way back past 2006 okay and it actually goes back into the 60s 7s and it’s based on score books from prominent scorers follow doing test matches going all the way back and so now you can actually dig deep into the into the data you can

Actually answer with a degree of authority beyond the eye test who played the West Indies Quicks the best uh and you can really dig dig down into it so he proposed this series and we’ve got it up and running and essentially the question is who played the West Indies

Quicks the best Joe Harmon then went and interviewed Michael holding who obviously said I don’t give a toss about data uh but that suited it fine as a Counterpoint um but Rob interviewed various people who were on the sharp end failed miserably and and played brilliantly against that sort of Four

Horseman of the Apocalypse era right really really F the possibilities of the series are almost infinite and and we’re encouraging people to get in touch with their with their ideas is that right yeah well one one headline I suggested was Bradman colon ship question mark which I don’t think will get past past

The editor whoever he is these days um but yeah you can dig really deep and definitely if you’ve got any sort of statistical um queries or observations that you you want back up with cold hard numb if you’ve got a hunch from the the 80s or 90s throw we can we can confirm

It now throw us a line and Rob Rob will do the business it suits his character to say the least um he’s gone well beyond the reasonable just to pull this thing together anyway that’s a brilliant new feature perhaps the other big thing in this particular issue is the gear

Test so yes in partnership with serus Cricket um excellent gear retailers down in in Hampshire they’ got their own h down there they brought uh two Vans worth of gear and a photographer up to the oval and we spent the day photographing it and roow testing it you

Even got your kit out yes as well one head of an operation I wasn’t I wasn’t one of the B testers but it was uh it was quite fun to to watch the testers go it was uh who do we have we had uh Dan senior um uh deina perin who plays for

The the central come to her in a moment yeah Collins and John Hutton yeah so all of them apart from deina Affiliated to wisdom all of them good cricketers in their own right um but deina who plays for the Ace Program and is in the England Academy setup she’s going to go

Far and then a bit further on after that I think she’s 17 just turned um it was a clinic to watch her play anyway we put that together over the course of the day and then we crunched some more numbers and then we graded and assessed and

Analyzed the the best kit on the market and without kind of awarding top top rank as such uh we brought out certain certain virtues in in in the gear so that was that was great fun to do and if you’re interested in you know sharpening

Up your kit for the for the new season if you’re looking at the best new bats on the market then you got to go and buy that one um there’s a little other things there’s a little uh profile of the testers and I loved with um davina’s

One they were asked who’s your favorite player and deina 17 years old born uh in September 2006 just goes saiv yeah um I’ve watched him since I was a kid my dad would always bring him up on YouTube I love the footage when he gets hit on

The head and stares down the bowler that’s how I want to play deina perryan remember the name um C cater on the Women’s Premier League the all conquering Women’s Premier League she interviews everybody basically characteristically brilliant um you you get to win a b as well possibly don’t oh

Sorry I should have mentioned that yeah you can win the one of the more celebrated bats in the collection uh you can win the salex a marquee you can win the salex bat now anyone who knows anything about cricket bats knows that salex are right up the top of the tree

Uh and that’s a very very special piece of wood and you can win it if you buy the magazine and answer a silly question answer to a silly question plenty of other stuff John Stern goes down to Gloucester to speak to to the Great and the good down there um a club that’s

Struggling financially but has great great Ambitions for the future uh I did a thing on Stokes and his H 100th test David Woodhouse carries on his amazing series about the story of cricket in 50 Cricket books um mentioning Peter cers and and various others we do we’ve done a feature on

Rams bottom CC which is entering an all women’s team into the men’s league of in the Lancashire league first time that’s ever happened before um so again fascinating story really ramps on grooving up for the new season a bit of coaching in there for you as well but

Look the thing is the big thing has the big thing has to be the wall chart folks here we go now now hold your horses a double-sided wallar there you go now April May June one side July August September the other every single fixture in the English domestic season

Men and women International stuff as well in there it’s absolutely essential right and this is free with the magazine now perhaps a more if you like more sort of hyper capitalistic organization may have actually upped their cover price a wee bit not us folks no we’ve kept it

Exactly the same uh but a free wall chart and the chance to win that bat if you buy the new magazine available as from to dat I think go on it’s it’s an incredibly thorough wo chart although Ben noticed missing a missing com at some point but uh so for example um

Friday the 7th of June is a busy day so uh you’ve got you’ve got Blaze versus Storm Grace row Thunder versus the Vipers at Old Trafford at the same day you’ve also got caner Island new at New York Bangladesh versus Sri Lanka in Dallas and six or seven blast fixtures

There you go I thought you going to name them all thankfully no I think the only right thing to do is you got to get two issues so that you can have the double-sided wall chart you can have it all up at one time yes that’s true

Actually yeah good shout and if you did want to buy a second issue alongside the magazine then just go to the night Watchman website which is the nightwatchman doet and it’ll be pretty clear on that homepage where you can buy the W chart if you’re a kind of if you’re a mad

Person and you don’t want the magazine but you do want the wallchart I think it’s going to cost you 250 uh plus PP um again that’s that’s that’s a steal this is yeah yeah that’s that’s generous to say it’s a steal but there you go you

Can do that you can do that you can buy as many as you like by the way you can buy a million if you want to anyway the nightwatchman Donnet go and buy your your wool charts if you’re not fussed about the magazine but if you’re not fussed about magazine why are you

Listening to this show and worth reiterating that is that one of the best covers we’ve had in a while um that is everything for today’s show uh cheers Phil cheers Ben thanks for listening listeners we’ll be back in two days time for the first daily of the Ranchi test