We, we, we've come up, we've, well, I say we, I have come up with a little

you know, you know, like tail ends of the unite world, Unite and takeover.

Our hashtag should be slog on.

So slog on, Let us know what you think.

Well back baby hashtag slog on or or hashtag logo.

So we are back now.

It should show to you, our listeners, our levels of commitment because we said

we, the first time this didn't work.

We decided we weren't gonna say anything about it.

We've since had about 15.

Different attempts at trying to get robos recording to work.

He's changed three devices.

He's now going multiple platforms.

But finally we are here we're recording an hour after we actually

originally started recording.

I'm two thirds of the way through a bottle of red, having had a big gin and tonic.

And so this is gonna be an absolute shit show.

But welcome to series three of Slogging.

It.

It's an absolute pleasure to be back.

We're gonna race through all the niceties because lads, I know

you've both had a, a nice summer and you've robos played no cricket.

Eugenes played a lot, done really well in lms.

Talk us through in a little bit more detail about your summer.

Please.

well, hello.

Well, and, and Wow.

It's great to be back for the third time of recording.

We didn't mention that we were not recording, but yes, we, we, we are back.

Summer was great, right?

There was f all rain.

It didn't rain in, in the south of England for, it feels like about six months where

we were going through the great drought.

Twining and Green was known as Twining and Brown.

There was more dust than the Sahara Desert.

And I was actually able to turn a ball on the square because, you know, with

no rain comes a turning buns and burner.

So, yeah, it was a great summer for me.

I, I really enjoyed it.

And I will say one thing, the thing I like about England the most is,

you know, when it's winter because it's starting to get cold and dark.

Well, on that, I'm currently recording from Spain where

I'm still sitting outside at.

Five past 10 in the evening, and it's still t-shirt weather.

Although I've just bought a hoodie on because now we're gonna be

recording for an hour and a half and by that point I would be freezing.

Robo, talk to us about your summer a little bit please.

I, I had a 100% record.

Played one tournament.

One tournament tournament yeah played in one, six aside Flo, some

14 year old kids all over the park.

It was delightful.

And yeah, I drank more beers than I faced balls.

Definitely drank more beers in my bowl overs.

But yeah, it was, I was, I was surplus to requirements.

It's the joyous public and Olympic cricket club.

But yeah, like I, I had a good season, like Eugene said, lovely weather.

I got to watch some pretty decent cricket.

Had a few very nice holidays and.

Yeah, it was, it was nice that John, I had a good year.

Because you had a good year, didn't you?

Yeah, well, yeah.

Yeah.

It has, it has been a nice year for me.

Average 30 odd with a be got 30 poles.

Team got promoted on the last day of the season, becoming the first ever second

team to outright win the BALO championship to get promoted to the second division

of nots Premier League which is great.

So we're now only one division below the first team are in the actual nopr.

So yeah, massive achievement.

But yeah, do a great summer all round.

Lots of beers, lots of good cricket, lots of sunshine and lots to look back on.

Right.

We've got a lot to talk.

, most of which we covered in the first the first time we tried to

record this earlier on, so know what we're gonna talk about now.

But but yeah, I obviously welcomed my son into the world

in June, which was amazing.

He's he's now 16 weeks old and going through some kind of growth spur or

some kind of sleeping thing where he can't, Lisa to keep telling me about

this, he can't tie his sleeping.

Things together, like, you know, eat, sleep cycles together.

So he wakes up basically every hour.

So whilst we're out here in Spain, I'm sleeping in the in

the main room and Lisa and Rai in the spare room, so it's perfect.

But yeah, it's is been parents parenting is, is wonderful.

Sharing the load.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I do have him for half an hour in the morning so she can get some kit.

Oh well good . Well good.

Yeah.

Today's modern man.

Anyway, we're gonna crack on one of the things, and now I'm gonna have to try and

tell this joke better than I did earlier.

But one of the things we wanna do is tell a cricket related joke.

Only mine though Simon, cuz yours was garbage.

And or a funny cricketing story from either us or our listeners as we go

through series three of slugging it.

So I'm gonna start, I found this one on the internet today and I quite like it.

So a cricket.

Walks into his sports store, looking to buy a baseball bat.

Walks up to reception.

Guy goes, obviously being a bit surprised to see a talking cricket.

The cricket asks, Where's the, where the baseball bat's located?

He says, Oh, I'm gonna decide to play a call.

He says, Oh, over there.

He said, By the way, you know there's a sport named after you.

And he goes, What a sport called Tyrone

Jon.

It doesn't get any better, and I'm sure our listeners will be able to better that.

Please God, let our listeners tell us a joke.

Send one in.

Allowed to tell the cricket ball joke.

I, the first time you told your cricket ball joke, it took me

30 seconds to get it, which I'm glad you're not telling it again,

It'll take me just as long I suspect . So we have got a lot.

So the listeners that you'll be policing there, there is absolutely

nothing change between the three of us.

We we still just.

Try batter each other every three seconds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So here's to, to season series three, three.

Yeah.

I imagine that Eugene's gonna be a lot harsher on you considering

the amount of work you've just put in, throw in the last 45 minutes.

It wouldn't be normally to be honest, but anyway, we, by get in this

episode at all, it'll be amazing.

We're gonna do a bit of a recap of the end of the last series.

We're gonna talk about the test summer.

We're gonna talk about Sall what a season, what a series

summer Johnny Bartos had.

The hundred did it work, The women's game, the man cad Durham getting fine.

10 points, what's gonna happen to Yorkshire on top of them being relegated,

which is a lancastrian over the moon.

About.

And then we're gonna finish after we we're also gonna talk about ticket

prices which I've found out this week have just been just gone through the

roof for the test summer next year.

And we're gonna finish off with a little story that Simon and I enjoyed.

I don't think we've shared on it before.

This is going back to 2019, but it, it will all tie back in quite nicely.

So after the sensational start to the jokes of C season three we will

recap the last couple of episodes from the, the back end of the series.

I can't even speak.

I did say I've now two thirds of the way through this bottle of red wine and it's

gonna be an absolute fucking shit show.

Towards the back end of the last series when I was in Barbados, and

then we were talking about, okay.

What was gonna, what was gonna happen about the guys that went,

Were Jimmy and Broy gonna get back into playing for England again?

You know, were the ECB always gonna try and frame it.

I said, Well, he didn't do very well, but that's cuz it was experience or whatever.

Obviously Jimmy and Broy got back in and they both had a

great summer with the ball.

Tom Harrison's an absolute jerk off, which I can I just say I was right

about that all along, despite some fierce criticism with my stands

from a certain Simon Roberts.

But once again, join our friendship.

I've been proven to be right and he's been proven to be wrong.

What, what do we think about, you know, the, the guys that have been

brought in post Silverwood you know, we talked about at the end of the last

series about the captain and the coach needing to have the same mentality

and then order to drive that forward.

I think we've achieved that with.

Brenda McMan and Ben Stokes.

I think the lads look a lot, have looked a lot freer this summer in

order to go and play the cricket.

They have probably been allowed to play and probably wanted to play.

I'll come to you first Eugene cuz robo doesn't deserve any time tonight.

What do, what have your thoughts been on the English cricketing Summer?

Well, where then, where did Rob Key come from?

First of all?

I mean, I mean, he's the one that's put everything in place, right?

He's the one that's coming and, you know, made the shock

announcement of Baz Mc Cullum.

And I don't think the, the big shock, I mean, I think even when we

were talking about you and Joe Root was stepping down, I think we all

knew Stokes was gonna be captain.

But I mean, you know what, what an unbelievable turnaround.

And you know, I know that when we say an unbelievable turnaround, when you're at

the bottom turning, it around's not that difficult because the only way is up.

Right?

So yeah, I, it's, it's been an interesting summer to.

, I will say I have my reservation still.

I think that the team has been carried by one or two players and I'll, I'll,

I'll name them in, in the batsman of, of Beto and, and Roots and to

some degree, you know, a little bit of a little bit of stokes.

And when you look at the, the weight of runs that those two scored over

the, the English summer, if you take those runs out of it, you

look at the, the rest of the lads.

I mean, you know, they've pretty much carried the English side.

But yeah, look, it's been great to watch.

I have to say that the bas ball thing is a bit blown outta proportion with,

with, from, from my perspective.

I like the term.

It's a pretty cool term and I, it's got a, it's got a catch to it and it's.

It's unified, the English side, I guess you could call that.

And you know, it got Dean Alga, certainly from the South African team

and, and, and the South African squad all riled up about this, this BAS ball.

And you know, to some degree it's causing waves in the industry.

So, or not in the industry, but in the sport, which is, which

is great and long ma live.

I just wish that England's one day form and and T 20 form would maybe

replicate what they're doing in their T 20 s cuz they haven't had a great run.

If I'm, if I'm being honest.

No, I think, I think you're right actually.

I think Matthew Mo came in with a, with a real big cv.

I turned the Australian women's team into like global dominators robo,

you can come onto the whiteboard stuff, but also what you are, your

initial thoughts of, of the, how the summer's gone in terms of test cricket.

I, I, it's been impressive, but, but like Eugene says, to go from, to go,

like the first time we recorded this, I mentioned that like the football in term

of a a, a Premier league team, second a manager and having a bounce back.

. But, so for me today it's been a success.

I think only as English test cricket or Red Bull Cricket

is, is judged on Ashe's series.

So next summer's gonna be the kind of acid test for it to see whether

it is a, or deemed a success or a failure or whatever it might be.

But like, I mean like, like you said, general, I do think you were

right on a lot, on a lot of things and and, and yeah, it, it's, it

is left field what they've done.

Brenda McCollum's never coached at first class cricket level.

So that, that's obviously sort of left field.

Rob Key was doing very well as a commentator and in broadcasting and they

kind of propped him out from obscurity.

I think when we had the discussions, I think they were two names that

we definitely did not mention.

So, so fair play to ecb, but like, Yeah, for me, the, the jury is out.

I don't particularly like the basketball kind of thing.

I think it's a bit less, the, the press have come up with it.

And I think South Africa, what happened with them was they got lured into the,

the, the basketball thing and, and it was more, they got more worried

about how England were gonna play rather than the players they were

playing against cuz yeah, it was, you saw the first test when they won.

They were comfortably when it was just right off we go and then all

of a sudden it was back to this is Babo gonna carry on when they get

beat and these all gonna be this.

And you can see Dean, you know, got sucked into it.

They were talking about buzz ball, Rob talking about Stoke root best though.

And the players, they were talking about this mentality, this mythical.

It was a little bit like the oage used to do when Shane Warren used

to come up with a zup or a, and Glenn McGraw would say Five mil.

Cause I've now developed a new ball, and England have created this

mythical being, being buzz ball.

And everyone was like, Well, what is it?

What actually is it?

Well, it's just, it's just backing yourself and banging it basically.

It's not, we're not the, we're not exactly pioneers of aggressive cricket.

The West Indians did it in the, in the eighties and seventies, eighties

and not seventies and eighties.

Australia did it when Alan border came in.

Right.

We're gonna be proactive.

We're gonna play positive cricket.

It goes round in cycles.

England are just the latest team to go out because they're

also the best white board team.

Oh, what they were until Matthew Mo got involved in having Mor tried . But, but

so yeah, the jury is still out for me.

Don't get me wrong.

It's entertaining.

I've had conversations with about cricket to people that.

We never bothered before and I, I'd never had that conversation with.

So from that point of view yeah, long may it continue?

It's definitely engaged in audience, isn't it?

I think just coming onto so ticket pricing for, for example, so I,

I, a good friend of mine that I went to all traveled with to watch

your day of the South Africa test.

He's basically walking away from watching England play test cricket next

year because he would normally go to old TRD or Headingly and they're both

doubled their prices the next year.

So he paid some, like 45 and 50 quid this year.

And the tickets are, I think 95 and 105 next year.

Now I don't, you know, is that a consequence of buzz ball and they

think that they'll sell the tickets?

Is it because the Aussies are coming over?

I don't know.

But you know, when everything else that's going on in the world is

going on, you know, at ECB making another absolute foul play here.

Just trying to rope in as much cash because, you know, is the bloke

that is, is Rob Key, for example?

Well, no, he is not.

He the MD of Cricket, isn't he the yet?

I dunno if they've announced the new chief exec, but is the new chief exec who

is making these decisions on a similar kind of contractor that, of the man

who I cannot name because I hate him.

Tom Harrison, for those who are wondering you know, is, is it, is that a three

pounds, You know, is it still from the, is it still from the ECB perspective

all about trying to drive as much money through their organization as possible?

Or is it about trying to look after this, the, the national summer sport?

I'm gonna try and offer a, a, a different piece of sort of information here.

Is it not supply and demand?

And the reason I'll say that is because when you look at, you

know, I'm gonna be watching.

The England rugby team take on who's it, Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and

South Africa over the November tests.

Now, they cannot give away the tests, the, the tickets for the Japan game,

and they're selling them for 28 quid.

However, for the South Africa game, your cheapest ticket you're looking

at is something like 80 quid.

And so from my perspective, I think it's a supply and demand thing.

John, I don't think it's got anything to do with, you know, them, you

know, wanting to make more money.

I think if, if, if people are willing to pay those prices, and it's the same

when you look at Wimbledon and any other sporting event that's out there.

You know, if people are willing to pay the prices, then, then they'll do it.

And I can tell you now, when you look at those tests later on, you know, next year

when we are, when we're all watching them on tv, and cuz we, we, we, we are not

willing to pay those prices ourselves.

Other people are.

So I think from my perspective, it's a bit of supply and demand

and if people are willing to pay for it, then, then good on them.

I do, I do think just before I know Robert wanna come in on this, but just before

you do Robo, I think that the one thing that I was really pleased to see this

year, and I think it was Edge Buston who did it first, I might be wrong in that,

but when the last day's tickets were given free, when Trent Bridge, who did

it first of the counties, then followed.

Because I, you know, I think that is the right thing to do and it

was proven to be very successful.

Lots of school kids in there and, and that was really engaging to see

from a test cricket perspective.

You know, we, we will come onto, I know I, I referenced it a lot at the back end

of the last series, the problems within the cricket industry that we are facing.

And we, you know, I, I've had a lot more conversations on that recently, so we'll

probably talk about that in the next episode or, or maybe the third episode.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Robo, I don't you just point to, to follow up from what Eugene was saying.

. Yeah.

I, I, I agree.

It's, it is a, like, like Eugene was saying, if you wanna go to the rugby or

you want to go to a Wembley, a game at Wembley watching football or, or whatever

it might be like, I mean, I, I went and watched Coldplay over the summer for one

off gig and it was 85 quick for ticket.

Like, that's is what it is.

If you, if you want to go there, the prices you pay because they

know all the people pay it.

I also think you've gotta factor in that we've just come out of two years

of two and a half, three years of no one being able to go and watch cricket

and these grounds and the ECB or possibly subsidized, getting grounds

ready, making it stuff available.

Players being in hotels when they're not getting X millions of pounds.

The counties aren't getting the money in over the, over through the turn

styles, and they're not having the food vendors pay the money for the,

the spots on the site, and they're not in the, the amount of income that

these places have lost is massive.

And you can only give away so much.

So I, I I, I, I think we, we, we, we talk about it all the time, the fact

that cricket's got this image of being elitist and whatever, and, but if

you, if you want to go and watch high levels for they're the prices you pay,

but a day at real cost you 85 quid a day at Wimble and costs you a hundred

pound a day at whatever else costs.

You don't get many things now that you can go to for a one off event

that cost less than 80, 80, 85 pound.

So yeah, you, you want go and watch the open other day, for example,

you, you'd be paying 8,500, hundred and 50 pounds for a day pass.

So I think we're just in a real now where that's what it costs.

And for, for someone last year to be saying, Yeah, okay, it's 50 quid that

yeah, they know they can sign out threefold, but at the end of the day,

English stadiums aren't that big either.

The biggest one's, probably the oval at what, 30, 29,000, 30,000 Lords

is probably a similar amount now.

They've extended put them wings on six laws now or whatever.

It's, I know what you mean.

Yeah.

Like you look and, and Trump, to be fair, Trump Bridge, which hasn't

got an Ashes technique test next year, he's only 17, 18,000 old.

Traffic's probably again, just about 20,000 heading me, probably about the

same edge, best and about the same.

So they know they're gonna have a hundred thousand people interested

in each of those games per day.

Yeah.

So that's fair, nice, fair point.

Why not?

They, they, they can sit and sell 'em and, and yeah, it might be, I think what they

should be doing is enticing kids in, in a way to, to get children through the door.

Whether that's, I can remember being a kid and going onto the ground at lunch

and playing quick cricket, and I know they still do that at some venues on some days.

I, I think it's, it's things like that that will get kids in and you

say their parents can go in for free when they do that and stuff, but

that for me is how you'll develop it.

It's not necessarily by going on, Well, we just need to make it 50 because

the same people will still buy it.

Because if they don't, if someone wants to pay 50 pound to watch it, and then all

they'll do is get passed onto a towel, who will offer that person 6 65 quid

and they'll then flog it for a hundred anyway because the wealthy people will

pay over the odds because they want to go and have a day at the cricket.

So we, we've all seen it when we've been to games of cricket.

There's touts that everyone I know there shouldn't be that.

Let's live in the real world for a bit.

There is, we all know there is, and we see them and we walk

past them on a regular basis.

It doesn't matter what you're at, whether you're at horse racing, whether you're

cricket, whether you're at football, whether you're at the nfl, whatever it

might be, that that's what it costs.

And if they charge any less, the people who go in in will still end up paying

that because that's what they wanna pay and that's what they're prepared to.

Yeah, no.

Fair.

Let's look at the of the individual series.

I, I'm, I'm, I'm hesitant to call the India match series, but obviously

it was the culmination of a series, but let's take 'em one by one.

I mean, the, the first throws of bas ball, whether you like the

term or not, like that's what it's become known to be New Zealand.

I mean, some of the performances I mean ru that hundred he scored to

finish it inside the first 15 over.

So everybody got their, their money back on the last day at Lords.

But I mean, you know, some of the something that Johnny Beto said to me,

which I think I found really interesting, and it just about shift in mentality.

He, he, he spoken quite openly about when Ben Stokes, I think

was bating with him at the end.

And he said, Don't you even think about not trying say it for six.

And he, you know, when he just kept parking it here over a deep square

leg for, for six off Wagner who's charging around the wicke and just

trying to bump the shit out of him.

I think that for me has been the most positive thing to come out of.

So-called buzz ball is the, the freedom with which the lads seemed

to have been able to operate within.

I think Matthew Pots has been a real find.

Obviously, you know, young hasn't, didn't then play towards the back end

of the summer, but did very, very well.

I mean, looked like he just kept nicking Kane Williamson off the fun.

So I think if we can keep him fit, O Robinson has obviously come back

towards the back end of the summer.

We've got Mark Woods come back.

I think the, the fast bowling Kind of ranks that we've got.

Certainly now with Jimmy and Broadie, having had great summers, both of them

having come back in, I think Jimmy's taken some like 20, 20 odd wickets

at fourteens or summer or seventeens this, this summer in test much cricket.

Which has been phenomenal.

But what were your thoughts on the, on the three series?

I mean, that, that chase against India?

It, it, No, no.

England side, I don't think even, No, you take out the, the great side of 2005.

I know they got 400 on day one against Australia Edge ba in that famous test.

But I mean, would an England side in our living memory have

ever gone after that score on the final day to win a test match?

Because I, I, my thoughts either they were always too afraid to lose,

to actually try and go and win, but now that doesn't seem like a thing.

. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I think the confidence grew when they did it against

New Zealand so successfully.

So when the, when the Indian side came along, and I'll be honest, I didn't

think that, I didn't think England had a hope in hell of winning that test

match on, on that last day, What was it?

400 and whatever it was, and yeah.

Unbelievable.

Bating again from, Yeah, it was just, again, you, you can't fault the guys, you

know, the guys just went out there with, you know, not a, I was gonna say a no lose

mentality, but it was a win mentality.

Simple as, because it wasn't about drawing.

It was about we're gonna win this game and we're gonna win

it with, with time to spare.

Which, which they ended up doing, which was, which is phenomenal to see and watch.

Yeah, it was, it was incredible.

They just, you, I think the, the one big thing that, that, that basketball has

done is it's made people feel comfortable.

They've talked about Crawley at the time.

Can you imagine?

Three months ago, six months ago at that West Indy series, Zach Crawley

had been picked, had he got the run of scores that he got, Had him still been

in that testing for that last two tests?

Yeah, for that last, No, it wouldn't, he wouldn't have been.

The press were handed him out and, and whichever coach it would've been before.

And this isn't a slight on the coaches, but we all knew that, that the press

in, in, in this country, fundamentally, they pick most teams, don't they?

There might be the odd player here and there who, who gets involved,

who gets in through at the back door.

But Oll Pope was scoring thousands, runs a press start going

right, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Ali Paint was play.

Poly pope's called in that you look this year, they, they've said they were

calling for Zach Crawley to be dropped, and Brenda McConnell went, No, not many

people can do what Zach Crawley can do.

I'm not bothered about what he can't do.

All I'm doing what he can do.

And the same way you look at Ali Pope throughout the summer,

started off at number three.

Wasn't great necessarily.

Didn't start off overly well.

Looked, Looked okay, but they kept with him, kept with him, kept with him 120

hundred 60 whatever he got by bang.

All of a sudden everyone's saying, Oh, Ali Pope's now working.

You'd look at Broad Anderson situation.

Everyone was saying past it.

They've, they've got rid of.

Well Andrew Strauss has now gone away from his role as chairman of

Cricket and has now gone on to do this report, which I'm sure we'll

talk about in another episode.

But, but he was like, No, no, no.

We want rid of, we want rid of Broad and Anderson.

But those two got, Ben Stokes has gone.

No broaden answer are in the team.

They're in, they're in that, and by by hook or they've come in and got with kids.

You look at what he said about Joe Root, and no matter how much,

what we think about where Joe Ru should bat Ben Stok has gone.

No.

Joe Root is banning at number four.

I want my best player to buy number four.

And he's gone.

I don't care who else Bats at three.

We, we'll maneuver it round, but Joe Root is the best player.

He bats at four.

I wanna buy at six cause I think that's the best place for me.

And, and McCollum's gone.

You are the most time store around arguably and world cricket in a minute.

There might be a few questions about to be asked about that here

and there, but Yeah, you bat where you wanna bat and you are captain.

You need to be comfortable in your role and in your position.

So they've done that and they've moved ba around the, the temptation

to give Bao the gloves in that test.

Where Foster got injured must have been massive.

Must have been massive.

They had Harry brought, lined up, nailed on, ready to come in about five.

Everyone under the old regime it'd been right.

We we'll move Besto to seven.

Harry brought you slot in at five.

Although this news regime, they went, no, bestos.

Buy at five.

We'll get a keeper in.

They bring billings.

Yeah, billings in to keep 'em by at seven.

and, and that as a player must be amazing to sit and go, Right,

Okay, well that's my job then.

That, that is my job for the next 6, 8, 10 months.

So I can, I can, I can learn on the job, I can work out what's going off.

I can try and figure out how to put myself in the best position.

So I, I I, I, I think it's been really impressive.

And like the way they've rotated the bowlers with a depleted bowling

type, we, at the end of the day, we don't have any bowl that can, that

bowls it for than 85 mile an hour.

Really?

They all can on their deck, get it up there.

But we've had the, the, the four quick, quick clads that England

have had in stone wood archer owed, I can't remember the one there.

But anyway my mood, the four quick, quick ladders have had, they've been injured.

So they've gone in and with a bowling attack three years ago, if England had

picked that bowling attack, everyone would've gone, Oh, they're all the same.

Holding the same right arm path, media pace, but they're not all the same.

They're all very different boulders that yes, that might not work in Australia.

So that's one of the reasons why I say, let's have a look against Australia.

Let's, let's see next year's ashes and then let's see

this, the winter after that.

But it, it has been impressive.

It has been very impressive.

First, first apology of series three of slogging it is to Ben

folks who Simon just mixed up with the 45 year old James Foster

Well done well than Simon.

I'm surprised you didn't say Darren Jones or Jack Russell.

You know, if we are just gonna pick like old Ricky's Chris re , I

can, I can have another run about Ben folks if you want as well.

Cause No, no, no, no.

I think Ben, Ben folks is a very pretty man.

He's, he's, he's proven himself with a bat.

So your wife thinks he's a very.

But I look what a great hand against South Africa to, to, to win the series.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been calling three, as you guys know, for, for a long

time to, to tell that birth.

Just on, on, you mentioned South Africa, Eugene, let's, let's spend some time

now looking at that South Africa series.

Obviously first test at Lords, South Africa won comfortably.

Now not wanting to, I don't think that England bated well at all.

However, the caveat of of that, and I know you're gonna come onto the decision

that was made at the task during the second test, but how much between the

three of us do we think that the first test at Lords was guided by South Africa,

winning the TASS and Bowling first?

I think it played heavily in.

. Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

I mean, as most cricket matches are when you play in England, right?

If the conditions are right and you win the toss on day one and you get

the opportunity to, to get the nice new red nut in your, in your hand,

you, you end up taking a lot wickeds.

And we found that in the second test.

So, I mean, you know, we were lucky in, well, South Africa, we're lucky to

win the, the toss and the first test and, and choose to, to bowl first and

you know, make k while, while, while the sun was shining, so to speak.

It didn't happen that way in, in the second test match, unfortunately, because

of one, some strange selection policies, which were, were I think everyone in

the world was scratching their head at.

And, and probably more importantly why we chose to bowl bat first on

a, on an absolute deck that looked like Anderson and Broad were gonna

take as many wickeds as they did so.

Yeah, I mean it's, it's, you know, cricket's a funny game and it's

interesting, you know, I think, I think Dean Alga got into his head that he

wanted to show the English exactly what the South African grit was, and doesn't

matter what the conditions are, we're gonna go out and score as many runs as we

needed to beat you in your own backyard.

And it didn't work out that way.

You know, maybe I'm being a bit, I don't know, a bit too cocky in terms

of the way he was thinking there.

Maybe he just actually thought it was the right thing to do on the day.

And, you know, mistakes are made because people are human after all.

I mean, I don't think just before you pop in on that, Rob, every out of every batter

that I've ever watched, or certainly in the modern era in test cricket, I

don't think you will find a grittier like, Right, come on then let's have a

fucking scrap cricketer opening the bat.

Then Dean Elga, I think he's amazing.

Like, I just think he will, you know, even though he chose to bat on when a

lot of other captains would've chosen to.

and for whatever reasons that he chose to make that decision,

he is like, Right, come on then.

Like, and he will stand there.

And I, we've all watched games where he's been bating on wickets

that are broken up in the third or fourth in his, and he just, he will

wear it, You know, he doesn't care.

He's, he is an absolute fighter.

I mean, the way, I can't remember him what test it was.

I think it might have been the second test, but the way Jimmy

set him up with it in our, in that castled him, I mean, that's just

phenomenal volume from Jimmy Anderson.

And, and to be able to do that, again, someone in Elvis's class is

just proves how good Anderson is.

But yeah, look, a lot of South African supporters will be arguing whether he

made the right decision at Old tra.

But I, I think, you know, fair, fair folks to Dean Elgar.

He is an absolute animal and he is, you know, he, he hence why his career's been

so good and he's, he's back so long.

But but yeah, I mean, look, two, two ones to England.

A brilliant test series obviously carries the momentum of the, the, the

England test side over the summer having played 7 1 6 which, which is great.

But then obviously we now go to a T 20 World Cup.

They're obviously in Pakistan.

We've drawn level three three tonight.

They seem to be shifting that team around quite a lot within this one series.

They, you know, Harry, Harry Brook, I'd be interested to see what your thoughts are.

And Harry Brook, obviously he's played a bit of red ball.

He's, he's coming in, done quite well in the white ball stuff.

I mean, Alex Hayes has had a recall.

Not many people saw that coming.

He's gone out and done.

All right.

Phil Salt's got 80, what?

87 not out, I think that tonight to, to win the game at over 200.

Strike rate.

So let's just go onto the whiteboard thing for a minute.

Is obviously Matthew Mott has come into the role with.

You know, a phenomenal record of basically turning the, the Australian women's team

into an absolute behemoth of the side.

Like, you know, as good as the England girls are, they cannot touch them.

You know, England go into any series with Australia basically playing for

second place in a two horse race.

If they're Nick an occasional win, then fine.

And obviously we cricket it on any given day, things can happen, but Australia

seems so much more advanced than anyone else in the women's game at the moment.

He's come with that reputation, but it doesn't seem yet to have been

able to have transferred that into the, the whiteboard men's game.

Now, how much do we put that down to?

Are we, Morgan moving aside, you know, how different a captain is he from Josh?

Surely Josh over the years will have had a lot of time to learn from Owen and the

way about he goes about his business.

But as a captain, do you then have to put your own stamp on things That, why,

why don't we think the white ball thing is, is really kind of clicked just yet?

Rob.

Well I think there's been, despite there only been, when you think

about sort of one player that's gone out, there's you know, in Morgan

you've had the Ben Stok retirement.

Now that is Ring England in white ball cricket, that's enormous.

That guy bad at five bald turnovers, game, game, all anywhere in the

ins bat, in any manner that you wanted them to is huge for them.

And let's, I forget which probably in the top three fielders in the world as well.

So that, that's massive.

I, I think when you, when you, you can try and copy a captain as much as you

like, you can, you can have been around them for a lot of times and when you're

in a changing room you can say the same things cuz you've heard that you,

you've been around it and you've heard it and you might have had conversations

with him about how he cares about them.

But what you can't copy is the way his brain works.

You can't, some people have just got a knack of.

Making a change, doing something, seeing something a little bit differently.

And unfortunately, if you can't see it, you, you can't make that decision.

And I think that's where people where Josh Butler and knowing

Morgan are a little bit different.

I'm not saying Josh Butler can't get there, but he's just gotta learn about

what he seeing a little bit more at international level and seeing how

to pick up on those opportunities.

And, and I think you, he's gotta find his team again that they've gone from

Owen Morgan had a team that was Archer Wood Stokes Wokes, all these guys.

And you look at the team that's now playing, it's not no stokes, no archer, no

wood, no Morgan, they're, they're trying to find this a place for Harry Brook.

They're, they're trying to figure out the role that this all rounder now about what

spinners are we gonna use all of a sudden Mary All's coming and he's now captain

cause Josh is away, but he's, he's going further and further up the order, whereas

before he was playing at seven and eight, now he's at four and five and you, hey,

the guys that you've got and, and they'll never say that it's not open up, but the,

their roles have changed significantly.

So I think England, one day Cricket, as much as we, as much as we thought it

probably wouldn't be in a transitional phase because of the amount of players

that they're own to ship around in.

Like good for good.

I, him, Luke Wood got a call up and, and for the T 20 series and, and done.

Well you have to say that first game, first, first game or second

game, he did well local led to, to where me and you are now, John.

And like, so, so that you've got, is gonna be in the, the World Cup squad.

You, you'd highly doubt it.

Salt probably not gonna be in because they've already announced that

Hailes is gonna go to the World Cup.

So if they're Hailes is gonna go, they're, they're gonna pick Butler and

Haes is the twos and that's pretty much gonna be it going right the way through.

So I don't know.

I think they're in a bit of a reset that, that with a new captain, like

you say, a new captain needs to put you saying bits and bobs on it and

it'd be, it would be interesting if captain's from a very different position

as well, keep captain in is a key place's very different to and being

able to have those chats with bowlers.

And now we saw what I Morgan learned from that convers from that Ben Stok

situation that when he got hit for 18 in 24 and four balls, Carlos Broadway.

Yeah, I Morgan learned a lot from that.

And he then went and talked to the bowlers and that type of thing.

A look arch.

Yeah, I, I think at Morgan and Stokes who both wanna talk to him now if we've got

a bowler that comes in now you haven't, you haven't got those two people that

have both been through that situation.

Ifs.

Mau for example is, I dunno if it's in the squad for the world, probably if he's

coming there, bowling that last over.

Who's the guy that's gonna talk to him?

Who's the guy in that squad that's been around that before?

Yes, Butler's been around it, but he wasn't involved in those conversations.

He wasn't bowling it, he wasn't feeling that as a batter.

Yeah, fine.

If you, if you want someone who's going to go win games at the death, Harry Brook,

for example, Will, will learn him mentally from having Josh Butler as a captain.

And Harry and Jo Butler been around the club, but they're just in a bit of a

change and I think it'll be interesting.

The World Cup for me will be be quite interesting.

Very good points raised.

We've gotta move on.

We've got still got plenty more.

I do make odd one.

Well, it's been known Johnny Beto.

Yeah.

Out of the game for now, an extended period, whether you want

to believe what's been banded around on social media and the WhatsApp.

Voice note that people have heard and and whatever else.

I, I, I will injured himself playing golf.

That's all there is.

Nice and easy shit sport.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I or may not have heard from sources that, that are much

closer to it than, than we are.

But yeah, what, what a season with the bat.

He's, he's been phenomenal.

Shame, shame for Yorkshire that he wasn't around for them a bit more because they've

been relegated to division two of the county championship, which is a Lancaster

is well, not the most disappointing thing I've ever heard of on that.

So we're gonna move on now to, to Durham, Nick Madson, who was there

overseas from the Australian lefthand who always has a filthy mustache

and occasionally boils filthy spin.

You know, predominantly a batter.

During a game earlier this year was found to have an illegal bat by,

by definition of the the bat gauge that an umpire put over his bat

during a county championship match.

Durham have now been fined 10 championship points for that.

So the, the, the talk about this on social media is that that

is a, a, a pretty hefty fine.

And it is, that's quite a weighty fine.

I, I don't understand the championship point system, but I think it's like

20 odd for a win or somewhere, but then, you know, draws like 10 or 12.

So it's just less than a draw.

I'm sure you can probably get less than 10 for getting a draw, but,

so it's quite a hefty penalty.

Yorkshire, having just talked about Yorkshire, we all know the problems.

You know, they've been well documented, the problems that have

been going on at Yorkshire with the racism, scandal and whatever.

Yorkshire are currently.

Going through, having had to already pay off, I believe five of their ex

employees for wrongful dismissal.

They've got another 11 at least suits being filed against him, and they're

about to go into court and admit that the club was fundamentally racist.

What do the ECB do if they find during 10 points?

This could be another Darby County situation where Darby County had no

chance to staying up, I think last year, because they were, they were

find, you know, 25 or 30 points before even going into the season.

Like what happens to your shift?

They admit that their fundamentally a racist club or

were in, in a previous lifespan.

You know, what, what happens to them if do had been fined, you know,

a hefty amount, like 10 points?

What, what, what do we think is gonna happen in that situation?

I've, I've got a bit of question of you, John.

And it's not necessarily the Yorkshire thing, I think is

God knows, is the answer.

I mean, I have no idea what happens to Yorkshire if they admit that.

Because it's unprecedented.

It's, you can't, it's not written, written in a, a law or a a a point

situation in the county championship points tally, is it, It's not 24

points for a win, 12 points for a draw minus 40 points if you're racist.

Is it, It doesn't, it don't quite work out like that.

So I I, I don't know what happens to them that reading behind the scenes and, and

some of the stuff we get to hear, there's a ungodly amount that that is still to

come out about that whole situation.

Like you say, you've got people being sacked and then being

paid off or unfair dismissal.

You've got as ii himself being.

Targeted fairly or unfairly.

That's down to personal interpretation.

I, I have no particular view on it.

I played against him quite a few years ago, but any seemed

sound like nice enough guys.

But there's people calling in to question his testimony now about what was said

and what he said, because at the end of the day, everything is hearsay.

Yeah.

Everything that he said is hearsay.

It's part of it.

One minute it's being backed up by one person.

The other next minute is being denied by another who were

both stood in the same huddle.

You've got all sorts of that's going off and I don't, I don't

know the, the short answer is what's gonna happen to Yorkshire?

God knows.

I don't think it'll be a Dar County situation.

Okay.

Yeah, it's, it's cricket and the nature of it is thing that there could

be, there could be in a, in a bit dire situation if the Strau report

comes into play and there's then two leagues next year or some from 2024.

And so to get promoted back into division one is even harder.

So yeah, if they're down next year, there's every likelihood

that there's no promotion next year anyway, because they wanna reduce

that top league to six to sixteens.

And so you then gotta get promoted the year after.

So they, they're gonna be really, they're gonna be down for a while purely on

the fact they've got relegated anyway.

So on the Nick, Nick Madison thing, I wanna ask you a question there, John.

Could, you obviously would stock and, and you provide pros with

bats when you make their bats, obviously you make them to a spec.

Yeah, I, I guess and, and your bats when you distribute them, have to fit through.

You would, you, I'm sure John will check him before they go out, that

check that they fit through said gauge or whatever it might be.

So how, how, how has this happened?

Has he glued an extra bit on, has he put some tape around it?

I, I've mean, I think, I think that the, How, how has that happened in terms of GA

trying to gain a competitive advantage?

I think that players and professionals and this isn't me

personally attacking Nick Manton.

I'm sure he is.

He's not the only one.

But there are people who will try and push the letter of the law to the nth

degree and think that they'll get away with it because it's very difficult for

an umpire to see whether a bat is 65 mil from face to spine versus 70 mil.

You know, it is very, very difficult because a cricket

bat just looks like a cricket.

You know, funny enough, one, one of the teams that we played

against this year said, Oh, your bat's, your bat's not legal.

I said, It is, I'm just really good.

Which, which one, one was the truth.

One was a lie.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not really good, but my bat was legal.

Now we, we have a stance whereby we don't, we don't make bets that

are outside of the laws of the game.

Now you are even less likely to be challenged about it at amateur level,

but the laws of the game are there for a reason and are there to be upheld.

So we, we as a, as a company, will not make anything that's outside

the laws of those that jurisdiction.

Now Nick Madson uses dsc, the Look Sports Company or an Indian brand.

Look, the want of any quicker these days, whether you're a professional

or whether you're an amateur, is to get the biggest bat you can for

the weight at which you want it.

Now, pros have loads of bats, you know the each, each business will

have a, a contract in place with each particular pro in order to supply

them with X amount of bats per year.

Now, whether that's four, if they're Ebola, or six, or eight or 10, whatever,

you know, ultimately the, the lads will hit all of them, find out, you know,

place 'em in an order of what they prefer to what, you know, one to 10, let's say.

But they will carry some of those over to the, the following year.

Now, these dimensions have been around for a while, but you know,

there, there are suppliers out there who will push boundaries.

Like you guys are old enough, same as I am to remember laminates where.

bats, they used to shave an an amount off the face and then regl

the same piece of wood back on.

So the actual glue between would add extra spring.

So there were these bats that for years that were called laminates they're now

starting to creep back into the game.

So businesses such as my own depending on their desire to try and get a

bit of a jump on the market or be seen as the best will find ways of

trying to circumnavigate the rules.

Now, if that means that and there's no way to that by, by no

means am I saying that DSC is this sponsor have done this on purpose.

There are a huge amount of pros who buy blank bats and then put

their sponsor stickers on them.

So cricket is an industry from a bat manufacturer perspective

is a very murky thing.

Indeed, we sell a lot of blank bats to pros, but they

pay us for 'em, whereas our.

Own professionals, get them for free.

Now it works because we get pros paying uss for bats.

Their sponsors are happy because they get the they, they get the, the benefit of

that marketing collateral, if you like.

We get paid for it.

And the pros, we've got the bats that they want.

Now, if Nick Madson, for example, has got, has found another supplier who will

supply him oversized bats unfortunately in this instance, DSC are the ones that

look like they're doing something wrong, which I'm, I'm sure wouldn't be the case.

But, you know, and, and as I say, I'm sure Nick Mad isn't the only pro in the

world that's doing it, but they will find a way of getting the bats that they

want, putting their sponsor stickers on them and maybe, you know, having to

pay for the bats, but, you know, it, it kind of works for everybody in a way.

So it is very murky.

I, I just think that to find Durham, I mean, Durham have been through a pretty.

Torri time the last few years anyway, haven't they?

But I to be bailed out by the ECB and losing their

international status and all that.

But I think, I think 10 points is a, is a heavy fine.

How would, how would you punish it though?

That's the thing though, isn't it?

You can't, It's the end of the season.

It's got being found that now, like it's a law I suppose.

I mean, I don't, I'll be honest, if it happened on a Saturday and

a game I was watching and someone went and had umpire check to bat,

what I mean, God knows what they do.

I, I have got absolutely no idea.

I've been around cricket for 30 whatever years and I've never once seen an

umpire check the size of a bat in, when I played county games or whatever.

I've never seen anyone get a gauge out and go crisis.

Have a look at that.

Yeah.

This is coming in the last 15 years though, you, you'd have been well

out the county set up by that point.

Well, yeah, probably But even, like you say, it applies to club cricket as well.

Like how, what, what is the punishment?

What I, I don't think the punishment, I don't think the

punishment fits the, the cause here.

I mean, first of all, I've just had a quick look at where Darren

ended up in points in, in division two of the county championship.

And 10 points up, 10 points down doesn't mean anything unless they

get like a pound point or whatever and there's a monetary value for

the amount of points they end on.

I don't think that means anything personally.

I don't think the county should have been fined.

I think it should have been up to an individual, you know, for using

a piece of equipment that's illegal.

I don't think the county should have been fined for that.

Now you could say, well, the county should be keeping within the laws of the game.

I sort of get that.

But from my perspective, it should have, it should have come out

of, you know, Madison's pocket in terms of a, a monetary fight.

The laws determine it's down to the player to ha to know about their own kit.

So, But I, I think it's interesting you say that about the point situation.

You, I don't think that regardless of whether it team's safe or not, whoever is

decided on this sanction of 10 points, it that, that they've now set a precedent.

So whether it happens through someone who's playing for top of the league or

you know, someone who's in a reation battle now, they've set that precedent.

It cannot change.

I, I'd just be very, I'd just be very interested to find out what the theory

was behind getting to that 10 point.

I don't know.

How has that come about?

Like why, why is it 10 points?

Why is it not 25 points?

You know, I, I'm not even sure whether the do wasn't.

Okay.

Not five grand.

Well, Madison only scored one run.

I just read the interview on it.

Madison scored, one wasn't around for very, It basically

had no impact in the game.

However, they were deducted and happened in, it happened on the

6th of September, so, you know, it was towards the end of the season.

It was recently that the, the game was played and all of that.

So yeah, I mean, look, as you say, they've set the president

now, you know, that's it.

But I'm not sure, you know, I'm not sure I'd agree with it.

And you know it, what's done is done.

I get that.

But personally, I think it should have come outta the player's

pocket, not the counties.

I agree.

I agree.

I think it should be down.

So it's down the, the law state, it is down to the player to know

everything about his own kit.

Now look, you know, you've both got Woodstock bags.

Would you know if there were 41 mil or edges or 39?

Of course you wouldn't.

Of course you wouldn't.

But, you know, you put trust in me as the brand owner to have done.

Stuff for you.

And that, that is, that's where a lot of cricket is quite murky.

And, you know, the, the big issue that we're going through that we

will talk about I know I've been basically lining this issue up for,

for about eight months now, now without actually saying what it is.

But it will be worth it, listeners, I promise, Or listener.

Listener I should say.

But yeah, so it's a, it, it, it is an interesting one and it, you know,

it's one of the, one of the battles I think that, you know, depending on

where your morals lie within cricket.

And I think that's a, the big problem for the global industry at the moment.

Look, we'll move on to other things.

So the, I wanna talk about the hundred and actually the women's game.

So I say happier things, we will come onto the man CAD because

that robo and I are gonna have a, a, a right sector about it.

But the hundred this year, has it worked, Has it not?

My view personally is that the men's game, by the end of it, considering all

the pros had disappeared to go and play in the cpl, which is seen as a much

bigger tournament was not of the same value as the women's hundred this year.

I thought the women's hundred showed itself to be brilliant.

I think women's cricket is coming on leaps and bounds, but when you've got all these

West Indian pros, Karen Pollard, you know Andre Russell, all these other guys, it

is like when Beto played three games for the world file last year, and Joe Joe

Root played one game for the Rockets last year or two games or whatever it was.

I think that, that there's a real congestion being created around

the schedule because there's so much cricket being played that the, the

women's hundred was seen as by a lot of people in cricket that I talked

to, you know, a lot, whether it was commentators, professionals, whatever.

The, the, the women's hundred was far much more of a success

this year than the men's game.

Thoughts, Eugene?

Yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent.

I ended up watching more of the women's hundred than I

did of the men, unfortunately.

And I don't think it had anything to do with, well, let me say

that the men's hundred this year seem to be a lot more one-sided.

You know, there wasn't any tight games, There wasn't any games that stick out in

my mind as to thinking cracky that was a, you know, a nail bite or a cliff hanger.

I think everything was quite one, one-sided, well, to some degree,

much like the, the England, Pakistan series at the moment.

Funny enough, but, we'll, we'll talk about that later.

I suppose from my perspective, yeah, you know, I think the a

hundred is a good tournament.

I just.

The time of year that it's been played is not optimum.

I think it's been squeezed in, in between the blast and the county championship.

And I mean, I've even forgotten what the 50 day over 50 over 50

day, the 50 over is called.

Yeah, sounds like what of mine.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, there's just so much cricket and I think it's too congested.

I would, I'd happily go and watch it if there was maybe, you

know, choose one or the other.

Not, not, not everything.

And in between I just think it's been diluted unfortunately, where what it

did do is it most definitely brought the woman's game to the fore because like

I said, I ended up watching a lot more woman's cricket than I did in the men's.

I think the, the thing with the, the men's hundred, arguably the best

game was on a dodgy wicked at Lords in the final You know, that that's,

you know, I, I dunno what it is.

With laws, they seem to, I mean, think back to the 2019 World Cup final.

They seem to love creating a wicke that's a bit slow and stopping in

order to create a, a low scoring game.

Now look, it is exciting.

It was, you know, the 2019 final, we all know what happened there in the

World Cup the way that the rockets went on to beat the originals, and

yes, it made for exciting cricket.

However, that is not what people go to watch the hundred four

people go to watch the hundred to see it belted into the stands.

And it's basically a game of who can it more boundaries

or it moves it more sixties.

Well, yeah, no, we've spoken like a true batsman, all, all

round her, if you don't mind.

So what about, what about your crickets?

14, 14 and a half this year, if you don't mind.

Thank you very much.

But yeah, I, I just think that I, I just think there's a lot of, there needs to

be more clarity, I think, about what if we're gonna play all these competitions,

What are they designed to achieve?

Some of the counties this year in the Royal London, were basically

playing with the first team because none of their first team pros had

been picked up by a hundred clubs.

But then, you know, you look at Knots, I think 11 players or something

ridiculous, Were away in the hundred.

You look at Surry, similar number.

So they go into the Royal London competition thinking, Well, crikey, you

know, we've not got much of a chance.

I think Knots did really well.

I think they're lost in the semi-final, but, you know, they've got a lot of

their big ones missing who would normally have played in that tournament.

So I, I just think there's a lot of gray area and it, and it does create

conversation, argument, whatever, because there's, there's no real Clarity

is, is to where these competitions lie within the, the, the hierarchy

of what's important and what's not.

Like, you know, some clubs will see, we know some clubs

predominantly look after White Ball.

You look at North and Lester, you know, they understand that they're

down at the, the, the kind of lower echelons of the red ball game.

So they actually, you know, put their squads and design their squads

around more, trying to win the White ball competition so they can

bring in money and blah, blah, blah.

And I, I just think that there's so much cricket going on.

So Fletch who obviously we interviewed backend of series one, Simon and I know

really well, he, he said to me over the earlier in the summer, he is like,

It's too much for, for fast bowlers.

There's too much cricket.

Now nots have got a massive staff and the, they obviously rotate them quite

well in terms of the fast bowlers, but I just think that there's no real

clarity around what, where do the.

Where do, where do the levels of Importa, let's say there's like six competitions.

What's number one in importance and what's number six and, and how

do you feel that gap in between?

And I think there's a real confusion about that.

I don't dispute what you guys are saying about the women's hundred.

It, it, the women's hundred is obviously bringing massive amounts of sort

of viewers to the women's game.

Is is given it a, a level that it's never seen all?

I think when you say it's not clear about what Tona stand where, I think

it's very clear there's a reason they play the one day trophy between the 18

counties at the same time as the hundred.

And that's cuz the ECB don't give a fly and what not about it.

I think it's the same way as in football.

They play the Carrie Bow, Mickey Mouse cook, whatever it is, when you

can have under 20 ones teams in it.

They've, they've, they've, they've made it very clear where they stand.

The ECB have made it.

Bang, clear where they stand on it.

We've got this, this big tournament, this this hundred ball thing.

And, but we are gonna play that at the same time as we play a

a 50 over tournament between the rest of the counties.

And I think so.

So when, when, when you say they want clarity, I think

they're giving you clarity.

The, there's a reason the final isn't at lost.

There's a reason that it's being played at the same time as the hundred.

There's, there's all these things that they're pointing without short

of coming out and saying, Right.

Our number one competition is the candy championship or the hundred or whatever.

We know what the bottom one is.

It's the 50 over trophy.

Yeah.

Because the final's not at Lords.

They play at the same time as all the other tournaments when there's either

test matches or the a hundred on.

So there's, there's perfect clarity for me on it.

They, it, it, it's not an irrelevant competition, but it's at the four,

it's the bottom of the wrong.

So, but then can the, can the say about, can the hundred be seen as,

you know, considering the amount of importance that the ECB want to put

on it, because this is their this is their competition, isn't it?

You know, they gave away T 20 the Aussies and the Indians run away with it, although

it was English design competition.

But is, are they, you know, they bring these players in.

They all then disappeared to the cpl or they disappeared to

England test matches like this.

This is something that the ECB thing in their hat up.

But then all the play, all the, I think if you ask ecb, I think if you ask the

ECB now what's most important again, they, they, they, it's very clear.

They play test matches at the same time as they play the hundred.

They call all their best players out to play test matches.

They're making it very clear what's important to 'em because theyre best

players playing the test matches.

They don't play the hundred.

If it, if, if it was the other way around, they would, they, they are making it

bang clear with the short of writing it in a document and printing it and smack

it on the side wall of every county ground around the, around the place.

They're making it dead clear that their priority, priority

is England test cricket.

First and foremost.

It's then the hundred, it's then county championship cricket, It's then the blast,

and right down at the, our end of it, it's the 40, 50, whatever many overs it

is Royal London noting in port bushes where whoever who might have a contract

somewhere gets a gig complaining it and, and, and do you know what, Do you know

if that's the way they wanna frame it?

That's fine.

I, I've got another dispute which we can raise, but I wonder, I

say one thing about the hundred.

My father-in-law knows nothing about cricket, never played cricket,

never shown any interest in cricket.

They had a hit replacement.

Six to eight weeks ago and couldn't move from the sofa.

Last time he came to stay three weeks ago, he would not stop talking about a hundred.

Yeah.

How, how much he got into it, how much he was into the final.

Yeah.

He became a a Trump Rockets fan cuz we live in Nottingham and he was watched

it and he was glued to it every day.

To the point where now he's, he's, he's looking at dates when he

wants to come up here next year.

Not Granton, but on the basis of when tra rockets have got home

game and how that's gonna work.

So is the hundred attracting new people to cricket?

Yes, a hundred percent.

Whether that be, whether that be the women's hundred attracting girls to the

game or whether that be the men's hundred.

He, he watched a bit of the women's cricket, you didn't enjoy it as much.

He's sitting there to want to watch the ball get whacked out

the park and people ball it quick.

And unfortunately in the women's game, that doesn't happen as often.

But what it is showing no, but.

But it's, it's showing that women can play at that high level.

It's a, it is a slightly different game, but it's showing the skills and

the abilities of these, the ladies to, to watch to a young crowd or

to, to an, to blokes that might not have watched women's cricket before.

They assume it's this whatever type of game they assume it is.

And then they look at that and go, I actually, it's not, You've got

that silver banging it out the park.

You've got all this stuff going on.

And they'll go, Oh, actually this is a day cricket.

I used to light watch it.

This is like the one day cricket from the eighties and nineties where it was,

can we, can we manipulate the ball?

Can we run it around?

Can we do that kind of thing.

So is it working?

Yes.

Yes, it is.

People are having conversations with me about the hundred people

are having conversations with me.

My father-in-law, never, He, he knows I used to be a cricket.

He's never spoke to me about it.

I've been with my wife now for 10 years, never once spoke to me about it

and all of a sudden after spending a week and a half sat watching a hundred.

He's buying tickets, he's signing up, he's getting hotels.

He's saying he wants a box.

He's like, Hang on a minute, Christ, what's going on?

Like this bloke not interested, never bothered.

But so I think it's, it's, it's debate.

Well, I think my one issue that I've got, and I'll mention it shortly

and you can tell me shut up if you want, but like, shut ups, poise,

poised when the hundred came.

Not yet.

When, when the hundred came in, Count is went to local club size and saying they

were gonna offer contracts out to local cricketers to play to get dragged it into

their squads for this one day tournament.

Now we've got a ladder at our cricket club this year that's got 1,350 runs.

He broke the record for the all time league leading run scorer.

He's the best, in my opinion.

He's one of the best league batters I've ever seen who's not

played international cricket.

Yeah.

Good bats.

Good bats.

This guy at.

Like gone, absolute gone.

Cricketer all of a sudden, where's, where's his go to even get second team

game to give him possibly the chance of getting an eight week contract playing

thing so we can, So he's got a chance.

Where is it?

It's not happening.

Yes, he's 27.

Who cares?

But where, where is this promise that, and I know it happened by a lot of counties,

made that promise that they would look at the Premier League, they'd look at players

and go, Right, this is your opportunity.

This is the chance where we make club cricket feel more important.

And from what I can, I got the big bullshit button is now

gonna get smacked again because they're not, they're not asked.

No, I, mate, I agree with you.

I mean, you know, you're obviously talking about Brent and Augie.

Yeah.

We interviewed on the, on the podcast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well he was on the podcast, Augie, who we intro interviewed when Huge was away one.

You know, Augie's been pushing his case hard, been pushing Brent's case hard.

You know what, what, what if you are, you know, he's broken the record this

year of Paul Johnson, who ex nots pro on the coaching staff at Lester.

And John o to be fair, did come up to present Brent with the

trophy at Brent's leaving do, but you know, what, what is there?

If, if nothing else, like if weight of runs doesn't

matter, then what's the point?

Like what, why, you know, Brent was determined to be that record

went on to achieve it, which is phenomenal in a 22 game season to

get 1,350 runs almost 1400 runs.

Yeah, he played 20, he won, he got banned.

, you know, is unbelievable.

But, you know, there's, there's, it's almost like, well, there's

no, he's not gonna get in.

There's no, there's no step forward for him.

But yeah, so, no, I, I agree with you, Robo.

I'm not gonna tell you shut up.

I, I think you absolutely bang on there.

Where's Brent from?

He's, he's an Aussie, right?

Yeah.

So that was super interesting.

Super in, super interesting.

We had a, an Aussie come over from obviously from Australia,

played for a club down here in the Middlesex League called Crowd Trend.

He scored 1,242 runs in 18 games and an average of 83.

And he didn't get a crack either, guys.

So I can tell you now, it's got nothing to do with with where you're located.

It's yeah, yeah.

I mean maybe it's the Aussies, maybe we just, maybe we just don't like them.

. I just think it's the way the system works and I, I think the system doesn't work

in, in that sense, like, you know, people are, Lester should be looking at Brent and

looking at, I actually knew, I knew about the LAD from Crouch end should be looking

at these guys and going, Well, fuck me.

These guys are, are proper fucking gun cricketers.

And you know, there's always the arguments about, you know, first

grade cricket in Australia being miles better than s cricket over here.

And how, you know, they've got far fewer state sides than we have

county sides and, and what have you.

And there's always that argument.

And I'll throw, I'll throw one out for you guys.

Do you guys remember there was a certain, at the beginning of the

season we were talking for a certain Ben Compton to be playing for England.

Yeah.

I mean, he came out of nowhere this year and scored heaps of runs and I mean, he

was playing in, you know, and not scoring nearly as many runs as these guys in,

in, well in the Middlesex leg anyway, when he, when Ben played for Richmond,

he wasn't scoring nearly as many runs as, as Jed this year for for crouch end.

And yet, you know, he scored the best part of what a thousand runs this

year in, in the county championship.

He was the second he, so he hasn't played last few weeks being injured,

but he was the second highest run score in the county championship this year.

Yeah.

I only heard nothing, the count.

So I fully enough, I text, So I played with compost Wimbledon.

We've referenced that before.

I text him I think today or yesterday, just say, Look what phenomenal season.

Be really, really proud of yourself.

You know, the next stop is, is gotta be an England test year.

I think the problem that Compost's got is the way in which he plays

probably now doesn't fit into the New England philosophy, right?

Because he's did it.

But yeah, I mean, he, he's the guy that will now try and he, he will

play that more traditional form and, and try and chew up balls and

then hit the bud ball for, for four.

But you know, regardless, you can't take away the, the what he's achieved.

And he, he's been phenomenal.

So, Weld on Compo.

Right.

Final point of order cuz we are a, well almost an hour, an hour, almost an hour

in 10 minutes, an hour and a quarter.

The, the other, the other cricketing podcast that, you know, we don't

normally name, but I was, I was listening to it the other day, Tail

Enders loosely cricket based podcast.

Although hugely successful in its own right.

They had Alan Lamon because they have an a lamb song cause obviously got Felix

White on there and they managed to get a LA on and it just got me a thinking.

In 2019, Simon and I were out in South Africa.

Eugene was, I think could have been, couldn't get there for work,

but it was our friend's wedding.

Anyway, we ended up having the most random night in Cape Town, . We

went to a bar called Capris.

Right.

Great.

We met our mate with our respective other heart, better halves.

Met our mate, Sanjay for beers, who said, I'm meeting a guy called Lance.

Right.

Fine.

Lance turns off.

Now this bloke is literally, you think I'm larger in life.

He was like me on acid.

He was just absolutely bros.

This bloke, he was doing head stands in the middle of Capris on the table in

the middle, in the middle of this bar.

Anyway, we, we just, we, we get pissed.

Lanson says, Oh, we're gonna go for dinner.

Alright, fine.

No worries.

He says, Oh, my car's around the corner.

Right?

All right, well you shouldn't be driving.

He's like, No, no, no.

T i.

This is Africa.

Like we're in South Africa.

Like, don't worry, we're fine.

Anyway, so the four of us, what around the corner?

Five?

Was it five?

Was it five?

Yeah, Sanja was in there as well.

Oh, Sanja.

So the six was in this Practic car.

Which one is yours?

I's that red one up there?

Right.

We get to this car.

It's the only one in South Africa.

It's a 1970s vintage Rolls Royce.

Right.

, at which point me and rob thousand pounds.

Me and Robo looked at each other and going, What the fuck is going on here?

Anyway, we've now got this piss South Africa driving us up in camps, Bay,

these like windy roads and all that.

We get to this house, right?

Right.

Wander up the drive and the lady will meet you.

There's Lance's walking behind us.

This American girl says, Hi, nice to meet you.

Welcome to Mr.

Modi's house.

Like what?

Who, what?

Who's Mr.

Modi?

Anyway, turns out this is Lak Modi who used to own the ipl.

She said, Go up to the third floor there.

You'll find pool tables, a fully stock bar and table, tennis,

bowling, whatever you wanna do.

Chill out in there for half an hour, whatever.

And then, then we'll call you up for dinner.

Dinner.

We then get up for dinner, right?

To be greeted by Alan Lamb.

. And this, this place is unbelievable.

Literally unbelievable.

We're already absolutely sideways cuz we've been

drinking fucking God knows what.

And we can't, We think this is a dream or something.

Anyway, we then sit down for dinner and the lift opens out,

walks Kevin Peterson, , right?

Fully dressed in white, in full white in full white, full white.

Cuz he's just come from a charity match that he's been playing some down,

somewhere down the road from Newland.

And me and Robo just look at each other going, What the fuck is going right here?

Right?

We've had some property magnate drive up in a vintage Rolls Royce

into the middle of the hills.

We've got a lift, we played some table tennis.

We're drinking this blue gin right, that we can pour ourselves.

So obviously we're pouring ourselves like octoPal gins with a tiny bit on it.

We then have Ock Modi then comes down from his bit of the house.

Dressed in pajamas like silk pajamas.

And he happens to be the nicest, One of the nicest folks I've ever met

were then cooked by his personal chef.

So we're all Eastern European, the best Chinese male I've

ever run in my life, right?

sat in between a lamb.

Kevin Peterson are two wives who are absolutely fucking belted by this point.

And me and Simon just looking at each other going, What the fuck is going on?

And it was just the most surreal experience.

And then, so we finished dinner and it was like we're all chatting.

It was nice.

We had some photos just carrying on, drinking this, that and the other.

And then, and I can't remember whether it was Becky Simon's

wife, or Lisa, my wife, right?

But they dropped a glass and Simon and I looked at each other and it, This

is the one time where, well, one of the few times where we, we, I think

we've been telepathic cuz we looked at each other, is if to say that

glass probably costs about 1500 quid.

Now's the time, Now's the time for us to fuck it off.

. So we, we as the American lady for a cab woke up the next morning,

instantly phoned each other and went, I've just had this dream.

And he went to me, Lamb and Peterson and al it mode.

I went, Yeah, he went, No, it wasn't a dream.

That's where we were last night.

And then we went on Instagram and Kevin Peterson still dressed in full of white.

He's taking a photo over Cape Town from this like Mountain Top P Palace.

And it, yeah, it was just that, it was just the most surreal night.

So I'm gonna get in, try and get in touch with other LA and see if we can get him

on the podcast to to talk about it.

The most embarrassed, Well, there was two very embarrassing moments of that evening.

The first one was I'd gone out in a very well known surf.

From the UK called Fat Willies based in Cornwell t-shirt.

Now I was slightly larger than I am now.

I've lost a little bit of weight and it was quite sn and Sanjay

being Sanjay went, You can't go to where we're going in that t-shirt.

He says Fat Willy on it.

Like all okay, fair enough.

So he speaks to the owner of Capris who gives me what can only be

described as a spray-on Capris t-shirt.

It was a medium.

Now you guys have both seen me, you know, very much.

I am not a medium, not an unless we get in church from St.

Andrews, but you aimed at the Fat America marking, which case, Yes,

I'm a medium, but I am not a medium.

So anyway, I've done this t-shirt cause apparently that one's fine,

but my fat will is one, is I pull up and like John says it serve yourself.

But I just dive behind this bar and I saw the out drinks and then

KP walks in a lamb and there's a couple of agents there and.

A couple of other bits and bobs, well, they obviously see me in a

Capris tshirt and think I'm staff

So, so a lo walks talks to me, he says, Yeah, can I have a, a triple gin?

A gin and tonic please?

I'm not say, no, I a for a star , nah, I'm just, I'm at this party as well,

you know, like a, it, it proper looked like a boob tube of a t-shirt as well.

Like my gut was hanging out the bottom of it.

It was horrific.

So I, I'm poor a drink and he's like, Oh, can you get me a bag?

Can you get me some, some whatever as well?

Yeah, no problem.

So I grabbed him, whatever else he wanted.

Glass champagne for his misses probably.

And I just went, Yeah, by the way, I'm not actually working here.

This is a service self, but if you want anything just let me know.

And he's like, Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

They're fine.

And then we go on and, and I was just like, Oh my God, what's going off?

And then as the, the bit that Johnny mentioned about the glasses breaking

wouldn't have been quite so bad apart from the fact that in this

party area there was a cream leather, like you've heard of L-Shape, sos.

Now this was like a U-shape, so it was massive.

It wouldn't fit in my house.

It was massive.

I reckon like thousands and thousands of pounds worth.

Well, as the glass goes down near John's spin round and both of

our wives are stood in high heels in the middle of this leather.

We were like, and which is, and then the tele telepathic that went right.

We're out, We're out, we're out.

This is even Sanjay, and Sanjay has been in some situations, Sanjay's nickname

is the Godfather that he, he's, he's got some very special friends and lives there.

A very entertaining life.

Sanjay does.

He's got a delightful wife and lovely kids, and he enjoys

himself a lot when he goes out.

And he, he's been through, been in some very interesting situations

when it comes to parties with very, very, very famous people.

But even he said to me the next day, he was like, That

was even a bit silly for me.

So I, Okay, I'm glad it's not just me.

That felt a little bit out of that, but no, it was, it was a fantastic evening.

One, it highlighted that trip very nicely.

No, but if, if the listeners were, if they do listen, or one

of you probably Tom Lightfoot probably is, they were listeners.

I know he does.

If you've got If you've got any entertaining cricketing stories of when

you've met famous people in slightly bizarre situations, the start of that

night was modeling amusing as, Cause our thing lads walked in and clearly wanted to

be in Cognito, and I'm gonna drop John in it a little bit here because he was like,

Was not me, Sanjay.

And then we look a bit Sunday, I'm just 30 years younger.

, there's John walking up while they've all got baseball caps on.

Same food, right?

Boys A getting on, you guys want drink?

That was.

I'll tell you what we need to confirm that story.

But anyway, so there we are.

That, that is Simon and i's amazing story.

That still feels like a dream.

Maybe one day we'll get KP on.

Maybe we won't maybe we'll get Alan Lak.

If not, we've always got Eugene as our resident.

English, South African, South African Englishman.

But that's it.

We, we are back.

We were back.

We are now back.

But look, it's been a pleasure to have you with us.

It's been an absolute pleasure to spend my time this evening with you guys.

Look forward to a wonderful winter with the pair of you and yeah,

we'll see you again next week.

So lots of.