The Afghanistan dilemma

Season 10, Ep 21: Australia has cancelled on Afghanistan - not formally but in effect - to protest the Taliban's destructive attitudes to women. But identifying the right thing to do is difficult, given that choice also means abandoning Afghanistan's people to extremist rulers. Rather than advocating for one option, we try to look at different aspects to the problem in the hope of understanding it better.

Also this week: Nagraj Gollapudi joins the show to talk about the ongoing Old Trafford cancellation kerfuffle between the England and India boards. Cameroon teenager Maeva Douma became a cult hero with four run-outs of the non-striker in a match against Uganda. Matthew Hayden will deliver some fresh word salads as coach of Pakistan. Tim Paine gets his bulge addressed, ahead of a pending Ashes that continues being a will-they-won't-they, and Amy Satterthwaite is not able to wind back the clock.

Audio link is here.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:

5.09 - Avinash Shenoy

Story Time 62 – The bumper comeback 10-wicket clearance show

Ahead of this weekend: Everything must go! Adam is back properly, so we get stuck into the revisits that have been piling up during some otherwise busy weeks. Bags of ten wickets, bags of dodgy cash, and bags with Alex Hales - we've got the whole gamut covered. Then doubling back over pears, plums, and The New Pringle. Plenty of fun in an extra-long show.

Audio link is here. 

Your new Nerd Pledge numbers:
3.99 - Jimit Raja
3.25 - Christopher Stock
10.45 - Michael Fallon
10.53 - James Melinson
6.67 - Jeremy Nash
3.59 - Rituraj

Revists: Colin Burton, George, Jonathan Brand, Adrian Muller, Will Day, Emil Varghese, George Norman, Steve Dodd, Pushkar Godbole, Jai Singh, Michael Edelstein, William Kaye. 

When is my Nerd Pledge coming up?

Good question. Given we like each number to have decent airtime, the list has been gradually building up. This is mostly good because we have a big cache of ammo, and we hope people think similarly to us that better stories outweigh a faster churn.

We have though tweaked the system so that first-time players get bumped up the list at around three months, given that other people have been on the show before. But we will get to everyone. At the moment our brand-new pledges are from June, and our edited pledges are about to hit March.

If though you think your number has been missed, do message us. There have been a handful over the journey when something went wrong with notifications or data or Geoff. Likewise if you think we've missed your revisit. There is no statute of limitations for Nerd Pledge!

In anticipation of a men's Ashes Test at Coffs Harbour...