A week of live audiences and live crosses

That's Glenn Maxwell up the top, who has made good on calling through to us from the heart of the IPL for three weeks running. Good follow-through from him. They've just moved from Chennai to Mumbai and are very aware of the harsh realities outside the bubble. You can watch that video, or find the audio version here.

Our studio audience special...

...went down a treat. We got to see a good bunch of you lot who tolerated our mistakes, then hung out for a while after the show to shoot the breeze. That kind of thing brings smiles to our faces. The resulting show is Season 9, Ep 30. In which Neil Manthorp dials in to update us about the worsening political fight between a few Cricket South Africa holdouts and the national government, as well as the shock of Zimbabwe legend Heath Streak's long corruption ban. Also: Jodie Hawkins gets dudded by Cricket New South Wales, Cricinfo goes gender neutral, and there are hopeful signs about Olympic cricket, an expanded men's World Cup, and women's Tests.

The show is here.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
6.09 – Sam Nemzer
18.84 – Joseph Brookshaw

You can follow Neil Manthorp's writing about South Africa at Manners on Cricket.

Story Time 43 – How to get fired as the drummer in KISS

And then we cast back to last weekend, and Story Time. Featuring a number that has nothing to do with Stumpy Laird, and a number that has nothing to do with either of the Nawabs. As for the principality of Pataudi, where is it now? We'll find that KISS does not stand for Knights in Satan's Service, and that Jarrod Kimber isn't the only one to remember Ben Dunk. Plus Boonie, Bargearse, Borthwick, and a partnership that we prayed and prayed would end.

The show is here.

Your new Nerd Pledge numbers:
4.49 – Shane Fitzgibbon & Sarah Vaile
4.44 – Shyam Sundaraman & Crispn Crunch
2.76 – Michael Holden
3.06 – Slim Johns & Peta Dowling

Plus revisits and confirmations.

Another good thing is that if you need cricket kit any time soon, you can get a no-strings discount from Woodstock via The Final Word. They make gorgeous top-line bats and equipment, and you just bang in the code TFW20 on checkout at woodstockcricket.co.uk. We've even tested that it works. It does. Easy as can be. 

Which is relevant because if you were trying to pre-order the Wisden Almanack in Australia or the USA recently then the discount code didn't work, because we were given the wrong one. Go to the Bloomsbury site and try WA30 at the checkout, and that should now mean 30% off. 

Information on steak knives will follow next week.