thefinalword

T20 World Cupdate 8

Geoff’s first visit to Homebush, where the ghosts of Tatiana and Jumping Jai ride the endlessly confusing Sydney rails.

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The action is done in Canberra. The morning after, I got together with a safari-print Amy Lofthouse, a slightly dusty Alex Hartley, and a dapper Henry Moeran to record a BBC podcast. Yes, I’m seeing other podcasts. This is the modern world, we can make this work.

The Final Word with Thailand

Season 7, Ep 22: The first bilingual Final Word. People have wondered how Thailand made it to the World Cup, and we've got the full story in English and in Thai, with three of the women who have been on the journey for over a decade, and the man who designed the program from day one.

Sornnarin Tippoch, Nattakan Chantam and Naruemol Chaiwai are three of Thailand's longest-serving players. Shan Khader is the team manager and translator, and Harshal Pathak has been their coach since 2018.<...

T20 World Cupdate 6

Is the ICC trying to BUY THE SILENCE of journalists with bribery backpacks? Find out more from our scoop reporter.

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Thai time! Officially 27.27% of the Thai team joined us today: Sornnarin Tippoch, Nattaya Boochatham and Naruemol Chaiwai all had a family chat with The Final Word along with their coach Harshal Pathak. Listen out for the  episode in a couple of days.

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Wouldn’t you know it, a Mankad controversy on the opening weekend of the comp.

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Another Geoff injury, but this really wasn’t his fault. Also come along for a tour of a special place.

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Just easing into the discipline of daily posting, following the tournament from the MCG. Guess what Sibley's score is? Nice. 

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From sunny Melbourne on the first day of the tournament, here's our first subscriber-only video from Geoff (and Ted),

Adam's baby is here!

Season 7, Ep 21: Please welcome Winifred Mae Collins. Thanks to some  stellar work from Rachel over a long couple of days, we now have the first Final Word bub. This week you can hear Adam, newly suffused with the joy of parenthood, be questioned by Geoff, who does not understand babies at all.  

Lisa Sthalekar joins for a chat about the Women's T20 World Cup, its history and former incarnations, and what might happen this time around. Daniel Norcross sends a World War II upda...

Bangladesh win the World Cup

Season 7, Ep 20: The Under-19 World Cup, that is. But still. What a huge moment for a country that has battled at the top level, and against their biggest rival in India too. Cricinfo's Bangladesh reporter Mohammad Isam joins us as he negotiates a Dhaka traffic jam to talk about what it means.

Also, David Warner's AB medal, Naseem Shah's hat-trick, a WWII update from Dan Norcross, and Geoff's new segment: THE STATMAN.  Bee-up-bop bada bop, bup bup bada bop.

The Final Word with Ebony Rainford-Brent

Season 7, Ep 19. We love Ebony. She's got a huge heart, a beaming smile, and a great laugh, and she makes commentary boxes around the world better. But more than that, she's a deeply impressive human being. Could could have played a dozen sports. Cricket got her by chance. Came from a tough childhood to be England's first black player for the women's side, a Test Match Special mainstay, and a Surrey board member where she's now championing opportunities for more black English players. She was...

South Africa's sudden slide

Less than two years ago South Africa crushed Australia 3-1. Since then  they've had a dire World Cup and consistent Test losses, while the national administration has fallen into chaos. With England having just polished off a series 1-3 in Johannesburg, the show this week features  Neil Manthorp to explain the situation in the Rainbow Nation. Also Geoff is back from holiday, Daniel Norcross has sent notes on our progress  through World War II, and there's Nerd Pledge and the ea...

Dan Christian interview

Season 7, Ep 17: Following the release of CA's new indigenous reconciliation plan, Wiradjuri cricketer Dan Christian joins The Final Word to talk over what it means and what hopes it carries for the future. 

Daniel  Norcross then fills in again with Adam, recording from beneath his prized Douglas Jardine portrait in his London home to discuss England's success in South Africa and Australia's tour that  never should have been in India. There's more Nerd Pledge, additional ...

The winter newsreader, played by Daniel Norcross

Season 7, Ep 16: With Geoff away on holiday, Daniel Norcross joins Adam Collins for The Final Word's weekly dance around  the cricket universe. From Mumbai to Melbourne, then over to Port  Elizabeth, they've got you covered. Of course, this episode includes  another rousing edition of Nerd Pledge.

Sunny Munn and 4-day Tests

Season 7, Ep 15. After hammering New Zealand one final time, the pause button is hit  on the home international summer. But that doesn't mean the cricket  world slows down: a magnificent finish at Newlands was perfectly timed  as the debate surrounding four-day Tests heats up. Before signing off, there's time for some nerd pledge before Geoff and Adam catch up with their old mate Sunny Munn. 

The 2019 finale

Season 7, Ep 13. You know what New Year's Eve means on The Final Word? It's gonna get loose. It's gonna get wild. It's time for our biggest show of the year. We have our Best and Worst of  2019. Our highlights and lowlights, and some of our best memories. An Adam Baby Update. Some more Nerd Pledge. Several arguments. One apology.  A farewell to Peter Siddle. The Boxing Day Test, and the other Boxing  Day Test (in Melbourne and in Johannesburg). Our hard-fought WBBL All-Time Tea...

Merry Christmas with Mel Jones

It's our now-traditional Christmas Eve episode, for when you need to escape family or friends for an hour and cry on your own behind the wood shed. 

Like last year with Harsha Bhogle, we decided to settle down around the fire (of Australia's merciless record-breaking sun) for a long chat with someone good at long chats. Mel Jones won World Cups and made an Ashes ton on debut, but has had an even more distinguished career in cricket after her playing days. In demand as a commentator...

Fixing the odds

S7, Ep 12. Giving we've been banging on about sports betting, it was timely when the ABC Investigations unit gave a good rinse to the massive company whose name is all over cricket. We speak to Steve Cannane, the Walkley-winning lead journalist on the case, about what he found. We also get to the Perth Test, the WBBL finals, Nerd Pledge, and a faint summer hint of a new segment.

All triple centuries suck

Season 7, Ep 11. Look, it's true: pretty much all triple hundreds been made against dross bowling on flat pitches. They're still amazing. This ep covers Warner's triple, Root's captaincy, New Zealand's likelihood of choking in Australia, the WBBL late-season frenzy, our Adelaide live show, and and whatever else we stumbled upon on the way.

Triple Test time

Season 7, Episode 10. Three Test matches happening at the same time needs a lot of Final Word.

Smith versus Smyth

Season 7, Episode 8, not quite in sequence. We've neer been sure whether Rob Smyth is real. He's just a voice on the far end of the OBO line. So we arranged to at least speak to him on the phone as the first step in our investigation.

The Australian Test squad is announced, and we have all the wash-up  from that announcement and the week in cricket, plus Adam's adventures  with lime milk in Tasmania and the time Geoff crashed their car.

When you have the same name as you...

How Steve got his head right

Season 7, Episode 9. We managed to squeeze in one more important episode before Test season. After handing down Steve Smith's ban, Cricket Australia took the  unusual step of linking the player with Maurice Duffy, an Irish academic  who describes his job as a 'mindset coach'. The pair worked together  throughout that year and through Smith's remarkable Ashes series that  followed. We caught up with Maurice to talk about how the relationship.

Also, our comprehensive W...

Shaun Marsh is coming home

Season 7, Episode 7. What's that November sound? Snow in Hobart, Nat Fyfe at the beach, and  the the pitter patter of early-season Marsh runs. "He's coming, he's  coming, Shaun is coming home." What else happened this week? Pakistan  crashed and burned against Australia in the T20s. Board appointments at  Cricket Australia. England fell over against New Zealand, before another  game with another super over. So many things that the episode went way  too long and w...

Got a great interview lined up

Fake Nathan Hauritz: revealed

Season 7, Episode 6.  

For all these years, the identity of a Twitter sensation was shrouded in mystery. Now the puppet master emerges. Dan Liebke has written another book full of obscure cricket jokes, so we had him in for a chat. Also: Shakib's corruption ban, Papua New Guinea's World Cup qualification, the rights and wrongs of Big Dances, the WBBL, new coaching appointments, Australia smashing Sri Lanka in T20s, and a big round of Nerd Pledge. 

The Final Word is produ...

Cricket and climate change

Season 7, Ep 5: Since we're in the month of serious topics we might as well do the most pressing one of all. Climate change is going to have a huge impact on cricket over the next few decades: droughts in some areas will be the end of pitches, while coastal grounds will be affected by sea levels and storms. But the global game has no policy, even while being a major polluter. It just isn't talked about. We talked with journalist Tanya Aldred about where the global situation stands. 

Policy Week is like Book Week but no costumes

Season 7, Episode 4. You know nothing gets us excited like policy. Not even joking. Cricket had a big policy week: England's £50million plan for women's cricket, Australia's world-leading parental leave program, and the pay disparity between men and women in The Hundred. We sat down with lawyer and cricketer Isabelle Westbury to thrash out the details.

Plus (devastatingly) corruption charges against a beloved player, a wrap of Shield and Test and ODI action, a round of Nerd Pledge, and...

From Laxman to Lara

We did it! All of you, plus us, together... we've gone past VVS Laxman's 281 for the number of patrons on the site.

Can we say with all sincerity, this is life-changing stuff. It has enabled us to treat the podcast with all the seriousness that we want, and it's going to let us keep arranging the interviews, travelling to carry them out, and spending all the time to prepare and edit and research and arrange that we like. It's also going to let us spend the time to make fun episodes when...

Scribes of the shortest form

A lot of people don't take T20 cricket seriously. At the Final Word, we're kind of agnostic. But our guests on this show are the real enthusiasts: Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde, who have written a book together on the 16-year history of the men's side of the (currently) shortest game.

We say 'currently' because this week we also cover the launch of the Hundred, after finally getting our eyes on the chip-packet uniforms, the team branding, and the marketing copy. Oh, the marketing copy....