Mark Howard: Fox cricket broadcaster on the start of the Ashes

The Ashes is set to get under way tomorrow and excitement is brewing among cricket fans.

Five test matches will take place between this week and January, meaning there's plenty of action set to happen over the coming six weeks.

Fox cricket broadcaster Mark Howard joined D'Arcy to discuss further.

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Let's talk a bit of Ashes, now joined by a
cricket commentator for Fox Sport, host of the Howie Games podcast,
Mark Howard, Mark, Welcome to the program.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Lot.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The English Are they an axual chance to win the Eshes?

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Oh, They're a huge chance. They are a massive chance.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Like the strengths they have, You've seen they've picked their twelve.
They've got Wood and Archer both in that twelve. Gus Atkinson,
he's averaging under twenty four with the ball in Test cricket.
Whether they play the spinner or not, I don't know.
They'll be slow overotes if they don't, but I think
they believe they can win.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
And that's probably a change. You know.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Joe Root's been here on three tours, played fifteen Tests
in Australia and had thirteen losses and two draws. So
there's no one in that English squad that has won
a Test match in Australia, which is extraordinary. But I
think the way your man Brendan McCullum and your other
key we man Ben Stokes have got the mindset of
this team.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Every chance to win.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Don't forget tim southey, don't forget the mental skills coach
as well, Gilbert and not coming that chocer with New
Zealanders inside.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Well, the question would be how do you let them go?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
For a starter? Letting Ben Stokes go. He is one
of the great stuff ups in the history of New
Zealand cricket or sport. Let's be not even that it's
one of the great stuff ups in the history of
New Zealand life.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Like how you allowed that man to get on a plane,
I do not know.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, well we'll celebrate him possibly if he actually gets
the job done. Tell us about Optus. I mean, it's
a beautiful stadium. It's not the Whacker. It's just over
the river from the Whacker. I'm told that it's going
to give the same speed, the same bounce as the
Wacker traditionally did. This is going to be a fire pitcher.
Am I reading the wrong previews?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
No, you're reading the right preview. But it depends which
Optus pitch we get. I did a test here against
the West Indies a few years ago and it was dead.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
It was lifeless. Then we did India last year where
I reckon there was.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
They might have been thirteen or fourteen wickets fell on
the first day. India got bundled out of Australia in
all sorts and then India won that Test match. So
it's not as predictable as the pace and bounce of
the whacker because it's a dropping wicket. They obviously play
AFL here with Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles. So
I'm still going to bitch Stark about it yesterday and
he said, oh, mate, the batsman talk about it NonStop.

(02:27):
Us bowl as we just turn up and bowl. So
I don't think there's a great understanding that. When I
checked into the hotel, the lady that checked me in,
who was a massive cricket fan, I'm here for six
nights in the Test match, she said, oh, you'll only
be here for two.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Nights and I was like, oh, have you seen the pitch?
So I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Let's talk about the strengths of both sides. Where do
they sit. I mean, you mentioned Wood and you mentioned Archers.
Great to see Archer beck in playing cricket again. Is
this the strength of the English team? Is it somewhere else?
And the Australians what do they bring.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Well, the strengths of England are multiple.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
They've got a fast bowling battery of the likes of
which we haven't seen them bring to this shore before,
so have discussed them. Obviously, their strength is there are
a bit of score as quickly as they can. With
Duckett and Crawley at the top, Pope can score. Stokes
obviously goes back, but Harry Brook and Smith and Stokes
they go that quickly. So I think their great strength
as a batting unit is they can be all sorts.

(03:22):
They can be four for eighty and all of a
sudden an hour and a half later be five for
two hundred and thirty. Well, how did that happen? So
I think their speed of scoring is a strength. Australia
have hometown conditions and hard and cricket as have grown
up in this part of the world, which is obviously
a strength.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
They'll have someone new and Brendan Doggett, so let's not
take that as negative.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
That's a bloke that comby one hundred and forty kilometer
outswingers England haven't seen him, so I think that's a strength.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Mitchell Stark's at massive strength.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
And then we have Steve Smith for mine the best
batsman in the world. Joe Root has that number statistically
and he's an absolute gun. But I think Steve Smith
can potentially be the difference if Australia win the other side.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Of the equation.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
All this talk, as we talk about Dars is the
quicks and the pace and the bounce and the cracks.
In all the Test matches Australia played here a small
sample because it hasn't been a Test venue for that long,
Nathan Lyon has taken the most wicket for the Aussies.
Now that is a massive strength of Australia because Bashier
is their spinner. Unproven like unbelievable spinners have come to
the shore. Off spinner's Graham, Swan Mororley always struggled here,

(04:27):
so international off spinners haven't done that well in Australia
where Nathan Lyon has.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
So I think that is a massive point of difference
for the home side.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
The Aussie's missing.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Well, no Star, no hazel Wood and no comming.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
So I watched hazel Wood in this white ball series
against India and talked about it with Gilly saying I
haven't seen him look so fit haven't seen him by
so well, and Gilly said him made. If he goes down,
we're in all sorts because he was bowling that well. So, no,
Cummins probably the best Test bowler in the world. No,
hazel would probably the blow beside him is the best
Test viler in the world. Are a massive hole for

(05:01):
the Australians to fill. I would imagine Cummins comes back
for the second Test. Know about Hazelwood, but take out
your two of your three top line quicks.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
It's going to leave a massive hole in any test side,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, it will not. Well, you look at New Zealand.
We've actually developing quite a battery of fast bowlers now,
which is pleasant to say the least. And then they're
going good. But we're not talking about then. We're talking
about Australia, the England. You touched on Joe Root a
couple of times, the legendary how he gains podcasts that
you're responsible for. You've got an Anxious Diary now and

(05:35):
you've been talking to Joe Root for the latest edition.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
You're good man. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
The Ashes Diaries is Mitchell, Stark and Alex carry ten
episodes from one hundred days out, then recording their thoughts, feelings, training,
et cetera on their phones and sending it through and
we go back and forth.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
So you know it's meant to be out cricket.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
But unfortunately in this process, Alex's father passed away and
he sent me this very emotional, emotional voice memo which
you'll hear in one of the episodes, and then International
Cricket dow Is two days later he is getting on
a plane to come to your part of the world,
to New Zealand to play white ball cricket while he's
still trying to organize the service's father. So you know,
these are these are these are real people with real

(06:13):
issues in their lives, not just cricketers. So keep an
eye for the Ashes diyes. But Joe Route spent an
hour forty minutes with Joe late last week. I've said
in the intro if you're Australian, there's a warning because
if you listen to this, you are going to love
Joe Root and like me, now you want to going
to see him score runs. So you know he's the
number one test right bats from the world. He's incredibly humble,

(06:35):
he's soft spoken, he's got a great sense of humor,
and he's a weapon.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
You know.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
He's made the second test most runs of all time,
and I truly hope he succeeds, and I hope to
see him make one hundred in Australia for the first time.
But I can say that because I know this is
going into New Zealand. If I sit that on Australian radio,
I might get kicked out of the country.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
For more from sports Talk, listen lived to News Talks.
They'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.