June 23, 2025 • 44 mins
Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad are back for episode three of For The Love Of Cricket as Rishabh Pant makes two hundreds for India in the first test against England.
Ollie Pope is back in the runs, Harry Brook is caught on 99 and Jasprit Bumrah is still just the best bowler in the world.
How does it feel when you drop a catch? What will Shubman Gill be feeling after a century on his first day as captain? And what do we think of Michael Atherton’s dress sense? We answer all the big questions.
Buy the ‘For The Love of Cricket’ Wine Case by Laithwaites, handpicked by Stuart & Jos: https://www.laithwaites.co.uk/product/X15614
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
I'm Stuart Broad Headingley. He's Josh Butler at home before
we get on to the first Test match of the series, England
versus India, which has been an absolute cracker.
Jose, last time I saw you, you were talking me through your
focus at the parents race at your daughter's sports day.
Tell us, how did you get on? Yeah, it's a bit of
(00:25):
disappointing story really Brody.
Obviously we've had some great weather in England that we
cannot moan about, but 30° on Friday.
So we had a a note from the school saying the sports day had
been shortened and the parents race cancelled.
So as you can imagine, you know,really deflated me.
As much as I was excited to watch her run and do the egg and
(00:47):
spoon race and the sack race etcetera, I was more focused on
myself. And so, yeah, going to have to
wait till next year now. Hang on a minute, why have they
cancelled the parents race? What?
You can cope with 30°, can't you?
I can definitely cope with 30 odd degrees places that we've
played cricket. But yeah, a shame.
But yeah, more importantly, I think the listeners will want to
(01:09):
hear about Headingley. So I've watched a little bit on
the TV. You've obviously been working at
the game. It's lived up to the hype,
hasn't it? That's been incredible.
Honestly, it's been awesome and it's had so much drama and
question marks over decisions and everything that you sort of
want from a huge series. It had been talked about a lot
(01:29):
leading in. And then Stokes, he went to
tossing bowls on a on a bright blue sky day at Headingley and a
really nice pitching has been a cracking Test match pitch.
But actually we'll still lean onthe side that Stokes he made the
right call there because Headingley it does get better to
bat and he knows his teams. He likes to bowl 1st and set the
(01:50):
tone, but India played beautifully.
I know you've talked quite a bitabout the Indian batters and
guys you and guys you like and you've played a lot with, but
judge well on that on that firstday getting 100 and then panto
is just, I can't think that I'veseen more of a an entertainer,
to be honest. He everything he does, he just
(02:10):
draws you in. I think he's one of those those
players, those batters that whenhe gets the crease, you just
want to sit down in your seat, turn on your TV, turn on the
radio and and listen to to what's coming.
You know, 22 innings he's playedsecond ball.
He charges and tries to hit a six.
And and yeah, you, you get really glued to him.
I mean, you must have played quite a bit against him.
(02:31):
Is he this? I suppose the word is like
flair. Is he this flair every single
innings? Yeah, he's been amazing, hasn't
he? And it's nice to see when you
say something before a game about how box office he is and
the guy you'll turn the TV on and he's had an incredible Test
match, 2 hundreds in the match. I think the second keeper only
(02:51):
to Andy Flower to to have done that.
So and the style that he does isamazing.
And actually thinking about Rishab, it sort of took me back
to when I first came across him and I had to check the scorecard
because just to jig my memory. But we played a warm up game,
England versus India A on the 2017 one day tour at the the
(03:15):
Brayborn Stadium. And it's one of the first times
I saw him. He played in the IPL for Delhi.
Before that, Sam Billings had told me about how wish I pant
this guy. You got to watch him.
He just loves to smash spinners.And I think he came in and MO
was bowling first ball charges down.
Massive wish at it. Whether it went into the stands
or not, I can't remember, but hescored 59 of 36 in that game.
(03:39):
So sort of that was keeping to these guys.
It's just so exciting is he's sort of like I'm always in the
game. But the it's yeah, an amazing.
And then I think you'll remember2018 was his Test debut and
having played against him a little bit a deal.
Rasheed was bowling when Rashab came into bat and I think I
(04:00):
remember being sort of at the short mid wicket and, you know,
everyone knew Rishab loves to take on spin and try and smash
it. And it wasn't his first ball
that he hit for six, but he hit his second ball in Test cricket
into the Trent Bridge changing rooms, I think.
So he's he's had this about him and it's amazing really how Test
(04:21):
cricket is just I would say his best format.
He knows the way he plays in oneday, as in T 20s, but the fact
that he can affect the game for longer, the fact that he can put
teams under so much pressure. It's a question I wanted to ask
you. How as a bowler and as a captain
do you plan for someone like this?
Because he's got a really good defence and there's times where
(04:42):
he doesn't really pick the bat up and just he's got a solid
block and then from nowhere he charges down the wicket and hits
1 into the stands or swinging a miss.
And it that must really put you off as captain.
If I was against that, I'm sort of like, OK, do I spread the
field? Do we keep catches in?
Is it going to go to slip if he's swinging this hard?
But then he sort of drops back down a few gears and plays
(05:04):
normally. And Harry Brooke did a very
similar thing in his innings, but you know, charged down the
wicket, smashes 1 into the stands and then has got a
brilliant forward defence. So how as a bowler are you
planning for the guy like Richard Pant?
Like what are you expecting him to do?
Yeah, it's a it's a bit of a nightmare to be honest.
I mean, one thing I noticed whenhe was walking off with both
(05:26):
hundreds, the Headingley crowd were all on their feet, like
really appreciating everything that he'd done and the quality
he'd shown, which, you know, English crowds have always been
supportive of of opposition teams and players when they do
well. But this was probably the
biggest sort of clap in hand I'dseen since Tendulkar's last tour
here. But yeah, when when bowling, I
bought it in quite a few times in Test match cricket, the same
(05:48):
ball can be left, can be blocked, can be scooped, can be
danced at and hit over your head.
So you need to have this mindsetthat you're almost ignoring what
he does. You can't try and predict
necessarily what he's going to do because he moves so late.
He's he's really athletic, quickon his feet.
So when he dances at you, you get no, you get no real cue or
(06:09):
clue that he's coming. So you get into your delivery
stride, you load up, you're about to deliver the ball into
length and suddenly runs at you and hits you over over your
head. And he's also tried to scoot me
over the keeper as well before. So I think what you have to
decide to do is like, what's my best ball to get him out?
And conditions will dictate thatslightly.
If you get a pitch that's bouncing and seeming, I would go
(06:31):
across him from over the wicket trying to seam the ball away
with three slips and hoping you get the ball outside his eye
line and he Nicks it to slip. But when it's not necessarily
seeming like this, this headingly surface, you just have
to try and bowl your best ball, whether that's running back into
the stumps into length. And if a bit sort of that old
school saying if he misses it, you hit really if he makes a
(06:55):
mistake. And we saw Ben Stokes go quite
defensive to him, had no slip after lunch on day four.
And typically, you know, you keep a slip all day, don't you?
90 overs, 6 balls and over slipsthere all day, doesn't get a
doesn't get a look you take the slip out big neck straight would
have gone straight to Joe Root. He's not there four runs and
(07:15):
then 2 balls later the slip comes back.
So I think it's quite important you don't you don't chase him in
a sense, you just keep it as basic and simple as you can and
realize that you bowl your best ball.
If that best ball goes for four or six anywhere in the ground,
you're still delivering your skill.
You're still delivering the process that you're trying to
get down there. So yeah, I think we're going to,
(07:37):
you know what a start to series,2 hundreds in two innings.
He's now scored more hundreds inMs. Dhoni and Test match
cricket. Let's just let that sink in for
a minute. Think how much of AA legend of
the God Ms. Dhoni is. So yeah, he's he's India's best
ever keep a batter without a doubt.
And England are going to have tofind a way to get him out
because if he's keeps scoring runs quickly at number, 5I are
(07:59):
going to get themselves in some strong positions.
Yeah. And it was a great partnership,
wasn't it? Partnership batting with him and
KL Rahul, just sort of fire and ice, really.
So. And as a bowler, that must be
difficult when one guy's sort ofplaying one style and leaving
the ball well, very technically correct.
Very patient at certain times and then the whole game flips on
(08:21):
its head when the other guy getson strike.
And do you sort of get preoccupied with one player or
and then your plans? Is that difficult with your
rhythms and obviously left and right and different styles?
Part of the skill of Test match bowling is is being able to
adapt to different players, hit different lengths, to different
styles, all that sort of thing. Actually, Dinesh Karthik is in
(08:42):
the room next to me described itwonderfully on on commentary
where he says it's like listening to classical music 11
end and and hip hop the other. And I think that was a really
good description of the style ofbatters of how different they
were. And they're different sort of
not ends of their career. Carol's not an old player, but
(09:05):
he's a vast experienced player. And you know, they both have
figured out exactly the styles of, of batting that they want
to, to put out. And crucially, both of them play
the ball 8 which in England is, is, is what you have to do.
So it's been a brilliant start from both those, both those
players and the Indian batting unit.
Well, the Indian top five in thefirst two innings, the batting
(09:29):
collapses will be a concern for them.
And and that's credit to Englandas well because they've hung in
the game as as long as possible.Well, I do I suppose the last
thing we could spend 5 hours talking about Richard Pan, but
did you see his forward flip? Remarkable celebration is it's
nearly as exciting as as the as the innings itself.
He Richard Boshi had a really tough IPO.
He was bought for you know, the most amount of money new
(09:52):
franchise with the Lucknow Supergiants and he'd had a you
know, for such a star player, big price tag captain his side.
He had a really quiet time of itand but his last couple of
knocks he got going and I think he scored 100 in his last
innings in the IPL. And I saw him pull out that
celebration, which, you know, you talk about an athletic guy,
(10:15):
incredible mover. I know you can do that thing off
his back where he springs up sometimes where he's keeping and
he's back onto 2 feet. But you don't remember.
This guy's sort of walked away somehow from an incredibly scary
car accident and he's had bad injury to his knee from that and
various things. So to it's brilliant that he's
still got that athleticism and has pulled out a Headingley Test
(10:38):
match, quite a, you know, how a Headingley crowd would take that
kind of celebration. But obviously it sounds like
he's gone down an absolute treatup there.
He didn't pull it out for the second one though, did he?
I think he did. He put that away.
No, apparently he did some sort of like PSG signal over his eye
or something, like is there a PSG celebration?
But have you, I mean, have you ever done anything a little bit
(11:01):
out of character, a bit wild for, for 100 celebration?
Obviously we've seen Rooty do the backdrop against India and
ODI. We, we've seen, gosh, what?
We've seen Miss Bilehurt do somepress UPS.
We saw NASA saying when I was a kid batting #3 and ODI just
screaming and roaring at the press box that had been giving
him some stick. But can you remember anything
that that you've done a little bit out of the ordinary?
(11:24):
I think my favorite celebration would have to be I hit Sheldon
Cottrell for a six and and saluted him.
Yeah. It's probably, yeah, I'd say
it's probably the coolest thing I've ever done in the game.
So me and Morgues were having a a really good partnership in the
game and he got Owen Morgan out and we were sort of, I know we
(11:45):
must have been 350 plus at this stage, had a nearly 200
partnership. And he saluted him off and it
kind of irked me a bit sort of thinking, you know, where's that
Sully come from when we're so far on top.
And then the next over I got on strike and hit him for a six.
So I don't know really why, but he was just sort of looking at
me and I saluted him. But it was that time in the in
(12:08):
the innings where everything must go.
You got to try and hit 6 every ball and as he's running up for
the next ball I'm thinking you've just saluted this bloke.
If he gets you out now he's going to go to absolute down on
you. So I sort of fake slogged the
next ball along the floor for A2just to sort of save face.
But yeah, that's probably my best celebration and thinking
(12:32):
about celebrations. Can you remember Dave Muhammad
who was a left arm wrist spinnerfor the for the West Indies?
He used to get people stumped and he would take his shoe off
and make a phone call. And I was actually Googled that
way. He does is if you can't read me,
you know, you shouldn't be coming out.
And he said he's calling you outon the phone.
(12:52):
He calls you out and stumps you.So he's got a few good
celebrations. It's actually a well worthwhile
read. He does like a the alligator.
He said there's another one where he just caused the Tic
Tac. So Dave Muhammad from the West
Indies got some brilliant celebrations.
Anyone else you can think of this celeb appeal that you kind
of trademarked as pretty, prettystandard, isn't it?
(13:12):
But is there anyone else out there that we can think of with
some pretty Rascal sallies? Now I remember it again, it's
something about this salute in the West Indies.
There was Ben Stokes was having a bit of a Ding Dong with Marlon
Samuels during a Test match series and Stokes, he got out
not even to Marlon Samuels. I think Marlon Samuels was
probably just feeling slip and Marlon Samuels like ran to where
(13:34):
Stokes he would be walking past him back to the changing room
and just took his hat off, put it on his chest and salute it
didn't even look at Stokes he but just salute him Stokes as he
walked past. I think everyone in our changing
was like, Oh no, Oh no, what's going on here?
But that was they they always had a little bit of a little bit
of a jibe, didn't they? They always had a bit of a.
Battle to those too. Oh yeah, they did have a a big
(13:56):
battle, which, yeah, sort of it was always yeah.
He gets himself in a few battles, doesn't he, Stokes he.
So can I just take you back to the toss?
So you you mentioned England bowling first, Headingley, the
stats obviously recently say, you know, it's good chasing
ground and that the the word chase is amazing, isn't it?
It's such AI remember one of thefirst Test matches of Stokesy's
(14:20):
reign. I actually came into the
dressing room just to I don't know whether it was an injury or
something. And I remember seeing you on the
physio bed somewhere just havinga mass and you said you can't
believe Did you hear what Stokessaid at the toss?
And I was like, no, what did he say?
He said instead of having a bowlfirst, he said we're going to
have a chase. And it's like such a
unbelievable thing to say, isn'tit, at the toss?
(14:41):
So what? What is that kind of where does
that confidence come from? Or the different kind of
mentality? Because it always used to be you
have a bat 1st and if you think about bowling and you think
about it and then you still decide to bat.
So the game is set up amazingly well, isn't it, with both sides
probably confident of a result and you know, England will be
(15:02):
full of confidence they can chase those runs down.
But just take us through that mentality of that dressing room.
And also maybe following on fromthat, when you are a bowler and
you chose you choose to bowl, does that add a different
pressure to to your your bowlinginnings?
Well, yeah, I'll pick up on thatfirst bit, the the pressure it
(15:23):
adds to the bowler of bowling 1st.
And what However much Test cricket you've played, I think
you'll always feel that when thecaptain goes, OK, we're going to
have a bowl, you've won the toss, we're having a bowl.
You're trying to tell yourself, I don't have to bowl the team
out today. We don't have to get all 10
wickets. It's not 160 all out, You know,
272 eight to the end of the day for seven is, is perfectly fine.
(15:44):
But you you do find yourself chasing wickets and, and feeling
a pressure to certainly make theball talk in those first 10
overs as a, as a new ball bowler.
So there there is an added pressure, but, but I also think
opening batters would feel that exact same pressure to set the
tone if you win the toss and bats.
So I think that's quite a natural thing.
And that's why it takes a bit oftime to get used to opening the
(16:05):
bowling and bowling those first ball balls in in a Test match
and and Test match cricket. Stokes, he just has a preference
to bowl first. I think he he backs his batting
unit that they can that they canalmost chase anything, backs his
bowlers that they can restrict teams to a an amount that they
feel comfortable getting in in the 4th innings.
(16:26):
And maybe that's come through your area of the 50 over stuff
being so successful with O'morgan as captain and you guys
quite regularly getting sort of three 5400 plus.
It's it's it's that sort of tempo in the 4th innings that
that the guys are looking to play with.
They are treating it like A50 over game.
They're saying, OK, well, if there's any ball that's loose,
(16:47):
we're going to hit it for four. We're going to take on the
bowlers, We're not going to let them settle into into line and
length. It's it's an incredible mindset
that that has worked relatively successfully since Stokes, he
took charge. If you think about the chases
that England have managed, 378 for three at Edge Baston against
I290 odds, I think Headingley against New Zealand, Johnny
(17:11):
Bastow's incredible 100 at TrentBridge against New Zealand in
the same series. I'm not going to for a second
try and remember all the scores.But it has been an unusual
amount of of chases that that England have managed to put
together under Ben Stokes and I think that's the mentality in
the change room. Even day four at Headingley,
India are getting 36370 ahead and India are feeling the nerves
(17:34):
that England will chase it. England's mindset and
communication and language in the changing room will all be
oh, this pitch is pretty flat. You know, they actually rapid
outfield. You get a few away early.
You know, if you get to 100 for three, you're well on you find
someone can definitely get 150. And when is the game on this
pitch? So it's it's not kidding your
(17:55):
your mind that that you're aheadof the game, but you're
certainly telling your brain positive thoughts and telling
the whole group positive thoughts that you can go and do
it. And it our aftermatch interviews
today we had Kel, Kel, Rahul brilliant 100 came in and said,
you know, the pitch is going up and down, difficult to bat.
We'll create ten chances. You know, it's a good pitch to
(18:18):
bowl on day five. He got replaced by Josh Tang,
who came in. Oh, it's flat.
You know, it's not really doing anything.
You know, whatever, whatever comes our way, we'll score the
runs. And it's, it's amazing the
mentality of the two teams that that how they battle.
And I think that's why it's going to be such a fascinating
series because we've got 2 really quite, quite youngish
(18:39):
batting line UPS, but full of ability, full of boundary
hitters, full of flair. Harry Brooke and Richard Penn
batting 5 in each in each team is just spectacular.
And two bowling units that you, yeah, Jasper, Boomer, you know
exactly what you're getting. World class best bowler.
But the rest you're not 100% sure what's coming.
(18:59):
So it does feel that anything could happen in in these in
these later innings. You know, it wouldn't be a
surprise at some stage in this series if a team chases 354
hundred. It wouldn't be a surprise at
some stage in this series if a team gets bored out for 70.
You know, it's, it's, it's really fascinating and Test
match cricket as a way of just drawing you into a, to a sort of
(19:21):
a beautiful way of watching the game.
And I must say, I can't really remember what question you asked
me, but I feel like I answered maybe half of it.
And I was asking about that mentality of the chase, which I
think is I don't really think ofany other team that has wanted
to do that so much or been as successful as these guys.
(19:42):
And I think one of Stokes's greatest, greatest strengths is
that force of will and that never say die, that personality.
And you know that he's done those things himself before.
You think of Headingley in 2019,which is, you know, probably the
best Test innings that there's ever been.
And so he believes he can do anything and, and.
Sort of no matter what decision he makes, one of I would believe
(20:05):
is his greatest skills as well as even if he may have got it
wrong or he might do something, that he's got this ability to
just make it work and just through sheer force of will to
be like, we're going to make this work.
So I can't imagine there's any ounce of regret about his
decision at the toss so far. He just fully believes that
we'll do it and that confidence and everything rubs off to the
(20:27):
group. And, you know, McCullum will be
saying the same things and he's got some other leaders in that
side and they'll be full of confidence.
But like you say, it's a, you know, it's a game of poker,
isn't it? Because on the other side,
they'll be trying to say the absolute opposite.
But I think that's where this England team have been so
watchable and so exciting over the last few years.
(20:48):
It doesn't, it should be really tough to do.
But there's that element that weall think, yeah, they could do
this. Brody, as a bowler, one thing
that must always annoy you is drop catches.
I don't think personally there'sa worse feeling in the game than
dropping a catch. But there's been a few go down
(21:10):
at Headingley. It's a pretty tough viewing
ground, I think for the slips and stuff.
But what did what were your reactions to drop catches?
I saw Boomer, I say, just tries to smile and move on to the next
one. But were you as relaxed as that?
Bit easier for Bumrah when he's creating a chance every couple
of balls, isn't it? But actually, I remember you
remember you doing me in Saint Lucia a couple of times at
(21:32):
second slip. Really.
I that's why I was smiling when you were talking about it,
'cause you, you sneaked into second slip, wanted hit you
hard, hit the floor, tough chance came, hit the floor and
you're like, that's it, I'm out of here.
I'm not doing this anymore. I'm out of second slip.
Get me to fine leg, which alwaysneeds to make me smile.
But yeah, you know, it's one of those things.
Just on that as well, I ran off to fine leg embarrassed, think
(21:52):
I'm never going in there again. So I swapped with Moeen Alley
and then two overs later he tookA1 hander at third slip or
something and was like typical mate.
Don't know what all the fuss is about mate, it's easy in here so
great way to make you feel. But anyway, back to the Test
match drop catches. Getting 20 wickets in a Test
matches is difficult enough. If you have to go and take 2526
(22:16):
because you're putting catches down, your body attacks going to
have to be doing something incredibly, incredibly special.
So yeah, no one means to drop them.
It's a horrible feeling when youdo and you don't want to look at
the the bowler for a period of time.
Do you feel you feel a bit gutted that you've let them
down, but you just need to find a way to put it behind you and
and sort of get back on the horse really.
(22:40):
Yeah, when you've put a catch down, there's that horrible
moment where you're like, I'm going to have to run past him
and just do the most pointless apology now run past you and
I've dropped them and be like, oh, sorry, Brody.
And you know, you're going, yeah, that's all right, mate.
And it's just the most awkward, horrible feeling on a pitch, but
and dropping a catch is just horrendous because you've let
(23:00):
your team down. You've let your mate down who's
worked so hard for to create that chance.
And you know the sky cameras will be every time that guy
you've dropped hits a four or something that pans back to you
and your your face. There's nowhere to to hide.
It's a really tough thing. But like you said, it's a it's
part of the game. It happens.
No one means to drop him, but it's a a huge part of Test
(23:22):
cricket like you said, if you can.
Also, Jose, like the big screen is a nightmare in those grounds.
So you've put a catch down and you're sort of hoping the world
forgets about it. And then for the next half an
hour they're replaying it on thescreen.
And then you have all your team mates looking up at the screen
going, Oh yeah, that was a Dolly, wasn't it?
How's he got caught that? You get that?
You get that groan from the crowd again and again.
(23:45):
Don't you like, Oh my God, how'she dropped that?
And you're never like, you're never happy or well, you're
never happy full stop. But there's a bit of an element
of relief when that guy you've dropped finally gets out.
But you know, like you mentioned, if you drop guy,
you've dropped Joe Roux, who averages over 50 in Tesco, it
means there's a good chance he'll probably go on and get
(24:05):
100. So if you give him two goes.
So that's a huge part of the thegame.
And we'll be, you know, probablya big part of the game tomorrow
that you've mentioned India trying to win the game, needing
10 wickets. You know, they want to be only
creating ten chances. And obviously if you give some
of those guys a life in that England line up, then just gives
(24:26):
you even more confidence that you can you can go on and chase
that down. Yeah, and it was it was Harry
Brook who they gave some lives too in in the first inning.
So Boomer got him out for naughty with a noble and then a
couple of drop catches along theway and I think Harry Brooke on
99 goes for a big pull shot top edges it to fine leg.
(24:47):
He would have been hoping with all his heart that fine leg
shelled that and put it on the floor and he gets to celebrate
100 at his home ground. You know, it's 99 is just one of
those scores that is the most most devastating score for any
batter to to get out on. You remember hundreds.
Of course, it's one of those things it's you always talk
(25:07):
about people that get hundreds, but I feel like people remember
99 just as much as I was 100 because there's so much emotion
around that. I mean, you, you were watching
live when, when Brookie went forthat shot, were you thinking no,
no, no, don't go, don't get, don't catch it.
Yeah, it's horrible. And you know, 99 is such a a
(25:27):
horrible score to get out. You know, you'd start the day if
someone gives you 99, you'd takeit every day because you'll but
at the same time you're like, you kind of don't because you
get that far. You want to score 100?
And yeah, he looked like he tried to keep that one down,
didn't he? And just went straight down,
fine legs, throat for a pretty simple catch.
But yeah, I think we're all, youknow, as much as we, we all play
(25:49):
for the team and we want what's best for the team.
You know, those milestones, theydon't come around very often.
You know, you don't get the chance to score a test 100 very
often at all. Well, some guys will obviously
do it a few more than others. But yeah, it would have
definitely been in his mind and,you know, the thought of how
many times you come down that road on his own ground as well,
(26:09):
of course. And he's scored quite a few
hundreds away from home so far. So wanting to get that another
100 at home and at Headingley. But it's it's brutal because
you've you've played so well to score that many runs and it's
just one more run. But you know, deep down that
that feeling that you get to celebrate 100, especially for
your country, I think, you know,for scoring 100 for your country
(26:33):
is just amazing. And I think we all are quite as
an element of not selfishness, but you want that moment.
And and yeah, 99 is a, a brutal thing.
I actually got out for 99 in a one day game in Antigua and it
would have been my first one day100 at the time.
And again, I I was really thinking about it a lot and I.
(26:56):
Yeah, I was. I was captain.
Yeah, I was captain. Outside and I, yeah, I it was
again the sort of end of the innings and you're trying to
everything must go. You got to slog every ball and I
found myself on 99. Ravi Rampal was bowling like a
traditional spinners field, which for our listeners means
sort of, you know, the whole legside, there's no one there.
(27:17):
There's a huge gap. He's an easy.
So I'm sort of in my head, I'm like, I could knock an easy
single, but the game is meaning I need to try and keep hitting
six fours and sixes and I I justsort of shamefully sort of like
I'll try and knock A1 and it wassort of there to hit really.
But because I've tried to hit this single, I've top edged it
(27:39):
simple caught and bowled. And from that moment it was a
great lesson really because I was like, if you ever get in
that moment again, no matter what your personal score is,
just keep playing for the team, keep playing like keep trying to
smack it if you need to or whatever.
So yeah, I learned a harsh lesson and but I got 96 the
other day as well. For God, I'm talking about
(27:59):
myself a lot. Yeah, but.
Yeah, well played mate. Yeah, and but again, it's like
it's a great feeling because you've scored a lot of runs.
But I say haven't, you know, youdon't get a chance to score 100
for England very often. So as as happy as you are to
have played well and done well for the team you are, you are
disappointed. Well, it was 32 years, I think,
(28:21):
this week, where Mike Atherton, Mike Latten famously got run out
of 99 at Lords, you know, where GAT Gatting turned him back and
he fell in a heap on the floor. Yeah, I feel like that's
probably in English cricket, themost famous 99 because the
Lord's on his board. So if you've been mentioning
that in the comb box, tell us a bit about the comb box.
What's it like? How does it compare to the
(28:43):
England team? And yeah, it's it's you're
giving Athos a bit of a rib about his 99.
Yeah, I mean, basically it's Atherton 99 run out at laws and
that's Hussein winning the toss in bowling at Brisbane and
conceding like 700 or whatever they did.
So they're the general go TOS for NASA and and Athos.
But I must admit, you know, I, Icame from an England changing
(29:05):
room, retired in end of July 23.And I think when you leave a
changing room, a lot of people I've spoken to say that's what
they miss about playing cricket,playing football, whatever.
You miss that changing room environment.
So I think when you're playing, you see the TV and radio pundits
around and you might just go, you're right, you're right.
(29:26):
Oh yeah. And as I said, you know, your
feet aren't moving properly or just ignore, you know, all that
sort of stuff. But so you don't get to know
them especially well. But I feel like I've moved into
a changing room in the sky commentary box.
You know, you go out for, you get off air at 7:00, get back to
the hotel, you go out for a biteto eat.
You spend time with them like you do your teammates in the
(29:48):
England changing room. So it's, it's been really
wonderful. You know, they generally take
the Mick out of me for actually truck making effort with my
clothing. You know, Arthur's probably the
worst dressed, worst dressed pundit in the world.
Nassra St. swears the same thingevery single day.
Might swap his shirt if you're lucky.
But yeah, there's, it's brilliant fun.
There's, there's there's a lot of banter.
(30:10):
There's I think you can tell that on the mic, actually, you
can tell that the guys really enjoy each other's company.
They like each other. Everyone feels welcome.
And you know what I would say toto any England player?
I know you've done bits and bobson the TVI think it's such a
valuable thing while you're still playing to go and do a
day. We had Mark Wood on on Saturday
(30:30):
in the, in the, you know, so thechanger in the Sky Sports
commentary box. And I just think it helps
players see that it's, it's justan opinion.
It's not a personal attack. It's just working out different
things to say about different techniques that might the
viewers might find find really interesting.
So yeah, I would say to any anyone that's playing or
(30:52):
starting off in social cricket, ask and say, can I do a day in
the pod during a blast game or 100 game and just go and
experience what it's all about because it's brilliant fun.
And I feel very, very lucky thatI've settled into something that
I genuinely enjoy. I get to go on the pitch in the
mornings, have a look at the thefootholds and how the pitch has
changed. And you know, looking back, if
(31:13):
you'd have told me that as a 12 year old kid that I'd have
played for England. But also get to go and look at
what Test match pitches are likeday three and four up close.
You know, even that's really exciting for me.
I like watching pitch reports and I think that I've had the
chance to go and do that, watching Tony Gregg shove A
khaki down a, a, a crack in a pitch.
You know, I sort of, I sort of want to do that myself, but car
(31:35):
keys don't have the same sort offlow to them anymore.
Do they're the same shape to them.
But yeah, you know, it's wonderful.
I I, I've loved everything aboutit, to be honest.
And you know, long may continue hopefully.
Yeah, you mentioned worse dress being Athos.
DK's been a part of that Sky Comcommentary box.
(31:56):
He's pretty stylish and he's next door to you, isn't he?
So you sharing the same stylist or does he wake you up in the
morning with no hair dryer goingand that kind of vibe?
I think he must have bought fouror five suitcases up to Leeds.
Honestly. He is just the most perfectly
dressed human being every singlemorning.
(32:17):
Everything's beautifully ironed and steamed and shaped and yeah,
he takes a lot of care and attention.
I've noticed he swaps his shoes throughout the day as well, just
for different looks at times, just to to sharpen himself up.
But yeah. Beautiful dress with them.
Does he take a suitcase to the ground?
He doesn't take he takes backpack with a few different
bits and bobs in I think. But he's he's he must he's got
(32:39):
so many clothes with him. He, he really goes to town on
his different looks, but he, yeah, he's a really, really
sharply dressed man. On day four, wore a beautiful
cream sort of pinstripe double breasted jacket that got a lot
of a lot of compliments from everyone but Michael Atherton.
I think he he generally just he.Wears the same times on the
(33:02):
treadmill. Yeah, exactly.
He finds it hard to compliment anyone on their dress sense, I
think. But yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Broadly, a question from one of our listeners, Nick, who wants
to know so far in the game who has played the best innings?
There's been some great hundredsso far.
Wish our parents got 2. But in what you've been
watching, who's had the most impactful?
(33:23):
And a great one from Olly Pope, 100 at #3.
Gosh, yeah, great question. They've all been superb in in
their own way. I think any time a a foreign
player comes to to England and scores 100 in the first Test
match means they've settled brilliantly into the conditions,
adapted to the conditions. Carol Rahul, I'm thinking of in
(33:43):
the second innings just playing being that anchor.
But but I have no doubts that Ollie Pope was under the most
pressure came in after the firstover Boomer a brand new ball
charging in, cloudy lights on, nipping around.
And Ollie Pope has has had question marks over his spot in
the side at batting #3 I think quite unfairly at times
(34:05):
actually. I think he's a he's a wonderful
teammate. I sat next to him and changed
him a lot. I always had huge faith that
he'd go and and score runs and and and play match winning
innings. But there has been question
marks. Maybe because Jacob Bethel's
waiting in the wings and looks afine player, but to come out in
that situation, Bumrah, best ball in the world on fire.
(34:27):
He's a guy who moves the ball the most in the world and he
came in, settled everything downafter losing Zach Crawley in the
first over and played exactly how you want Ollie Pope to play.
He was quite calm, calculated inhis first 2530 balls, played
eye-catching strokes, was busy, was getting off strike, was put
in the field as under pressure, was able to build partnerships
(34:49):
with Ben Duckett and Joe Root. And I think for me that means
that was the most valuable 100 in in the Test match.
Not necessarily the most valuable in the reliance of the
result, but just for personal reasons for that player, he's
put that conversation to bed. In my opinion, he's England's
number 3. He averages just shy of 45
(35:11):
batting #3 for England. So he deserves that spot.
He he's now scored back-to-back hundreds and Test match cricket
for England. So he plays the rest of this
series for sure. And you know, I've made a bit of
a, a pundits mindset this this series not to even try and talk
about what's coming. We all know what's coming.
We're going to Australia, it's the Ashes, we love it, we live
(35:33):
for it. We dream about playing them, we
want to win them, but I've sort of made a bit of a goal as a
pundit not to look that far ahead and and talk about reasons
we're playing India right now. This is all this is all that
matters. It's India in England, a huge
series, 5 test matches and OlliePope is my #3 for this series
because he deserves to be. He's he's, he's wearing that
(35:55):
shirt. That is his shirt.
He's earned it. He's he's put some tough runs on
the board and I was thrilled forhim.
You know, when you, you, you know someone really well, class
Pope is a a really good mate. And he scored that 100 and he
like punched the air with a realfeeling in his face.
I could feel the passion. I could feel the, the, the
(36:16):
emotion and everything that, that, that getting from 99 to
100 men for him. So I was thrilled for him to be
honest. And yeah, that conversation is
is put to bed. Ollie Pope is is England's
number 3. Yeah, I just think on the on the
back of that, you know, that exactly that emotion that you
saw. We talked about how gutting it
is to get a 99 and but to score 100.
(36:37):
And especially when you know people rightly or wrongly are
talking about your position in the side.
And you mentioned he came in, inthe second over of the game,
huge pressure in the first series.
And it's such a credit to a guy,a guy like that to.
And in this day and age, it's very difficult as a player to
not know that people might be talking about you.
(36:58):
And it's generally one or two players in the side, isn't it,
that there's always for some reason that they need talking
points and they'll have to talk about something.
You mentioned his record. At #3's outstanding and he's the
vice captain of the team. He's scored some brilliant
hundreds. So you sort of like, why are
people talking about Olly Pope? But for him to sort of know all
(37:20):
that's going on, he scored a brilliant hundred against
Zimbabwe. But you know, at the same time
people would say, well, it's notthe strongest attack.
Well, he's come out in the firstTest here at Headingley against
the best bowler in the world andscored a brilliant, brilliant
hundred for his team when you know they're up against it with
the Indian side having put on 470 odd in the first inning.
(37:43):
So all credit to him. Lathwaites are proud partners of
For the Love of Cricket. Official wine partners, yeah.
That's the one. They love cricket, so do we, so
they're on board. Have you still got your wine
collection with Lathwaites? Funny you should say that
actually, Jose. Beyond the wicket, a series of
wines by Stuart Broad with a lovely little signature
underneath. But yeah, my love of wine grew
(38:04):
throughout my cricket career. You know, Australia and New
Zealand. Maybe we should have the old
podcast where we open a glass for you.
Rose White, Red. I'd say white, but I do enjoy a
glass of red cold roast dinner. Fire on that kind of vibe.
I've had a bit of an idea, we'regoing to do special episodes
with Lathweights purely based onquestions from the listeners,
(38:25):
and through that we'll create our own little case of wine for
the love of cricket. Case available exclusively at
lathweights.co.uk. Sounds great.
I'll tell you what we'll do. Three Reds for you for the Test
cricket fans and three whites for me for the white ball
purists. So pour yourself a glass, settle
in and join us for the love of cricket with a good bottle of
wine from Lathweights. Jose.
(38:47):
We had a very exciting moment this week where we had a
billboard up in Leicester Squareand I actually travelled up
there. That sounds mad to say by the
way, doesn't it, having just said that out loud.
But I travelled up there to go and have a look at it and it was
a really unique experience actually.
It was huge above a cinema in Leicester Square.
(39:10):
Our faces kept popping up every couple of seconds we'd be on
there. Try and get me phone out I've
missed it and I have to wait a little bit longer to for us to
pop up again so yeah and I caught a little video that I
sent to you straight away actually, where I was trying to
film myself with you in the background on the on the
Billboard and then suddenly you got replaced by Brad Pitt, which
(39:32):
was quite obvious just because really.
Well, how can I? Well, how can I say this?
He's a he's a, he's a famous Hollywood actor, one of the
most. A little bit better looking,
isn't he? So probably doesn't quite have
such a big note, but that's amazing.
That's pretty cool. Like pretty surreal to turn up
at Leicester Square and see the For the Love of Cricket pod
(39:54):
plastered everywhere. And yeah, proud moment for the
pod. Well, I got there and I thought,
oh, this is, you know, didn't really know what to expect.
I thought I'd walk out the tube,see this massive.
Billboard and be like wow, you know we're the the life and soul
of Leicester Square. And as I walked up to it, they
were doing some maintenance of adrain I think.
(40:16):
So it's like 4 vans just parked all around this billboard like
drilling and digging. And I tried to take a picture of
it. All I could see was work vans.
So I had to go out and say sorryguys.
Bit of a awkward question, but how long are you going to be
here? Because I sort of need to take a
picture of the Billboard, but your white van's ruining it,
ruining it. And they say I'll give us 20
(40:37):
minutes. So I sort of hung around like a
bit weirdly, he just stood by this billboard flickering our
faces every every 20 seconds forfor for a couple of seconds at a
time. Did anyone, like anyone,
recognise you? Yeah, Yeah, they did.
They did. Take a picture of yourself.
(40:57):
Well, they didn't actually say it as as blatantly as that, but
they were certainly thinking it because I was just stood there
sort of sunglasses on, just quite like admiring the
billboards as they were going round.
I mean, I sort of, you know, I saw, I know the F1 movie's out
soon. I saw that a lot and people
would sort of see a billboard and then look at me.
(41:20):
Not that many people recognise me, but enough cricket fans as
what? Passing on are you?
Are you still abroad? I was like, yeah, yeah.
They're like, what? What are you doing there?
Oh, just just a bit of work. Yeah, just just a bit of work.
Oh, get a quick selfie. Yeah, yeah, no problem.
And as they were doing that, I'dbe praying that our billboard
wouldn't come up because it would look like I was just, I
(41:40):
just come and I just want to have a look at our billboard.
Come on. That's quite exciting.
That's a that's a missed sales pitch, isn't it?
Probably like trying to not wantthe Billboard to come up.
Well with that. You should be directing traffic
that way. And a selfie with the selfie
taking a selfie of the Billboard.
My good point but but my. The work, my emotions, time.
My emotions weren't feeling thatat that time, but yeah, really
(42:03):
cool, really cool experience. I think, you know, got a couple
of pictures, couple of selfies. Had to be very quick.
It was up for two or three seconds at a time.
But yeah, seeing my face, your face up on a billboard in
Leicester Square is really exciting.
Bear in mind we're we're just recording episode 3.
So what should we aim for next Times Square?
If we crack America, I think we'll be doing all right.
(42:25):
We also had a nice moment, Jose,where Ishab Pant, the double
centurion from Headingley, reposted our podcast story where
you were. You were telling the world
before he scored those two centuries that he was a showman
and a superstar. So that must have made you
smile. Yeah, I did.
You know, it's always nice to make a little prediction or say
(42:45):
someone's box office and then not that that is not well known,
but to then go and entertain everyone.
And he had a couple of messages with Rishab actually, he's, I
think he said that's cute in reply to my praising of him.
But yeah, he's he's one of theseguys as well.
I'm sure you'll get to see over the next few tests and stuff.
(43:07):
He's always walking around with a smile on his face, loves to
chat to everyone, has a laugh and a joke.
And I think that's why he's sucha a well loved cricketer.
And I think he's going to be an absolute star of the summer.
And people just love the way he plays, the way he carries
himself, you know, all that sortof thing.
And yeah, just great for him to to acknowledge it and it's
(43:29):
always nice, you know, having played against a few guys to
share a couple of messages and and those kind of things.
So yeah, thanks for the call out, Rochelle.
Actually, lots of people have got in touch with us over the
last week since our our India episode Message from Johnny
Manpow. Really enjoyed the first
episode. Great insight into the world of
professional cricket. Subscribed and we'll definitely
(43:50):
be listening each week. And Duncan Ralph's listening to
episode 1 says fantastic, I'm in.
Hopefully we've got a few more of those.
And a message from Jayesh. Damn, Josh's voice is so
calming, it's almost therapeutic.
He can start his own meditation app.
Do you agree with that? Well, sounds like the love of
Cricket meditation app is coming.
(44:11):
Hopefully it's a little bit moreexciting than putting him to
sleep. Hopefully calming is in a
positive way. But yeah, obviously doing
something like this, a podcast for the first time, putting
ourselves out there. So it's it's nice to have the
support. So thank you, Jayesh.
People have loved the Frank Lampard story.
Jose. If you haven't heard it, go to
(44:31):
episode 1 and find it. Kick and well mate.
Yeah, I'm waiting for someone toGet Me Out LBW and send me off
with kick and well mate, so sure, that's coming my way.
It's coming, it's coming. Get your comments in, Look for
love of Cricket Pod on socials and thanks to our partners Sage
and Late Ways. It's a double pod week this
week, so we'll be back on Thursday.
I'm Stuart Broad Headingley. He's Josh Butler at home before
we get on to the first Test match of the series, England
versus India, which has been an absolute cracker.
Jose, last time I saw you, you were talking me through your
focus at the parents race at your daughter's sports day.
Tell us, how did you get on? Yeah, it's a bit of
(00:25):
disappointing story really Brody.
Obviously we've had some great weather in England that we
cannot moan about, but 30° on Friday.
So we had a a note from the school saying the sports day had
been shortened and the parents race cancelled.
So as you can imagine, you know,really deflated me.
As much as I was excited to watch her run and do the egg and
(00:47):
spoon race and the sack race etcetera, I was more focused on
myself. And so, yeah, going to have to
wait till next year now. Hang on a minute, why have they
cancelled the parents race? What?
You can cope with 30°, can't you?
I can definitely cope with 30 odd degrees places that we've
played cricket. But yeah, a shame.
But yeah, more importantly, I think the listeners will want to
(01:09):
hear about Headingley. So I've watched a little bit on
the TV. You've obviously been working at
the game. It's lived up to the hype,
hasn't it? That's been incredible.
Honestly, it's been awesome and it's had so much drama and
question marks over decisions and everything that you sort of
want from a huge series. It had been talked about a lot
(01:29):
leading in. And then Stokes, he went to
tossing bowls on a on a bright blue sky day at Headingley and a
really nice pitching has been a cracking Test match pitch.
But actually we'll still lean onthe side that Stokes he made the
right call there because Headingley it does get better to
bat and he knows his teams. He likes to bowl 1st and set the
(01:50):
tone, but India played beautifully.
I know you've talked quite a bitabout the Indian batters and
guys you and guys you like and you've played a lot with, but
judge well on that on that firstday getting 100 and then panto
is just, I can't think that I'veseen more of a an entertainer,
to be honest. He everything he does, he just
(02:10):
draws you in. I think he's one of those those
players, those batters that whenhe gets the crease, you just
want to sit down in your seat, turn on your TV, turn on the
radio and and listen to to what's coming.
You know, 22 innings he's playedsecond ball.
He charges and tries to hit a six.
And and yeah, you, you get really glued to him.
I mean, you must have played quite a bit against him.
(02:31):
Is he this? I suppose the word is like
flair. Is he this flair every single
innings? Yeah, he's been amazing, hasn't
he? And it's nice to see when you
say something before a game about how box office he is and
the guy you'll turn the TV on and he's had an incredible Test
match, 2 hundreds in the match. I think the second keeper only
(02:51):
to Andy Flower to to have done that.
So and the style that he does isamazing.
And actually thinking about Rishab, it sort of took me back
to when I first came across him and I had to check the scorecard
because just to jig my memory. But we played a warm up game,
England versus India A on the 2017 one day tour at the the
(03:15):
Brayborn Stadium. And it's one of the first times
I saw him. He played in the IPL for Delhi.
Before that, Sam Billings had told me about how wish I pant
this guy. You got to watch him.
He just loves to smash spinners.And I think he came in and MO
was bowling first ball charges down.
Massive wish at it. Whether it went into the stands
or not, I can't remember, but hescored 59 of 36 in that game.
(03:39):
So sort of that was keeping to these guys.
It's just so exciting is he's sort of like I'm always in the
game. But the it's yeah, an amazing.
And then I think you'll remember2018 was his Test debut and
having played against him a little bit a deal.
Rasheed was bowling when Rashab came into bat and I think I
(04:00):
remember being sort of at the short mid wicket and, you know,
everyone knew Rishab loves to take on spin and try and smash
it. And it wasn't his first ball
that he hit for six, but he hit his second ball in Test cricket
into the Trent Bridge changing rooms, I think.
So he's he's had this about him and it's amazing really how Test
(04:21):
cricket is just I would say his best format.
He knows the way he plays in oneday, as in T 20s, but the fact
that he can affect the game for longer, the fact that he can put
teams under so much pressure. It's a question I wanted to ask
you. How as a bowler and as a captain
do you plan for someone like this?
Because he's got a really good defence and there's times where
(04:42):
he doesn't really pick the bat up and just he's got a solid
block and then from nowhere he charges down the wicket and hits
1 into the stands or swinging a miss.
And it that must really put you off as captain.
If I was against that, I'm sort of like, OK, do I spread the
field? Do we keep catches in?
Is it going to go to slip if he's swinging this hard?
But then he sort of drops back down a few gears and plays
(05:04):
normally. And Harry Brooke did a very
similar thing in his innings, but you know, charged down the
wicket, smashes 1 into the stands and then has got a
brilliant forward defence. So how as a bowler are you
planning for the guy like Richard Pant?
Like what are you expecting him to do?
Yeah, it's a it's a bit of a nightmare to be honest.
I mean, one thing I noticed whenhe was walking off with both
(05:26):
hundreds, the Headingley crowd were all on their feet, like
really appreciating everything that he'd done and the quality
he'd shown, which, you know, English crowds have always been
supportive of of opposition teams and players when they do
well. But this was probably the
biggest sort of clap in hand I'dseen since Tendulkar's last tour
here. But yeah, when when bowling, I
bought it in quite a few times in Test match cricket, the same
(05:48):
ball can be left, can be blocked, can be scooped, can be
danced at and hit over your head.
So you need to have this mindsetthat you're almost ignoring what
he does. You can't try and predict
necessarily what he's going to do because he moves so late.
He's he's really athletic, quickon his feet.
So when he dances at you, you get no, you get no real cue or
(06:09):
clue that he's coming. So you get into your delivery
stride, you load up, you're about to deliver the ball into
length and suddenly runs at you and hits you over over your
head. And he's also tried to scoot me
over the keeper as well before. So I think what you have to
decide to do is like, what's my best ball to get him out?
And conditions will dictate thatslightly.
If you get a pitch that's bouncing and seeming, I would go
(06:31):
across him from over the wicket trying to seam the ball away
with three slips and hoping you get the ball outside his eye
line and he Nicks it to slip. But when it's not necessarily
seeming like this, this headingly surface, you just have
to try and bowl your best ball, whether that's running back into
the stumps into length. And if a bit sort of that old
school saying if he misses it, you hit really if he makes a
(06:55):
mistake. And we saw Ben Stokes go quite
defensive to him, had no slip after lunch on day four.
And typically, you know, you keep a slip all day, don't you?
90 overs, 6 balls and over slipsthere all day, doesn't get a
doesn't get a look you take the slip out big neck straight would
have gone straight to Joe Root. He's not there four runs and
(07:15):
then 2 balls later the slip comes back.
So I think it's quite important you don't you don't chase him in
a sense, you just keep it as basic and simple as you can and
realize that you bowl your best ball.
If that best ball goes for four or six anywhere in the ground,
you're still delivering your skill.
You're still delivering the process that you're trying to
get down there. So yeah, I think we're going to,
(07:37):
you know what a start to series,2 hundreds in two innings.
He's now scored more hundreds inMs. Dhoni and Test match
cricket. Let's just let that sink in for
a minute. Think how much of AA legend of
the God Ms. Dhoni is. So yeah, he's he's India's best
ever keep a batter without a doubt.
And England are going to have tofind a way to get him out
because if he's keeps scoring runs quickly at number, 5I are
(07:59):
going to get themselves in some strong positions.
Yeah. And it was a great partnership,
wasn't it? Partnership batting with him and
KL Rahul, just sort of fire and ice, really.
So. And as a bowler, that must be
difficult when one guy's sort ofplaying one style and leaving
the ball well, very technically correct.
Very patient at certain times and then the whole game flips on
(08:21):
its head when the other guy getson strike.
And do you sort of get preoccupied with one player or
and then your plans? Is that difficult with your
rhythms and obviously left and right and different styles?
Part of the skill of Test match bowling is is being able to
adapt to different players, hit different lengths, to different
styles, all that sort of thing. Actually, Dinesh Karthik is in
(08:42):
the room next to me described itwonderfully on on commentary
where he says it's like listening to classical music 11
end and and hip hop the other. And I think that was a really
good description of the style ofbatters of how different they
were. And they're different sort of
not ends of their career. Carol's not an old player, but
(09:05):
he's a vast experienced player. And you know, they both have
figured out exactly the styles of, of batting that they want
to, to put out. And crucially, both of them play
the ball 8 which in England is, is, is what you have to do.
So it's been a brilliant start from both those, both those
players and the Indian batting unit.
Well, the Indian top five in thefirst two innings, the batting
(09:29):
collapses will be a concern for them.
And and that's credit to Englandas well because they've hung in
the game as as long as possible.Well, I do I suppose the last
thing we could spend 5 hours talking about Richard Pan, but
did you see his forward flip? Remarkable celebration is it's
nearly as exciting as as the as the innings itself.
He Richard Boshi had a really tough IPO.
He was bought for you know, the most amount of money new
(09:52):
franchise with the Lucknow Supergiants and he'd had a you
know, for such a star player, big price tag captain his side.
He had a really quiet time of itand but his last couple of
knocks he got going and I think he scored 100 in his last
innings in the IPL. And I saw him pull out that
celebration, which, you know, you talk about an athletic guy,
(10:15):
incredible mover. I know you can do that thing off
his back where he springs up sometimes where he's keeping and
he's back onto 2 feet. But you don't remember.
This guy's sort of walked away somehow from an incredibly scary
car accident and he's had bad injury to his knee from that and
various things. So to it's brilliant that he's
still got that athleticism and has pulled out a Headingley Test
(10:38):
match, quite a, you know, how a Headingley crowd would take that
kind of celebration. But obviously it sounds like
he's gone down an absolute treatup there.
He didn't pull it out for the second one though, did he?
I think he did. He put that away.
No, apparently he did some sort of like PSG signal over his eye
or something, like is there a PSG celebration?
But have you, I mean, have you ever done anything a little bit
(11:01):
out of character, a bit wild for, for 100 celebration?
Obviously we've seen Rooty do the backdrop against India and
ODI. We, we've seen, gosh, what?
We've seen Miss Bilehurt do somepress UPS.
We saw NASA saying when I was a kid batting #3 and ODI just
screaming and roaring at the press box that had been giving
him some stick. But can you remember anything
that that you've done a little bit out of the ordinary?
(11:24):
I think my favorite celebration would have to be I hit Sheldon
Cottrell for a six and and saluted him.
Yeah. It's probably, yeah, I'd say
it's probably the coolest thing I've ever done in the game.
So me and Morgues were having a a really good partnership in the
game and he got Owen Morgan out and we were sort of, I know we
(11:45):
must have been 350 plus at this stage, had a nearly 200
partnership. And he saluted him off and it
kind of irked me a bit sort of thinking, you know, where's that
Sully come from when we're so far on top.
And then the next over I got on strike and hit him for a six.
So I don't know really why, but he was just sort of looking at
me and I saluted him. But it was that time in the in
(12:08):
the innings where everything must go.
You got to try and hit 6 every ball and as he's running up for
the next ball I'm thinking you've just saluted this bloke.
If he gets you out now he's going to go to absolute down on
you. So I sort of fake slogged the
next ball along the floor for A2just to sort of save face.
But yeah, that's probably my best celebration and thinking
(12:32):
about celebrations. Can you remember Dave Muhammad
who was a left arm wrist spinnerfor the for the West Indies?
He used to get people stumped and he would take his shoe off
and make a phone call. And I was actually Googled that
way. He does is if you can't read me,
you know, you shouldn't be coming out.
And he said he's calling you outon the phone.
(12:52):
He calls you out and stumps you.So he's got a few good
celebrations. It's actually a well worthwhile
read. He does like a the alligator.
He said there's another one where he just caused the Tic
Tac. So Dave Muhammad from the West
Indies got some brilliant celebrations.
Anyone else you can think of this celeb appeal that you kind
of trademarked as pretty, prettystandard, isn't it?
(13:12):
But is there anyone else out there that we can think of with
some pretty Rascal sallies? Now I remember it again, it's
something about this salute in the West Indies.
There was Ben Stokes was having a bit of a Ding Dong with Marlon
Samuels during a Test match series and Stokes, he got out
not even to Marlon Samuels. I think Marlon Samuels was
probably just feeling slip and Marlon Samuels like ran to where
(13:34):
Stokes he would be walking past him back to the changing room
and just took his hat off, put it on his chest and salute it
didn't even look at Stokes he but just salute him Stokes as he
walked past. I think everyone in our changing
was like, Oh no, Oh no, what's going on here?
But that was they they always had a little bit of a little bit
of a jibe, didn't they? They always had a bit of a.
Battle to those too. Oh yeah, they did have a a big
(13:56):
battle, which, yeah, sort of it was always yeah.
He gets himself in a few battles, doesn't he, Stokes he.
So can I just take you back to the toss?
So you you mentioned England bowling first, Headingley, the
stats obviously recently say, you know, it's good chasing
ground and that the the word chase is amazing, isn't it?
It's such AI remember one of thefirst Test matches of Stokesy's
(14:20):
reign. I actually came into the
dressing room just to I don't know whether it was an injury or
something. And I remember seeing you on the
physio bed somewhere just havinga mass and you said you can't
believe Did you hear what Stokessaid at the toss?
And I was like, no, what did he say?
He said instead of having a bowlfirst, he said we're going to
have a chase. And it's like such a
unbelievable thing to say, isn'tit, at the toss?
(14:41):
So what? What is that kind of where does
that confidence come from? Or the different kind of
mentality? Because it always used to be you
have a bat 1st and if you think about bowling and you think
about it and then you still decide to bat.
So the game is set up amazingly well, isn't it, with both sides
probably confident of a result and you know, England will be
(15:02):
full of confidence they can chase those runs down.
But just take us through that mentality of that dressing room.
And also maybe following on fromthat, when you are a bowler and
you chose you choose to bowl, does that add a different
pressure to to your your bowlinginnings?
Well, yeah, I'll pick up on thatfirst bit, the the pressure it
(15:23):
adds to the bowler of bowling 1st.
And what However much Test cricket you've played, I think
you'll always feel that when thecaptain goes, OK, we're going to
have a bowl, you've won the toss, we're having a bowl.
You're trying to tell yourself, I don't have to bowl the team
out today. We don't have to get all 10
wickets. It's not 160 all out, You know,
272 eight to the end of the day for seven is, is perfectly fine.
(15:44):
But you you do find yourself chasing wickets and, and feeling
a pressure to certainly make theball talk in those first 10
overs as a, as a new ball bowler.
So there there is an added pressure, but, but I also think
opening batters would feel that exact same pressure to set the
tone if you win the toss and bats.
So I think that's quite a natural thing.
And that's why it takes a bit oftime to get used to opening the
(16:05):
bowling and bowling those first ball balls in in a Test match
and and Test match cricket. Stokes, he just has a preference
to bowl first. I think he he backs his batting
unit that they can that they canalmost chase anything, backs his
bowlers that they can restrict teams to a an amount that they
feel comfortable getting in in the 4th innings.
(16:26):
And maybe that's come through your area of the 50 over stuff
being so successful with O'morgan as captain and you guys
quite regularly getting sort of three 5400 plus.
It's it's it's that sort of tempo in the 4th innings that
that the guys are looking to play with.
They are treating it like A50 over game.
They're saying, OK, well, if there's any ball that's loose,
(16:47):
we're going to hit it for four. We're going to take on the
bowlers, We're not going to let them settle into into line and
length. It's it's an incredible mindset
that that has worked relatively successfully since Stokes, he
took charge. If you think about the chases
that England have managed, 378 for three at Edge Baston against
I290 odds, I think Headingley against New Zealand, Johnny
(17:11):
Bastow's incredible 100 at TrentBridge against New Zealand in
the same series. I'm not going to for a second
try and remember all the scores.But it has been an unusual
amount of of chases that that England have managed to put
together under Ben Stokes and I think that's the mentality in
the change room. Even day four at Headingley,
India are getting 36370 ahead and India are feeling the nerves
(17:34):
that England will chase it. England's mindset and
communication and language in the changing room will all be
oh, this pitch is pretty flat. You know, they actually rapid
outfield. You get a few away early.
You know, if you get to 100 for three, you're well on you find
someone can definitely get 150. And when is the game on this
pitch? So it's it's not kidding your
(17:55):
your mind that that you're aheadof the game, but you're
certainly telling your brain positive thoughts and telling
the whole group positive thoughts that you can go and do
it. And it our aftermatch interviews
today we had Kel, Kel, Rahul brilliant 100 came in and said,
you know, the pitch is going up and down, difficult to bat.
We'll create ten chances. You know, it's a good pitch to
(18:18):
bowl on day five. He got replaced by Josh Tang,
who came in. Oh, it's flat.
You know, it's not really doing anything.
You know, whatever, whatever comes our way, we'll score the
runs. And it's, it's amazing the
mentality of the two teams that that how they battle.
And I think that's why it's going to be such a fascinating
series because we've got 2 really quite, quite youngish
(18:39):
batting line UPS, but full of ability, full of boundary
hitters, full of flair. Harry Brooke and Richard Penn
batting 5 in each in each team is just spectacular.
And two bowling units that you, yeah, Jasper, Boomer, you know
exactly what you're getting. World class best bowler.
But the rest you're not 100% sure what's coming.
(18:59):
So it does feel that anything could happen in in these in
these later innings. You know, it wouldn't be a
surprise at some stage in this series if a team chases 354
hundred. It wouldn't be a surprise at
some stage in this series if a team gets bored out for 70.
You know, it's, it's, it's really fascinating and Test
match cricket as a way of just drawing you into a, to a sort of
(19:21):
a beautiful way of watching the game.
And I must say, I can't really remember what question you asked
me, but I feel like I answered maybe half of it.
And I was asking about that mentality of the chase, which I
think is I don't really think ofany other team that has wanted
to do that so much or been as successful as these guys.
(19:42):
And I think one of Stokes's greatest, greatest strengths is
that force of will and that never say die, that personality.
And you know that he's done those things himself before.
You think of Headingley in 2019,which is, you know, probably the
best Test innings that there's ever been.
And so he believes he can do anything and, and.
Sort of no matter what decision he makes, one of I would believe
(20:05):
is his greatest skills as well as even if he may have got it
wrong or he might do something, that he's got this ability to
just make it work and just through sheer force of will to
be like, we're going to make this work.
So I can't imagine there's any ounce of regret about his
decision at the toss so far. He just fully believes that
we'll do it and that confidence and everything rubs off to the
(20:27):
group. And, you know, McCullum will be
saying the same things and he's got some other leaders in that
side and they'll be full of confidence.
But like you say, it's a, you know, it's a game of poker,
isn't it? Because on the other side,
they'll be trying to say the absolute opposite.
But I think that's where this England team have been so
watchable and so exciting over the last few years.
(20:48):
It doesn't, it should be really tough to do.
But there's that element that weall think, yeah, they could do
this. Brody, as a bowler, one thing
that must always annoy you is drop catches.
I don't think personally there'sa worse feeling in the game than
dropping a catch. But there's been a few go down
(21:10):
at Headingley. It's a pretty tough viewing
ground, I think for the slips and stuff.
But what did what were your reactions to drop catches?
I saw Boomer, I say, just tries to smile and move on to the next
one. But were you as relaxed as that?
Bit easier for Bumrah when he's creating a chance every couple
of balls, isn't it? But actually, I remember you
remember you doing me in Saint Lucia a couple of times at
(21:32):
second slip. Really.
I that's why I was smiling when you were talking about it,
'cause you, you sneaked into second slip, wanted hit you
hard, hit the floor, tough chance came, hit the floor and
you're like, that's it, I'm out of here.
I'm not doing this anymore. I'm out of second slip.
Get me to fine leg, which alwaysneeds to make me smile.
But yeah, you know, it's one of those things.
Just on that as well, I ran off to fine leg embarrassed, think
(21:52):
I'm never going in there again. So I swapped with Moeen Alley
and then two overs later he tookA1 hander at third slip or
something and was like typical mate.
Don't know what all the fuss is about mate, it's easy in here so
great way to make you feel. But anyway, back to the Test
match drop catches. Getting 20 wickets in a Test
matches is difficult enough. If you have to go and take 2526
(22:16):
because you're putting catches down, your body attacks going to
have to be doing something incredibly, incredibly special.
So yeah, no one means to drop them.
It's a horrible feeling when youdo and you don't want to look at
the the bowler for a period of time.
Do you feel you feel a bit gutted that you've let them
down, but you just need to find a way to put it behind you and
and sort of get back on the horse really.
(22:40):
Yeah, when you've put a catch down, there's that horrible
moment where you're like, I'm going to have to run past him
and just do the most pointless apology now run past you and
I've dropped them and be like, oh, sorry, Brody.
And you know, you're going, yeah, that's all right, mate.
And it's just the most awkward, horrible feeling on a pitch, but
and dropping a catch is just horrendous because you've let
(23:00):
your team down. You've let your mate down who's
worked so hard for to create that chance.
And you know the sky cameras will be every time that guy
you've dropped hits a four or something that pans back to you
and your your face. There's nowhere to to hide.
It's a really tough thing. But like you said, it's a it's
part of the game. It happens.
No one means to drop him, but it's a a huge part of Test
(23:22):
cricket like you said, if you can.
Also, Jose, like the big screen is a nightmare in those grounds.
So you've put a catch down and you're sort of hoping the world
forgets about it. And then for the next half an
hour they're replaying it on thescreen.
And then you have all your team mates looking up at the screen
going, Oh yeah, that was a Dolly, wasn't it?
How's he got caught that? You get that?
You get that groan from the crowd again and again.
(23:45):
Don't you like, Oh my God, how'she dropped that?
And you're never like, you're never happy or well, you're
never happy full stop. But there's a bit of an element
of relief when that guy you've dropped finally gets out.
But you know, like you mentioned, if you drop guy,
you've dropped Joe Roux, who averages over 50 in Tesco, it
means there's a good chance he'll probably go on and get
(24:05):
100. So if you give him two goes.
So that's a huge part of the thegame.
And we'll be, you know, probablya big part of the game tomorrow
that you've mentioned India trying to win the game, needing
10 wickets. You know, they want to be only
creating ten chances. And obviously if you give some
of those guys a life in that England line up, then just gives
(24:26):
you even more confidence that you can you can go on and chase
that down. Yeah, and it was it was Harry
Brook who they gave some lives too in in the first inning.
So Boomer got him out for naughty with a noble and then a
couple of drop catches along theway and I think Harry Brooke on
99 goes for a big pull shot top edges it to fine leg.
(24:47):
He would have been hoping with all his heart that fine leg
shelled that and put it on the floor and he gets to celebrate
100 at his home ground. You know, it's 99 is just one of
those scores that is the most most devastating score for any
batter to to get out on. You remember hundreds.
Of course, it's one of those things it's you always talk
(25:07):
about people that get hundreds, but I feel like people remember
99 just as much as I was 100 because there's so much emotion
around that. I mean, you, you were watching
live when, when Brookie went forthat shot, were you thinking no,
no, no, don't go, don't get, don't catch it.
Yeah, it's horrible. And you know, 99 is such a a
(25:27):
horrible score to get out. You know, you'd start the day if
someone gives you 99, you'd takeit every day because you'll but
at the same time you're like, you kind of don't because you
get that far. You want to score 100?
And yeah, he looked like he tried to keep that one down,
didn't he? And just went straight down,
fine legs, throat for a pretty simple catch.
But yeah, I think we're all, youknow, as much as we, we all play
(25:49):
for the team and we want what's best for the team.
You know, those milestones, theydon't come around very often.
You know, you don't get the chance to score a test 100 very
often at all. Well, some guys will obviously
do it a few more than others. But yeah, it would have
definitely been in his mind and,you know, the thought of how
many times you come down that road on his own ground as well,
(26:09):
of course. And he's scored quite a few
hundreds away from home so far. So wanting to get that another
100 at home and at Headingley. But it's it's brutal because
you've you've played so well to score that many runs and it's
just one more run. But you know, deep down that
that feeling that you get to celebrate 100, especially for
your country, I think, you know,for scoring 100 for your country
(26:33):
is just amazing. And I think we all are quite as
an element of not selfishness, but you want that moment.
And and yeah, 99 is a, a brutal thing.
I actually got out for 99 in a one day game in Antigua and it
would have been my first one day100 at the time.
And again, I I was really thinking about it a lot and I.
(26:56):
Yeah, I was. I was captain.
Yeah, I was captain. Outside and I, yeah, I it was
again the sort of end of the innings and you're trying to
everything must go. You got to slog every ball and I
found myself on 99. Ravi Rampal was bowling like a
traditional spinners field, which for our listeners means
sort of, you know, the whole legside, there's no one there.
(27:17):
There's a huge gap. He's an easy.
So I'm sort of in my head, I'm like, I could knock an easy
single, but the game is meaning I need to try and keep hitting
six fours and sixes and I I justsort of shamefully sort of like
I'll try and knock A1 and it wassort of there to hit really.
But because I've tried to hit this single, I've top edged it
(27:39):
simple caught and bowled. And from that moment it was a
great lesson really because I was like, if you ever get in
that moment again, no matter what your personal score is,
just keep playing for the team, keep playing like keep trying to
smack it if you need to or whatever.
So yeah, I learned a harsh lesson and but I got 96 the
other day as well. For God, I'm talking about
(27:59):
myself a lot. Yeah, but.
Yeah, well played mate. Yeah, and but again, it's like
it's a great feeling because you've scored a lot of runs.
But I say haven't, you know, youdon't get a chance to score 100
for England very often. So as as happy as you are to
have played well and done well for the team you are, you are
disappointed. Well, it was 32 years, I think,
(28:21):
this week, where Mike Atherton, Mike Latten famously got run out
of 99 at Lords, you know, where GAT Gatting turned him back and
he fell in a heap on the floor. Yeah, I feel like that's
probably in English cricket, themost famous 99 because the
Lord's on his board. So if you've been mentioning
that in the comb box, tell us a bit about the comb box.
What's it like? How does it compare to the
(28:43):
England team? And yeah, it's it's you're
giving Athos a bit of a rib about his 99.
Yeah, I mean, basically it's Atherton 99 run out at laws and
that's Hussein winning the toss in bowling at Brisbane and
conceding like 700 or whatever they did.
So they're the general go TOS for NASA and and Athos.
But I must admit, you know, I, Icame from an England changing
(29:05):
room, retired in end of July 23.And I think when you leave a
changing room, a lot of people I've spoken to say that's what
they miss about playing cricket,playing football, whatever.
You miss that changing room environment.
So I think when you're playing, you see the TV and radio pundits
around and you might just go, you're right, you're right.
(29:26):
Oh yeah. And as I said, you know, your
feet aren't moving properly or just ignore, you know, all that
sort of stuff. But so you don't get to know
them especially well. But I feel like I've moved into
a changing room in the sky commentary box.
You know, you go out for, you get off air at 7:00, get back to
the hotel, you go out for a biteto eat.
You spend time with them like you do your teammates in the
(29:48):
England changing room. So it's, it's been really
wonderful. You know, they generally take
the Mick out of me for actually truck making effort with my
clothing. You know, Arthur's probably the
worst dressed, worst dressed pundit in the world.
Nassra St. swears the same thingevery single day.
Might swap his shirt if you're lucky.
But yeah, there's, it's brilliant fun.
There's, there's there's a lot of banter.
(30:10):
There's I think you can tell that on the mic, actually, you
can tell that the guys really enjoy each other's company.
They like each other. Everyone feels welcome.
And you know what I would say toto any England player?
I know you've done bits and bobson the TVI think it's such a
valuable thing while you're still playing to go and do a
day. We had Mark Wood on on Saturday
(30:30):
in the, in the, you know, so thechanger in the Sky Sports
commentary box. And I just think it helps
players see that it's, it's justan opinion.
It's not a personal attack. It's just working out different
things to say about different techniques that might the
viewers might find find really interesting.
So yeah, I would say to any anyone that's playing or
(30:52):
starting off in social cricket, ask and say, can I do a day in
the pod during a blast game or 100 game and just go and
experience what it's all about because it's brilliant fun.
And I feel very, very lucky thatI've settled into something that
I genuinely enjoy. I get to go on the pitch in the
mornings, have a look at the thefootholds and how the pitch has
changed. And you know, looking back, if
(31:13):
you'd have told me that as a 12 year old kid that I'd have
played for England. But also get to go and look at
what Test match pitches are likeday three and four up close.
You know, even that's really exciting for me.
I like watching pitch reports and I think that I've had the
chance to go and do that, watching Tony Gregg shove A
khaki down a, a, a crack in a pitch.
You know, I sort of, I sort of want to do that myself, but car
(31:35):
keys don't have the same sort offlow to them anymore.
Do they're the same shape to them.
But yeah, you know, it's wonderful.
I I, I've loved everything aboutit, to be honest.
And you know, long may continue hopefully.
Yeah, you mentioned worse dress being Athos.
DK's been a part of that Sky Comcommentary box.
(31:56):
He's pretty stylish and he's next door to you, isn't he?
So you sharing the same stylist or does he wake you up in the
morning with no hair dryer goingand that kind of vibe?
I think he must have bought fouror five suitcases up to Leeds.
Honestly. He is just the most perfectly
dressed human being every singlemorning.
(32:17):
Everything's beautifully ironed and steamed and shaped and yeah,
he takes a lot of care and attention.
I've noticed he swaps his shoes throughout the day as well, just
for different looks at times, just to to sharpen himself up.
But yeah. Beautiful dress with them.
Does he take a suitcase to the ground?
He doesn't take he takes backpack with a few different
bits and bobs in I think. But he's he's he must he's got
(32:39):
so many clothes with him. He, he really goes to town on
his different looks, but he, yeah, he's a really, really
sharply dressed man. On day four, wore a beautiful
cream sort of pinstripe double breasted jacket that got a lot
of a lot of compliments from everyone but Michael Atherton.
I think he he generally just he.Wears the same times on the
(33:02):
treadmill. Yeah, exactly.
He finds it hard to compliment anyone on their dress sense, I
think. But yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Broadly, a question from one of our listeners, Nick, who wants
to know so far in the game who has played the best innings?
There's been some great hundredsso far.
Wish our parents got 2. But in what you've been
watching, who's had the most impactful?
(33:23):
And a great one from Olly Pope, 100 at #3.
Gosh, yeah, great question. They've all been superb in in
their own way. I think any time a a foreign
player comes to to England and scores 100 in the first Test
match means they've settled brilliantly into the conditions,
adapted to the conditions. Carol Rahul, I'm thinking of in
(33:43):
the second innings just playing being that anchor.
But but I have no doubts that Ollie Pope was under the most
pressure came in after the firstover Boomer a brand new ball
charging in, cloudy lights on, nipping around.
And Ollie Pope has has had question marks over his spot in
the side at batting #3 I think quite unfairly at times
(34:05):
actually. I think he's a he's a wonderful
teammate. I sat next to him and changed
him a lot. I always had huge faith that
he'd go and and score runs and and and play match winning
innings. But there has been question
marks. Maybe because Jacob Bethel's
waiting in the wings and looks afine player, but to come out in
that situation, Bumrah, best ball in the world on fire.
(34:27):
He's a guy who moves the ball the most in the world and he
came in, settled everything downafter losing Zach Crawley in the
first over and played exactly how you want Ollie Pope to play.
He was quite calm, calculated inhis first 2530 balls, played
eye-catching strokes, was busy, was getting off strike, was put
in the field as under pressure, was able to build partnerships
(34:49):
with Ben Duckett and Joe Root. And I think for me that means
that was the most valuable 100 in in the Test match.
Not necessarily the most valuable in the reliance of the
result, but just for personal reasons for that player, he's
put that conversation to bed. In my opinion, he's England's
number 3. He averages just shy of 45
(35:11):
batting #3 for England. So he deserves that spot.
He he's now scored back-to-back hundreds and Test match cricket
for England. So he plays the rest of this
series for sure. And you know, I've made a bit of
a, a pundits mindset this this series not to even try and talk
about what's coming. We all know what's coming.
We're going to Australia, it's the Ashes, we love it, we live
(35:33):
for it. We dream about playing them, we
want to win them, but I've sort of made a bit of a goal as a
pundit not to look that far ahead and and talk about reasons
we're playing India right now. This is all this is all that
matters. It's India in England, a huge
series, 5 test matches and OlliePope is my #3 for this series
because he deserves to be. He's he's, he's wearing that
(35:55):
shirt. That is his shirt.
He's earned it. He's he's put some tough runs on
the board and I was thrilled forhim.
You know, when you, you, you know someone really well, class
Pope is a a really good mate. And he scored that 100 and he
like punched the air with a realfeeling in his face.
I could feel the passion. I could feel the, the, the
(36:16):
emotion and everything that, that, that getting from 99 to
100 men for him. So I was thrilled for him to be
honest. And yeah, that conversation is
is put to bed. Ollie Pope is is England's
number 3. Yeah, I just think on the on the
back of that, you know, that exactly that emotion that you
saw. We talked about how gutting it
is to get a 99 and but to score 100.
(36:37):
And especially when you know people rightly or wrongly are
talking about your position in the side.
And you mentioned he came in, inthe second over of the game,
huge pressure in the first series.
And it's such a credit to a guy,a guy like that to.
And in this day and age, it's very difficult as a player to
not know that people might be talking about you.
(36:58):
And it's generally one or two players in the side, isn't it,
that there's always for some reason that they need talking
points and they'll have to talk about something.
You mentioned his record. At #3's outstanding and he's the
vice captain of the team. He's scored some brilliant
hundreds. So you sort of like, why are
people talking about Olly Pope? But for him to sort of know all
(37:20):
that's going on, he scored a brilliant hundred against
Zimbabwe. But you know, at the same time
people would say, well, it's notthe strongest attack.
Well, he's come out in the firstTest here at Headingley against
the best bowler in the world andscored a brilliant, brilliant
hundred for his team when you know they're up against it with
the Indian side having put on 470 odd in the first inning.
(37:43):
So all credit to him. Lathwaites are proud partners of
For the Love of Cricket. Official wine partners, yeah.
That's the one. They love cricket, so do we, so
they're on board. Have you still got your wine
collection with Lathwaites? Funny you should say that
actually, Jose. Beyond the wicket, a series of
wines by Stuart Broad with a lovely little signature
underneath. But yeah, my love of wine grew
(38:04):
throughout my cricket career. You know, Australia and New
Zealand. Maybe we should have the old
podcast where we open a glass for you.
Rose White, Red. I'd say white, but I do enjoy a
glass of red cold roast dinner. Fire on that kind of vibe.
I've had a bit of an idea, we'regoing to do special episodes
with Lathweights purely based onquestions from the listeners,
(38:25):
and through that we'll create our own little case of wine for
the love of cricket. Case available exclusively at
lathweights.co.uk. Sounds great.
I'll tell you what we'll do. Three Reds for you for the Test
cricket fans and three whites for me for the white ball
purists. So pour yourself a glass, settle
in and join us for the love of cricket with a good bottle of
wine from Lathweights. Jose.
(38:47):
We had a very exciting moment this week where we had a
billboard up in Leicester Squareand I actually travelled up
there. That sounds mad to say by the
way, doesn't it, having just said that out loud.
But I travelled up there to go and have a look at it and it was
a really unique experience actually.
It was huge above a cinema in Leicester Square.
(39:10):
Our faces kept popping up every couple of seconds we'd be on
there. Try and get me phone out I've
missed it and I have to wait a little bit longer to for us to
pop up again so yeah and I caught a little video that I
sent to you straight away actually, where I was trying to
film myself with you in the background on the on the
Billboard and then suddenly you got replaced by Brad Pitt, which
(39:32):
was quite obvious just because really.
Well, how can I? Well, how can I say this?
He's a he's a, he's a famous Hollywood actor, one of the
most. A little bit better looking,
isn't he? So probably doesn't quite have
such a big note, but that's amazing.
That's pretty cool. Like pretty surreal to turn up
at Leicester Square and see the For the Love of Cricket pod
(39:54):
plastered everywhere. And yeah, proud moment for the
pod. Well, I got there and I thought,
oh, this is, you know, didn't really know what to expect.
I thought I'd walk out the tube,see this massive.
Billboard and be like wow, you know we're the the life and soul
of Leicester Square. And as I walked up to it, they
were doing some maintenance of adrain I think.
(40:16):
So it's like 4 vans just parked all around this billboard like
drilling and digging. And I tried to take a picture of
it. All I could see was work vans.
So I had to go out and say sorryguys.
Bit of a awkward question, but how long are you going to be
here? Because I sort of need to take a
picture of the Billboard, but your white van's ruining it,
ruining it. And they say I'll give us 20
(40:37):
minutes. So I sort of hung around like a
bit weirdly, he just stood by this billboard flickering our
faces every every 20 seconds forfor for a couple of seconds at a
time. Did anyone, like anyone,
recognise you? Yeah, Yeah, they did.
They did. Take a picture of yourself.
(40:57):
Well, they didn't actually say it as as blatantly as that, but
they were certainly thinking it because I was just stood there
sort of sunglasses on, just quite like admiring the
billboards as they were going round.
I mean, I sort of, you know, I saw, I know the F1 movie's out
soon. I saw that a lot and people
would sort of see a billboard and then look at me.
(41:20):
Not that many people recognise me, but enough cricket fans as
what? Passing on are you?
Are you still abroad? I was like, yeah, yeah.
They're like, what? What are you doing there?
Oh, just just a bit of work. Yeah, just just a bit of work.
Oh, get a quick selfie. Yeah, yeah, no problem.
And as they were doing that, I'dbe praying that our billboard
wouldn't come up because it would look like I was just, I
(41:40):
just come and I just want to have a look at our billboard.
Come on. That's quite exciting.
That's a that's a missed sales pitch, isn't it?
Probably like trying to not wantthe Billboard to come up.
Well with that. You should be directing traffic
that way. And a selfie with the selfie
taking a selfie of the Billboard.
My good point but but my. The work, my emotions, time.
My emotions weren't feeling thatat that time, but yeah, really
(42:03):
cool, really cool experience. I think, you know, got a couple
of pictures, couple of selfies. Had to be very quick.
It was up for two or three seconds at a time.
But yeah, seeing my face, your face up on a billboard in
Leicester Square is really exciting.
Bear in mind we're we're just recording episode 3.
So what should we aim for next Times Square?
If we crack America, I think we'll be doing all right.
(42:25):
We also had a nice moment, Jose,where Ishab Pant, the double
centurion from Headingley, reposted our podcast story where
you were. You were telling the world
before he scored those two centuries that he was a showman
and a superstar. So that must have made you
smile. Yeah, I did.
You know, it's always nice to make a little prediction or say
(42:45):
someone's box office and then not that that is not well known,
but to then go and entertain everyone.
And he had a couple of messages with Rishab actually, he's, I
think he said that's cute in reply to my praising of him.
But yeah, he's he's one of theseguys as well.
I'm sure you'll get to see over the next few tests and stuff.
(43:07):
He's always walking around with a smile on his face, loves to
chat to everyone, has a laugh and a joke.
And I think that's why he's sucha a well loved cricketer.
And I think he's going to be an absolute star of the summer.
And people just love the way he plays, the way he carries
himself, you know, all that sortof thing.
And yeah, just great for him to to acknowledge it and it's
(43:29):
always nice, you know, having played against a few guys to
share a couple of messages and and those kind of things.
So yeah, thanks for the call out, Rochelle.
Actually, lots of people have got in touch with us over the
last week since our our India episode Message from Johnny
Manpow. Really enjoyed the first
episode. Great insight into the world of
professional cricket. Subscribed and we'll definitely
(43:50):
be listening each week. And Duncan Ralph's listening to
episode 1 says fantastic, I'm in.
Hopefully we've got a few more of those.
And a message from Jayesh. Damn, Josh's voice is so
calming, it's almost therapeutic.
He can start his own meditation app.
Do you agree with that? Well, sounds like the love of
Cricket meditation app is coming.
(44:11):
Hopefully it's a little bit moreexciting than putting him to
sleep. Hopefully calming is in a
positive way. But yeah, obviously doing
something like this, a podcast for the first time, putting
ourselves out there. So it's it's nice to have the
support. So thank you, Jayesh.
People have loved the Frank Lampard story.
Jose. If you haven't heard it, go to
(44:31):
episode 1 and find it. Kick and well mate.
Yeah, I'm waiting for someone toGet Me Out LBW and send me off
with kick and well mate, so sure, that's coming my way.
It's coming, it's coming. Get your comments in, Look for
love of Cricket Pod on socials and thanks to our partners Sage
and Late Ways. It's a double pod week this
week, so we'll be back on Thursday.
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