The Final Word Cricket Podcast

The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Cricket for everyone – your friendly guide to the world's strangest sport. Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins combine match analysis with irreverence, politics, interviews and history as they follow the game they love around the world. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword. Get your big NordVPN discount: https://nordvpn.com/tfw

Episodes

September 30, 2025 24 mins
2025 Women's World Cup, Day 1, India v Sri Lanka: It wasn't always easy, but India's muscle and skill showed through when it mattered most, overcoming their co-host on the opening day of the World Cup. Join Geoff and Adam as they consider whether Harmanpreet's side can win it all. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/thefinalword⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 35: It's the end of our season (with another to start tomorrow). We'll be covering the Women's World Cup on every match day. But first, England's Ashes squad is out, and it's all about pace. India and Pakistan have a bad-tempered finale to what was actually a good game in the Asia Cup final. Nepal beat West Indies, the county season wraps up, India A seal a chase against the Aussies, and TFW fave R. Ashwin is co...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, let's go to the work of Jack O'Hagan, who loved writing doggerel hit songs to turn a buck. Also this week, some more largely forgotten Test contributors, a stunning turnaround, and we surprise ourselves by pondering the best with the ball in ODIs. Our music discussion this week was about Nick Craft's song "It's a Draw", by the Barrackvi...
Mark as Played
September 25, 2025 54 mins
Season 18, Episode 34: The Home of Cricket will forever be a special and revered place, but how does it ensure its future? Rob Lynch, MCC’s director of cricket and operations, is an influential and experienced administrator who is determined to make sure HQ can evolve to meet the needs of the game and its membership in the short and long term. An excellent guest, talking with us as the Tavern Stand is being replaced and before the ...
Mark as Played
September 23, 2025 102 mins
Season 18 Episode 33: We said that last week’s Asia Cup nonsense was a new low, but we spoke too soon. And as the IPL and BBL flirting gets heavier, are we on track for Mumbai Melbourne and Rising Sydney Super Giants? Also this week, the best county match that Adam can remember, Glenn Maxwell scores his first ever 50-over ton for the Vics, runs flow between Australia and India in the women’s ODIs and the men’s A tour, and Pat Cummi...
Mark as Played
September 19, 2025 74 mins
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, it's time to right another cricketing wrong. You may not have heard of Fred Tate, or you may, but for over 120 years now he has been the subject of grave injustice in how his story is told. Let's make a change, and set Fred free. Also this week, we once more tackle the wily Rob O'Neill, and take on a pledge correlating to Andrew Wallis l...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 32: Despite all the political posturing, India and Pakistan are still playing each other in tournaments, currently the Asia Cup. But never before have the cricketers been used as an arm of government as extensively and explicitly as now. Also this week, domestic cricket starts in Australia weirdly early with the Dean Jones Cup, and the Aus A tour is underway, meaning the Sam Konstas will make the Ashes, Kurtis P...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, we start with a heavy-hitting pledge looking at one of cricket's heaviest stories, and whether it's worth at least recasting some naming conventions. Also this week, the day that Percy Fender went nuts, the rivals that still don't count, the Swiss Army Knife Man takes his couple of years in the sun, and a notion of early promise that sta...
Mark as Played
Shrouded in myth and mystery, Gilbert Jessop’s 76-ball century is an English cricket record that has stood since 1902. Renowned cricket journalist and historian Simon Wilde has attempted to capture the celebratory mood of the nation that was the backdrop to Jessop’s stunning knock. With the brutal Boer War having ended and a new Monarch in place, it was an exciting time of change and advancement in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 31: As they ready for their warm-up series ahead of the Women's World Cup, Australia's squad is out and it is a formidable collection of cricketers. Can anybody go with them? Meanwhile, Dane van Niekerk reverses her retirement for South Africa aged 32, while N Srinivasan mounts a comeback to run Chennai Super Kings at 80, and he'll keep MS Dhoni playing until the same age. Ravi Bopara is doing so without issue i...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Adam and Geoff start off with a tale full of incident but plenty of heaviness, before moving on to one of the least expected rises to prominence in one of the most memorable matches of all. Also this week, the cultural place of the humble avocado, the brief burst of one of the fastest of his time, an incident-filled fourth Test linked t...
Mark as Played
September 2, 2025 85 mins
Season 18, Episode 30: Last week we asked whether Australia had a depth problem with fast bowling. A week later, it's suddenly more likely that they might, with Pat Cummins under observation after back soreness that could presage a stress fracture. If the Australian skipper and strike bowler is not fit for a home Ashes, suddenly everything changes. Also this week, Mitchell Starc's first retirement from an international format, Jam...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Adam and Geoff are back to normal with a few great tales and a major statistical quirk. We go back to both World Wars to look at the mentor of a frequent ST subject, and revisit our inaugural Dusty Old Bastard. Then there's a true pioneer, and a mathematical oddity: how can the most frequent one-day score also be so unlikely, and how did...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 29: Another couple of next-gen fast bowlers have gone down injured in the last week, with Spencer Johnson again withdrawn from duty and Lance Morris out for a least a year with major surgery. Is there an emerging problem for Australian quicks behind Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, and Boland, or does their presence mean there is no problem? Also this week, Mitch Marsh's team rack up 400 after losing an ODI series to ...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, we complete the set, having now had each current member of our Sleuth Group join the show, as we catch up with Sean McGivern in his home town of Edinburgh. There is plenty to chat about at the Carlton Cricket Club - not that one - which explains why we only got through two numbers this week, thanks to Geoff and Adam's inadvertent pledge ...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 28: Philip Brown is one of the game’s great photographers, having covered more than 300 Tests since 1988. Two decades ago, he had one of the best vantage points possible for the greatest Ashes series of modern memory. To mark the milestone, he found each of the 12 players England used that glorious summer to ask them a simple question: could he take their picture again? The result is a special piece of work. Once...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 27: Our inaugural podcast all-star fundraiser at Wormsley was a hit, with The Final Word team getting over the line with one wicket to spare, a big crowd turning out, and money raised to help kids in need. Especially, find out about the magic day had by Kate Mason and Alex Horne. Join Geoff and Adam in Edinburgh as they continue on this week's TFW XI tour into Scotland, also farewelling Australian legend Bob S...
Mark as Played
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Adam and Geoff are back together and heading back to Italy in the 1940s, via a detour to Spain in the 2020s. A couple of long-running clues are finally broken down, piece by piece, as we discover some Mary Poppins history, dual-sport families, and place a great of the game in a different space and time. It's a fun one. Your Nerd Pledg...
Mark as Played
Season 18, Episode 26: It is true: The Final Word has turned 10. Technically our first episode was released on July 23, 2015, but July 23 this year was in the middle of a rather busy Test match and Test series, so we thought we'd wait for a quieter moment. It's a good chance to sit and take stock of what has happened, as a quiet side project done for the fun of it has become such a big part of our lives. Adam and Geoff catch up for...
Mark as Played
August 12, 2025 98 mins
Season 18, Episode 25: Top End cricket is happening with Australia and South Africa in Darwin, but our attention is on Leicestershire league cricket where the umpiring controversy of the millennium has blown up. That also leads to the story of how Bharat got banned from a local tournament. In other news, the idea of separate divisions in Test cricket is gathering steam, as is the possible sale of the Big Bash, while a disastrous 10...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    Crime Junkie

    Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

    Cardiac Cowboys

    The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The Bobby Bones Show

    Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.