As something of a sideline to the Ashes I’ve been listening to a few cricket podcasts, usually in the middle of the night when I often wake up for a couple of hours. Here’s three that I’ve been listening to…
Test Match Special
Ah yes dear old TMS. Aggers seems to have been replaced as the host by some other guy, who asks the questions and then JA and Steve Finn rabbit on as usual and interview a player or two. Aggers seems to have got a bit bitter and twisted, after the 1st test he was complaining about Joe Root’s excuses and putting them down as “captain’s talk” and definitely unimpressed. It’s still a good knowledgeable summary. I expect he’ll be chuffed about the England team’s excellent performance today in Melbourne …
Cricket Etcetera
Two of the best Australian writers/journalists Peter Lalor and Gideon Haigh. GH especially is one of my favourite writers (followed closely by Greg Baum) but unfortunately he writes for the Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper, which I rarely buy and certainly will not subscribe to. The podcast is again knowledgable, but amateurish. They need a producer to tell them to get on with it and stop blabbing on about where they’re broadcasting from and what they had for lunch.
The Final Word Podcast
Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon are the opposite of Lalor and Haigh – they get straight into it with one of them doing a 30 second summary of the day’s play. That gets them off and running. When they’re not doing a daily summary of a match they’re pretty nerdy – in fact they have a “nerd pledge” where you write in with a number and they have to relate it to cricket. For example 319 – might be a batter’s highest score, or a bowler taking 3-19, our the number of minutes it took Geoffrey Boycott to score a 50.
I’m aware of another one by Brett Lee which I’ll steer clear of – maybe there are other good ones?
Oh and also there’s Stumped, Ali Mitchell for the BBC, Jim Maxwell for the ABC in Australia and Charu Sharma for All India Radio
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Gideon Haigh – great writer , one of the reasons I buy the Oz on a semi regular basis but he was really narky on the whole Vic lockdown thing. Not relevant to cricket of course but put me off him a bit.
Good line from Guardian Over by Over. England failed to realise that by the bowlers standing up, England would gave to bat again.
Ferocious last session.
I stayed up to listen the first session and went to bed thinking: “The bowlers might just drag us back into this game.” This was followed by the thought: “But by the time I wake up the batsmen will have lost it again.”
I wasn’t disappointed. Or surprised.
For this who like their cricket writing to have a bit of levity, I’d recommend Alex Bowden’s King Cricket blog (https://www.kingcricket.co.uk).
The excitingly named 80s and 90s Cricket Show is good value. England focused, guests like Mike Selvey, Derek Pringle, even Gower and Gooch, look back on a time when England were actually not quite such a shower as this lot are (at least the batting). Each episode looks at a particular England series and then a particular player – Russell, Hick, Fraserburgh, Botham, Marshall etc. It’s infrequent but good stuff.
For a lighthearted podcast, Middle Please Umpire with Mikes Jupp & Mark Wood. Very funny at times on both first class & grassroots cricket.
Thanks for that – it’s brilliant!
You know that thread about sports we don’t get…
I don’t mind cricket as much as I dislike some other sports.