End of summer reports and ‘Mastermind' with Nas and Ath!

0:01Nasser Hussain:Yeah, gone! Gone! He gets his fairytale ending! An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit of First Time winners! The most remarkable thing you've probably ever seen in cricket! 604 and final Test wicket that's new at all. It's ended when the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope.

0:31Nasser Hussain:Welcome to this week's Sky Cricket podcast. It's been a little while since we've done one, not since the start of the ODI series, but the international, the men's international summer came to a damp end yesterday. You were up there, Nass, at Trent Bridge. I'm at the Oval, actually, this morning, as is often the case when we do our podcast. I am working today on the final championship game of the season, and you're stuck in front of your bookcase. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. You're doing the first two days at the Oval. I'm doing the last two days. I try and end on the better commentator and start with the weaker commentator.

1:11And I got back in the rain at about nine o 'clock last night from a very damp Trent Bridge. For the first time ever, the weather forecasters got it absolutely spot on. I mean, for days they were saying it was going to rain at two o 'clock. And just as Morgz went down, I swear only Morgan doesn't feel the cold or rain in any way. He went down like in a shirt to do the toss and it was chucking it down and that was it. It was done. It was no chance at all of play. So I'm looking forward to the Oval. Make sure it goes to the last two days, please. Go and get your mower out and cut that bridge.

1:45Nasser Hussain:Well, the forecast is good today for certain. I'm just looking out over the ground. It's pretty early, obviously. Windy. Windy, but bright and clear. And the championship's been a success story at the Oval this year. They've been getting they've been breaking all kinds of records for crowds in the you know the last 20-25 years they've been getting roughly 14-15 000 over the course of three or four days here so fingers crossed there might be a decent turnout and of course it's a it's an amazing game which we'll touch on later because it's probably going to decide the destination of the championship but you did a you and wardy did a good interview with brenda mccullum which was the only thing that came out yesterday obviously viewers can get that on our youtube channel i think it's up there on the YouTube channel.

2:28Nasser Hussain:What did you take out of that? Because obviously you were slightly looking back at the summer as a whole, but very much throwing it forward to the ashes. Everybody can kind of talk about the ashes now that there's no more international cricket. Well, they've got three games in Ireland, but no more Test cricket between now and then. Yeah, I mean, very upbeat as ever with Brendan McCullum, never doubting himself, either the decisions that they have made or will make. They're not for any kind of U-turn or going in a different direction. He was very pleased with the Test Series, how entertaining it was.

3:01He used the words missed opportunity. I think still deep down, he feels that they played enough good cricket to go on and win that, but obviously they didn't. But he was very upbeat about Joffre, the way they'd handled Joffre. There was a bit of a hint as to Harry Brook and vice-captaincy. He was pleased with the way Brook had taken over the white ball. He'd been impressed with him. So maybe Olly Pope is looking over his shoulder a little bit regarding vice-captaincy of the Texans.

3:28Nasser Hussain:Does it matter? Does the vice-captaincy matter at all in the slightest? No, I was literally reading the headlines this morning in the papers, and obviously with no cricket yesterday, that's what they've gone on. A lot of the Jelanos have gone on, you know, Brooke may be vice-captain. I always find it odd, really, just pick your captain. That's the most important bit. And then if he's not playing, which could happen with Ben Stokes, then, you know, who's going to take over? because if you name a vice captain, then you're sort of tied to that. And that may be the reason why they're not sure about Olly Pope because if Jacob Bethel and Olly Pope starts poorly and Jacob Bethel, the way he played in getting that 100 and his stock suddenly has risen again, they may want to change that.

4:12So why tie yourself to position?

4:14Nasser Hussain:Because he wasn't definite about that, was he? As in when he was asked, I don't know whether it was in your interview or then in the press conference afterwards, when he was asked about Bethel or Pope at three, he wasn't definitive about Oli Pope's chances, was he? He said, kind of, we'll just wait and see where we are. Yeah, why tie yourself? I mean, in the past, they have done. They've been very strong on Oli Pope. You know, he will bat at three, and they've been very strong on him. But I always say, why now in September tie yourself to a position to mid-November for a test match in Perth? He did tie himself to certain positions.

4:49He did say that Shari Bashir would be the number one spinner, which will obviously boost Shari Bashir's confidence getting that injury towards the end of the summer. So he didn't say who would be the second spinner. We'd have to wait and see on that. Wood was progressing nicely, but obviously not as well as how Archer or Stokes. He's good feedback on Stokes. Stokes is going nicely. So things falling in place. And also he was very definite on the plans that they have regarding warm-up games. And he's going to use New Zealand, the white ball cricket in New Zealand, as preparation and warm-up for the Ashes.

5:25And he says they've started series well. They may not have finished series well. But because they've started series well, they're going to stick to that plan. I mean, did you get anything else out of – I know you had yet another day off yesterday after final day. So did you get anything else out of McCollum yesterday?

5:42Nasser Hussain:Well, he said it was a pretty easy squad to select. But as you said, there's one or two places there up for grabs, Delano, the second spinner. I can't see England playing two spinners at all, really. And they might not even play one in Perth, I guess. But the second spinner. And then I suppose, would he say they take seven fast bowlers? They may just be that last fast bowling place up for grabs. Who would your second spinner be? Good question. I like Liam Dawson. I think it's a bit harsh just to go on maybe one test match appearance or the second test match appearance at the end of the summer.

6:20I think Rayan Ahmed's stock is very high, but your point about Rayan Ahmed in red ball cricket is a good one. They can't quite work out how he fits in. He's not in one of their best batters, and he's not their second best spinner. As we've just seen in the white ball where he didn't play, again, I'm just not sure they know what they're doing with Rayan Ahmed you know we may come on to Leicestershire and their promotion uh this year which is an excellent story and he was a huge part of that um I would probably you've thrown me here I'm just finishing off the white ball stuff in England let alone picking aside for November I would keep it and if it's not a death no if it's not like wow it should be Liam Dawson I would probably go Rian Ahmed but I like Liam Dawson as a cricketer I said yesterday actually if you're going to Australia what you need is tough cricketers if you look at the cricketers that have been good in australia or against australia so you're talking both of them you're talking stokes you're talking flint off you're talking peterson you're talking broad they have got something about them i think to do well against australia you need to have a bit of character and fight about you i think dawson has that so dawson or rayon armid i have to come back to you on that i'm sure we'll be doing another podcast at some stage.

7:38You?

7:38Nasser Hussain:It sounds like they want to try and hit them with pace. I mean, the Optus, I've not done a test there at the Optus. It's always been the whacker in the past. And obviously, the last time England were there in that COVID ashes, the ashes that doesn't count, according to Brodie. They went to Hobart for the final game of that series because Western Australia was under lockdown. So it'll be very interesting to see what the conditions are like there. and the pitch and it sounds like if they're all fit, these fast bowlers, Wood and Archer, they're going to front load them, unlike last time where Broad and Anderson didn't play, if you remember, in Brisbane and England before you knew it, were 2-0 down and chasing their tail.

8:19Nasser Hussain:So, fingers crossed they're all fit and they can hit it hard early on.

8:28Nasser Hussain:Hello, I'm Nikita Potos. And I'm Jordan Loves. And you can hear these two Lionesses legends every week on Pitch to Pod from Sky Sports, where they bring your topic straight from the pitch to their podcast. We talk everything football, WSL and beyond. So what are you waiting for? Search for Pitch to Pod with Jordan and Nikita wherever you listen to your podcast and give us a follow so you don't miss us at all. That's Pitch to Pod with Jordan and Nikita from Sky Sports.

9:05Nasser Hussain:When you look at the international season overall, how many marks out of 10 would you give the England men's team? The whitewash West Indies at the start, that drawn test series against India with a test match of facile victory against Zimbabwe and then the ODI stuff against South Africa. Marks out of 10, what would you give them? Seven out of 10. What's that? B plus? Well, I'm giving it as a seven out of 10. You can do whatever you want. You're a Cambridge boy, so you only got A's and A's. I got unclassified in Latin. So it's not an unclassified. It's a B. No, it's a B+. I'll give you that. I'm going to stick with 7 out of 10.

9:45Good against the West Indies. Good against Zimbabwe. But as we often get told, that when that bar just raises a little bit against the top nations, India, Australia, whatever, they do well, but they're not ruthless and winning. So they could have been a bit more ruthless maybe against India, but fair play to India with all the gun players that either retired or were missing or injured or rested. They did very well, but to all it was. And then South Africa, they lost the 50-over series and threw the T20 series. So could do better, as I often used to get on my end-of-term report card.

10:21Nasser Hussain:Terrible attitude, could do better. Was that the report card from you? Yeah. What about you? Come on, what do you reckon? Yeah, about that, I think. I mean, obviously, the Test Series was the showpiece event of the summer, really, wasn't it? Bookended by those one-day games. The South African one-day games were unsatisfactory in a few ways, which we'll come on to scheduling primarily. But in the Test Series, I was a bit disappointed England didn't beat India. I thought India played excellently and thoroughly deserved that two-all draw. But I was a bit disappointed England didn't have enough to get past India in home condition.

10:59Nasser Hussain:So maybe B minus or something. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, and DK's prediction came right. So that makes it even worse. Going back onto the schedule and the white ball stuff, you had a bit of a Roy Keane rant, didn't you? I couldn't believe my Twitter feed. I put it on because it was a game I wasn't doing. And you stood at Headingley at the end and you just went off on one. Well, first of all, I mean, it was such a one. It was such a dismal performance that from England to start their 50 over campaign against South Africa. But the players had, you know, this is not the fault of the players, by the way, but they'd been finishing the 100 final on the Sunday.

11:39Nasser Hussain:I think the ODI series started Tuesday, didn't it? So they came up, the ones who were involved, which is about five of them, they came up the motorway on the Monday. So they had no time to practice. But it was a culmination of a series of scheduling hiccups, really, or points that just weren't good. I mean, the Metro Bank, for example, the week before had had the quarterfinals where Hampshire had got a home quarterfinal but couldn't play at home because Southern Brave were playing at the Utility Bowl. So Middlesex were forced to play that game at home. They couldn't play at Lourdes because that was being prepared for the 100 final.

12:18Nasser Hussain:And the groundsman had 24 hours at a club ground to get that pitch ready. So it was an average pitch for the game. and then the scheduling that started the ODI series, which saw England just kind of turning up and then just obviously caught cold on that opening day. And then just on the Blast finals day, and I know this is going to be corrected next year because the Blast is completely changing and will be done in a month with the finals before the 100. I think that's got to be better with a slight reduction in games. You know, a team like Lancashire were completely decimated. No Butler, no Salt, no Luke Wood, overseas players gone.

12:59So five of the team that had got them to that stage, you know, are not available.

13:05Nasser Hussain:And that must be so frustrating. Lancashire weren't the only team, by the way, to be without players on that weekend. Somerset eventually won it, you know, without Meredith and Henry who played big parts for them. Banton obviously wasn't there. But it's just not, it's not great. You want your best teams to be playing in domestic finals. And also just having got to that point, it sort of must be disappointing for the players themselves not to be involved. Now, there are no easy solutions here because basically they're trying to fit too much cricket into three months, but they've got to try and ease those concerns somehow.

13:43Yeah, I mean, the schedule's a joke. There's no other way of putting it. It is an absolute joke. and Ian Ward, Ward, he asked me in the pod yesterday, what's the solutions? I think everyone's realized it's a joke and I couldn't give an answer. The only answer I was thinking driving back last night was make cricketing decisions. You have to have obviously financial decisions and everyone wants their piece of the pie and once you get that piece of the pie, you want the best players. So 100 wants the best players, you want the county championship, you want the blast, everyone wants it and there's collateral damage to that.

14:15But in the end, make cricketing decisions And I don't know how anyone can sit at Lord's Towers and whoever makes these decisions can go, right, the test series, we're going to have six, five tests in seven weeks, eight weeks, seven weeks. And then next day, the 100 is going to start. And then two days after the 100, the 50 over is going to start. And we're going to want the international players to play in the 100 as well. I don't know how anyone could sit there and think, hold on, isn't that just putting a little bit too much on those international players? They're going to go straight from the test series that takes so much out of you into the 100, straight from the 100, into a 50 over.

14:55Something's going to have to give there. Either players are going to have to be wrested from England or you're going to underperform. And Brendan McCullum, we asked him in the pod yesterday, and he said he has very little input into the schedule, but it's something that he learned that day at Leeds, the day before. It was the first time in his coaching career that he was literally trying to meet players and get a group of players together for an international the next day. And he said in the future, that's one thing he learned, that he's going to have to be maybe ahead of the curve and go off and meet people before they come to the international.

15:29Nasser Hussain:Yeah, it sure changes the spectators as well because, you know, as you know, international tickets are not cheap and you absolutely should demand as somebody paying top dollar for an international ticket that these players are, A, it's the best available team and the players are prepped and ready to go. And obviously this week, actually, I think they're making decisions finally on the structure of the championship next year. I don't know which way it'll go. It'll either be the same number of games, 14 games with the same kind of split, 8-10, or if they change it, It's going to be two kind of top divisions of six and a bottom division of six, and then playing 10 games and then playing three against each other.

16:14Nasser Hussain:Quite a complicated scenario to lose one championship game from the schedule to ease up the fixture list. But I think they're meeting today and that decision is going to be made later this week. And of course, it's very important because as we get to the final stage of the championship, The people in the relegation dogfight need to know who's going down and how many are going down and whether anybody's going down. So it's a bit late in the day to be making these decisions. How was finals day? The Cider Boys came top and the best side in the comp, would you say? Did you enjoy the day? Yeah, well, yeah.

16:49Nasser Hussain:I mean, they won 11 games, hadn't they? I think Surrey had won 11 as well in the group stages. Obviously, Surrey didn't make it to finals day because of that fantastic innings from Rabibaba in the quarterfinal. But I think it would be hard to argue against Somerset. They look a well-drilled side, well-led side. I've said it before. I think they're a very well-run county. You know, they're producing a lot of good young players. They've got a nice catchment area down there. It's a terrific ground. Very good feeling of connections between the players and supporters. You know, a strong kind of sense of identity, I think, for that cricket club.

17:28Did you see the bus driver? Yeah, absolutely. morning and the bus driver applauding their behavior and the way they go about things i

17:35Nasser Hussain:thought that was nice we had a bit of a um we were staying in the same hotel actually myself butch dooley whoever else was there nighty bumble um we were staying in the same hotel as somerset and lancashire lancashire obviously were were kind of drowning their sorrows and somerset were celebrating. But we had a bit of a catch-up with them afterwards. It was a great day. Edgbaston put on a fantastic show. It was a brilliant pitch, actually. So we got three good games and three relatively high-scoring games. And I know me and you feel the same way that in Test cricket, it's better cricket when the ball is just slightly on top of the bat.

18:19Nasser Hussain:But in one-day cricket and particularly short form cricket you want the bat slightly ahead of the ball you don't necessarily just need a complete row with nothing in it for the bowlers but at the end of a long hard season edgebast and ground staff did really well to produce a pitch that produced some excellent cricket and you know the fair enough winners good innings from will smeed in the final take your lancashire cap off if you were third umpire are you giving that livingston lbw out or not out I tell you what, I didn't, Simon was on commentary and was very strong on that a mistake had been made.

19:00Nasser Hussain:I actually didn't feel the same way, but had I been in the third umpire's chair, I would have said, I am not certain here. I do not think there was conclusive proof. So I disagreed with Dooley on that point. I didn't think it was conclusive. So that's what I would have said in the third umpire's chair. I would have gone back to the on-field umpire and said, there's nothing conclusive here to tell me whether he's edged it or whether he hasn't edged it. And so therefore it would have stayed with the on-field call and the on-field call was out. So it would have been the same result. I would have just got there to a slightly different way.

19:34Nasser Hussain:I don't know what you felt having seen it. I mean, those are very difficult sometimes, aren't they? They are very difficult. And I just wasn't as convinced as Dooley. Yeah, you made a good point about the spikes and what an edge looks like and what a pad looks like. But it was a difficult one. You know, social media went ballistic because it was such a key. You know, Livingston can win you that game, can win any game from that position. So it was an absolute key moment. Bethel 100, just before we move on from that ODI series, great moment for him getting opportunity belatedly in the season, having kind of been carrying drinks for the most part since his return from the IPL and showed why everybody's very excited about him.

20:18Yeah, and just a reminder, really, because people have to write, people have to comment every single day, every single minute nowadays. It's just so much comment and noise, and I think that was the good thing about Beffle. He's probably had to shut out the noise. He did make some very grown-up comments, actually, about his itinerary. He basically said he'd do it slightly differently, didn't he?

20:38Nasser Hussain:He admitted to that. Yeah, he should, which is quite nice to see. that I should have maybe played a game in that test series. But it was just a reminder because his stock went from being unbelievable. He should play every form of cricket anywhere in the world for England at the start of the summer and what they do in playing Olly Pope to then three quarters of the way through the season. Oh, Beffle, what's he around the England set up for? He's never got a professional hundred. And then just a reminder at Southampton that this boy is a real talent. You don't need reminding. You should stick. If you believe in someone, and I've said this a number of times about this England set-up, if they believe in someone, they're going to stick with him.

21:16And if anything, they're going to promote him, make him captain in Ireland. They believe in him, and he delivered. It was a nice moment as well, obviously, with Joe at the other end, Joe Root. I think their dads had played cricket together, Bethel's dad and Joe Root's dad. Joe had played with him on the beach in Barbados, as you have, and your lad Josh has done. And you were on commentary. I mean, it was just the perfect moment all coming together for Jacob Becker.

21:39Nasser Hussain:It was a lovely moment for him, for sure. And it'll be the first of many, I have no doubt about that. And the T20 series, we had this bizarre thing. Were you at Cardiff? You were at Cardiff. Yes, yes. You were. I mean, the umpire is trying to do the right thing to get the game on and give people who'd bought tickets there some cricket. But five over game for an international match, there comes a point where you think we have to move on here. Yeah, I think so. And it was very wet, especially right in front of the pod. It was absolutely soaking wet. And you do have to worry about, I mean, the game at the Oval, the Blast game when Ravi got 100, Bopara, it was really wet.