Pakistan's Boycott, India’s World Cup Hopes & Jimmy Anderson Joins! | Stick to Cricket EP 31

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0:33M. Doherty. Who's he? Interesting. How have you been? Not bad. Yeah. You weren't wrong, were you? Yeah, I'll take it. Crikey, what a prediction. I still don't know what the fuss was about. Yeah? Did you say 4-1? Yeah. Not 4-0, 5-0? I think I threw out a few. Kieran, did he say 4-0, 5-0 or 4-1? I reckon I finished with 4-1. I think it changed his... Yeah. I think he said 4-0, I think. It's going to be another 4-0, potentially 5-0. David Wall? What to England, is it? No, to Australia. Do you generally believe that? You think Australia will absolutely wipe the floor? Yeah, good chance. For what reason?

1:11We really lean on our first-class system and the way we play cricket is really hard. It's very successful. We know what we're doing. We've got the same team for the last six or seven years. It's tried and tested. It's a massive uphill battle to get one test match for England. At one point you tried to be nice and give us one, I think. Yeah. Which we did get. Right at the end you came back around and said, what's your final prediction? And I said 4-1. But I didn't have any reason to it. I just thought England are going to learn and win somewhere. But what did you actually make of the games? Travis Head, how good.

1:46They were a bit lucky there, the Aussies, weren't they? Yeah, I mean. An injury to Kawaji would have gone to the top of the order. 100%, yeah. So you think the whole Ashes series was a bit of a fluke? No. How do you think if England had won in Paris, it might have been different? That's why you were. Kieran came to Perth. Didn't see a ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't see a ball, but I'd rather than just win. Day three tickets. Oh, mate. I was so impressed with the Barmy Army, like 40 degrees. Blokes just like on their 10th pint by three o 'clock. Yeah, but it's inflation in Australia, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

2:16That's a good thing. We've managed to do some kind of damage down there. That's what we set out to do. It wasn't about the ashes. All right, then. And seeing as you're an incredible predictor, great on the game, what's going to happen to English cricket? What should happen to English cricket? Honestly, I was reading into this the other day, I don't think it's worth getting rid of Key, Stokes or McCullum just yet. What seems to be, what's working with Australia right now is George Bailey's been an incredible communicator to the players that are coming through. You know, like six months out, he'll sort of get on the phone, have a conversation and say, look, we're looking at you.

2:58We want to get you through. You're going to, you know, for Jake Weatherwood's like position, for instance, like he looked like he knew he was going to play the whole series before he played one test. So the players have a lot of clarity about their roles. Whereas I think that's a bit ambiguous, like in that English team, like, you know, you took Shoa Bashir for the whole series, the bloke didn't play a test. I'd be absolutely spewing if I was him, you know so it seems like that selection panel that used to exist historically they got rid of that back in 2021 when ashley giles was around so you don't have like an independent selection panel anymore it's all a bit close shop yeah and this is why there's all this talk around it being a bit of a cult but i think the roles are just so ambiguous like how is rob key a managing director And he's basically supposed to run the system at ECB and a selector.

3:50I think it's tough. He's got to pick up the phone and tell blokes he's not playing. But Luke Wright will have done that. But Luke's leaving after the T20 World Cup. So I'm sure they'll replace Luke Wright. So you're staying with the full England management that's been? I think if they make the roles a bit more clear and reintroduce a selection committee, then you've got a bipartisan party that can just focus purely on talent, and then you've got McCullum and Stokes that can focus purely on how to win with the selection they've been given. Right, here we go. There they come. I can hear them. We've got Butch replacing...

4:27Right. All right, lads. All right, lads. All right, lads. Jimmy, meet you, Cher. The guru. This is the guru. Thank you, Butch. The guru. All right, Phil. Hello, Mike. How are you, mate? All right, Jim. Nice to see you. Oh, my God. How are you doing? Boucher, Sir Alice's chair, you're in. Nailed it. Nailed it. He said 4-0, 5-0. They'll call me the oracle for a bit there. The oracle? You're like the octopus. What was the octopus? That was the World Cup, yeah. The World Cup octopus. Dave, meet Shashiri. You said 4-5-0 to England. We need another chair. Who did? You did. You did. It's on screen. Shashir said the opposite.

5:08He was spot on. So he's nicked your chair. Well, what's he doing here? He's taking your chair. Me? He's taking your chair. Taking over your role, mate. See you, Dave. Is that it? I know. I've been binned. See you, Dave. Come on, you have a sit down here, coach. Come on, have a sit here. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, Dave, you can come back in. Come on. He's only here for a... Come on. Cheers, you ship. Cheers, guys. What's your predictions for the World Cup T20? Oh, India look like they're playing a different sport, to be honest. Like, it's just crazy. They might make 300. But with Bangladesh and Pakistan out, it just doesn't feel too right.

5:43What about the 330 at Haydock? You got any ideas? Have England got a chance? Yeah, they look pretty good. Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson, I saw him bowl the other day. He's good. So England have got a chance? Australia? No, I mean, we just got rolled, didn't we? I was a blunder then. You never know. If we get to the finals, we're a chance. Are you Australian? Yeah. It's February. What are you doing here? What are you doing here? I'm hoping Liverpool win the league, so I might stay remember. Oh, you're Liverpool, fam. Oh, they're just, yeah, they're wobble, but they're coming back. Yeah, we're coming back.

6:19Come on, the Gunners. Good to see you. Thanks, Bumble. Good to see you, mate. Take it easy. We've got a hand on the trophy already. Where are you from in Oz? Darwin. Oh, crikey. Yeah, have you been there? In 1974, that was our first calling point into Australia. Darwin refuelled. No way. In a big quantus, whatever it was. Did you get out of the plane? I did get out of the plane. The humility you're working the face. I said, Christ, these engines get hot. They said, that's not the engines. That's going. Can't be that long, is it? Wenger in the... 20? Jimmy knows his football. Mid-2000s. When did the Arsenal last win the league?

6:55Anyone know? Kieran will know. Kieran. What? 2004. 2004, was it? Here he is. You sure? I'm trying to doubt myself now. It's ages ago. That'd be Wenger manager, wouldn't it? Yeah. Invincibles. No, no. That was George Graham, wasn't it, before, with Martin Keown and them. And Tony Adams. No, it was Invincibles with Wenger. What was it? It was with Wenger, wasn't it? It wasn't George Graham. No, it was 2004. It knows. It knows.

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7:37Has cricket got a drinking problem? I think you're asking the wrong people. You're basically asking for trouble if you're out night before a game or middle of a test match. They're not the police, so when you're up there, I mean, I've been sat in front of many boards. So you're going to say the police? Oh, yeah, as well, yeah. I'm boxing daft. You're on the ropes. He'll push you back on the ropes and you've got to defend. Sometimes you've got to be open and honest within your group that this relaxed culture, this relaxed environment actually hasn't brought any trophies. I was a cabbie. Were you?

8:08Yeah. I was a cabbie. I thought you said a caddy. What's all this business with the batting? No. Tarners. Yeah. No, no. We still want to be involved in a tournament, however, we're not going to play against India. For India, that's a disaster. It's all about finger pressure, James, isn't it? Is it? Is it? I've been doing it wrong.

8:38Anyway, welcome, Jimmy Anderson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sir Jimmy Anderson. We've replaced one knight with another Jimmy and we've replaced Sir Alistair with Mark Butcher. Welcome to the show, Butch. Burnley Jim, lost again last night. Down? It's looking tough, isn't it? Yeah. Did you get that much? Yeah, been a few times this season. it's not seem on the documentary he was on the Burnley dock he was on it in the boardroom just been up there this last week I think like you should quickly saw that on the socials yeah we know Jim I wasn't there went a few weeks ago did a little training session I like that very seasoned how's that pretty season yeah How's that going?

9:29Good. Yeah? Yeah, I'm enjoying it. Yeah. What? That's not a lie. No, no, I am. I like... I think one of the things I like about it is just the routine. You get, you know, being around the lads. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, there's tough bits to it. Getting out of bed in January to go and run around a track at nine o 'clock in the morning. Yeah. Not fun, but part of the job. But you've always enjoyed your fitness, haven't you? I have. Yeah. I think that's one of the reasons. I think when a lot of people retire, it's probably that side of it that they get fed up with. The training, the nets, the gym, whatever else.

10:08But I actually enjoy that part of it. I enjoy that part more than the playing. I like being in the dressing room, having a bit of a crack. Yeah, but that's not training in the dressing room. No, but getting in there, you do a bit of fitness and you play a bit of football. You go and play a bit of paddle tennis, that kind of stuff. I'd enjoy that. That's a player's place. That's a sanctuary, isn't it? Your dressing room, that is it. And there's all sorts that can go on. It can get a bit raw. You know, you can have lads flying at each other. But as soon as you come out, that's done. It's finished with.

10:39It's that camaraderie, isn't it? Yeah, it's good. So you've been pre-seasoning now for, what, 25 years? Yeah. It's a lot of pre-season. Ouch. It's a quarter of a century. It's a lot of touching your toes. When I was with... Because a lot of my career I was with England, so the winters were generally not pre-season. You're playing quite a lot of that. So I've not done a proper county pre-season probably for 20-odd years. But what does a county pre-season... Because you'll remember what it was like back in the day. Yeah. What's the difference now? What do they do different? It's more professional.

11:18It's not... So I remember when I started, it was kind of... to at least January, go away and look after yourself a little bit, but do what you want for a couple of months. Like, some guys would go and get work somewhere. They'd do a bit of work in the winter. I was a cabbie. Were you? Yeah. You were all well. I was a cabbie. I thought you said a caddy. I was a cabbie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you had to go and get... You had to go and get... Yeah. See you, mate. I come back in April. Six-month contracts, mate. Yes, absolutely. A cabbie. Yeah, reporting. A cabbie, yeah. Let's do a bit of cabbie, yeah.

11:49What with that? Knock up a bit of plaster. He used to knock up a bit of plaster. With that mate of yours when you played at Middlesex who became a cabbie, but he had a market stall as well. Jamie Sykes. Jamie Sykes. He were a cabbie, wasn't he? Well, absolutely, he was a black cabbie, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he had to go and get a... Was yours a black cabbie? No, no, I was just... I bet you were doing it illegally, weren't you? No. You were. You registered. I was registered. Were you? Anyway, carry on, Jim. I changed tyres in Burnley. Did you? ATS tyres during winter when I was playing. So six in the morning putting wagon tyres on and all that business.

12:29Six o 'clock and an open bay. Not like the F1, that one. No, no. Tyre riders. Tyre riders. Oh, God. When did you start doing cricket and stuff before the season? April 1st. Yeah. Just turn up April 1st. April 1st and we'd start playing in May. and that month would be fitness. We'd get one of the United coaches or trainers would come and train you or an Olympic sprinter, Barry Kelly, would train us. Did a lot of running. Your season started when? It would have been end of April, wouldn't it? Right, the very end. So we had a month of fitness training, outdoor, indoor nets when you could and then you'd play Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire League.

13:19That was always a great game because the Lancashire League always wanted to beat you and they would play nine professionals and two amateurs so that you like a World XI that you play against. It was good. And then you'd start county cricket. Three days, three-day matches on uncovered pitches. That's right. So you've been back since when? So we started back mid-November. Yeah. We started back mid-November? But it's sort of like the lead up to Christmas. Oh, sorry, mate. Give us a... From getting in, what happens when you go in? What time do you get in? What's the routine? So we try and keep it varied so it's not the same thing every day.

14:00Who leads it? Stephen Croft, the coach. Right. As captain... I'll have some input on what we do, but not... It's down to the coach just to sort that out, I think. So Monday will be cricket and gym, so some like half in the gym half doing indoor nets and then swap it whatever time so it'll just be mornings Tuesdays is we've been using Man City to do some fielding because they've got a 4g indoor pitch which is which has been good and then cricket in the afternoons and then Wednesday will be so we'll do gym three times a week cricket three times a week and just yeah so it'll be pretty much five days.

14:43And how many lads have you got there? We've got quite a few at the minute. We've got about 15 to 20. Are the girls integrated into that? What are the women's team doing? Yeah, so they'll literally be they'll be gymming when we're doing cricket practices. So you swap over. I see. And a sessions individual as in so you as a senior bowler you'll do something in the gym for you. Specifically for you. And a young batter would do something completely different. Absolutely. Everyone's gym programme's individual. Everyone does different things. So even the bowlers won't have the same programme. It'll be someone who's taller than me and a bit bigger will have a slightly different gym programme to what I do.

15:27That is, again, very different. And people get injuries and stuff, so you're looking after various areas of your body that you need to. So, yeah, it's very different to when I started. It seems like a long way out. Yeah, I mean... It is, but then... I think you're trying to balance not doing too much cricket because you don't want your brain to be fried from constantly doing indoor nets. And also, doing indoor nets is very different to playing at Northampton on the 4th of April, which is our first game. So it's trying to just balance that, get enough technique work in, make sure your game's in a good place, but you still want to be fresh for the six months.

16:08That's the balance and it is not having the... Because we started too late. I mean, April the first thing. That is the same. No, it's just too late. And everyone will get injured. Because you're trying to cram everything in as a group, with bowling and your gym work and your running and everything into that month. And by the time you get to the first game, everyone's dead. You know, hamstring is gone and all sorts. But then you've also got that thing where if you're kind of going back to Old Trafford in November, that you need to have that kind of like, that feeling of the butterflies in the stomach, the season's just round the corner.

16:41I don't know, it seems like a long way off. You haven't even got to Christmas yet and you're back at it. Yeah, so before Christmas was mainly Jim running and we'd do paddle and the Burnley thing, and trying to keep it interesting for the lads so they're not just doing the same thing every day. And then up to mid-February we'll do, again, Then quite a big fitness push with a decent amount of cricket. Then after Feb half-term, we'll come back and then we've got a month before pre-season tour. So then we'll kick up the cricket. Would you, before you play at Northampton, go away and I'd like a bonding session.

17:23You'd say, we're taking 15 players and we're just going to go and we're preparing for Northampton and just away from Old Trafford. Like an army camp or something? No, not... You know, a bit of work and a bit of fun. Bit of work, bit of fun. Bit of prep. It's a bit of Dubai, wouldn't it? Bit of prep. We're doing, well, I don't know if it's been confirmed yet, but Dubai for a few days. That'll be an Emirates thing, won't it? Yeah. And then Desert Springs in Spain, potentially. Well, that's perfect. Yeah. So that's it. It's fairly isolated. Not many distractions. You've got a great gym, good cricket facilities, golf course.

18:03so you can kind of do enough cricket and also have some time to bond the team. It's interesting because it's about the only time in the season which is just cram-packed with cricket all the way through that you actually get the chance to sort of prepare specifically for an assignment, isn't it, almost before the first game? And then after that, it's kind of all bets are off a little bit. Yeah, but I think I have enjoyed it because seeing the lads go about their thing, they kind of individually plan their winters. They'll do white ball at some stages, they'll do red ball. Like Michael Jones, for example, who's just gone to Scotland.

18:42Yes, he's gone to the World Cup with Scotland and luckily he's been in, working at his game, working at his white ball cricket and then all of a sudden he's flown out to India and put it actually in a great place because he's been doing a decent amount of work. What style of captain are you, Jim? I don't know, really. I've not really thought about that. I just want to make sure everyone enjoys themselves because as Butch touched on there, the season is so long. It's brutal. There's periods of the season where, certainly the back end after the 100, we've got six four-day games in about seven or eight weeks.

19:26And there's two days between some of the games, which is brutal. So I think you've got to try and keep everyone motivated, happy and enjoying their cricket because it can just turn into a groundhog day. You turn up day after day, you're doing the same thing. So it's finding ways of trying to keep people... Your first game's a tricky game. You're away from home. Darren Lehman, they'll be a decent side. They'll be well organised. So you've got to hit the ground running, haven't you? You've got to be ready for that first game. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's one thing we'll learn from last year.

19:58We started really poorly. we lost a few games in our first seven or eight. We didn't win a game. And when you're looking for promotion, that's a massive chunk of the season. So if you don't start well, then you can be really fighting an uphill battle. So we want to start well. And then it becomes a bit trickier, I think, throughout the season, because then you've got some blast cricket and then a couple of four-day games thrown in there. Random. And then white ball cricket again and then a back end of about five or six games. So it's trying to make sure you... I think that first period is so crucial if you're looking to win the championship if you're in the first division or get promotion from the second.

20:40I think from our point of view, you're a Yorkie and we have to get out of that league. We've got to get into Division 1. That's where we should be taught at all with Surrey. We should be hammering Surrey and not mid-division in Division 2. And Nuts. I mean, Nott's have done well, so they won it last year, but Serie A have been winning it. He could potentially be your gaffer soon, couldn't he? I don't know. I mean, I'm not speaking out of shot, but he's been wanting to be the chair, the president, the groundswell. I don't see he's wanting to be. That's not true. Still the ice creams. That's just not true.

21:15I've got a nomination to go on the board. That's great. So we'll see. You'll do a good job. How are you going to sack him as captain, though, if he doesn't do his job? How do you mean sack him? I mean, he deserves to go as and when he wants. He deserves that. Can't take a night. No, you can't. Absolutely. Jimmy, how's your body? You know, the county cricket, the treadmill, all these four-day games. How's your body kind of faring for this season? Yeah, good. Yeah, surprisingly well, I think. Obviously, it's hard to tell at this stage of the year because we've not played any cricket yet. once the season starts, that's when the challenge will come.

21:56Especially, like, being four-day captain, I want to play as many games as I can. And last year, I was really careful with what I did and didn't do. So this year, I want to make sure I'm in a good place to... You've got a few miles in, you know, haven't you? I think you've got a few miles. But it's hardened enough. Yeah, I've had 25 years of... Don't mention age. Age is just a number. Nothing more than that. It's just a number. Michael Nees approved that in the winter. Stick to Cricket is brought to you by Betfair. Let's get on to... Well, I thought Stokes, one of Stokes' interviews where he said that teams have rumbled how we play and the critical thing was the wicketkeeper up to the Stokes because you'd have said that when Bolland comes on and Nisa were just going to run at them and hit them all over, wicketkeeper were that good, he'd come up and kept you in your ground.

22:48One of the things about watching the team over the last two and a half years that clearly didn't occur to them was that in any sort of confrontation, whether it be something very serious like a war, whether it be something like you're playing chess against your mate or something like that, if the other guy knows exactly how you're going to go about things on any given day, the game's up, isn't it? If they're smart enough and good enough to be able to turn around and counter that in whichever way you talk about it. And the case in point was, of course, Kerry standing up to the stumps, being a major part of it.

23:25If your opposition knows exactly what your intentions and your outcomes are looking like, then they can plan accordingly and stop you from doing it. And that, for me, has always been one of the issues with the way that England have spoken about playing test-match cricket, is that there is always more than one way to do any particular job on any given day of Test Match cricket and you have to react to that rather than going in there with an imprint of what you're going to do from ball one. I've always said I fancied playing this team in poker. Oh, absolutely. They're all in every hand, aren't they?

23:58It's all in, yeah. Eventually you're going to pull 7-2, aren't you? Jim, how did you find watching the Ashes? It was a tough watch. Did you watch? Yeah, I was doing some sort of punditry around it, so I had to watch. I got up and watched the first couple of hours of most days and then probably slept a bit and the game was done when I woke up. No, it was a tough watch. I honestly thought England had a great chance going over there. Firstly because of the England team and the talent they've got in the group and also I looked at Australia and I thought, I wouldn't have said that they're particularly poor, but they weren't full of stars like they have been in the past.

24:52No Hazelwood. Yeah, and Cummins playing one test, Hazelwood not playing, Smith missed the test. There were opportunities there, Lyon not playing. You'd think if you gave England that scenario before going out there, they'd think they'd be licking their lips. How were you watching it? I mean, your retirement was enforced upon you. There must have been stage throughout the week. I was crying out for a top-of-off stump, wobble-seam style bowler. I've been saying it for two or three years in Australia. The wickets are different, the ball's different. Was there a stage in the winter you go, I could still be doing a better job now?

25:32Not really. No, I didn't think that. I wasn't thinking that.

25:40I always think, sometimes you do think that when you're watching. You know, you watch Nisa with the keeper up. I'm like, I could do that and not miss. But, you know, my time's done with that. So I wasn't looking at it from that point of view. I was just thinking, you know, England do need someone like that. I think Chris Wolkes was a massive loss from the summer. and yeah you know I did I was sceptical when you know you hear them talk about pace we need pace for Australia and my last two tours before this one the wickets were really semer friendly they were crying out for accurate bowlers who could move the ball off the seam but even 10 and 11 when you won there you didn't have a quick attack no you just had a skilful attack we had a varied attack Yeah, we had a varied attack.

26:34We had tall bowlers, we had Finney, Chris Tremlett, Brodie played the first couple. Rezi, Rezi lad. Tim Bresnan, myself and Swanee, obviously a great spinner. Even when it's not, you know, I think that has been a big miss for England over the last few years. Boldy. That control spinner. Like someone who can, like a Nathan Lyon and Graham Swan, who first innings you know they can just bolt at one end while the seam is rotated at the other. and then in the back end of the game, if it's spinning, they're going to get the best out of it. I think England are crying out for that at the moment. What have been for a long time.

27:10Your team in 2005, you think of, you know, it was based around the four quicks, right? The four horsemen. Giles. But what did Jolo do for you? He was irreplaceable in the fact that he wouldn't go for runs and if there was a bit in it, it'd get you a big wicket or two, make a few runs for you. And in England, the way that England play cricket traditionally, no matter where it is, your strength is always going to be in the same bowling attack. You'd hope your bats would score their runs, which is another thing we haven't gone to yet. But the spin bowling job is always the job where you're holding at some points and at other points you're attacking, but mainly you're holding because you're giving your four quicks enough time and break to be fresh to bowl when you need them to bowl.

27:53The optimum times for them to be bowling, new ball or when the ball's reversing. But if you don't have that guy that can hold the game for you while you're waiting for those periods to come, you're flogging your fast bowlers to death. And, you know, you're in big trouble. But you do have to put runs on the board too. I mean, that's the other side. Well, you're talking about bodies and fast bowlers. That first innings where we all sat up at Perth and went, crikey, it was like the West Indies, the boys. I think that was the quickest spell or something, a combined spell of all... We had five there, didn't we?

28:23Five. Did we have five bowls? Yeah, five seconds there. Entirely unnecessary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we had five there. By the last test, there was only one left. There was only one left. All the boys had gone. They were pinged. Jimmy, so from pundits outside of the England bubble, it's not in hindsight because many were saying the preparation was a real concern for many. Go to New Zealand, play whiteboard cricket, play that one game at Lilac Hill. And it was crying out because, again, I go back to 10-11. this is the first time since then that I've gone and thought this England team has got a genuine chance.

28:59And what you did in 10-11, you played those warm-up games and I've heard the messaging from inside the England camp saying, yeah, but, you know, in 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, we played warm-up games and it didn't work. But the team had no chance in those series because you were up against an Australian side that was better than England. 10-11, you arrived and did the right thing. And this was the time when I thought, oh, just get your preparation right. And by the back end of the series, guess what? England looked like they were game ready. You've been in and around this England circle for, well, not for recent times, but you were a part of the coaching unit.

29:31Was the talk at all about the preparation towards Australia back then, or was it like, we'll just see how it goes in the next year and then we'll decide upon it later? Not that I was involved in. I think that the New Zealand one-day trip was a bit of an issue around that, having to go there quite close to the start of the Ashes. I think if obviously looking back you'd think can we either send a Lions team to that and make sure we can get good enough prep for our Ashes squad, you know, because quite a lot of the Ashes squad were in that one day series, or move it and say we'll play after the Ashes or some, you know, move it somewhere so that there's a clear window to get some good prepping um but i do know like i think it was a bit of there were some tours where like we went to pakistan and we had 10 days in abu dhabi before it and we won 3-0 so there was that also that side of it where actually do we need that much prep um i know australia australia island as well without a great deal of prep yeah but i think going to australia is probably a little bit of a different especially when you're starting with Perth and Brisbane, two wickets where you can't replicate really those sort of conditions anywhere else.

30:58You need to be able to, like coming from a white ball tour in New Zealand and going straight into, or Lilat Hill doesn't bounce. And then you've got the two of the bounciest pitches in world cricket. And that showed, I think, in the performances. I mean, again, perception generally is reality. And the perception of this England team, it's quite a loose team. and preparation or should we call it attention to detail. The one percenters that you look after, you look at real high quality sporting teams, you hear them all talk about the one percenters and the one percenters might be just discipline, it might be turning up on all the kind of things that we've spoken about in sport.

31:36The perception of this England side is that they don't look after the attention to detail. Again, I'll ask you for someone that's been in it, we're just perceiving that. Is that the case or are we being a little bit harsh on the group and they're not giving away too much of what they do inside the group in a sanctum. I think that's harsh. I think there is, you know, around the little things, the 1 %ers, I think there is a decent amount of attention to detail. You know, like you say, turning up on time, you know, having been in the practice, the nets that they do, it's full on. Like they are, for that period of time, about three or four hours, absolutely switched on.

32:14You know, you see Joe Root batting for an hour and a half working on his game. You see Harry Brook and Joe Root working together, throwing at each other. The lads do put in the time and work really hard. And I think it's just very easy to go, oh, they're playing golf again. One thing that Brendan's tried to do, and Ben, is create a relaxed atmosphere, take the pressure from the outside away from them as much as possible so that they can enjoy themselves while they're doing their job but sometimes that can come across as potentially not bothered but that's definitely not the case. They do really really care and really work hard.

32:55Do you think on the back of obviously, I think they've played now ten tests away from home against Australia and they've won two. Not won an Ashes series at home. We haven't won a five match test series since 2017. You know the ICC events, the defence of the World Cup in India was a poor one. Champions Trophy last year, we didn't win a game. Obviously, the ICC T20 World Cup's coming up. Sometimes you've got to be open and honest within your group that this relaxed culture, this relaxed environment actually hasn't brought any trophies. Do you think this management group are willing to slightly change or bring some, should we say, an alternative point of view?

33:33They all seem one way at the minute. I've always talked about yin and yang. You like yin and yang, don't you? Yes. I think there's too much Yang, they need a little bit. Somewhere in the middle. Yeah, definitely. But I think... Ying me up. Ying me up. You can't... You know, the sort of scrutiny around that Ashes performance in particular. I think there were signs that... I thought we should have beaten India in the summer. Yeah. And then, so there were sort of signs of this way of playing, you know, maybe needs a bit of... just something extra adding to it. And I think it's, yeah, they're the sort of people, certainly Brendan, I know he's not going to change his approach, but he could tweak it and tweak the messaging and get players to, I just think they've got to take a bit more responsibility as players and say, right, let's read the game situation and play that as we see it.

34:31That's what amazed me through the ashes, the reading. Yeah, we didn't do that well enough at all. You know, Bumble touched on the keeper coming up to the stumps. It was like there were rabbits in headlights. Like, what's going on? We weren't expecting it. Whereas actually, you should be able to say, right, it's fine, I can cope with this. I'll just adjust my game to that happening and play accordingly. I think we can be smarter at certain times with both bat and ball. Stick to Cricket is brought to you by Betfair. Well, in our day, slightly, Butch, you know what I mean? Don't talk about that. No, no, no, no.

35:08But, I mean, if some of the boys are... I'm not having a go batters and bowlers thing here, but if some of the batters are coming, having played them shots, I wouldn't have let them back in the dressing room. Fraser would have had one of you up against the goal. Absolutely. I mean, you'd just go, what? So, here's sort of my feeling on it, is that by and large, you've probably got the best players, right, that are available to be picked. So there's no issue around selection. Of course, there's going to be the odd person that comes under scrutiny and can we replace this guy with that guy and the spinner and all the rest of it.

35:47One of the things about that sort of relaxed and non-pressurised environment seems to have been to be that they're so used to not having that sort of, to being relaxed and not being under pressure. that when the pressure actually comes and hits them in the face, like on the field, that there is no mechanism to kind of make them react to that in a positive way. It kind of seems to crush them rather than people rising up and being able to cope with it. Not only cope with it, but actually, you know, to turn it around into something that's in your favor. Because if you keep finding yourselves in test matches, and you mentioned the India series, and obviously this actually series just gone and the one before, You keep finding yourself in positions actually where the game is kind of on the line or in the balance or you're slightly on top.

36:32But you don't turn that into something that's tangible in terms of a win by a massive collapse or bowling badly or dropping catches or whatever. Then the pressure is an issue, but not in the way that they're looking at it. They're looking at pressure as something to pass off or to discard or to hand away to something else. But there's always pressure. So at some point, you've got to be able to withstand it. But, yeah, I do wonder if, you know, when Baz and Ben took over as captain and coach, if you look at that team compared to the team now, there's so much more experience in that team. So taking away pressure is probably a good thing because then the lads have got experience to draw on on the field and they know how the game works.

37:13You know, there was me, Brodie, Chris Wokes, Ben, Joe Root. You know, there's a good amount of experience. Cricketers, surely they must see me now. But I'm just saying, you look at the team now. What he's saying is that at that point, it was a good thing to do to the older players, but to the newer players coming through who've never really experienced it, they need to kind of be exposed to it. Well, Ben came out with a really good quote at the end of Sydney where he said, the first 18 months of this regime, we found teams out. The next 18 months, they've found us out because we've not been able to adapt and react.

37:47And it's with the bad. I mean, you go through a lot of the... England's failures, really, you know, India at the Oval, 30 required that's a glaring you've got to win that series you know Perth day two with the batting the game they lost they only had 70 overs with all 10 wickets in hand to draw that game and go to the third test 1-0 up couldn't do it and it was flat as all hell you know so just things like that in the lead up to the Ashes series when people are talking about their predictions and stuff I'm thinking oh Christ we couldn't beat these guys at home we didn't beat Australia at home it's very, very unlikely because you have to do everything.

38:26As you know, everything has to be perfect to win in Australia. Whether they're the best side or whether they're... It's not easy, is it? No, no. It's really, really difficult. You've got to back well, catch well, bow well. Thanks. And make... And prepare well, Phil. And prepare well and all your selections and tactical decisions have to be... It has to be kind of almost perfect for it to work. You're kind of thinking, well, they've not... Well, that's the frustration. When conditions are in your favour, you're not winning these years. Why are you going to go down there? Yeah, but that's the frustration of this series.

38:59As we mentioned, the Aussies did have the misfortune of injuries. We won four tosses and the conditions weren't that bad. You know, Perth, it wasn't that hot and you're ahead of the game. Then you go to Brisbane, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't as bad as it's been in the past. And Adelaide was a position, that first thing was with England with the batting hand. They bowled the Aussies out for 320-odd. That was a good effort on that pitch. Go and get 320, 350. You're right in the game. They need to have the situation, the test match cricket. That's it. You want a team, I want a team that's got energy, intensity, aggressive.

39:33That's the way that we're going to play our cricket. But also, you know, we mentioned it on here, I'm boxing daft. You're on the ropes. He'll push you back on the ropes and you've got to defend. And then you come off the ropes and you attack again. You've got to read that situation that you're on the ropes, we've got to defend here. and as soon as we get out of this, we attack again. So that's your energy and intensity. And you've said it before, the six inches between your ears that plays test match cricket. Six inches. Yeah, well... It's not just that. It's the... I think it's, as you say, reading the situation, but also the amount of times that we've been on top, like that India game.

40:12Seize the moment. Like Perth. Yeah, seize the moment. Being in those positions when you're on top and really making it count. Being grizzled and ruthless. Absolutely gnarly, a bit gnarly. But you two, even I know this. Well, gnarly, you know, sort of hardened, you know what I mean? Up for the fight, get stuck in. And I think that's what pisses the Aussies off. And I think they were delighting in us being reckless and falling on, you know, and just playing some terrible shots and bowling badly because they were thinking, you're slightly disrespecting Test cricket. Well, you know as a skipper, and Jimmy will know this in the summer, if you're playing against these sides that just play this one-way, it's great.

40:54As a captain, you just go, they're going to make mistakes. And that's, I think, what Steve Smith, Pat Cummings, knew in the winter. Why did they keep trying to whack Mitchell Stark? Well, James Smith... When he had two overs left. Jimmy Smith. No, at Perth, he's just hit four overs. But as a batter, Mike, you're thinking, right, OK, Big Mitch, he's looking at it, he's bowling beautifully. His mates aren't there. Right, we'll just try and see him off here. this next hour can win us the game. And then if we're going to have a dart, we'll have a dart at the other lads. But they obviously... Why did they all just keep trying to smack Mitchell Stark?

41:24I couldn't believe it. Well, Jamie tried to smack Manus Labashain. That was one of the worst. He's not a full shilling. No, Manus. He's not a full shilling. He took some catches. What's all this business? You're in with the batting. I know. Manus. Yeah. No! He was lively, wasn't he? Can we go on to Harry Brook? Oh. What have we made of the Harry Brook? I mean, it seems to have gone on forever. When's his next statement? I mean, I can't have that. He keeps having to release a statement. And let's be honest, the statement is written by somebody else. That's not his statement. It's written... Is he the cricket ventilator?

42:05The ventilator. The regulator. The ventilator. What is he? Regulator. Carburetor. It's gone to... Carburetor. Carburetor, aviator, regulator, whatever you want to call it. Colin. Whatever they've done has now gone to the regulator and they've deemed whatever these three players have got up to in New Zealand that it's gone to the next stage now. Now, I don't know what... You're the regulator. Yes. What's going to happen at the regulation? He's the regulator. One thing I will say, because occasionally a few of the boys make a mistake, don't they, and everything, you know what I mean? For a start, I'm glad Harry didn't throw his mates under the bus.

42:42No, it's good. No, absolutely. Don't ask that of a chap because you're never going to. But I have a concern with whoever's released him higher than Harry, that statement lied in his first statement for him. We're all a little bit older now that you realise if you keep lying within our system, it's always going to get out. They made a mistake. They're not the police, though. They're not the police. But unless Harry Broughton... They're a cricket regulator. They're not the police. So when you're up there, I mean, I've been sat in front of many boards. So you're going to say the police? That's right.

43:22I've been sat in front of the police. No, but there you go. So you're kind of... It's not, you know... What I'm trying to say is that you're not going to get arrested for it. You know what I mean? You've been a naughty boy. You've been a naughty boy. Learn by your mistakes and go away. So, you know, don't try and, you know, you're not going to throw me in jail. So that's why I used to go, right, thanks so much. But that's why I don't like how Harry Brook continuously has to kind of have a statement. Well, there you go. Harry's like, he did his statement weeks ago, which was written for him. He's now done another one.

43:53I'm going, just leave the kid alone. A little bit. You know, let the powers that be above. We haven't heard from Baz McCullum for weeks and weeks. Rob Key's not spoken for weeks and weeks. No. But Harry Brook keeps releasing a statement. Yeah. Can't be right. No. Can't be. But if Harry had said right at the beginning, when he was interviewed, which he would have been, I was on my own. I was on my own. And then it's come to light that he wasn't, somehow. He's protecting his mates. Yeah, yeah, which is fine. But I'm pretty sure... Because you've got to remember, the other two were fined at the same time.

44:26That's what's been reported. So they all knew that they were... Oh, I didn't know that. Yes, it's why it's gone to the ventilator. Sorry, I didn't know that. That's why he's dealing with it. In that situation, how would you do it? I'd give it somebody has a strike that's his strike you've got one he's made a mistake he's a young bloke made a mistake he's made a mistake come on move on that with me my my debut test match that were it yeah what did you do I just I just went out

44:59there was a Aussie Australia test 97 that's it Thorpe and and Hussain were millions not out overnight and it's day two or whatever it was nothing I'm going to do tomorrow I'll just pop about for a bit. Just for a bit. Apparently the old News of the World reporter was in the same place I was in and went to him the next morning. You dealt with it there and then. Yeah, yeah. I said, look, just be careful. It's your first test match. Where you go? I said, you were such a tired. He said, I've never got to bed before that. You always told us to just act like we were if we were not playing cricket. That's it.

45:33Just to take the pressure off and relax. They were fine. They've probably got up to all sorts, which you don't know. The best one was Dean Edley, who got a great engine. What an engine. Oh, yeah. He was a brilliant bowler, Dean Edley. Great lad. Lovely. And I'd give the night porter a bobber too. Just let me know if any of this lot turned up late. Oh, very sorry. He said, that very tall, thin one. He turned up at four o 'clock this morning. I said, oh, Edley. He said, that's him. He said, and then he went straight in the casino. Four o 'clock. I said, oh, right. Dean, come here. I said, I'll give you four o 'clock this morning.

46:09I said, what time do you get in? He said, about four o 'clock, yeah, yeah. I said, and you went straight into the casino. Can you talk me through that? He said, I was feeling lucky. LAUGHTER

46:27Stick to Cricket is brought to you by Betfair. Has cricket got a drinking problem? I think you're asking the wrong people. Bad collection. It's cool about it. Everyone's right. There's people writing that cricket has got this historic drinking problem and it's still within the game now. I'm going to say no, it hasn't. No, it hasn't. I think that, listen, you're brought up in a cricket in the atmosphere, Cub cricket, crikey, you get a fiver. The first thing they do is the team buys you a jug and you have a few beers. You know what I mean? But not everyone drinks. I knew non-drinkers when I played cricket.

47:06Who was that, Phil? I didn't see him very often. Were they in your team? No, no, no. But no, I don't think it has. Listen, you've got to have these times of getting away from it, haven't you? You've got to have these times of just, as you say, the Noosa trip, OK, perhaps in hindsight that wasn't a great idea. One high street, all the eyes on it, you know what I mean? But I don't think it's got a drinking problem. Don't have a problem with Noosa, not at all. No? I've been involved a long time. and there's always that notorious, crikey, he can put it away. It's not all of them. It's not all of them.

47:41No, no. Some will have a drink, some drink responsibly. Majority do. Then you'll have a blowout. You have a blowout. We've all had a blowout. Absolutely, yeah. Jim's in the dressing room. What about these young county professionals now? Yeah, there's definitely not a drinking problem or culture. But it does come sort of, I don't know, like Tuff has said, it comes hand in hand, like you grow up. It's just sort of the done thing to have a drink. And I think it's... We have all made mistakes. I immediately thought back to 2007 World Cup in St Lucia when a few of us got in trouble. But you hopefully learn from that and then figure out the times when it's OK to have a drink.

48:30night before a game probably not but yeah I think it's just it's just being responsible with it and if you don't do it yeah I think the thing that people are and and this isn't this isn't any way to kind of run your organization based on what people on social media saying for sure but I guess I guess the one thing that you would turn around and talk to your players about is just kind of like be a bit smarter about what you're doing. Absolutely. If we'd have done half the things they said we'd have done, we wouldn't have been alive. You know what I mean? It's kind of like you're basically asking for trouble if you're out night before a game or middle of a test match and all this kind of stuff and expect the opprobrium and the censure that comes your way if that's what you're doing.

49:26It's just a bit of maturity. It's naive, I think. Same with Noosa, I had no problem with Noosa, but don't go and sit right in the middle of a high school. It's naive. There are plenty of places that you can go. If you want to go and slurp, I have no problem. God, I have plenty myself. Go and do it. You said in the green room, these players are loaded. You can do whatever you want. They can hide away and have the greatest time. I feel for them because social media and the camera, The filming of Ben Duckett coming out of that play. I'm thinking, God, can you imagine back in the day, some of the states that were...

50:02Wait a minute, someone had stuck a camera in your face. And listen, you must remember these guys were under a lot of pressure at the time, you know what I mean? Now, in defence of Little Ducky, you know what I mean? He's sitting there, he's got Mitchell Stark and a boy's steaming in at him. Things aren't going so well, you know what I mean? You're sitting there at the gabbertoir and you nick one off, you know what I mean, and you have a bit of time off. Yeah. Well, what are you saying? It's his time. Yeah, it's your time to go, right, OK, listen, don't be going to get blah-de-blah for five days, but you have one or two days when you just go, right, and your mates come around you, your mates come around you and they try and lift you, you know, they try and get you back out there.

50:39When I was involved at Lanks, and some of the crop-up, this is domestic cricket, I'd walk round there, come on, do you want to have a walk round? You walk round the ground, just talk it through, just be careful. It's a bit of responsibility. You just walk round and you talk it through and move on. You give them one strike, you give them two sometimes. If Brian Lara decides, I'll turn up at 10 to 11, fine. He's Brian Lara and he's going to get you 500. It's like Wazim not getting on your coach. It was him not getting on the bus. No, he got on the bus and then got off at Nutsford Service. I got on bus, now I get enough.

51:23I think one thing that's kind of come out of the entire tour, really, is that they were naive on the pitch and they were naive off it. Yeah. And, you know, there were a lot of players that had never toured Australia before. And if it is your first time, it's a bit of a cold shower, isn't it? Absolutely. It's unlike anything else. However, you know, the people in charge there have to be charged with taking care of those players. It's up to them, it's up to the boss, manager, coach, to kind of make sure that the players are not quite as naive as it would appear that they were. That's probably a few consequences within honour and off the field.

52:07I think it's also down to the players. You should have a crush for each other. You've got to the crush for each other. Why was little Ducky walking around on his own? Yeah, that's the one thing that stood out. I mean, listen, you know, I've forgotten my name on a couple of occasions. I've forgotten where I live on a couple of occasions, but never both at the same time. Never both at the same time. You need one of your pals, you know. Come on, boy. So they've gone to Sri Lanka and they've done great. They've won a really big white... But the curfew, the dreaded word curfew's come in. No, no. Yeah, the 12 o 'clock curfew.

52:44No, no, no. If you can't trust your players, there's a real problem. If you're having to say to a group of men, sorry, but you can't go out beyond 12 o 'clock. But I wonder, again, because you can't... We don't have a drinking culture, we don't have a problem, but we're having a curfew. But what you can't do is take everything on face value that comes out, because, you know, the football managers would do the same thing. They would say one thing to the press and they would say another thing to the team on the inside. Now, at the moment, it's a good thing for it to be known by us and everybody in the world that they've got a 12 o 'clock curfew.

53:22Whether or not they police that down to the letter or not is kind of up to them on the field. But the point is they found themselves in a situation where they feel they need to make public statements about how tough they're being and how rigorous and how professional everything is. Now, if the players are smart, they will adhere to it anyway. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But it's kind of, I would imagine that the outward statements are for us or for the public's point of view and perhaps for those in the regulator and whatever to show that we're cracking down hard and we're doing everything that's required to make sure we turn this around.

54:00And they've now gone and won two series in Sri Lanka. Now, the ODI win, by the way, is a serious win. They do not lose one international series in Sri Lanka and that puts a bit of a gap between us and the two teams behind us in the World Cup qualifiers as well. So that was awesome. It looks like the preparations for the World T20 are going particularly well. I say give them a break. You know, there's no doubt whatsoever that Baz and, you know, the whole structure at the top there is on notice at the moment and they're going to be watching very, very carefully about what happens. This World Cup is going to be huge in terms of what happens in the future and whether big changes are going to be made.

54:41And so, look, they've had their body spanking. Well, that's why... Get on with it. That's why, you know, someone... There's people right now at Harry Brook's office. Some of them say, you know, Harry Brook's got to go as captain. I'm going, wait a minute. I've seen some in the last few weeks. God, blimey. I mean, he's gone over there under a huge amount of scrutiny. Absolutely. Delivered one of the greatest innings I've ever seen. Yeah. And he's led the T20 team brilliantly. Yeah. They've got the right formation with all the spinners, Sam Curran back into the side. And I'm looking at a captain.

55:06I haven't seen enough of him tactically yet. You know, I've seen a few little changes that he's made The field at times, you go, yeah, he's got a good chance as he can. But the way that he's led with the bat, I'm going, he's got something special. I've got a name for you. Something very, very special. A name for you, Ben Stokes. As a coach? No, but in terms of his career arc and the depths. Harrison's nowhere near what happened with Ben and the ban and all the rest of it. But young players make mistakes. Yeah. And sometimes you have to give them a chance. Might be the best thing that's ever happened.

55:41Could very well be. He's unbelievably young and unbelievably talented. Absolutely. Well, that's why I just wish those above him had spoken for him in the last couple of weeks. He's done his statement. He's made the mistake. He shouldn't have had to release another. I'm sorry. My opinion is you've got to defend your players. Correct. You might not give him the right attack privately, but there's got to be a bit of... Well, he defended his players. He now needs defending. Stick to Cricket is brought to you by Betfair. Anyway, the T20 World Cup, where are we sitting? I mean, should we go through a little bit of the controversy to start?

56:19No surprise, it's the World Cup. Bangladesh, they're not going. Scotland, are they? Scotland are going for Bangladesh. So England will play Scotland in the group. The Jersey fans are up in arms about that. So the ICC have said that Bangladesh's request to not play in India, it doesn't warrant the absence of any credible security threat. so they feel that Bangladesh are safe to play in India. Bangladesh don't feel that, so they're not going. Pakistan have said that they're not going to play India in the group stages. Discuss. Where are we? India clearly have done that in the past. They said that they wouldn't play in Pakistan.

56:57Was that the Champions Trophy last year? They played all the games in the UAE. Is it one rule for one and another for another? Where are we? We're up shit creek. That's where we are. Really? Well, after what you've just said there. Well, it's true. Those are all just facts, yeah. I was saying to you in the green, why is it in cricket that we have this kind of political fallout? I mean, the Football World Cup, there's millions of countries playing. I don't hear many football nations say, oh, sorry, we can't play X or Y. It's cricket and it's been happening now for a while. Politics. So Pakistan play, say they get to the semi-finals and play and do what happens.

57:37They play it somewhere else. They said they won't play India. What happens if they draw? What happens if we get to the final? We're not going to have a final. The issue comes with dispensations being made from the ICC, whether it be in favour of India, whether it be against Bangladesh, whether it be against Pakistan. Historically, India and Pakistan don't play each other on a bilateral basis anymore, right? And that is kind of political more than anything else. two countries do not get on. No, actually, that's not true. The public in both countries, by and large, actually, they're sort of brothers and sisters and they kind of get on fine.

58:18And the players between India and Pakistan historically have always gone fantastically well. But above that, politically, not good, not a good look. So bilaterally, they don't play against each other. However, in ICC tournaments, they are always placed in the same group. Why? Because it is the most lucrative fixture in the world of cricket and some say in the world of sport, right? So the ICC have to make sure that India and Pakistan are in the same group and they are every single time. It's not a coincidence. That is done by rote from the top, which is a bizarre situation, right? Other teams have to qualify.

58:53They get put in groups. It comes out of a hat or the rest of it. But those two teams, all to do with money. So those two teams are always in the same group. Now, Pakistan are in a situation whereby they're the sort of you know the the younger brother or whatever it might be or the cousin of India and India pretty much gets its own way this is the most powerful and the most the wealthiest country in in the world of cricket and therefore Pakistan basically have to suck it up so when they had the champions trophy in Pakistan you could see it coming a mile off that India were not going to go and play in Pakistan so everything got rearranged and and all the other teams, and this is where my biggest problem comes in, is that when this stuff happens, it affects all of the other teams in the tournament because all of a sudden their programme has to change and they have to fly out of the country to go and meet India in the place where they want to play and everybody else has to fit in.

59:48Where was I? So Pakistan... You're doing well, Bush. Keep going, Sam. Pakistan have basically, they've kind of pulled a blinder. They've turned around and said, OK, we still want to be involved in a tournament. However, we're not going to play against India because of what you've done with Bangladesh. Because, you know, you had the opportunity to play our Champions League that should have been in Pakistan and Dubai. You've not afforded Bangladesh the same courtesy. And therefore, in sort of brotherhood with our Muslim cousins, we're not going to play against you. And for India, that's a disaster.

1:00:23Or for the ICC, it's a disaster because of the size financially of that fixture. And it's kind of the only lever, really, that Pakistan have to pull in this situation. Pakistan may or may not make it through the group. They've got the USA in there. What's going to happen? I don't know. No. I have no idea. You can't start a tournament like that. We don't know what's going to happen at the end. I have absolutely no idea. That's the real... If Pakistan gets to the final and they're playing it, what's going to happen? Well, they'll work away, won't they? Yeah. It'll happen. Nobody knows. It'll happen.

1:01:01No. Just be nice. Just be nice. But you see, the ICC have kind of made their own bed in all of this by having situations whereby it's OK for some teams to decide that they're not going to go and play in a certain country and not saying that it's OK for others. And the whole nonsense around India not playing Pakistan outside of ICC tournaments. All of these things are pretty hypocritical. And therefore you've reached the point where we are right now where it's a free-for-all in terms of what people will and won't do and nobody's standing down on any of this. And it's taken over the narrative now, hasn't it?

1:01:45Instead of looking forward to the cricket and everything, we're all sitting there going, well, we don't. Didn't we say years ago on the Nasser Asean that we're not going to Zimbabwe? Not ban Zimbabwe, yeah. That was part of that. Yeah, 2003. 2003. So, but, I mean, again, that was a political thing, right? So the British government at the time was not terribly in favour of the Robert Mugabe regime. They had the Andy Flower and... Henry Longa. Henry Longa with the black armbands and all this kind of stuff and political prisoners being taken to goodness. And so the England cricket team were pressured not to go and play in Zimbabwe.

1:02:22They weren't told by the... The government didn't tell them they weren't going to go and play. they kind of said we would prefer it if you didn't and then left it up to Nasser and the players to make the call. We were in Cape Town playing some great golf courses. That's unfair on the boys. So there's a precedent for all of these things. In terms of teams, so two different things here. The Bangladesh one is, you know, they don't feel they're safe to go to India, whether that's right or wrong, I do not know. And they would like, they'd made a request they could play their games in Sri Lanka. And the ICC have said, no, we're not going to do that.

1:02:55They're not going to rearrange the entire tournament in order to fit you in when we're saying that it's perfectly safe. So they're out. The Pakistan thing is different because they still want to take part in the competition. They're not going to play India, which is the same as England not playing against Zimbabwe. It's the same as there are other precedents in the cricketing world where teams have forfeited the points for matches. Pakistan and Gat, so that's all. They've forfeited the two points or whatever it is for the win. Their net run rate will take a massive hit because they lose the points and the net run rate is played out like they played the game over 20 overs.

1:03:26But they might still qualify because the other three teams in the group, other than India, they're likely to beat. So we'll find out. Yep, we'll have some fun and games with that, I reckon, over the next few weeks. Right, on-field matters. According to the Betfair Sportsbook, India clear favourites. Australia second favourite. Second favourite. I'm not having that. Not sure about that. They've just been dismantled. I know Travis Head will come back. Cummins is out. I'm not so sure about Australia. Glenn Maxwell's been in poor four. South Africa third favourites. I thought New Zealand, if I was having a little outsider...

1:03:59Every time, New Zealand. New Zealand as fifth favourites. Just played in India, so they're ardent in terms of the conditions they're going to be playing. What's Afghanistan? Afghanistan are after Pakistan, Sri Lanka. There's a group of deaths, isn't there? So they're eighth. There's a group of deaths, isn't there, with three of the big guns in it, Afghanistan being one of them, isn't there? I bet you can have a bet who's getting into the semis. Sure you can, yeah. Getting into the semifinals. I'll have Afghanistan. You go to Afghanistan to get the semi. My four... I actually put Australia in the semi-finals.

1:04:29I don't know if I've done that, but I did. India, Australia, England, New Zealand were my four to get to the semi. I would have South Africa in there in place of... South Africa had got to be a bit... South Africa had a much better side than the squad they announced about half a month ago because they've had a couple of injuries to players who were slightly iffy picks and they've got Tristan Stubbs in there. The Stubbs do. He's just signed a deal, hasn't he? The Stubbs do. The Stubbs do. Yeah, he's just signed a deal with whoever the IPL team that own Hampshire. He's going to play for the Hampshire Southern Brave.

1:05:08He's playing for someone else. He's playing for someone else. Whoever that franchise is. He's not playing for the Elephants. The Elephants. Is that Superchargers? Manchester Supergiant. Supergiant. The Supergiant. Yeah, I saw that. That's an elephant, isn't it? Yeah, the logo. Yeah, that's good. You sign that off on the board, or you're not involved in that? No, it's not involved. It went down ever so far. The elephant. You signed it off on the board. They've been sold. It's been sold. A lot of elephants in Manchester. They put repellent down, so you don't get many of them. Right, go on, who's going to win?

1:05:41I'll go the obvious one. I can't see anyone catching India. Just can't see it. India. India. I think England have got lots of power in the batting. Crikey. Dawson's coming in 9 or 10 You've got Joffre and Rashid 10 and 11 Yeah I think England have got a chance But then I always say that I think we're a bit light I think we're a little bit light In the bowling Who's going to think Will Banton play? Or Ducky Or Ducky for Bethel I think Banton's put a great case forward The way that he plays those The way he plays spin I know that Ducky's very good Yeah If Jacob Bethel's not going to bowl, will Ducky come in for Jacob?

1:06:25I've got a question as well, Mike. That's the question. Is Harry Brook in the four-me-in coming in too low? He's looking to come in at five. Yeah. Don't you just swap that round from... Pads on situation, isn't it? Yeah. Is it? I think you play the situation. If it gets deep, two... He plays some... Cool. Those shots have an extra cover. It's outrageous. I mean... It is outrageous. I like England's squad quite a lot. you know they've got all of those they've got lots of batters who bowl loads of batters which is kind of handy particularly when it comes to having lots of spin options and stuff in there I'm a bit with Tuffers are we a quality Seema like maybe perhaps because in Sri Lanka spin is fine but India it's not necessarily going to be all spin Seema Samkur and Joffrey Jamie Overton Kars Tung Wood Tong and Luke Wood Luke Wood.

1:07:19I'd say he was a good ball, you know. He's just done really well in the big bash. David Payne. Yeah, lefty. He's serious. Yeah. He's that Michael Neeson. This cricket's Michael Neeson. I'm looking at him going, God, he's brilliant. He's clever. He's played for it. He's played one game. It was against the Netherlands. In the Netherlands. He's clever. Talk about a trip where you might be seeing the regulator on three Odie Highs in Holland in June. Are you busy as the regulator? I'm sweating. I get paid a lot of money to do that. I think he's underpaid. He doesn't get paid enough. What about this European, is it European T10?

1:08:03T20. T20. And Steve Waugh's involved in that. Steve Waugh, Steve Smith signed. Glenn Maxwell signed. Jimmy will be in that. Ireland, Scott. Are you in for that, Jim? they play for Amsterdam Ireland, Scotland Netherlands Italy well they're all franchises aren't they in the different yeah I thought that were quite interesting I mean that would definitely don't you think we've got enough T20 leagues no but European if they're bringing European teams in they've tried it I think there was supposed to have been one two years ago but it kind of fell through that's it it fell through yeah right let's finish Jimmy with a go on no I was just going to back on Just last point.

1:08:45I think that squad of bowlers that they've got are great in the first six. We've got a lot of bowlers who can bowl with a new ball. Have we got someone who can nail the death? Yeah. Joff? Yeah, but that's one guy. You need more. They like Curran, don't they, at the back end? Yeah, but again, yeah. That's why I do his pain. You're like tippy-toes in. Yeah. Like Luxem. If we bowl for... Like a gurney. Harry Gurney. A bit Harry Gurney. No, Zinzan Harris. Harris from New Zealand. Chris Harris. Chris Harris. Chris Harris, we played against Chris Harris. We had a lot of... Remember all the meetings we used to have about Chris Harris.

1:09:27Basil Barwick. Basil Barwick. Basil Barwick. Basil Barwick. Bus driver. We used to... Arf, Arf. It's two weeks in. Two weeks before we got this... He said we're playing... How are we going to play? He'll get four for 20. Legs slip. So the grand plan was to take him out the night before and get him absolutely bladded. That was a good job. It's impossible. You can't feed him enough. He made a big effort to hold him there somewhere. Saw four of us off. He's absolutely gone, Basil. So they turn up, look at you, Basil's sorted, don't worry about that. He bowls his first over, run off, threw up in the toilet, come back and took his four for 20 again.

1:10:11Stick to Cricket is brought to you by Betfair. Right, let's finish with a few community questions. I'm going to start with this one, Jimmy. You've been the master of the wobble seam. Oh, yes. Jimmy's asking, and it's not you asking yourself, it's another Jim, how do you bowl the wobble seam? Now, we do demos. Phil, how do you bowl the wobble seam? I'm not going to do this. You get me doing the batting. Come on, how do you bowl the wobble seam? It's all about finger pressure, James, isn't it? Is it? Is it? I've been doing it wrong.

1:10:47Did you invent it? No. Before we went to Australia in 2010, David Saker was bowling coach and he said, like, he only swings for... Yes, four, six, seven minutes. Six, seven overs. Balls. So you need something else. And we were playing Pakistan at the time and Mohamed Asif was creating all sorts of problems for our batters. They didn't really know what to do with him and he was just getting the seam. It wasn't coming down straight, it was sort of just like coming down a little bit scrambled and then nips one way the other at like 78 mile an hour. So throughout that series I worked on that ball and there's loads of ways you can do it but you just basically, like I love having a perfect seam for when it swings, so it's coming down like absolutely pristine, but you're just trying to almost get it, like back in when I first started, if you bowled like that, you'd be like, what's that horrible wrist position or something.

1:11:48Something you just did there, right, so when the ball's swinging, you're almost, you're trying to get that backspin on it to hold the seam up, aren't you? So the opposite must be true when you're trying to, because if it revolves, then it will stay upright, so you're trying to let it come out without it spinning back. Yeah, I did a thing with Wardy a few years ago for Sky, and they used the rev counter thing, and it was like 2 ,000 plus revs for the swing. Spinning backwards. And it's about 800 for the... So you don't want it to... And how the hell do you do that? If it comes out like that, it sort of like wobbles around.

1:12:25How do you do that? I don't know. So, like, when I swing it, I try and cock my wrist so it really pulls down on the back of the ball. And it's probably not as... Oh, OK. I'm just trying to, like... Not flub it out. No, no, no, you're still trying to bowl it, but not have that sort of same... Not pulling down on the back of the ball. And Jimmy, the finger pressure that Phil talked about. I don't really think about that, but I'll have a shout at Phil later on. Could be a new era. Listen, listen. Well, hold on. Well, one of the main things I saw about Mitchell Stark and why we got turned over, because he then, he bowled it beautifully, didn't he, in Australia.

1:13:04I didn't really see him bowl any hooping swingers, even with the pink ball. He just bowled that slight sort of one that goes across and it nipped, and it nipped. Yeah. So he goes almost like across the seam like that, so it's more scrambled than what I'd say. Yeah. So I bowled out. I remember Andy Caddick taught me this off-cutter to left-handers that just sort of drifts away. And that's what Stark was doing. Yeah, he was. He was just running it across because of that middle finger pressure. I was talking to him in the pub. It was that middle finger pressure that he was doing. He said he was bowling it mainly off of that one there.

1:13:39Really? Yeah. It was a Paul and Bob thing, that was. All the boys. Can you imagine? Pace and bounce, pace and bounce. Sorry, sorry. Can you imagine all the boys? Reminiscing Bob Cotton. Oh, he bought his own boots out. They were called Pace and Mouth. P &B, yeah. Pakistan. Can you imagine all the boys in our day, though, who, as you said, they wouldn't have got, again, there'd been all the old coaches behind. No, come on, come on, all that seam's coming down. Why did they call you? What's that? I'll tell you after. I love it. Right, John Williams from Bollington Cricket Club, Jimmy. All right.

1:14:17Why do you think that Johnny Birstow has been left out in the cold? Would his experience not have been worthwhile, at least in the squad? Or should we say squads? Yeah. Well, talking about when Baz and Ben took over, he was part of that member of the New Zealand at Trent Bridge, the run chasers. And then he broke his leg. On the par three. On a golf course. The panel. It can happen. I don't know. I just felt like maybe when he came back from that, he wasn't the same. certainly in terms of keeping or in the field. He wasn't as athletic, he wasn't moving as well. And then they decided to, you know, when Harry Brooks around as well, that's pretty much where Johnny was back in number five.

1:15:06And they went with, well, Ben Foulkes first and then Jamie Smith as keeper. It's where do you fit him in? So, I mean, yeah, I think he, you know, we could have got another couple of years out of him. I think he's a fantastic player. He's played great in South Africa. I saw him a couple of times out in the SA20 and while the series was still going on, he was spearing. But again... His character, they talk about character, they've left out character. He's the wrong side of 35, isn't he? This is Australia with the dad's army. They just picked the best players. To be fair, that Broughton leg knocked him back.

1:15:47It really knocked him back, didn't it? but he's got 12 test match centuries, Bear Store. Because they brought him back to keep, didn't they? That's just serious. And that was kind of, yeah. He knocked him back. Having that year that he had, I think 22 you were talking about, where he did the run chase at Trent Bridge, run chase at Hedney, they chased down 380 at Hedney, him and Joe. Old Trafford. Did he get some as well? I can remember him padding them into Old Trafford a couple. Edgebast. Wideball. Even Wideball, yeah. But that year, he'd batted a five, hadn't kept. They didn't play, he didn't keep then.

1:16:20And then when he came back, they had him batting at five or six and keeping as well. And he wasn't fit, you know. Remember that legendary press conference he did where he was talking about if you haven't touched type for six months and you come back for your first game, you're going to be making mistakes all over the place. You know, it was like awesome. He's such great value. Loved Johnny. But so they couldn't fit him in in the position that he'd been brilliant at two years before, a year and a half before. and that's kind of what happened. Knocked him back. I think, yeah, even T20, you see how he played in South Africa.

1:16:53Would he be a good addition to the squad? But again, where do you fit him in? It's like, for me, Liam Livingstone not being in that squad, I think he's a serious, seriously good T20. What's he done, Rock? I don't know. He's called millions, has he, for England? He's always... But his threat is a threat. For this year of whiteboard cricket, well, any year, he kind of ticks so many boxes. Yeah, it does, yeah. Bats in different positions, balls, legs, great fielder. A piece and pair of hands, you're going, everything you want in a cricket, really, for whiteboard cricket. Right, next question. Jimmy, who is the next Jimmy Anderson coming through the ranks?

1:17:32Or if you can name a few. I know there's probably even one. There isn't one, let's be honest. I like, there's a few. I like Tom Laws at Surrey. I think he's got good skills, decent pace, he's been on a few lines trips. But being at a strong county like that, he's not played a huge amount. Played in the 100 as well last year.

1:18:06George Hill. He's a batter. He's an all-rounder. He's a batting all-rounder, isn't he? He's got 50-odd wickets in the Championship. He's a serious bowler. He's a good bowler. He's in the championship. He's tall. He's tall. He's tall, yeah. And not quick. He's another one. He's tall. He's very tall, not quick and accurate. Yeah. And don't forget, he used to open the batting. Open the batting and now he's number eight. I said in the winter that I had a worry that England, in the batting department, were looking for more Harry Brooks rather than Joe Roots. It's like, we want more of the Harry Brooks style players.

1:18:36I'm going to test cricket. I want a Harry or two, but I want more Joes. And I also said that I was concerned with English cricket, that we weren't trying to find a Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad-style baller. We're looking for express pace. Am I right to be genuinely concerned with this? Yeah, well, that's why you say... When you ask that question, I'm thinking, who have I seen that's got skills, who can swing it both ways and be accurate? Yeah, but has he had his chance? I'd have him back in. How old is Olly Robinson? I'm guessing. He's not old. He's got a few years left in the tank. I mean, I don't know Ollie Robinson, but his numbers...

1:19:2032 years of age. His numbers are good. And I don't know what he's like, you know, within the room and so on. We all watched in the ashes. I think that's the problem. I don't think that England have kind of discarded him because of his skill or lack of it. On the contrary, I think there's been a breakdown in trust between himself and the management and the captain and they're not having him. But they've got to get that. No, I agree with you. I agree with you. I'm telling you the reason why he's not being selected at the moment. No, I think if you look at his performances and I know him well and get on with him fine.

1:20:02If you look at his last couple of test matches that he played, like in India, we played at Dharmashala and he was bowling 65 miles an hour. Bowled off his team. And went in the back. He's come off with injury quite a few times in a short test career and that's a red flag. Well, that's where the manager have just got to sit him down and go, look, you're on our radar, but you're going to do X, Y and Z. If you get to that, we're going to look to pick you. Simple as that. My knowledge of that is that they have done and he's kind of run out of chances. Just coming back. I'd have him back tomorrow morning.

1:20:39I really would. Well, the tone setting of the bowling in the winter, of those first few overs, were so off the mark. And the Aussies suddenly, five or six boundaries that are away. They just had no one to set the tone. How many times on commentary did I go, one is another short and wide one? Short and wide? I did feel for them in the... You know, Kars doesn't open the bowling for Durham when he plays for them in Red Bull cricket. So he's doing a job that's not his go-to thing. So there was an opening bowl slot there. They only had, Joff was the only bowler in the entire squad. Gus has done it a few times.

1:21:15But even playing for Surrey, he comes on second chain. So there wasn't, even on the plane, there was only one and a half genuine opening new ball bowlers on the plane. That is not a worry, but maybe a slight concern. You look at the Lions squads that have been picked over the last two or three years, it's been pace related. It's been young lads who've got the ability to bowl quick. I know Sam Cook's maybe been involved a little bit in the winter, but he's someone who I... He's been picked for the Lions. Yeah, I think that's a white ball tour. But for me, I've played against him in Red Bull cricket for Essex and I think he's got skills.

1:21:57Is he express pace? No, but he's got control and he's got skills to be able to do a job. so I think you know coming back to that we've got to be trying to grow people's skills and that like you said the opening bowl is that yes we want pace but you've got to have a balanced attack a varied attack and you can't just keep chopping and changing chopping and changing you've got Luke Wood's in the squad as well and you've got a different angle there a left arm and he bats and feels adequately Luke Wood in white ball cricket I think he's a super cricketer yep good cricket app Jimmy he don't play red ball which is a shame Jimmy we're going to end up with this one.

1:22:36Jimmy Anderson, the cricketer. Obviously, you'll play this summer, potentially another, I'm not too sure, but what about Jimmy Anderson, the coach? I believe you do. Is that right, Dave? You told us this. Level four? Level four. I don't know if it's called level four anymore, but I'm doing my, I'm doing, I've just started doing my coaching badge this winter. It's something that I definitely consider going forward. When I had that sort of taste of it with I was a mentor in that England team sort of had a taste of it but I feel like you know it wasn't the right time for me to go into that and I want to learn more about the art of coaching as well the so I can you know I can obviously pass on experiences or knowledge or whatever about bowling but I want to be able to you know tell people with conviction about technique and stuff like that so actually giving myself some something to back up you know the actual how does that course look um it's a really interesting question um so it's basically just that there's some um elements of of you know putting things down on paper but a lot of it is um coaching based or seeing you in in action so that the guys who do it will come up to lengths and watch me actually hands-on both from an individual point of view and from a group point of view and just assess that way.

1:24:14Much in the way of psychology involved in all of that because I get the I don't know players players expect a different you know in the old days it was kind of like you do this do that or you'll get a smack in the chops type thing. But there seems to be... The relationship between coaches and players is very different from how it would have been even when you started. Yeah, that's definitely an element of it is being able to... I think that's part... The skill of being a coach now is knowing your players, how you talk to them, how you get your message across because that'll be different for each player.

1:24:49May I suggest you stop making it to... Any fucking danger. Lads, I said, Jimmy, thanks so much. Brilliant. Thank you. Well done. Well done. Cheers, mate. Well done. Well done.

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