Season 1, Ep 5: Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word. Partway through a busy Australian tour of England in 2015, it was time to take stock of the short format. We started in The Cricketers pub in Cardiff, recording with Melinda Farrell after the Women's Ashes had just finished with three T20s. Two new women's T20 competitions were soon to start in Australia's Big Bash and England's Super League. So we spoke about the start of men's professional T20s in 2003 with Paul Robertson, the man who led that charge. Then we dropped in on journalist Peter Miller to talk T20 evangelism and lo ..read more

Season 16, Episode 6: One of our staples is to speak with Lawrence Booth, the editor of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, on the day of its release in the Lord’s Library. In this, his 13th edition in charge, no punches are pulled. As he says in his editors’ notes, it’s clear that the future of Test cricket, beyond the wealthiest nations, really is at the crossroads. And as always, there’s so much more celebrating the year that was – forthright and thoughtful, the good book is doing exactly as it should. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount ..read more

Season 16, Episode 5: Deep into western Victoria, in the land around Harrow and Edenhope, was the home of the great cricketer Unaarrimin, more broadly known as Johnny Mullagh. We've told the story before of his 1868 Aboriginal team that toured England. Last weekend, Geoff headed to Harrow for commemorative matches between the veterans' Indigenous teams of Victoria and New South Wales. It was something special. Also this week, our county cricket updates, some rare multi-day domestic cricket for India's women, and our IPL wrap. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 7.64 - Satchmo Distel Support t ..read more

Ben Bloom - Batting for Time: The Fight to Keep English Cricket Alive Moreso by the year, the future of domestic cricket in England is up for grabs. Operating in a squeezed schedule at the same time franchise tournaments are changing the global landscape, the place of the County Championship and many of its clubs is complicated like never before. In 2023, Ben Bloom explored the underlying issues by interviewing 100 people in the thick of things. The result is this fine and important book, which has made headlines at the start of a new season. He spoke with Adam, appropriately during a county g ..read more

Ben Bloom - Batting for Time: The Fight to Keep English Cricket Alive More by the year, the future of domestic cricket in England is up for grabs. Operating within squeezed schedule at the same time franchise tournaments are changing the global landscape by stealth, the place of the County Championship, for many of its participating clubs, is complicated like never before. In 2023, Ben Bloom decided to explore the underlying issues by interviewing 100 people in the thick of things. The result is this fine and important new book, which has made headlines across the country at the start of this ..read more

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, what is the worst bowl-first decision of all time? And what does it have to do with the Vengaboys and the bravest innings ever played near a giant fruit? Plus the byword for cricket arcania, the portrait that should grace the mantelpiece of Daniel Norcross, and some stories we can tell you about the Stories we can tell you. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 2.58 - Sam Brown 1008 - Alan Edgar  5.11 - Jeffrey Gabriel 4.50 - Simon Butcher & Andrew West  5.69 - Matt May 3.49 ..read more

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 10 – Damien Fleming. By this stage on the re-release of The Greatest Season That Was series on the 1999 Men’s World Cup, we have revisited interviews with players and broadcasters who were front and centre from South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, England and India. But what about Australia? The story of their staggering semi-final tie was told earlier in the series, but their campaign to that point was already noteworthy. From teetering on the edge of elimination to an internal shake-up to a fateful night of ten-pin bowling, a man in the thick of ..read more

Season 16, Episode 3: Made in heaven, Michael Bevan. He was the very best at what he did - finishing 50-over run chases with the onboard computer scanning every option. But he was a lot more than that: a red-ball maestro, a Test spinner, the most prolific player to walk onto the Sydney Cricket Ground. We were lucky enough to spend our Sydney live show in January 2024 together, in an impressively honest conversation about a career's iconic highs, its great frustrations, and the personal lessons he had to learn to reconcile it all. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefina ..read more

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, how did Learie Constantine become lord of his domain? Also, the remarkable tale of a pioneering New Zealander, an Adelaide mystery, a triumph that didn’t feel like one, and Geoff’s favourite of all time. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 1.97 - Tom Stewart 4.00 - Alex Brown 5.69 - Matt May 2.81 - Alex Crampton 3.07 - Andrew Beech Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon ..read more

Season 16, Episode 2: If asking who has the most interesting story in world cricket right now, a leading candidates would be David Wiese. From the South African national team to England as a Kolpak, until Brexit put a stop to that. Then another door opened into the Namibian national team, getting the chance to represent a second country at multiple World Cups, showing his talent as a matchwinner on the global stage, then hitting the road as a freelancer in his late 30s in just about every T20 league going. His life is the subject of a new podcast series, Hitman for Hire, and he joined Adam (ha ..read more