1,025 episodes

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

The Final Word Cricket Podcast Adam Collins, Geoff Lemon

    • Sport
    • 4.7 • 294 Ratings

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

    T20 World Cup Daily: 2024, Day 0

    T20 World Cup Daily: 2024, Day 0

    The T20 World Cup Daily, Day 0: Welcome to America! The Final Word hits Texas ahead of the opening game tomorrow. It’s time to head down to the cricket ground at Grand Prairie and check out what has been put in place, while the temperature rolls through a low swelter and the finishing touches are applied to the stadium.

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
    Enter the Westfield UK competition: win gift vouchers or your own T20 World Cup final party at Sixes. westfield.com/united-kingdom/tfw

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 18 min
    Story Time 188 – Why 150 is nonsense

    Story Time 188 – Why 150 is nonsense

    It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, the argument has gone on long enough that it's time to finish it. Is a century plus a half century a milestone? Also this week, a reinterpreted Bannerman, a misunderstood basher, and a contender for the most freakish debut of all time.

    Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
    3.53 - Tim Vanderpump, Party Liaison
    3.10 - Chris Lintott
    8.11 - Joe Bracher
    1.19 - Matt Blacker

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

    Enter our Westfield UK competition
    Gift vouchers or your own T20 World Cup final party at Sixes
    westfield.com/united-kingdom/tfw

    Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners
    All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

    10% off kit from seriouscricket.co.uk with FINALWORD24 at checkout
    Your Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 3 min
    IPL season meets election season

    IPL season meets election season

    Season 16, Episode 17: India, the UK and the USA are all heading towards national elections, in the same year that the USA, England and India will all be prominent in cricket, starting with the gathering for the T20 World Cup. For that to arrive, the IPL had to finish, after a campaign as long as any election, and this time Mitchell Starc went from first gear to seventh with exactly the right timing, as did Team USA to down a Full Member nation in a series for the first time. Meanwhile, the ICC still has mates with a (digital video of a) bridge to sell you.

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

    Get down to Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City!
    More extra, less ordinary. westfield.com/united-kingdom/london

    Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket
    FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk
    Or the Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

    Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners
    All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 38 min
    French fraud: the ghost games of Paris

    French fraud: the ghost games of Paris

    Season 16, Episode 16: It has been quite the story. First, the revelation that France's cricket board was approving scorecards from domestic games with no evidence of ever existing. Then, blacklisting the entire national women's squad when those players asked for an investigation. The ICC says there is nothing to see here. As ever, there is a lot of money at stake.
    We speak to the France24 reporter who broke the story, Peter O'Brien, and one of the banished players, Poppy McGeown.

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

    Get down to Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City!
    More extra, less ordinary. westfield.com/united-kingdom/london

    Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket
    FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk
    Or the Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

    Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners
    All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 36 min
    Story Time 187 – How Sachin changed the calendar

    Story Time 187 – How Sachin changed the calendar

    It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, is this one of the most bogus games to get first-class status? Probably not in the top hundred if we're honest but it's funny anyway. Also, a great player's brief and bombastic return, another's fondest day, and the ease of resolving scheduling dilemmas when you have sufficient clout.

    Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
    2.33 - Pushkar Godbole
    4.92 - Robbie McIntyre
    1.85 - Vijai Prabhudass
    4.86 - Gareth Cottiss

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

    Enter our Westfield UK competition
    Gift vouchers or your own T20 World Cup final party at Sixes
    westfield.com/united-kingdom/tfw

    Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners
    All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

    10% off kit from seriouscricket.co.uk with FINALWORD24 at checkout
    Your Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 22 min
    TFW Book Club – Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes with Harry Ricketts

    TFW Book Club – Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes with Harry Ricketts

    The 1961 Ashes had it all, especially at Old Trafford. The ground where Jim Laker ran amok the previous time the Australians visited would be the scene of a staggering come-from-behind triumph under the bold leadership of Richie Benaud, spinning to win from out of the rough. Adam has Steve Cannane with him to interview Harry Ricketts, the co-author of a terrific new book focused on a match that helped earn the Australian captain the reputation as the best leader in the game. But it’s a portrait just as much about the England skipper, Peter May, and how a champion player would become a symptom of an antiquated class system by the end of his time in charge. A book that’s going to win a stack of awards, it’s out this week. Enjoy!

    Buy a copy of Richie Benaud's Blue Suede Shoes here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/richie-benauds-blue-suede-shoes-9781526670274/
     
    Read Steve Cannane's Review for the FT here: https://www.ft.com/content/d1e4e4e4-59a9-4f41-abdb-1059932cb7fe

    Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

    Enter our Westfield UK competition
    Gift vouchers or your own T20 World Cup final party at Sixes
    www.westfield.com/united-kingdom/tfw

    Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners
    All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

    10% off kit from seriouscricket.co.uk with FINALWORD24 at checkout
    Your Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

    Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
    Title track by Urthboy
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
294 Ratings

294 Ratings

Beno 66 ,

Lemon / Collinz Ball

Even with unknown subs padding-up. what’s not to like. Sharp, succinct analysis. My first choice to get to the nuts & bolts & deep dive of the days play in a entertaining, enjoyable pod. 👍👍

Go well England - cheers 🍻

dudeperfect111 ,

Rajagopal

The real cringe is the repeated Westfield advertisement.

Richieb34 ,

Good, but lost something

Overall a fantastic podcast, nerd pledge is excellent - keep going lads!

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