Test Match Special - No Balls: Alex’s American adventure and Kate’s Pakistan review

Episode Date: June 1, 2024

Alex is heading to the men’s T20 World Cup and tells us all about where she’ll be heading in the coming weeks.Kate gives us the lowdown on England’s ODI series win against Pakistan. And we find out how the England squad keep themselves entertained during rain delays.

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are an absolute potty mouth. Not another one. And you need to remember that your grandma listens to this. She does. She also abuses me on social media. But don't worry, we beep it out. See, your kids can listen. And Grandma Jean.

Cross. I'm doing round the wicket. Oh, that's... Boulder! Lover! Leaving a ball alone, Litchfield. Think it's the wobble ball and it just nips back. It jags back.

It's the nipbacker. That is a beauty from Kate Cross. An absolute seed. That is a beautiful. Beauty for the Cross. It's a good start. Hello, and welcome to Nobles of Cricking Podcast with me, Alex Hartley, and you, Kate Cross.

Hello, how are you? We're back together. We're back together, not in a studio. I know. Probably tell you've got the windows open and we're in the echoey room. I haven't put the washing machine on. I put the washing in the washing machine and went, don't turn that on. Don't do it yet.

So, are you well? I'm very well. How are you? You're actually not. You're overwhelmed. I'm really overwhelmed. Why are you pretending? No, because I am good, but I fly to America.

I will be there by the time this podcast comes out, but I've got home from 10 days on the road yesterday. Stupidly went and played golf yesterday afternoon, and I've got so much to do. There's washing everywhere. Obviously, I've got to see all my friends and catch up with everybody, which is fine. I love to see my friends.

My mom and dad came around, which is great. Dad then decided to stay because he wanted to see you. Fee then came around, and then you're here, and I've run out of car parking spaces. And I'm okay. I rang you, saying I'm here and you just went, I'm really overwhelmed. Okay, can I, can you open the gate?

Like, okay, I know what I'm getting now. You're very honest with how you're feeling these days. It's great. And Harry always say to me, I would get stressed the day I need to pack. And I bet no, I don't. And then I've texted. No, you do. No, you get stressed a day I've got a pack.

And I'll taste him saying, I'm overwhelmed. It's like, growth. You know, it is overwhelming. But we just discussed this. off air and it takes 20 minutes to pack if you put your mind to it and you get your shit done 20 minutes how are you okay yeah I'm fine thank you I am a bit tired from tour which is funny because we've not played an ODI series to its fullest potential yeah so I don't think I should be as tired as I am it's nice to be home now got a little stint with thunder going to be playing a bit

of Charlotte Edwards Cup it's not raining yay um bad back good a bit of a sore back yeah had to have a fitness test before Thornton getting the old back spasms and I don't know if you saw that Keaton Jennings has missed the start of the blast because the blast has now started and he's missed because of back spasms and he put a little picture up on his Instagram story the other day and his feet were in it I was like Keaton I love you to bits but those feet cannot cannot go on the internet ever again they're awful there'll be people saving those you know I did say people would probably pay a bit of money for that but yeah I got the old back spasms probably in sympathy paying for Keaton not sure why

travel though buses travel old you're old old old old now um which stephen parry reminded me off today at training actually so thanks paz um but yeah we got stitched up we had bank holiday weekend traffic darby to taunton on the friday taunton to charlestford on the monday six and a half hours on the bus went by a stonehenge cows cows a bit of context where were we where were we going what were we doing me and hen would probably driving to taunton? Must have been too taunton because Stonehenge was on our right and we were in a car share weren't we and we knew it was coming up and then I was like why's a loads of cows in a field and it turned it out it turned out to be Stonehenge turned it out turned it out I'm not well turned it out yeah I was like whoa there's people looking at the rocks yeah yeah so yeah a bit of so yeah the bus's not been helping hopefully a little bit of time at home now I'll help yeah I'm gonna be a

Pilates girl oh yeah you're gonna have a peachy bum you've got one anyway Thank you. Thank you. But yeah, I'm all good, really. I don't feel like I've got masses to talk about. No, have you got anything on your sticky note. Let's have a look. I love that we say that, like we've not just discussed what's on each other's sticky notes. The only thing I've got written down is we played our final ODI at Chelmsford on Wednesday, and we always have a team meeting before that meeting. And we always often get to see all the really good things that we do. But we didn't have our best game at Derby.

So it'd be like you ball and your wobble ball, the nitbacker. Yeah, so you kind of see everyone's best shots and running well between the wickets, good bits of field and et cetera. Is that, I know why, but I'm gonna ask you for the podcast purpose, is that just to make you feel good going into the game?

It's just to highlight our highlights, I think, and just shows that we're really good. So anyway, this video starts, kicks in, and it's to always look on the bright side of life. So SykesiaR, analyst always puts a cool tune to music. So it's like, oh, it's a bit odd, odd choice of song. And it started with, I think it was me bowling a wide or belly bowling a wide. And then the next thing is someone misfielding and, you know, just not doing our best bits, people getting out.

And I was like, this is really odd. And it was just our low-lights package. But the purpose of it was, Louis showed it us, to highlight that even when we make mistakes, it prompts conversations, which helps us get better at cricket. but then Sykesi did show us our highlights package but it was really funny because until you're on that and you see your mistakes and you're laughing at it with everyone it's really embarrassing yeah and then you forget that this is getting shown around the world to people people watching this live happen and we're anxious and nervous and

embarrassed to see it after it's happened but it's actually it's actually happened in real life at some point yeah wasn't a great game derby though but I'll tell you what I was saying when you then played at Chelmsford how bloody brilliant you all were at Chelmsford I do feel like when you play against a team like Pakistan where you're expected to win you get criticised if you don't hammer those teams and I've said it I think on the last podcast

we didn't play well at Derby in all three facets of the game we weren't very good you were bored it wasn't good but I do think you then beat them by a really comfortable margin at Chelmsford and everyone's just like alright that's that's normal yeah but what I was saying is this is what this is the England everybody wants to watch this is the England that I was giddy like I was I loved

it like and I was what they can do and you were like and there's and you can be better than yeah we still didn't have as there were still elements of the game at Chelmsford that we could have tied it up um but I did think and it sounds so obvious and it's such an obvious thing to say but we're such a different team when someone scores a hundred yeah And that's the difference, basically. Because people chipped in around Nat at Chelmsford. Nat was just unbelievable, by the way. Like, if you ever need a blueprint for one day batting, that is it.

But if Nat had got out of 40, we'd probably have had a similar batting performance that we did at Derby, so it just goes to show if someone kicks on. I think you'd have got similar runs, but it looked completely different from the outside. Like, there was more, not intent, but there was more rotation of the strike, less dot balls. Like, people, like, paddling, like you were saying on the last podcast,

and I was just like, the back. maybe just maybe you needed that game at Derby to just get it out of the way we needed to see the low lights to get the highlights yeah but that's it for my sticking out um I've got a couple of things I've actually got loads um at Chelmsford after the game I was trying to find you because we were meant this was meant to be live from Chelmsford but I was really tired live from Chelmsford is no balls a cricket podcast live from Media City three days later um we were just I was just tired so I came to find you to be like Crossy, I'm so sorry, I've got to go to the Oval

tomorrow, I don't want a podcast and you're like, that's fine, don't worry. So as I've hugged you and left you, I'm walking back out the ground, and there's a group of nine people that are running, like, literally running, and they're going, Kate Crosses over there, Kate Crosses over there,

Kate Crosset, quick, quick, I can see she's just left, she's just leaving, and they run, and they run down towards where you are, and I stopped and watched it. I literally put my head on the little thing, and I watched them, you make, these girls day. Oh, it was cute. We always get really good support at Chalmford. There was a really, really sweet moment actually where just before that

had happened because I did meet that group of people. There was a birthday party there, a girl's 12th birthday party. I thought, well, that was so sweet that she'd chosen to come and watch England play as her birthday party. Probably dragged loads of people that don't like cricket to come and watch. But as I'm signing one autograph, one of the girls nudged another girl and went, oh, you'll be happy now. So I said, oh, why is that? And she was like, oh, you're her favourite player so I've had that little chat with this girl and she plays cricket I can't remember the name of the club that she plays out but I had a good chat with her and then I was like you know

what she can have my medal yeah I don't need this medal it's going to go somewhere that I don't remember and she cried bless her she like she just instantly burst into tears I was like oh you forget what it means to some people you will have made her life oh I hope she had a good day but yeah she was really sweet she was so sweet I could have had that medal could have had it you can have my next one I don't want it I'll give it away I'll give it away I'll give it away good news I'm off to the World Cup tomorrow we're talking about it

BBC have got the rights for the next four years you've kind of known that haven't you but we can't we couldn't announce it congratulations Adam Mountford and all the hard work you've done we are going to do every men's every women's World Cup for the next four years and the under 19s as well

so there's so much cricket for us to do and do you know like when you're thinking oh if we don't get the rights like what am I going to do for work? Am I going to have to go freelance like all this and it's just made me a little bit more relaxed yeah I might not get the work I might not get to do them do you know well I feel like it's going quite well I'd be disappointed if you got booted out the BBC at this point yeah me too because the pod would go but um we we've not really we you know we're going whoa you're going to the world cup tomorrow

flying tomorrow but tell everyone what where you're going and what you're doing so people can keep tabs on you because I don't think I really know okay so I fly in into New York and I'm at New York for 10 days and I cover all the games in New York, India Pakistan are well excited. I've never done an India Pakistan game. Where are they playing the games? Have they built a stadium? Yeah, they've built a stadium in like Long Island so it's out of Manhattan. How like we shouldn't be talking about these places and cricket? I know it's weird isn't it? So yeah they've they've built the stadium put the grass in but they've made the wicket in Australia. It's good they've put the grass in. Yeah, put the grass in. Helpful, helpful to

have the grass in the stadium. They've made the pitch in Australia. They've made the pitch in Australia. and then shipped it over to the States and then like bedded it in. How do you keep that alive on a ship? Maybe someone's constantly there. Just water in it. Yeah, so I'm there and then I got to Florida. Nice. Fort Lauderdale.

That's where they set off the rockets from. Oh. What rockets? Like to NASA and Space. Is it? Okay. So then I go there and then I go over to Barbados for the semifinals and finals. What a trip.

What an unbelievable trick this is going to be. I sometimes really hate my life. Yeah, terrible. Right, you're going to have to, obviously, you will do it because we do the pod, but you're going to have to keep us update on what's, dated on what's going on, and where you're at and what you're doing, and all the cool things you're going to do because you're in America. I know, and like, I'm going to, like, interview people,

be like, do you know what, cricket is? And I'm like, cricket? What's cricket? What's cricket? What's cricket? So, yeah, I'm honestly, I'm so excited. And also, like, I said to Mountie the other day, I was like, I'm not just saying this, mounting,

I'm not just licking your ass, but I'm actually really honored to go because there's only two summarizers go in and I'm one of them. I was like, for men's work-up. I mean, you're presenting at the BBC now. I know, I know. It is mad. My world's flipped on its head.

Retiring was the best thing ever. I've just completely lied about Fort Lauderdale. I don't know why I've got it in my head that that's something to do with Rockets and NASA, but Fort Lauderdale is famous for its beaches, arts. God, I can't speak today, for its beaches, arts, culture and events. Sounds awful, doesn't it?

Why have I got it mixed up with NASA? I don't know. Lord ofdale Rocket, so I'll put rocket launch. Yeah, so off there, there is rain around, unfortunately. I mean, shock this cricket season and rain. Yeah, Dallas the other day, they had heavy winds, and Bangladesh's warm-up game got called off because half the stadium flew apart.

So they're having to, like, rebuild the big screen. I've got it mixed up with Cape Canaveral. sounds similar similar that's where it goes so sorry about that everyone did just lie to you speaking of rain and cricket the men have played

two four games against Pakistan and had two rained off yes so they played two out of four two yeah so half's bad half's a bad ratio but half decent prep for them I don't know

I don't know it's hard to say isn't it because they've not managed to play the people that you can't rotate the squad yeah but Joff was back Joffra's back Joffra and Mark Wood

bowling together was so good to watch So I missed some of the men's game The other night Because what was I doing? You were playing? I was playing was I? I went to Lanks

I went to watch the Lanks Girls play And all I saw was that Bouncer from Mark Wood That oh my God Nearly killed that poor lad And it was just so good to watch though Like

Yeah Good on your Woody So him and Jopra bowling together was like dangerous Woody bowling at 95 miles an hour Joffra bowling at 92 miles an hour and Joffra looks slow compared to Woody It was absolutely nuts

But you know that Joffra's going to ramp up Like he's not played much cricket Randomly plays a bit of twos In Barbados every now and then for his club But then he's going to get better as the World Cup goes on I think we said it on the last pod But you just pray that he has a little period Now where he's injury free

And he can get his confidence back Yeah Speaking of rain I've travelled 1,400 miles In the past seven days Which doesn't actually sound like a lot unless you're the one unless you're doing it um yeah 1,400 miles to watch it rains I went from Leeds to Derby to Manchester to Taunton to the Oval to Cardiff to somewhere else and it was just absolutely nuts I'm just going to Google if I drove 1,400 miles where would I get to

because you're saying that that's not a lot I know but yeah I know I know I know See what comes up. So I've got 1,200 miles to play with. I'll Google, what's 1,400 miles away from Manchester? Yes. What is 1,400 miles away from... Oh, Andorra is only 917 miles, so you could go to Andorra and then a bit further.

Okay. You could drive to Albania. You could... Okay, when you say that, it's actually quite long way. Drive to Austria and then further. That's only 941 miles. So I've basically driven to Austria and then back to Brigham.

Bulgaria, could draft Bulgaria on that. Okay, we get it, it's a long way. Belarus? Yeah, some nice countries there. Maybe rather than work next week, I'll do that. Just go and have a little road trip. Oh, wow, you could go to Denmark and back, and then back to Denmark, 5.5 mark.

That seems not that much, does it? That's what I mean. It doesn't sound much, but it is. Other than that, I've not really got anything on my sticky note, bar a little game to play. Okay, I'm ready for a game. After everything I say, you need to say a dick. Okay.

And some of it might not make sense, but it will make sense eventually. So if I say, Crossy bowling the wobble ball. Addicted. Crossy having breakfast. Addicted. Crossy playing cricket. Addicted. Me on nights out.

Addicted. What woke you up this morning? Addicted. Addicted. That's not a game. And also it didn't. My alarm won't me up sadly. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be.

That was it, that's all I, uh, I was in bed last night and I couldn't sleep. I was like, I'll play the addicted game with Crossie. That was it. Welcome to the BBC Nobles Cricket podcast, everyone. The award-winning podcast with me, Kate Crossy and you, Alex Hartley. I sent something on the group today, yesterday about some little stats, some umpiring stats. Oh, yeah. So, for everyone out there who loves our umpires as much as we do,

the four highest appeared umpires appearances for umpires i'm not i'm not right today um so most matches officiated by umpires can you remember them alim darr's number one with 448 and not out little asterisks next to him so he's obviously still going is it i've got he retired yeah i thought you retired anyway it's got an asterisk rudy curtson at three with 331 got a lot of catching up to do steve buck now steve buck now three and nine oh yeah Floppy hat, always had a floppy on. And then Billy Bowden, friend of the pod, 308. Wow.

So, should we go with all four of them? Oh, yeah. Make it a quadruple. Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Okay, this one's called umpire hat holding. and it's from Thomas Dear Alex, Kate and Not Henry

Longtime lover of the podcast here I'm writing with a question about umpires and hats I'm an umpire in my local league and even in my third season I still have not gotten the hang of what to say when a bowler hands me their hat and sometimes jump up I've defaulted to saying thank you but surely the bowler should be thanking me

it's all very confusing my question is what do you usually say to the umpires when handing them your hat sunglasses slash jumpers before bowling and more importantly what did they normally say back to you and what should they say back to you best wishes and go well thomas i always say i only ever appeal when it's out and then the umpire knows that if you're not appealing you don't think it's out and if you're appealing you think it's out but you don't say that every time you hand you jumper in

not every time but the first time i'm like oh yeah so he's asking what what's the thing that you do you thank the umpire for taking you well you keep your son he's on always say thank you don't be like oh you hold this there's a lot a lot now especially in one day cricket because they hold the ball now the umpires obviously because there's a a ball at each end of um wonder in international cricket well it's in 50 over cricket as well isn't it um and you often go i'll give you that you give me this it's all there's kind of an exchange going on now so you'll need that I need this so it and then when they forget to give you the ball you like need that and they always throw it back to you and go you might need this yeah yeah thanks mate thanks yeah need

that one yeah um but yeah you always say thanks yeah um i've gone really off piece here but i've just remembered that there's a cricket broadcasting database and it shows you how many games you've worked on cricket and i don't feel like i've commented on that many games but there's a database here and it tells you how many games you've commented on and who your top team is i've done for bbc five sports extra over 170 games and then for five live sports extra so it's basically a the same. I've done 100 games, so I've done like 200... That's more than you've probably played. Yeah, well, way more. And then I've obviously worked

for ABC Sports, 67 games. Lank's TV, it's only got one game. I've covered England women 85 times. Oh, wow. It's so cool this. And who do you think, top 20 people Alex Hartley has worked with? Henry Moran. 189 games, me and Henry have done together. Is he number one? He's number one. Number two will be

Dan Norcross. Yeah, 107. Three will be This is a hard one Because it goes from 107 to 53 Eisha Nah Stephen Shemmel Oh probably would have got there actually

But I am one of the top Broadcasters in the whole world There's like Ian Bishop ahead of me Then Wait As in like the most games Oh No not I am the best

In what I do There's only Ian Bishop ahead of me everybody no there's like I'm like seventh on the list of how many games I've done it's actually mad yeah what i'm bishop for BBC no for like all TV and like radio and things I know I've done that much it blew my mind the other day this is from Ellie who's 12 years old says hi Kate and Alex it was amazing to meet Kate finally at Derby on Thursday my mum told you that I'm your biggest fan I listen to your podcast every night I remember this girl I was like oh my gosh she literally listens to an episode every night I love it hope to meet Alex at some point later in the summer

When I'm older, I want to play for England, but at the moment, in hardball matches, I have to play with boys who are so annoying, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, so my question is, did you both have to play with boys, and were they annoying as well? And that's from Ellie. Yes. But they weren't annoying. I found the opposition annoying. I didn't find my team annoying. My team were very welcoming and loved having me on the team. It was the opposition of like, oh, they've got a girl. Oh yeah. They must be really rubbish. They've got a girl playing. They'll watch me get four for us to stick it up you. That was later on in life. So yeah, they can be annoying but just keep going, Ellie.

I always maintain playing boys' cricket's really good for you, so... It is. Hi, Alex and Kate. Love listening to the podcast. Sunday, myself and my wife, Sophie, went to Taunton to watch the ODI against Pakistan. Kate, you are Sophie's favourite bowler, and she was pleased to see you in the lineup. We even managed to get her a photo with you before the game. We are hoping that the weather gods will be kinder for the game at Worcester and June.

So, my question for the both of you, would you rather? Oh, I love or would you rather? Would you rather face Sophie Eccleston when batting or Shabnamish Mill? Oh, I don't have to face Sophie that often because obviously, well, there's only really now against Manchester originals that I'll face her because she's always in my team. But I think I'd rather face Sophie just purely from, I don't, you know, if she hits me, going to hurt as much as if Shabnam hits me. Yeah, I'm not lasting very long. I'm giving both of them an over to get me out. Shabs, although I never let a ball at me at Welsh fire, so that's

a lie. So, yeah. I'm just purely from a fear factor of getting hit in the throat by Shabnan Mish right on. Yeah, it does scare me. Also, could you wish Sophie a happy birthday for the 29th of May? She would be absolutely made up to have a shout out from you guys. Jules sent from my iPhone. All right, baby, Ranger. Sit from my iPhone. It's now the 1st of June. So happy belated birthday for two days ago or happy very early birthday for in 363 days time. Yes, an early birthday. Hi, Alex and Kate. First time email a long time listener. This is from Lauren. When I first started listening to the podcast, my dad said it felt like you were both living with us for a few weeks whilst I caught up. We weren't. We could have been. Someone ran over to

to me at Chelmsford and she obviously panicked but she tried to give me a hug and she went oh my god I'm so sorry I feel like I know you I was like ah I don't know what to do or say we didn't live with anyone no else so just to clarify ever since then I've absolutely loved listening to the pod you both make my day and I look forward to a new episode every week we're getting really consistent with this every week thing aren't we um I love getting an insight into the professional game from a world cup winner Alex that's our Alex and a current England players. That's all cross.

That's me. Perspective. I play cricket myself and I'm a massive fan of you both and hope to meet Alex this season and look forward to seeing Crossy play for the Superchargers again. I love my day last year as the Superchargers rookie.

It was a great experience and love watching Kate play for the Northern Superchargers. Go well, Crossy. In the final ODI, hopefully the weather is okay for them. Love the Pod. I'm getting a sense from Lauren that she loves the pod. She's not made it obvious, but I'm reading between the lines and I think she likes us both and loves

the podcast. I think you should have listened to this before it comes out. Probably, yeah, she's here. She's moved in with us. She's moved in, she's in the spare room. That's that one. This is from Faris Razor from Pakistan. I hope you are both doing great.

Thank you. Recently, when English players left the men's IPL to play the T20 series against Pakistan, I had some questions in mind. Do you think players should always prioritise international matches and put franchise leagues? Franchise leagues second. Have you experienced similar situation And if so, what did you do?

This is for you. This is basically WPL, isn't it? Oh, it's... I think it's easier in the women's game to answer this question because it doesn't happen often. I think in the men's game... Oh, it's hard because there's so much money in franchise cricket.

So, here's... So, Josh Butler came out and said there shouldn't be any international cricket during the IPL. And I actually agree because the IPL is live-changing sums of money and for every game... So Phil Salt is just... won the IPL with KKR but he's missed the last few games because he had to come back to England and it rained so he's not actually played much cricket and then he's not getting

paid as much because he's missed a few games and like you could play cricket for England and the boys earn a stupid amount of money playing cricket for England but they earn triple that if they go to the IPO and that is what's changing your life yeah I do think we somehow have to protect international cricket because you don't want to lose the standard of international cricket because of franchise cricket. But I don't understand, and this is why we're not in jobs where we make these decisions, but I don't understand how they're going to do that because there's so many leagues around now that are offering a lot of money. In my opinion, I've said it before, I think the IPL's too long. I think if you're going to have a tournament that stops international

cricket, then it can't be a three-month tournament. That's not fair. They're selling the hundred. Hand in the air. They're selling an hundred. Yeah, we're not brought that up. No. I don't really know. I've not read about it. I've been busy.

So you're selling, let me get this right, actually. 49%. Yeah, it's 49% to stakeholders, isn't it? So like Mumbai Indians could buy Welsh fire, but they're on 49% of it. But then Cardiff, Welsh fire, could sell a bit of it as well. So the ECB agrees to sell 100 teams later this year. the eight hosts of the teams will be given a 51% state so that is like Welsh fire will own 51% of it

which they can then sell or keep with the remaining 49% in each team being sold team sold by the ECB sorry I've made that more complicated so the ECB will still own 49% no the remaining 49% in each team is sold by the ECB so ECB are then going to sell the 49% to Mumbai Indians or to Ah, so Mumbai Indians could come to Old Trafford and say, we want you, the ECB go, okay, have our 49% and then Old Trafford could say, do you fancy our 51% as well?

Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Basically. That makes sense. So I don't know how I feel about that. I think it's good. And it will always be a four-week tournament. It can't be longer.

I think the point of it is to give power back to the counties. And to give money back to the ECB. Yeah, money, because it says here the ECB gives cricket counties a deadline to a deadline to accept a 500 million deal for the 100. I'll take it. It's a lot of money. So yeah, it's a complicated question and it's difficult to answer,

but there is also so much depth in the men's team that there can be people going playing IPL, Caribbean League, all these, and still make those tournaments good and have strong international cricket. In the women's game, we're not there yet, I don't think. I'll tell you what will be interesting. Next year, the IPL, the PSL and the county season

all start at the same time. Right. I mean, everyone's chose IPL over county cricket, haven't they? Yeah. There was no, like, we had no Livingstone, no salt, no Luke Wood, but Lancash for this county stuff. So, no Joss, so not that Joss's ever played a four-day getting for Lancashire, but, you know what I mean. I reckon he's forgotten how to spell Red Bull. Yeah, that's so true. This is from Molly, a small country town in the middle of nowhere, Australia. Hi, Alex and Kate. Thank you both for always making me smile.

I have three random and ridiculous cricket questions if you would like to answer them. If you could choose any other colour for a cricket ball, what would it be? In this scenario, it would be suitable for all formats and wouldn't clash with playing kits. Tough. Gosh, right, okay, so it can't be red or white then? No. But it could be red and no one plays in red. Could it be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Could it be like my golf ball's half, yellow half? Red? No, I don't think so. It needs to be something where, so a lot of, what I find when I play cricket in different stadiums now, like the big stadiums, seat colouring is an issue.

So in grounds that you're so used to have in red ball cricket, they've got white seats, but then you play white ball cricket there and the seats are still white and it's quite hard to pick the ball up. Grey seats are always good for that. Grey's good, unless you colour blind.

All of this is an issue, to be fair, if you colour blind. Molly has answered, should we give... Yeah, let's see what I'm going to say. Purple or black with red stitching. Black? Interesting.

Black could work? Could work, yeah. Not many teams playing all black either. Yeah. New Zealand would have to change the kit, although their kit for the T-20 look for wicked. It does, don't it? Like, teally, yeah, old school.

That is a ridiculous question, to be fair. It is a tough question. Quite hard to answer without much thought going into it as well. Whether it was a cricket playing nation or not, which country would you like to play a matching? So basically you could go to any country and just play that. Oh, right. She's answered, shall I give hers?

Portugal or the Netherlands for her. Portugal, nice. I wouldn't think about playing. Do you know what I'd love? I'd love Europe to start playing a bit more cricket so you could just nip to Italy and play a game. Yeah, that would be good, wouldn't it? Oh, where you have to?

Rome for the weekend. Santa Rini, what about you? Oh, yeah. That would be good. And the last one, if you created a bat brand but were not allowed to associate it with the award-winning no balls the cricket podcast, what would you call it?

A spanker Spanker bats That was from Molly Nice Molly, thank you Sorry, didn't probably answer them all that well But tough questions really Yeah, they were We got time for another

Yeah Hi Alex Kate and crew The last couple of episodes You have been asking your avid listeners To send an emails to the show Well here goes It's going to be a goodie al This is from Mark in Cardiff by the way

Thanks for a lovely pod which is refreshingly delicious in an otherwise turbulent world. I just thought I'd let you know as a blokey bloke who loves his cricket, I became hooked on the women's game watching last year's 100, whilst attending a couple of games at Sophia Gardens. Is it a Sophia or Sapphire? Sapphire. Sophia Gardens.

It was noticeable how family-orientated the women's game it is. It's a joy to see so many youngsters discovering cricket in its many forms and guises keep smashing it. Yes, thank you. Actual question. What do you do in wet weather? Hi Alex and Kay alphabetical order Of course this is from

Cali Bournemouth Dorset Me and my boyfriend have travelled to Taunton to watch the England women's ODI against Pakistan And it was such a shame that the weather was so bad This was actually my first experience Of a game being abandoned due to rain I became a cricket fan in 2021 And got completely hooked

And a variety of England games and the hundred games Anyway, back to the point During the three hours that we waited in the rain to find out the match would not continue. My question is, what do the players do when it rains? Talk tactics, distract themselves with arts and crafts, stare aimlessly out the window. I saw some members of the Pakistan team sitting in the dugout,

hopeful, despite the storm, would be of interest to hear your insight. All of the above, basically. If you know you're going to be off for like 20 minutes, then you kind of try and stay switched on. But groundsmen give you the radar, so the groundsmen tell you, basically, it's going to stop raining for an hour, then it's going to start to, you know what time the inspections are.

So you've kind of got a gauge of how much you can switch on and off. Taunton for me always rains. Always rain affected. Always rain affected. Me and Amy Jones once played the roller game where you just, but we got told off. Yeah. We once laid you on the floor like you've been splatted and went around you in tape. Yeah.

So then there was a Kate Cross. It was like a murder scene kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, there's all sorts. We played a lot of car. So we've got a new card game called Pedro, which is, I think, Tara Norris's game. Okay. But it's like a memory game.

So you've got, remember what cards you've got. You've got to try and get rid of your cards. It's quite fun. And it's short and sharp, so it's a good game for a rainbreak. So we're all playing it in the dining room. And the dining room has got a big bay window that overlooks where the back of the temporary stand is. So we started playing forfeits. If you lost that round, then you had to do some forfeit.

So Alice Capsie had to ask Sue Redfern why we weren't playing because it wasn't. raining at that particular moment to which Sue said if you want to get your mop and bucket you can go and clear it up yes Sue um that siver had to she had a choice of two forfeit she had to stand at the window and shout out hello do you know who I am oh oh my god or the other one was ask someone for a pint of thatches which she did she chose to do that one um so yeah we find silly ways to keep ourselves entertained did you have a forfeit I didn't know I didn't lose any of those, thankfully, because Sue would have probably slapped me across the face. Speaking of which, Sue and Anna are playing golf.

Anna's just started playing golf. She loves it. A little fun fact about Sue Redfern. She's left-handed golfer, but she chips right-handed. So she's got right-handed wedges and some wedge, left-handed irons, left-handed driver. Sue, I always knew you're a psycho. Yeah. So I'm going to throw it out there. I think me, you, Sue and Anna should play four ball.

We definitely should film it. We definitely should play a football. Anna, Sue, I know you listen. I know you're listening. Please message us. Shall we? Should we do it? I'm back on the 5th of July.

I think we should do it, but actually make a little piece of it. Yeah. Little video. Videoography. I wonder if we can get a camera crew down. Sykes are your job now. Yeah. We'll pass that over to you.

If you want to get in touch, you can. No Bulls podcast at BBC.co.com. No balls podcast at bbc.com. It's so good. They said it twice. Email us because without your emails, our podcast is rubbish. But also, when you email us, please ask, is a question.

Yeah, questions are good. And funny questions. Yeah. Anything, can be anything. Bye. Bye. Cross.

I'm doing round the wicket. Oh, that's... Boulder! Lovering a ball alone, Litchfield. Think it's the wobble ball and it just nips back. It jags back.

It's the nipbacker. That is a beauty from Kate Cross. An absolute seed. That is a beautiful for cross. Curls it forward, is able to chest it down. Welcome to you'll never beat Carl Walker. Walker is in on the challenge with him, shoulder to shoulder. Walker cards us brilliantly.

I'm Carl Walker, Mancite and England right back. And I'm Chris Hughes, and each week Carl and I are going to kick back and talk football. We'll tell stories of the beautiful game, dig through Carl's footballing journey and find out what it takes to win. A lot. A lot. That's excellent. In the Walker. Walker scores.

BBC Radio 5 live. You'll never be Coworker. Listen on BBC Sounds.