Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - a little bonus episode with Aussie legend Jess Jonassen!

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Kate Cross and Alex Hartley return sooner than advertised and are joined by Australian bowler Jess Jonassen. The obvious question is asked: Does she ever get bored of winning?

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We do swear occasionally. Every now and then, we'll say the word. Sometimes. Sometimes. And even maybe. But don't let that put you off with nice people. We beep them out. So your kids can listen.

Enjoy. And cross strikes in the first over. It's what England we're looking for. Hartley falls. Down the track comes scoring this time she connects. It's either six or out. It's six. I would say surprise for me and crossy.

podcast three times now so it's not a surprise to her but it's a surprise to you and welcome back to no balls the cricket podcast with me Alex Hartley and you have no headphones gate cross what a shambles in true nobles fashion we've been on the phone for 20 minutes having to catch up waiting for my headphones to charge up because they had no charge and then they've just broken so we've got great mics we sound great hardly's not got hers in a gob again um but yeah it's been a 10 out of 10 shambles. It's got a lovely head on it. But it's quite girthy. Yeah, true.

I think your headphones might be broken because you put them in the washing machine. Didn't mean to but yeah, it might have something to do with it. I will investigate when we're not on a time pressure of doing a podcast episode. So we're back

because we just decided that we had this episode where we're probably nine weeks ago, and we might surprise you all with it. Yeah, so we're going to apologise now in case there's a few things that you like, why are they talking about playing in a hundred game this afternoon? Because obviously we're not. So don't be confused, but for all those people who are actually catching up on the episodes, it doesn't matter anyway, because you're out of time, you know.

So you'll make it work. Just make it work, please. Oh, yeah. Like, don't have a go at us for it being old when you're probably listening to one that was ages ago. someone probably in I don't know Plymouth thinks that COVID's just about to break out because they're listening to them backwards or whatever so you'll be all right you'll work it out you're clever people

why Plymouth? I don't know first place that came into my head oh my God that reminds me that reminds me I've been on the PCA summit this week and Olly Han and Dolby was there not really spent a great deal of time with him in my cricket career but obviously know a lot about him as a lay legend of the county circuit and he was talking to our Laura Jackson from Thunder and

Laura starts absolutely wetting herself and calls me over so I was like what's this about and she was like Ollie go on just say what you just said to me and he was talking to her about where she lives and you know the northwest of England and he was like yeah yeah so you've got Southport you've got Blackpool and then you go up a little bit further you got Morricambi. Mori Camby where's Mori Camby? I know. I know. where it is. I said, do you mean Morkham? He's like, no, no, no, no, Mory Camby. He went, no, no, no,

he went, no one's ever pronounced it as Morkum. I said, I think, Holly, I think they have. But I can't work out. This became a thing then. I can't work out if he was winding us up or whether he actually thinks it's called Mory Camby. Morkum. What a place. I've never been, actually. I've never been to Mora Cambi. Moricambi.

Sounds like a great island. Yeah, well, someone said that. It's not a Greek island No, it's just near Liverpool How are you? Yeah, I'm all right I'm all right I've been so, so busy

And by busy I mean I've been social And it's for me that's being busy It's been a bit non-stop It's party season because it's October Well, you haven't partied since last party season Yeah So it does hit me quite hard I don't know if you can tell in my voice

It's one of them you wake up You don't know if you've got COVID or a hangover You've been on the For five days, you've probably got a hangover. Probably a hangover. It is worrying. But no, I'm good. I've had a lot of fun.

Like I said, just got back from the PCA Summit. Loved, got played golf. Like, actually went and played golf. I was so bad, kept having to get my ball out of the trees and the bush. But I'm going to get some lessons that I really enjoyed it. When you text me, like, I'm going to have golf lessons. Like, pardon? Like, literally pardon?

You know what I'm like? I liked it and I want to be good. I do. It frustrated me that I hit it really well. Like I'd whack this ball and it sound amazing. But I'd have to go and get it out of someone else's, like someone's like the bush or the trees or something. So it wound up.

I wasn't going in anyone else's bush just to clarify that right now. But yeah, I just want to be better at it. But you know what I'm like, you know when I get like a taste for something, I get obsessed with it? So you're going to be on my. my journey this winter and you know ballers. You're all going to be with me. If you text me

saying, do you fancy nine holes? See you there. If it means spending time with you, I'll play golf. Just to give you a bit of an inkling of how bad I was. And somehow my team won. So I went, there was

basically four balls would have been organised and then in the bar the night before the lads were like, why are you not playing golf? So I was like, I'm really bad. And they're like, just come. Just come for the fun just come and drive the caddy like it's great laugh did wonder why you were with seven lads eight lads all the girls played together no to be fair the girls were all in their own they'd all organised to go prior

so laura jackson joined the girls so there's five of the girls together so in my group was um one of the PDMs from i think he does like the gloucester area um guy called martin cropper who is one of the funniest men i've ever met David Payne Harry Swindles and Miles Hammond so great group great 10 out of 10 group

David and Harry carried us they were the glue that held it all together Miles can play golf like he's all right he was a bit hit and miss me and Martin

awful awful we were like the run of the litter they were dragging us they were taking us with us so anyway one hole I came into my own and I had a great hole I won it and got us some points

so I felt like I could actually achieve something but I've hit this ball and I've managed to get it onto the green somehow but the green's like up higher so you had to like... Anyone else that's like switched off here just it's not going to last one. Keep listening, keep listening.

So I'm up on the green I was like oh my God I've got somehow managed to get this ball from the tea to the green without going out of bounds that's unbelievable so I was like right I need my putter so I got the putter and they're like cross it I think you're going to need something a bit like a bit bigger than that so I was like what I'm on the green

and they're like no no no you're going to take the five iron And I was like, five iron, I'm on the green. And they're like, yeah, but you're on the wrong green. No, right. Oh, no. No. They were like, you've got another 150 yards to go. You could have been like, let me have my moment.

Oh, I was good. I was thought, oh, God, I'm going to bird here. Turns out I was three shots away from the actual green. Oh, for God's sake. Sounds like that was a good trip, though. It was a good trip, it was, yeah. How was your holiday? Holiday was nice, thanks.

with my mum and dad for a week in the hot Cyprus sun. So, yeah, I'm good. I'm actually good. I feel like I'm ready for a bit of routine and to be sat down for a little bit. But, yeah, I've had a good time. How are you? Good, good.

You know what? I'm in Australia. If you didn't already know, you don't follow me on socials. I'm here. I came to the other side of the world. I had a horrific three days, crossy, like horrific three days.

I flew from Crete. to Heathrow. I waited around all day. We went for breakfast. I had really nice Friday. It was horrific. It was horrific. No, no, no. This is where it gets bad. Flew from Heathrow to Singapore, 15 hours, 13 hours, whatever it is. In the middle of a couple. So I decided that I should probably shuffle and let them be together. I'm so glad that you actually said that, because if you'd not have moved there, I'd have questioned everything that you've ever done. I just need some love.

Talk over me. Imagine if you were holding both their hands. We can be linked by me. And they like, when we set off, they were like making me uncomfortable. Were they like kissing and cuddling? And it was real weird. Wait, have you swapped at this point?

Are they going over? But I recognised him. And like, I was like, I know him, but he's also kissing someone and it's making me feel weird, like, what, I'm on a plane and I don't know what to do. So I just put like an eye mask on and I was like, oh my God, I don't want to know what's happening next. And then we started chatting, you know, like, because you don't sleep on flights and it's like 10 hours in. I was like, oh, what you're doing? He's like, I'm going to Bali for a wedding, blah, blah, blah.

Turns out I don't know him. Never heard of him. Oh. I don't know who he is. Yeah. Anyway, longest 15 hours of my life. Get to Singapore. I have to run through the airport because my next Canadian.

flights in like 20 minutes and Singapore airport is massive run through there fly five hours to Perth landing Perth lovely I'm here great work got to sleep got to work

commentate get up really really early the next day me I think jet lags a myth it is a myth you know it's a mindset I'm fine I'm up I'm about we go to the airport it's 8 o'clock in the morning

miss the flight we missed the flight because I don't have a flight booked. Henry had one booked. I didn't. So we all didn't get on the flight. We waited to the next one,

which was three and a half. I'd have left you there and then. Yeah. Yeah. So would I, actually. I'd have left me there. Because what happened next is we waited three and a half hours

in Perth airport for the next flight to Sydney. We flew to Sydney. Our connecting flight to Canberra was delayed by three and a half hours. Oh, you hate to. see it you do so it took me 16 hours to get from Heathrow to Perth and then 16 hours to get from Perth to Canberra wow wow that's longer than the flight from the UK yeah and went make things worse we get here and all the journalists flew at 1pm from Perth to Camber and it took them three

hours oh dear oh dear you look you look like you've recovered from it now though yeah I've slept for two days nice there's nothing literally do you know what, when you jet lag like that and you're tired, like for some reason flying and traveling, bless you. Oh, she turned a mic off. We've got mics, yeah. She turned a mic off, but she just sneezed and I blast her. There's nothing worse than when you'd like that amounts of tired that, you know, you have to do more travelling. But I think jet lag has proved to me that I would not hold up well under torture because when I'm in that state, God, I'm a bad person and I would give anyone the information that they need. But I still don't believe in.

Jet lag, because I've been very privileged in my... I thought you're going to say torture then. I don't believe in torture. I've been very privileged in my England career that we flew business. So, you know, you can sort of go, all right, okay, maybe you don't suffer with jet lag because you sleep and you lie down. Well, I didn't fly business, but I got here and I was fine, and I just don't believe in jet lag. I think when you travel economy, though, you're so tired and the sleep you get isn't good sleep.

Like, you actually can get some decent sleep in business. but when you're that tired and you've been sat upright for 24 hours I think you're just so tired you'll see whenever my ankles crossy was so swollen I couldn't put my shoes on did you have ankles like me yeah I had crossy ankles but other than that absolutely fine here covering the World Cup

so you're going to get all the gossip from the other side of the world well this is we could just tell everyone now that we've got the go ahead to send you over as the no-balls correspondent for the Men's World Cup So, you're all welcome. Speaking of aeroplanes, something 10 out of 10 embarrassing happened to me. I am so glad you brought this up because it's the only podcast note I've written down. Because it's reminded me when you said you've got fat ankles.

Yes. So I got off the plane, we come back from Lamanga, got off the plane in Manchester and obviously it was raining. And you know the little metal steps that they give you? Yes. Looking back now, it seems really daft to put metal steps in a wet country. But anyway, just talking to Sophie and Laura, the girls that I'd flown with. And as I'm talking, my right foot goes to hit a step and slips off it, like cartoon style slips. But you know, sometimes that happens and you catch the next step and you're like, ooh, you have that moment where you're like, oh, that could have been bad.

No, no, no, I didn't catch the next step. And I didn't catch the next one or the next one or the next one. I fell down seven stairs, nearly two-footed the geyser in front of me down them. And I was like, and Sophie in the panic has like tried to grab. but the only thing that she did grab was my no balls bottle out of my bag so she saved the no balls bottle from getting dinted i'm on the floor like all sprayed everywhere i was like oh my god i can't stand up here this is really really embarrassing and everyone's like are you all love love you're all right get up are you're right and i don't know why they're from barnsley getting into

manchester um and i really hurt my ankle like but like it was really badly grazed but i'm really proud of them because at that point i could easily have snapped one of them you know what my biscuit ankles alike. And they survived? How, they survived? Honestly, I don't know how. And when you texted out, I fell off. Actually, you fell out of an aeroplane.

I fell out of the plane. I was like, oh no, she's at herself. Oh my God. No, I'm fine. I am fine. But yeah, 10 out of 10 embarrassing. Yeah, embarrassing. Shall we introduce this week's guest?

Yeah, let's do the disclaimer now. I know we've said it a little bit before. But like you said, we recorded this a while back. Yeah. We've had it up our sleeves. We've been saving it for a rainy day. And in Canberra today, it's raining. It's not in Manchester.

It's gorgeous and sunny. Oh, that's a surprise, actually. So yeah, enjoy this one. You weren't expecting us to do a podcast for three weeks, and we've decided that we're ready, so we're back. There you go. Hope you enjoy it. We've got a very special guest on the podcast this week.

We were actually meant to get her on during the Commonwealth's, but here we are. Time difference makes it difficult. But we've got walk-up winner times 10 probably. Brisbane Heat winner. Commonwealth Games winner. This is the worst intro you've ever done. Jess, Jonathan. Gee, thanks.

Hey, you could have said old housemaid as well. you know. Yeah, best friend and old housemate. I was really hoping you wouldn't bring that up. He brought up in the first 45 seconds. Oh, yeah. You were the third. I have got some stories. Oh yeah. There's a few. Yeah. So let's kick it off. How was it living with Crossy then? Look, it was good. I think there was a moment there though where I feel like Crossie and my partner Sarah bonded more than we did. Obviously, like, you know how much Crossy loves friends, right? Everyone knows.

My partner Sarah is like next level as well. So they were quoting friends and I'm just sitting there not having any idea what's going on. So it wasn't because otherwise, me and Jono had always been talking about cricket and then Sarah would be like, can we talk about something else? And then we both realized how much we loved friends and we'd like have friends off. It was quite, it was quite cool, but also quite sad. No, it was really good though I mean, I got a pretty lovely gift at the end of it

Got a new coffee machine So I was like, crossy, you can stay I thought, I did think You bought her a coffee machine Yeah, well I thought Whoever has to put it with me for three months deserves something good And Jess is a bit of a coffee snob

So I was like, I'll get her a nice coffee Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey You are I'm not a snob I like my coffee, I'm not a snob Okay, most Australians are coffee snobs though yeah but have you tasted like some of your coffee over there yeah right this is reason reason number one why you're a coffee snob seriously though like you got it gets so cold over

there would you not have thought like that the english would have perfected every single hot beverage there is we're good at tea yeah yeah but that's you can't really stuff tea up that's true that is true i didn't think we'd be having an argument about coffee in the first four minutes of how was the Commonwealth Games JJ because obviously you won obviously so I want to know how it was for you guys

probably better than for the English team but anyway I don't know what you're talking about no yeah um no like Crossick sorry I couldn't help myself that's take number one

Cross it can probably attest to this being like it was a really cool feeling to be part of something bigger than just cricket, like all the other athletes around, yeah, like it was just a pretty special thing and obviously being the first time for women's cricket being included as well. The atmosphere and crowds at all the games was amazing. So, yeah, it was really nice to sort of be able to be out there and play in front of, like, fans of the game as well as people who have never experienced cricket before. You could tell people hadn't experienced it.

They'd like clap everything that happened in the crowd. I know that there was one point. I think it was in the first game when Midge just like guided one to first slip. And she's having to walk back up through the crowd after like a second ball duck. And they're just like, oh, clapping. And I'm just like, oh, no. Someone after our bronze medal match, someone congratulated me on how well I kept in the crowd. They said had a really good day behind the stones.

oh dear well i was just going to ask what was the crowd like for the final match because um i always feel like competitions like that when you've not got the home teaming can sometimes not be a great atmosphere but it looked like it was still pretty good it was incredible i don't know what the capacity for edge boston is but it felt like it was above capacity there like obviously with india being in that um gold medal match as well that absolutely cricket mad and they're always probably some of the loudest supporters but yeah it was actually like incredible there was people dancing around dressed in traditional Indian clothing and I mean being an Australian team playing in England no one's going to be

going for us what makes you say that what do you mean I just have I have ashes to as experience of that I mean like to be fair though like the English love good cricket but if you're in Australia and it's sort of like they'll only congratulate you after the fact never during the time um but yeah it's like our semi-final the crowd was going for new zealand the final or the gold medal match they were going for india obviously yeah but i mean it was it it sort of drives you more to be fair um the most in question most in question the most important question that we're going to ask you on this podcast did you have a medal pocket in your kit no but i did read about that and i was like oh oh i had the same views as so

i want to clear something up because i got a lot of stick for this we as an english team got a lot of stick for this especially when new zealand beat us in the bronze medal match and we didn't get a medal for our medal and your be in your metal pockets got just in it our metal pocket you're like he has your mothballs coming out yeah it's empty it does does have a few pins in it, a few spare pins that I picked up, but... Hey, you promised me one. Did I not give you one? No.

Oh. That's okay. Yeah, I'll give you, I'll give it to you at the next World Cup, if I may. Okay. Squad. But I didn't design the kit for everyone that gave me stick on Twitter. So it wasn't like I was like, oh, we should have metal pockets. And all the athletes had a ceremony jacket, and that's what the metal pocket was in.

So if you're at the ceremony, you've won a medal, so you need it in a metal pocket. So just everyone that gave me stick needs to just calm down. You could have just said it was just a pocket. No, but it said metal on it. So it was a metal. So, yeah, okay. That's a design floor. That's so cocky.

Okay, right. Some games, England or, well, not. I mean, cool idea, but I'd want to keep it around my neck, just saying. Yeah. What have you done with it? I've actually got like, this sounds really cocky. No, in the new house, we've got like this landing at the top of the stairs. So it's sort of a few cabinets where there's a bit of memorabilia in it and on the wall.

Cabinet, so that's funny because our next question is, how many medals does that actually make it for you now? Because we couldn't add them all up? I'm not entirely sure, to be fair. I think four or five, maybe. So we did a team quiz the other night, and Rachel Haynes was like, I don't know how many World Cups have won.

Surely you know how many World Cups you've won. Well, see, for me, saying how many I've won, whether I classed in 2018 T20 World Cup as something I won because I was there, but I didn't play. like that's a bit of a touchy area for me that I don't really know what to classify that as

but like I mean I was there as part of the squad but I know my first one was 2013 at T-21 but that's about it I mean I'd be able to tell you I could just go and take us to your cabinet cabinet who was a cabinet for all the matter I actually have two but

Anyway, we had a metal pocket bag on sticks. You've got two metal cabinets. So I've got some stuff in here, which, like, I mean, that includes Big Bash stuff as well. And a few, like, domestic things. We've got our little pool table here. Nice. So, yeah, got, like, a few of these things on the wall. Oh, cool.

for anyone who can't see as it's a podcast you're showing as like memorabilia in frames and stuff. Yeah, got some bats and got some Brisbane heat stuff but yeah, got a few medals in here one, two, three, four, five, six, seven including

the gold medal. So there's six four-cut medals including and then the Commonwealth's the seven. Yeah. What do you how. It's interesting. Do you know what? Go on you go.

I was just going to I'm going to say, it's interesting what you say about the not, the, the 28T one where you've not played a game, but you get a medal, like, if we'd have won a medal at the Commonwealth, I don't know how I'd have felt about it either, because it's a cool thing to say to someone that you've got, like, a bronze medal in the Commonwealth's, but I didn't play, so would I have said that to people? I don't know. I mean, it doesn't matter because we've not got one, so. It's like, possibly gave away a T20 medal, like, the other week. I know it's only a little series, but you just gave it away. You're like, I've not played, you have it.

So you give it to the kid. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really strange feeling. It's really, you know, isn't it? Because it's like, you weren't out on the field. So, like, for me, I was sort of like, well, I didn't contribute. But then it's sort of like, when you reflect a bit more, you sort of like, well,

you kind of did contribute, but it wasn't in the same way. You hydrated everybody really well. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, I told the spinner's not like where not to bowl and what to do when to get hit for six by Harmon Preet and blow all the batters into some form in the nets. That's what our job is when we do the drinks. Yeah, it's just like, here you go.

Oh, yeah, nice, hopefully. So you are basically part of the most successful team that I think we're ever going to see in international women's cricket. But in 2017, that wasn't really the case. So you had, you lost in the semifinal of the World Cup in 2017? Yeah. And then the journey that your team went on from then to winning the 2021 walk-up was pretty epic. Like you lost one ODI game in that whole time, didn't you?

Yeah, we did. And that was in like one of the series. I think India came out and that was literally like a series or two just before the World Cup when like there are, I think, moons or Rach were out. Shooter and I weren't there. so we were able to blood some really young people as well. But yeah, sort of that journey, we've sort of reflected on it a fair bit since the 50 over World Cup, like as a team that it was such like a business-oriented approach for like that period of time from, also it was really devastating.

Like we were going in as like favourites basically for that 50 overall cup in England with having won the ICC champs and all of this sort of stuff, having really good form and then yeah harman had a massive day out or should i say crossy 2.0 um yeah and absolutely played an absolute epic and like from there yeah it's sort of i think it was probably a bit of a wake-up call that we needed that we'd started getting a little bit complacent and um just expecting things to happen because we had had some a little bit of success sort of already but yeah to that journey as you sort of described it from that moment to that 50 over world cup in New Zealand that yeah it sort of was it was pretty epic and yeah the way that

we did it and the way that we played our cricket and sort of everyone committing to that process and that brand that was probably the important thing that people committed to it committed to their role within that and had a lot of fun doing it. Surely, surely you're allowed to be complacent now. No, no, a big thing for our, no, no, a big thing for our group is the ability to evolve. And I think two key things that we're sort of wanting to focus on moving forward is sort of that evolution of us as individuals as well as a team, but then equally our global impact and how we can sort of help develop and drive the game globally.

And I guess our try series before the Com Games up in Northern Ireland with Ireland and Pakistan is sort of a small step in that. But then, yeah, sort of initiating conversations with some of the other teams and players in other teams such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka and all of that and trying to make sure that we can play our part, I guess, in making sure that the gap doesn't get to. far from the top three or four nations to the ones that are coming in because obviously now those couple of extra countries coming into the women's championships is really

exciting like Bangladesh and Ireland so we want to make sure that it's that those teams and those girls are getting as much as they can out of those experiences. Not only is it really annoying that you win everything but you're actually doing it in a really nice way as well you're trying you actually good people about it which is even more infuriating i thought all the ozies are d'x maybe we are when we're on the field but when you said when said it was like really business orientated who drove that is that motty or was that meg uh to be fair i think it was a bit of both and probably a little bit from like the high performance management as well like um but yeah probably moddy and meg and their relationship and their connection and how

they could connect back to the wider group was probably what drove that um and like i mean meg such a serious character and so driven and so um so focused on a on a goal and um yeah it was sort of i guess for her she'd had the the shoulder injury as well sort of around the 2017 world Cup and stuff. So she probably felt like she had something to prove too and wanted to sort of be the driver of that. But yeah, I mean, hers and Rach's leadership was probably a massive driver for that. And yeah, putting in place the standards that we wanted to have to like I think too. Like it's always one of those things that it's like you set a goal and then figure out how to achieve it and then commit to that. Like it was probably something as simple as that.

But the fact that every single person who was either in the squad at that time of that semi-final loss or the new players coming in, that it's like they knew the expectations, knew how we wanted to play and what they could contribute in order to, I guess, fit into the way that we wanted to play. Do you guys miss Mottie or, well, you're going to say yes, are you? No, I didn't like the bloke. No, we had a terrible time under him. No, I think, like, yeah, we do miss him.

Like, he was a big character and he was a real people person and a real, he always got around everybody and was very sort of laid back, but like cheeky and sort of allowed people to relax a little bit. And you miss, like, he had a significant impact on our group. So you're going to miss anybody who had the sort of impact he had. But in saying that, I mean, like the group's in a really good spot, like Shell coming in. And, yeah, sort of in a bit of a turnover with sussing out who's going to be the full-time head coach and other staff members over this next little period, which is exciting for our group.

It's sort of something different and something new and another challenge. I've got to be honest now. Do you ever just get bored of winning or like the... I'm sorry, do you think I haven't been honest? No, I'm in properly honest Because I know what You're just going to say yes to this But like are the parties just as good

Now like winning World Cups and Commonwealth Or is it like oh that's another medal To add to the cabinet Nah The parties are just as good I mean To be fair though Like the last two

Have been pretty epic Because they've been the ones We've sort of been building towards So it's sort of yeah I think I'll let you know if we can be holding the trophy at the end of the South Africa T20 World Cup. Let us know if they've had a good time and they've gone, oh, let's just go on, lads. Just another one in the trophy cabinet.

No, no, it is equally just as special in all seriousness. I can't talk for anybody else, but for me personally, each and every time it is just as important and just as special. it definitely felt like the Commonwealth games there was a lot more emotion from your girls that all the pictures i saw it looked like it just felt like something a bit more special for some reason yeah and that yeah it was and like that was sort of the what i touched on that it's like being part of something bigger um than just cricket that it's like we were representing even though when you go and play for like in an asher series or another bilateral series like you are still

representing Australia and your country or England or whatnot, but I don't know, there was just such a different feeling about this. And I think because it was the first time that it was happening, so it's like you had the opportunity to be part of history and to be able to, yeah, showcase the game. And like that was sort of the bigger picture for us. And I think that's what brought about those extra feelings and emotions around it. I did look epic. I didn't watch it, obviously, because I'd gone home, but...

I wouldn't have bothered. Imagine watching that finally, you're not in it. Got tickets in the ballot. I actually don't know how we ended up winning, to be honest. No. Because, do you know what that is? That's a team that knows how to win and a team that doesn't know how to win

the difference between the two. Yeah. I was saying to a few people sort of after the fact that it would have been very interesting if four years ago or whatnot that when it was first spoken about that the women's IPL was introduced sort of what impact that potentially could have or could have had on not only that that game but also the the T20 World Cup final here in Australia like with India there as well sort of potentially getting overall with the occasion and

whatnot like it'd be very interesting what impact that potentially could have on a lot of players in those high pressure games and yeah I mean from all reports it could come about next year I saw harmon did an interview saying that they keep making the same mistakes in these big finals and it's because they're playing those big finals every three years so that they've got that one opportunity and it's a really big occasion but like you said if you if you're playing like in the women's IPL and you're getting those pressure matches four or five times in a little series then suddenly girls know how to be in those moments and I have I feel like you girls have had that with your domestic structure now for what,

four or five years where you've had a really good standard of cricket to fall back into when you're not playing international cricket. Yeah, exactly. And I think too, like you look at probably the players, particularly in the Indian team, that were the performers in probably both of those games or some of those games, are the girls that have come out for either, I guess, the 100 over there or the WBBL over here, that it's like you're playing against quality teams like with multiple internationals as part of them

and constantly learning and developing your own game as well. Like it is no surprise that sort of in those bigger moments that we are the ones that probably come off on top because we've been exposed to those sort of situations to some degree a number of times before. Do you think you're Australia, you're about five years ahead of England where you're at domestically, you know, professionally and all that? Do you think you're always going to be five years ahead

or is someone going to catch you up at some stage? Look, I think it's an interesting one because bringing in what the 100 has done, I think, already has been massive, allowing, I guess, a lot of the, particularly in the women's game, a lot of those domestic players are playing in. in front of like massive crowds now that normally i guess part of the ksl or other competitions they probably wouldn't have been um so that in itself is probably one and knowing that their games are on tv and it's those little things that if you're not used to it you sort of overthink it um

and then sometimes could potentially impact your performance or um or even just like how you act so i think that what that's doing as well as from a financial point of view as well is allowing a lot of girls to sort of, particularly in England, to dedicate more time to their craft. The same as I think, what was it, this is the second or third year that some of the counties have brought in professional contracts as well. So, like, it's allowing girls to actually dedicate more time to improving their skills, which in turn is going to elevate the whole domestic competition if more people or more girls are able to dedicate that time to to getting better.

So do you think we're going to catch you up? Um, we'll try our best not to. I don't know. That's always the challenge though, is like we don't want anyone to catch, but at the same time, our focus is also in making sure the gap's not too big.

So. Oh, so you're not training as hard as you could. All right, then. Standards have slipped since Mottie left. no it's like you want to just sort of how can we sort of keep investing i guess without sort of losing too much ground but everyone's sort of coming up at the same time like not not necessarily you guys or um or new zealand in a sense even though for them that it's like they're still making improvements as well with pay structures and everything like that which is going to have massive

massive impacts and even we've seen with India over the last few years as well that since there's been greater investment into the women's program it's no surprise that they're performing better and more consistently I reckon in 10 years time there'll be a huge

well I would hope to see that women's cricket is a lot more equal in terms of people challenging for trophies because you don't want like for the good of the game as good as it is for you in your trophy cabinet we don't want you just to keep winning because it almost going to be fair like we do want to keep winning but it's like you want to be challenged by every every single opposition like and you are to some extent but you know that there are some that if you just hang in for a little bit longer that you'll then be able to come out on

top whereas you want it to be that you don't know what the result's going to be on any given day regardless who you come up against yeah and that i do i think you're right i think that comes with investment of like the leagues and the domestic stuff around the world and hopefully the women's IPL will help that massively as well because it'll be another opportunity to play in different conditions and under a lot of pressure and countries like allowing their female players to play in those competitions yeah as well like that's a big one is making sure that it's like these competitions can be running but if the the local boards aren't actually allowed allowing these girls to come out and play

and try and improve their skills because ultimately that's going to help improve their national team as well. Like, then it's sort of, yeah, why would you have these competitions if they're not allowed to play? Right, this has got real deep, Crossy. Yeah, you can blame me.

Shall we do our quiz? Should we do something that she can't win? Yeah. No, okay, challenge accepted. We have made a little quiz for you. It is a little one. It's a little one because we planned it at 7.45 this morning. We did four questions and went, that'll do.

This is hopefully the questions that you've never been asked about your own career, JJ. Okay. We'll see how well you know yourself. Question number one. You've played 94 T-20s for Australia. How many have you had to bat in? 22 oh come on you're better than that well i bet like 10 you open the batting at one point didn't you oh yeah i forgot about that you've opened the batting and the bowling in the t20

i did yeah yeah it was 41 um 40 oh yeah okay okay he nearly got that right that's a big cross next to that one what's higher negative five What's higher? Your T20 average or your ODI average, this is your bowling average. T20 average is higher. No, I don't know the answer. I wrote the answer down,

but I don't know which one it is. No, your ODIs is higher. And the only reason really that we put this question in is just to highlight how good you are at bowling. Your ODI average is 19.69 or 67, depending on which website you looked at. And your T-21 is 19.23. Huh, there you go

You are good How are you that good at cricket? It's just that makes me feel sick Yeah, left arm spinner to left arm spinner Give her some help, Jono Yeah, like I don't even actually turn the ball So I don't know, you should ask the batter What's their problem

To be fair, I think I've given you For like at least five of those wickets Caught and bold. But be fair, though, a few of them were some caught and bolds, and I'm known to drop them. You always catch mine for some reasons. Yeah, I've wept on them recently, so. Really? You surprised yourself in the World Cup off the one of Catherine, where you just laughed at it.

Oh, yeah. That should not even count. Don't say that to Brunty. Yeah, I actually got a smile out of her for it, so I was like, oh, maybe it was like, I'm plotting how to hurt you. A grimace. okay next one bring it on oh it's me you've bought three big bash maidens who were they against were they all against the same team i don't know we don't know the answer we're hoping you might

know um cheese no i would not have a clue non spring to mind um i'll say hobart hurricanes is one correct potentially I think I did that last I think I did that last season actually that's the only reason I would know that one um terrible question and sixes

wrong wrong wrong we were hoping you'd have a story like oh yeah harm and face the maiden or something I don't know no no it's not like Deandra what DDoTS did in the com games just dead batting me but um I mean I thanked her when I ran past her

but she's got me not now she's playing for my team in the 100 right you are number one for what in women's cricket in test cricket

in test cricket particularly no you've given the answer away I'm not I wouldn't have a clue do you're going to tell you yeah being dismissed for 99 I've joined an illustrious group of people

and it's it happened in what 2015 and it's still too soon is it still too soon oh I've never got another opportunity to do it and I probably never will but it's a good story like I'm not being funny he's scored 99 if you scored 100 it's still the same

yeah I know I just blame Sarah because she got her camera out, did she? Yeah, yeah. You just got a camera out and then was like, oh, sorry. Have you watched the footage on Sarah's camera or can you not bring yourself to do that? No, I've watched the footage on like replays of the game. And yeah, it breaks my heart a little more every time. I'm like, how did you miss that? Like, what was thinking? And then particularly, I was like, oh, if there was DRS, I'd review it and be like, oh, I did a pitch outside leg. I was like, no.

No, it was out. I know. I know. I know. I remember that test match so vividly because I was watching in the crowd because I was a badger. And it rained, didn't it? There's so much rain that everyone was like, oh, they're not going to go back out. And now I'm late.

You're back out. There was a storm like that legitimately shut the power off, like the lights at the ground. turned off. And if the ground was another slope, like, it would have been flooded. Like, the water just kept going down the slope. Yeah. And then we were back on in like 30 minutes, weren't we? It just drained really quickly and we were suddenly back on.

Yeah. It's so funny, though, like, because the one thing I remember the most about that game, obviously, like, and it has nothing to do with me, was Lydia Duffman. I knew you were going to share this. And getting bold. Got bald. a bouncer now you're saying your 99 is too soon to talk about i genuinely think she can't talk about that yeah i don't think anyone's ever brought it up with it because it's not okay

no it was yeah it was a bit sad not our best moment another ash's series that was not our best moment but you guys don't really like playing ash's series at canterbury do you no no we've band that ground now we're not allowed to play there Jono you've been amazing thank you so much for taking the time to come on and talk about how good it is being the best in the world cricket no thank you for having me more importantly thank you for getting up at 7.30 in the morning

to talk to me so I really appreciate your time we've grown into it before we let you go Jono yeah I feel you've got a story about crossy sunbathing naked in your garden You've got a minute to tell it because this Zoom's going to finish. Okay, well, yeah, came home, Sarah and I must have, we were out somewhere and we didn't have a pool at this place, so we had like this little kiddie's pool as well. But, yeah, went home and Crossy comes in.

She's like, oh, I've got a story to tell you, I'm so mortified. She'd been sunbaking in the backyard and was topless and had been sort of just on her back And little did she know until after the fact that there was a two-story house next to us where somebody could have been standing at the window peering in the whole time getting the show of their life. But yeah, it was so funny. On that note, thank you, Jono. Brisbane, he opening bowl and naked in the garden.

What more could you ask for? Oh, dear. Okay, I'm going to go there. Bye. Bye. Thanks, John. Well, wasn't expecting JJ to say you get your boobs out when you sunbathe.

Don't be like that. You know I get my boobs out when we sunbathe. Yeah, but I wasn't expecting her to tell the world. Well, her and her neighbour are the only people that knew in Australia. Yeah, well, and now the world. In all seriousness, I know we say about every guest, but I really was actually fascinated listening to how. how Australia have approached their cricket for the last three years, whatever it was.

Like, how she spoke about that business model and, like, treating it like that and everyone buys it in? I just thought, yeah. No wonder they're so good. Yeah, no one. It is literally a no wonder, isn't it? Yeah. But I'm really interested. I'm really interested now. Obviously, Haynes has retired. Meg's having a little break from cricket. I'm really interested to see how they go as a team without two of their very senior players. Yeah. She's been rumoured as, potential captain. Do you think she'll do it? Get it? Has she? I don't know. I've not heard anything actually.

Well, you would have given it Haynes, wouldn't you? But obviously she's retired. So, yeah, it's just an interesting time for them. But I think it's a good thing for cricket if they aren't as strong as they have been in the past. Because if another team could beat them, that would be great. Yeah, give someone else a chance and please give us a chance. But then, looking at the WNCL, which has kicked off in Australia a couple of weeks ago, everyone's just scoring hundreds. So brilliant. I know, they are good, aren't they?

They are good. I'm hoping for another little injury while I'm out here in Australia. Yeah, nice. I'll be the worst player to play in the Big Bash again. Yeah, nice. Try and beat your scores from last time. Speaking of WBBL, that starts today, I think. Starts tonight.

So whenever you listen to this, it could have been yesterday, it could have been the day before, it could have been three months ago, who knows. But we'll do a few updates on that because there's a few English girls that have gone over there. Our very own Sophie Eccleston friend of the podcast has gone to play for the Sydney, of course she has because they play in pink.

Yes, and they're the best team. She's only going to play for the best team. Yeah. Please, though, do start emailing us again on Noblespodcast at BBC.co.com. That's noblespodcast at BBC.co.com. It's so good. They forgot to do this.

It's been so long. They said it twice. Crossie, that was your worst one yet. You were just looking at me going, what you're doing? Yeah, I was like, what's this one? We are back with our, should we say every nine day episodes? Let's not put a time scale on it and put pressure on ourselves, but we are going to be more consistent now.

We've got these good mics, I'll charge my headphones up. We forgot to say we don't know how to do the time difference thing, do we? We're not very good at that. We're not good at the time difference, but Henry's great, so Henry can work it out for us. And a few people replied to the Insta story, and they've sent a website you can use, that you can plan things based on time zone.

So I'll look into that. You go and do some commentary. I'm going to have a little sleep and then I've got my sister's hendee this weekend, so RIP, Kate. Oh, yeah, RIPK. So. You've been extraordinarily busy.

I'm just not used to it. No, I'm not used to be in this social. I'm going to go back to hibernating next week. No, I like it. You're glowing in. You've got a really lovely smile. face so stay busy yeah okay all right maybe it maybe this is what i've been lacking like people just fun just fun we've missed you all and we're going to see you all soon yes we won't see you

but you'll hear us soon you'll hear us on these fantastic microphones i'm not going to eat it again oh don't do that right bye bye and we're looking for. Hartley Falls. Down the track comes scoring. This time, Chicken X. It's either six or out.

It's six. Right. Strictly fans, listen up, because your favourite podcast is back. Check. I think we're ready to... Keep dancing. I'm Joe Sug. And I'm Kim Winston.

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