Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - Kate's in Spain, Alex is getting ready for Pakistan!

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Kate Cross and Alex Hartley are both set for cricketing adventures - Alex is off to coach in Pakistan, Kate's heading to the Women's Premier League. Plus, more animal quandaries.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Bring more gear, carry more passengers, face greater challenges. Welcome to the world of Defender, with seating up to eight, ample cargo space and legendary off-road capability. It's built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at landrover.ca. The drama. They're having to be separated. They've both been shown the red card. The entertainment. The Superstars

Welcome to the Planet Premier League podcast I'm Mark Chapman and every week, Cess Fabragas, Nadia Minua and myself talk all things Premier League. They have this dynamism and this quality that they can play anywhere. They need to prove themselves in scoring more and more and more goals.

I think if they don't win the title this year, the season is a failure in the league. Planet Premier League. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hi, everyone. The BBC have told us that we've got to issue a warning. We swear too much.

Henry does beep it out for us because he's a good man. It is actually so that your family can all listen. Your kids can listen. But we will say... B... ...s sugar. I think he said a really bad one. Cross comes in round,

Oh, that's... Boulder, boulder, 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 cross. Hello.

Welcome back to No Balls the Great Podcast, the award-winning No Balls the Great podcast, with me, Alex Hartley, and you, Kate Cross. Are we three-time award-winners? So sexy. Multi-award winning. Well, we were multi-award winning last year, and now we're multi-award winning even more this year. Now we've just taken it from 2023 to 2024. We've backed it up.

We've done what no England cricket team has been able to do with World Cup, so we've backed up. I would defended our title. Yes, getting. Get in. Congratulations, Chrossie. Congratulations you. And congratulations, Henry.

I feel like Henry gets overlooked a lot because he makes it sound good. But thanks, Henry. He's the glue. He used the glue. How are you? I'm good, thanks. I'm currently in Desert Springs in Spain. It's nice and sunny out the window.

I'll show you. You see? No. Nice and sunny. was good. But yeah, I'm all good. I'm in the middle of a training camp and been able to get some vitamin D. It's been visibly important for my winter training. I'm glad. My girls group chat was popping off yesterday and they were like, I think it's just the lack of vitamin D why we're all so miserable. I was like, not to get a scientific or anything, but that's probably the case.

That is exactly what happens. Yeah, so are you good? What you're doing? You look tired. up in the middle of the night. Yeah. Yeah. Do this podcast. 9.45 in the morning, crossy. And why along went off at 10 past and scared me. Actually scared me.

But yesterday I got up early and I was up and at him and I was out all day. I just don't like being artificially woken up. When you don't need to be other than the fact that this is your job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, I'm good. I had a great day yesterday, caught with loads of friends.

I was meant to be seeing Georgie Boyce today. But she's got a virus both ends. I can't come meet me. Poor girl. She's a bit of vitamin D by the sound of it. Yeah, she's come back from Australia early. So I was like, oh, I'll get to see you before I go away. She cancelled.

She texts me at 2am saying, I can't make it. When do you go away? Sunday. This Sunday? Uh-huh. Oh, gosh, right. Okay. So I need to come and see you this weekend then.

Well, we did organise tea Saturday, if you haven't forgotten. Did we? Oh, yeah. Oh, okay, right. Let's discuss that offer. Are you looking forward to going away? I'm looking forward to my tea Saturday night, yeah. Yeah, nice.

I am actually... Is that with Boisey? We're arranging with Boise? No, it's with cake ross. I'm looking forward to going away, yeah. Really, really looking forward to it. It's a strange, like, sensation, because it's quite daunting. because obviously I've never coached a men's team before.

Have you ever coached a team before? Well, I've done them coaching before. Right, for anyone that doesn't know, by the way, Alex is heading off to the PSL on Sunday to coach the Moulton Sultan's assistant spin coach, is that right? Yes. Yates. So she's off to Pakistan.

She's going to be teaching David Milan how to face spin and teaching Adel Rashid out of Bolston and we cannot wait. No, we've not got Adel Rashid this year. Who have you got? I thought you did. No, no, we've not.

We've got Rees Topley, David Willie, David Milan and Chris Jordan. Oh, right, okay. So you're not going to be, you're going to be dealing with the Pakistan locals then? Yeah. Nice.

But we're looking forward to the stories, Al. We can't wait. I'm so excited. Like, it is daunting, don't get me wrong, but I am really excited. It's something completely different. So yeah, I'm flying Sunday.

Fly on Sunday. I'm buzzing for you. I'm buzzing for you. And then you fly Wednesday. Yeah, Valentine's Day special for me, off on a flight. For the best. Yeah, well, you might meet the love of your life on your flight. The main thing for me is that I don't miss pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday on the Tuesday before. So that's more of the holiday that I like to celebrate than the Valentine's Day. Yeah, how many years have you been single?

No. Do we need to get into that right? Why? Why? Why? I just wondering how many shrug of Tuesdays you've had. Oh, I've had plenty of show of Tuesdays. Don't worry about that. Yeah. Yeah, it is to be fair. But I never make pancakes on any other day and then occasionally go, I am an adult. Like, I can just go and buy a birthday cake. I can just go and get a call in the catapel. I can just make pancakes. Yeah, yeah, you can. You can definitely do all those things. But, Pancake Tuesday is such a good day because you get the excuse to have it for your dinner without feeling guilty.

Okay, come on then. What do you put on your pancakes? So traditionally, when I was at mum and dads, I'd always have sugar and lemon juice, like the standard pancake. But now, now that I'm an adult, and I can go by Nutella and put strawberries on it and bananas and all sorts.

Do you know what pains me about you having pancakes once a year? Is the fact that once a year, the Monday before Tuesday, Trow of Tuesday, you'll buy a full jar of Nutella. You'll use it Tuesday and you'll never, never touch it again. I found some Nutella in my house the other day, Alan. I'm pretty sure it's from when you lived with me

because I don't buy Nutella. Exactly, it will have been, and you don't eat. I've never seen you eat anything that's bad for you, like, ever. You have, don't lie. All right, hardly ever. Like, it is a rare occasion. Don't think I've ever seen you eat a chocolate bar. Apart from that one time your housemate ate your mom,

bar and you decided you wanted it. I hate, it was a Snickers. Don't eat Snickers and she ate my Snickers that was in the fridge. I don't know why I had a Snickers and I got really angry about it and desperately wanted a Snickers after that. Yeah. To remember when you ate my whisper as well, you actually didn't eat it. You gave it away.

Yeah. Well, anyway, we've kind of really digressed here. Yeah, we have. I've talked about Pancake Day. But yeah, I've got your Nutella, so I'll probably slather a bit of that on it on Tuesday. I can't wait. Love Pancake Day.

Nice, right. Well, I want pictures on the no-balls account of your pancakes. Okay, deal. Have you got anything on your sticky note that we need to talk about? Have I? Oh my gosh. Have you been playing into the podcast this week? I have. I thought we had that meeting. I'd be a good little girl and write some notes. Oh, yes. Should we just tell everyone that we had an official meeting, an official podcast meeting with the BBC? It went well. This should be the slickest podcast that you've listened to

because we've planned it. Stay in that, you haven't got a microphone. Don't have a mic. I do. I've got a microphone right here. It's just not... Don't work. I'm attached.

Sorry, Henry. Please make us sound good. Make us multi-award winning. Again. Again. Go on then. What's on you sticking up? So just while we were talking about winning the award for the third time,

so Best Cricket Podcast at 2023, we were. were. I thought it was really ironic that Zero Ducks Gibbon came second, our rival pod. And it really cracked me up that Dan Norcrofts is our introduction to our podcast. It's like salt in the wound and then they came second and I'm here for it. So well done guys, but sorry about us. But you know what? I rang Dan the other day. I was on the 40 and he's just like, oh my God, you deserve to win. Congratulations. Amazing. Amazing. I love it. I love it. And I was like, oh, I wanted a bit of a fight. I feel like they're too nice they were really complimentary of us

and they came second and we were just like yeah we're winners we didn't compliment them once but we do I don't listen to know if it's good but I just know that Dan rambles off it is good I do enjoy it and I enjoy Finney's stories and I'm looking forward to him telling a story

about his headphones that he's lost I've been seeing I've been following this on Twitter his headphones have been stolen and they're somewhere in Copenhagen now aren't they following it on the map but anyway thanks Dan for helping us win that award. Thank you, Dan.

Thanks, Zero, Docs Given. Sticking out. We, where did we drive the other day? It was good. It was, we went somewhere. We had a day together, didn't we? A random day together. You went and met the new dog.

And we listened. It was the most, what was the word I used? Narcissistic. Narcissistic thing I think we've ever done. We put our podcast on whilst me and you were in the car, so we listened to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. and we had to turn it off. Yeah, we didn't enjoy it, did we?

Well, we turned it off because we reckoned in the first four minutes of the podcast, you said the word, wow, 75 times. You were listening to me, so you just kept going, wow. Yeah, you'd say something I was like zoning out, and I'd just go, wow. What? Wow. And you didn't pick up on it. I picked up on it when we were listening.

I just kept going, wow. what you're doing. I was like, listen. Like, if you keep listening, I will just say the word wow in response to whatever you'll see. So, just go back and listen to last week's episode and count the amount of times that Al says the word wow. In 17 minutes we did, and then we turned it off. Turn it off. So we're really sorry guys, but thanks for voting for us for winning the podcast awards. I was in bed the other night crossing. Oh yeah? Yeah. And I unlocked a core memory because I had blisters on the back of my feet. Wow.

And blisters are sore. And this core memory was us on tour in South Africa back in 2010. So remember the trip? Yeah. Well, I don't know what you're going to talk about, so I don't know. But you remember the trip? I remember going to South Africa. I don't know what year it was.

I think it would do, I don't know, sometime along then. 2010-ish. and you laughed at Nat Brown for having like lumps on the back of her heels on the back of her feet and I've never mentioned it before but I've got the same feet as Nat Brown

and I've got the lumps and I've been scared to tell you what? And you discovered this when you're in bed the other night? No I knew I had it I knew I had these lumps and I always remembered about Nat Brown but the core memory was it was you that was laughing at that being like what are those what's that growth on the back of ankle i can now picture that brown's feet but i think i've seen your feet many of times i know what your feet look like

yeah so i've got i've got the the bits at the back right okay and it i've been worried to tell you all these do we need to do anything about this not it's normal i think people have different feet yeah okay so are you going to put a picture of that up on social media so people can see what we're talking about. Right. We need an update from Toby. Yes. Yes.

So I've been messaging Toby on the Instagram account. So this is a guy who saw a cricketer that he likes on his dating app. We don't know what dating app it is. We thought it was me. It's not me. Hit the ego quite hard that one. And he loved how invested we are and he suggested we do a romance special. Yes.

So I message him saying, Toby, we need updates on this. Now, please keep us in a loop, and we have floated the idea of the love-slash-romance idea by the BBC. And he replied saying, I love how invested you are. You're correct with it being someone that plays at the Oval, however, they have not represented England yet. The only other clue I can give you is that she is a bowler, a little like Kate. Unfortunately, I've not had a response, so I'll just have to keep cheering her and the rest of the invincibles on in the summer. many clues here well. Love the idea of a 14th of Feb Valentine's special, keen to hear if others have had similar experiences slash dilemmas. So we're not doing that. We're doing a

pancake day special. We've cancelled the love special. No. I'm joking. I'm joking. Are you going to carry on? Well, that's the message. That's the end of the message. Oh, right. Okay. So I thought you were going on to your ideas. But, so this girl plays the Oberlincible. Oh, God, she's famous, Toby. Go on. And not played for England yet and is a seamer. So let's get the Oval Invincible Squad up. She's a Seema. She's not played for England yet.

I don't know. Honestly. Oval Invincible Squadless, 23. Where are you? Well, it's not going to be Marizan Capsche. South African has played international cricket. It wouldn't have been in and around the Oval a couple of weeks ago.

Why is it just the men's squads? Come on, Wistin. You're better than that. Have you not got the 100 app? Somewhere. Here we go. Teams. I better find these before you.

Women. Right, I'm on it. Okay, go. Oh, Rihanna-McDonnell Gate. Full squad. Oh, it could be her, you know. Sophia Smale is a spinner. so it's not her.

Eva Grey. Could be Paige Schofield. Eva Grey. Eva Grey. So we've narrowed it down. It's basically Reanna MacDonald Gay or Eva Gray. Or Claudia Cooper. Or Claudia Cooper.

Or... Claudia Cooper. I'm telling you. Right. Okay. Toby, we know you listen. We're invested. Please send us a little thumbs up or thumbs down off room even in the right direction.

Maybe I could put a good word in for him. Yeah, but about the Valentine's Day special, we want everybody to send us voice notes on Instagram about their Valentine's stories or dating catastrophes or anything that you think would be great for us to talk about. Yeah, like maybe some weird stories about how you met your partner,

some really unlikely events that meant that you now married, anything. We just want to do a love special. We're going to try and get a guest on to help us filter through all leads. We have told my love story with Harry and you. I don't know if we have. Should we save it for next week?

We'll save it for whoever we get on as a guest, and that can be the starting point. Perfect. But yeah, getting touch with us on Noblespodcast at BBC.co.com. Noblespodcast at BBC.co.com. It's so good. They said it twice.

Or Instagram us on at Nobles TCP. Same on Twitter and TikTok. Oh yeah, TikTok. TikTok? Booting off. Anything else are you sticking out crossing? Yeah, got something about TikTok. Yeah?

Why are people so angry at us? God, everyone hates me just because I didn't know if we'd caught all the cows, pigs and sheep. Yeah, well, guys, just take you with a pinch of salt. Everyone got so angry at it and, like, people saying you shouldn't be working at the BBC anymore because you don't know what a sight screen is

like guys it's just a bit of fun just loosen off it's okay we'll all be okay and I went running crossy congrats wait again say that again I went running crossy wow

and I put on my running shoes and I was like God I only went like last week turns out it was five weeks ago never mind that went quick and I thought Time flies Time flies for you did fall So I ran to the car garage, which, sorry, that's my belly,

ran to the car garage, which is at the top of my road, but there's two roundabouts. There's one roundabout after 400 metres, one after about 600 meters, one after about 600 meters then, the car garage. So I set off running, I got to the first round of hour and had to stop. Yeah, my, so walked to. In interval training. Yeah, so walked to the car garage, picked up, picked up the car, drove back to old and then downloaded Couchter 5K

and I've started doing Couch to 5K so I run for 90 seconds and I walk for 60 seconds and I've done it twice already Good work I mean you could go and do a 5K in half if you actually wanted to Yeah but every time I run at the minute

I go too far and too hard and hate it and don't run for another five weeks I thought if I do this three times a week but don't hate it Maybe I'll start to like running again Yeah nice So it'll just give you the kickstart that you need, basically. I like that.

It's raining today, though, so I don't. But the film in Britain's got talent down there, so I might go for a run just to see what's going on. Oh, my God, please get on the telly, please. Hi, God. It's just running through. Do you realize I work on the telly all the time? Yeah, but it's different when you're not meant to be on the telly.

Like, you're not meant to be on Britain's Got Talent, so it's funny if you end up on it. Well, speaking of that, I've put in an application, not having. What would you actually go on and do if you had to know, Britain's got talent? Rapping. Tiny temper songs.

Said it was a man. All they ever needed was a plan. You could go. Your talent, I think, is winding people up on social media. Yeah. Or, like, I have a genuine talent of, like, being hungry and not eating. I'm not sure how you display that in front of Piff.

Not many people are tuning in on a Saturday, like to watch that, I don't think. Yeah, I could just warn people about social media. My TikTok, our TikTok is great for that. I can't. I'm still look over it. So many angry people. So many. Right. Well, I've got something else on my sticking out

because England had played another test match, so he should dip into that. And the only thing I wrote down about the game, because I didn't watch much of it because I might mention it. I'm in Spain. Ahmed, he was technically not the night watcher. I know. I know. He did technically night watch. great and I actually worked a couple of days of the test match so I was up watching it and then

he shouldn't be funny but it was funny so good Jimmy came out and did an interview and he technically wasn't night watching so we're not allowed to use that that term but he went out there to put pressures on the bowlers and he did that he's striking at 112 and like when is that seen before in a test match the best bit about that Jimmy interview was the fact he was like yeah we need 400 to win he's like but we're not taking two days we're going to do it 60 overs. Do you know what? You want a day out?

So we woke up in the morning and it was the day that it finished so it would have been day four and we were walking down the breakfast. I said, I'll check the England score and I was walking with Tash Farrant and she said she summed it up perfectly. She said no one was ever going to chase down 400 in India on a day four pitch. But this England team made us think that they could and that is what's so special about this team. Yeah.

And they also made India think they could. could as well, which is even better. Like, imagine you being able to convince the Aussies that you're going to beat them. I know. I mean, we did. Yeah. Did that in an interview, didn't she? Yeah, that's true, and it worked.

And they've got beaten, South Africa beat them yesterday. That is amazing. So they beat them for the first time ever in a T-20, like two weeks ago. And they've beaten them for the first time ever, ever in an LDI yesterday. So good. So, so good. I saw Kappi did an interview this morning, and she basically spoke about it. the importance of Australia not having Meg Lanning anymore. So when they were 40

had for four yesterday, you'd normally have Meg Lanning come in and fix that situation. And she said it's almost not her retiring, has closed the gap. But how has South Africa are getting better, Australia have obviously been weakened by losing Meg Lanning. So it does make such a difference and teams can now beat Australia. And I feel like we just mention this every week in the podcast and we're going to keep doing it every week. Do you reckon Meg's just sat on a throne? I'm going to just bring some chairs in so I can put my arms out so arms out sat there like I was the glue that held this team together oh I mean it it must be a great feeling knowing that your team is a worst team

without you in it but oh without a doubt she's never getting dropped she's not like me and you I do think that she's missing it surely you're going to be missing it yeah of course and before we go see emails crossy yes I had a little fopois. Is that the right word? I don't know because I don't know what you're going to say. I don't know. Well, I didn't get any emails last week and we put it down to me having no data. A faux par. Oh, foie po'pua.

Oh, foie, foie. Fopwa. And we didn't think anything of it. And then Henry sent emails again yesterday. I didn't get them. And I was like, what? This is really weird. But I've not had them in the past because my inbox has been full. That went through.

and I deleted lots of emails and they still didn't come through so I went on my little folder says no balls and scrolling through and I was like they look different to usual they're normally they don't they're not normally that colour

they don't normally look like that turns out I just decided that I was going to block no balls the cricket podcast from BBC so you blocked our email account yep so that's why I've not been getting emails because somehow in the process

of recording podcast from one week to the other I blocked no balls I didn't even know that was a thing yeah you can block people on email so I don't get nobles emails anymore because I unblock them yesterday and still again well I forwarded them all to you so you can get reading yeah so I have got them but they have to come through

gate cross rather than no balls TCP so one in the email said that we've not been upstairs with Kim Cotton yet and she was one of the first female standing umpires in a men's game so when you to go upstairs with Kim, I reckon. Let's go. Peb Guardiola. A perfectionist. A tactical genius. The best manager of his generation.

The best manager in history? Reserve team coach Peve Gordiola, a popular former player at the new camp will take over from Reichard. This is a podcast all about the man who has shaped the modern gay. It feels almost as if he's solved the riddle, if he's cracked the code for football. From his history in La Masia to dominating football across Europe. He's brought a brand of football to the Premier League that we've

never seen before everybody plays like pep's teams now on football he takes you to to heaven from bbc five life sporting giants pep guardiola listen on BBC sounds um right do you want to go first or would you like me to go first I can go first you on that hi Kate and Alex it's been about three years since I last emailed in so after hearing Alex's question about catching all the cows pigs and sheep Sheeps, she said, it's sheep. It's not sheep, even I know that. Although it's strange that it's not, and it's not mouses. Don't get into it, oh, there's not time.

There isn't, that conversation had gone for a long time. It made me think of a perfect question to ask you both. I'm ready. Do you think, crabs think, humans walk sideways. Oh, oh. So they walk sideways. and they see that as normality. So, yeah, they must think, they must think, no,

no, because they actually do walk sideways. Their face is this way and then they go that way, whereas our face is this way and we go this way. I don't think crabs think. There is also that. The best bit about this email crossy from Sarah. P.Ns. But yes, I've added all the necessary punctuations

to make it easier to read and understand. understand because I remember Kate saying I heard bad grammar after reading out an email from a few years ago so she had bad grammar so that's why Sarah's not been in touch for three years because I shouted at her sorry Sarah but you've also put sheepses sheep sheep don't be discouraged for getting in touch guys we really do appreciate it well I've got more serious one for you hear out. Hi Kate and Alex, long-time listener and emailer. Sorry that this one is more serious than an LBW dating advice or the like. You're a breath of fresh air and I look forward to each pod dropping. But I wanted to get your view on the conflict between the WPL and the New Zealand

tour in March. I believe players picked up by franchises will have to be available for the whole tournament which finishes on the 17th of March. While the 1st E20 in New Zealand is on the 19th of March, we've already seen Lauren Bell and Heather Knight pull out. It's a really big shame that this has come up as it's usually been a much less cluttered calendar with the women's international game. I hope that this can get sorted out for future series. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially self-cate, form in the WPL and all that it brings. But this is obviously far more complicated now. Thanks and keep up the awesome work guy. Yeah, it is. But just going to put it into context, the ECB will pay around 30 to 90

grand per year. The WPL pace that in four minutes. So England can't say to players you can't go. They can advise them not to go, but they can't say don't go, surely. So this is the first time that, and I think it's my understanding is that it'll be the last time that there's a clash like this. So this is a unique situation. And I actually think that the ECB dealt with this really well because players were spoken to about the situation saying there's obviously the big time difference is what the problem is so you can fly from India to New Zealand if you're in that final and be there on time but the strain that it puts on your body

with the time differences means that you're more of an injury risk so because the IPL contracts the WPL contracts are more stripped in terms of basically if you can't play it all you don't play any but that's what's forced people to make that decision to to pull out so the likes of Heather I've obviously not been in any conversation that Heather's had with DCB but for her to miss her she's captain of England yeah she's captain of England there's probably not really a chance that she's going to miss the first three T20s she could have done she you know we all got given the choice to be involved in that selection and but obviously as

captain of England you're probably not going to pull out of those T20s so I actually think they've dealt with it really quite well by splitting the squads up. Yeah, I do. And Belly, for example, went to the Whipple last year and didn't play a game, but she would play for England. So she's better off going back to New Zealand and playing for England. But I just think people getting angry, put it into context. You know, Nat Sivabrunn is getting £340,000 for that competition.

That's like four years wage for the poor girl. Yeah. So you're not, it's funny because when it all came out, there was a few articles, wasn't there, on Twitter, that a few people had done. And there was, again, so much anger around it without people understanding what goes on. And I guess we're privileged in that we know what goes on. But I actually just thought that every avenue had been looked at. And even Louis said when we spoke about selection, we're in camp a few weeks ago,

and he said that we'd find out about selection that week. And he said, he thought it'd be quite simple to split the squads up. and it's probably been the most complicated thing he's ever had to work out, and it's taken four or five selection meetings to get to the point that they've got to now. But, but, Crossy, congratulations. Holly Armitage and Lindsay Smith. Lindsay was our first ever podcast guest. She was throwback, because she keeps her socks on.

She doesn't like the feeling of carpet on her feet. She sleeps in a socks. LBW. So Lindsay's been recalled, and Holly, Skipper, Supercharger Skipper, is her, it's her first call-up to an England squad and I'm so chuffer. I'm buzzing for them about. I literally buzzing for embalt.

Yes. So yeah, good question. Thank you, Guy. We've got one for the three of us here. So I think Henry's going to pop on in. Hi, guys. Congratulations on the podcast award. They're really deserved.

I have a question for you both. Plus, Henry, if he'd like to join in. We'd like Henry to join in. Yes, please. Do you practice ahead of commentary? For example, practice a saying out loud, difficult. Maybe I should practice this email. I actually did as well.

That's the irony. Irony. Oh, God. Shake of the head from memory. Do you see what I have to deal with on a weekly basis? I can't speak. But it makes it real. It's fine.

Do you practice a head of commentary? For example, practice saying out loud, difficult. words such as unfamiliar player names. Oh, I've heard it's an unfamiliar. Do you practice unfamiliar players' names or words you find harder to say? Do you also plan ahead for phrases to describe situations, or did these come to you in the moment on commentary? Oh, Henry.

Oh, it's a really interesting question, isn't it? Because you think, like, I always think that because the joy of sport is just unpredictable. because who could have known that Crossy was going to play that innings at Bristol and when me and you were on air together if our reaction had been sort of planned and we'd had phrases to say it would have sounded as sort of corny and cheesy

but actually I think it was the greatest respect Crossie the genuine shock in our voices can't have sold it, do you know what I mean? May as well, may as well, don't you worry. I think what you do so well, Alex, is genuine and your reaction is if you came up with all sorts of phrases that you sort of you came up with and said sort of

like I don't know like this is what she does this is how she does it Kate Cross is the is the sort of you know the finisher whatever and it just sounds fake yeah it does yeah that's true um yeah I don't think I could practice phrases but I do have to practice words and players names saying that it's that easy words I get right not the hard one by the four poise you can always you can always tell

when somebody's come up with a phrase and like you know you think about I don't know when Aggers was commentating

on the World Cup final and Joffra Archer and the Superover nearly throws the ball at the stump and he just shouts how don't throw it Joffra

because and that was just he was just like watching it and it was his entirely human reaction and that's what made it so brilliant and it was sort of if it's, I don't know, if it wasn't like that

and there was all these sort of planned phrases it, I don't know, it would lose its genuineness, I always think. Yeah, I'm with you. And could you imagine if well, I'm going to say and don't throw it, Joffery, it's like a genuine cricket fan watching that game. Like, do if you're watching football and you're like, oh, don't pass to him

or whatever, that's exactly what that was like. But I guess for me and you, like, we're just cricket fans commentated on it. Well, I am. Yeah. And things like Marizan cat bowling Beth Mooney yesterday. You can hear the commentators reacting on the TV coverage. There was a real shock.

And it was like, wow, that's amazing. And you want that. You don't want that, you know. There she is. Cap in hand. Mooney heads off into the sky and disappears amongst the stars in the dressing. Do you know what I mean? You're just saying, that sounds really lame.

So overall, you're reacting. But there must be moments, especially when there's people like David Willie playing and Quintinter de Cork. There's definitely moments that I know you two have got a little plan in your heads. Henry does because Henry likes to stitch me up and he does it so often so often The thing is sometimes just a moment presents itself

and you'll like something will happen and sometimes you don't even mean it No Henry knew Henry knew he messed up in the World Cup because I was giggling and he said Alex what you're giggling at and I said that bloke in front picking his bum

and Henry was like Alex you can't say that that on air, no thing you ask me. I think bum shit probably is not safe for what? Not fit for radio. It is the podcast, though.

But that's the thing. And in the same way, I think we love sports and you turn up, you never know what you're going to see. See, you are reacting at all. You might know a team's going to win and, you know, you might think, you might think about something like if, say, Australia during the women's ashes hadn't lost

for X number of years, you'd that information to hand because if at the end of the game you're saying oh and Australia have lost the game and hold on how long has it been it's been ages let me just double check you want to like you want to know that information you don't want to have it scripted in a way I don't think that makes it sound sort of like forced I remember speaking to NASA saying about this in the summer and he said that the big moments like hundreds fifers you kind of have an idea of what you want to say or how you want to say it because you need to be ready for that moment and it's a really big moment to call for that person so he spoke about wanting it to

be right for that player not for him but for the player um and i thought that was a really good way of looking at it as well that you're actually doing it for the person rather than making yourself look better even though it does make you up better it always helps are your show reel didn't it when you nail something yeah god your show reel be a shamblesel it's the nitbacker it's the jackbacker that is a beauty from grass that wasn't planned but I knew you were going to follow it

yeah I told you Grosse we've run out of time I've just got one more Al because I need to we need to do this one Henry you are welcome to stay on for this so we had an email from Ryan saying that he's a medium time

listener to the show but first time email that and he wanted to talk about two things one he ran a simulation of what would happen if John Lewis allowed me to bat at number three and he's attached a photo and it's me

on the computer game we scored in a 50 at Old Chappard so I sent it to John I screenshot this and sent it to Louis last night let me just read out his response I sent it and I just said

Louis the people have spoken and he screenshot me zoomed in saying why do you look so shocked because you got a test match 50 I said because I'm batting at three for England and getting visty John and he's not replied blue tick me well he did promise you that you'd batten three and then obviously it didn't happen

not happen so thanks John the dream lives on though you know tail enders are tailenders for a reason I hate to break it to you oh you know that word hurts my soul it kills me it hurts me I love why to deal with it because I'm like And every time I'm on air now and you buy in 10, I'm like, but everyone needs to remember, she's not a tail ender. Yeah, I'm not. No, in fact, tell everyone I'm a tail ender,

and then it's like I'm bluffing people. Yeah, that's true. And you get the ramp out. So what do we want from people next week, so we want emails, obviously, but we want Valentine's Day special voice notes, videos, emails if you don't feel comfortable, comfortable doing that.

And I think we're going to have some fun. Yeah, we're going to try and get someone on. We don't know who that's going to be. But yeah, we want the fun things and we also want the savage stories like bad first dates, anything that you think's going to make us chuckle. Thanks for listening everybody.

Email is on. Bye. Email us on. Podcast at BBC.com.com. No balls podcast at BBC.com.com. No balls podcast at BBC.com.com. It's so good. They said it three times.

Bye, everyone. Cross, I'm doing round, a wicket. Boulder, Boulder, leaving a ball alone, Litchfield. Think it's the wobble ball, and it just nips back, it jaggs back, it's the nipbacker. That is a beauty from Kate Cross, an absolute seed. That is a beauty from Cross. The Women's Football Weekly. With me, Ellen White.

Ellen White coming forward for England, and there is the second. And Lee Ben Haynes, with some of the biggest names in the WSL, joining us every week to discuss everything that's happening in the women's game. Right after the World Cup, got told, we're going to America. I thought, amazing. Ten days in training, did my meniscus, and the next day they flew to America. Block 10 to six yards out, Alan White. The Women's Football Weekly podcast.

New episodes every Wednesday. to the Football Daily on BBC Sounds.