Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast – Multan Sultans flying and Alex wants a middle name

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Kate Cross and Alex Hartley are busy playing and coaching overseas and have much news to bring. Plus, Alex’s coaching buddy Cath Dalton drops in to talk through the PSL so far.

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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... Sugar.

That's not... I've never said a really bad one. Cross Come doing round the wicket 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 beauty

From Cross Hello And welcome back to No Ball to Griget Podcast with me Alex Hartley And you Catherine

Laura Cross. Oh, but it's not Sunday. Why are your middle name in me and full name in me? I don't know. I was going to call you Felicity Cross but then I thought that might actually confuse people.

It will, won't it? Tash Miles still thinks that that is my middle name because I told her that about 15 years ago so that my initials would be the KFC. Told her that everyone calls me the Colonel. Didn't know. That's not my middle name.

Didn't know this podcast was going to start like that, actually. I don't know what happened. Well, I will return the favour and say that we are welcome today by Alex, Andrea Hartley. Yes, I wish I had a middle name, you know? You can, you know, you can go and get a middle name. You can go and change your name and do whatever you want to it.

Oh my gosh, shall we let the listeners decide what my middle name could be? Oh my gosh, yes. I can't wait for it to be spud. Or nobles. Alex, Andrew, Spud Hartley. That'd be cool It's a good conversation starter Why is that your middle name

Well I never had one at the age of 30 I decided to let the podcast listeners Pick my middle name for me Let's do it We'll put an Instagram poll out Everyone can decide what Alex's middle name is going to be I bet everyone votes for Andrew Yeah I hope they do

Please just actually make my middle name What I think my middle name is Anyway How are you? Oh. You go first. I asked first. I'm good, thank you.

I'm good. We've qualified. We have qualified. You've qualified. You messaged me this morning and saying you've qualified. And I was like, how many group games left thinking you've got one left? You've got three. You've absolutely smashed it.

Oh, my God, I know. It's honestly, like, such a relief because there was obviously a little bit of criticism around us going into the competition. We got rid of six of our key players going into this year. as comp. We lost six players. We've also had a revamping staff. There's no Andy Flower. You've got me and Kat, like the first two female coaches in Pakistan. You've got the first female general manager. And so it was, for Ali, the owner, it was really important. We started well. And he was like, I don't care how it goes. Obviously, I want to win, but I just want to start well so the criticism can stop about us having female staff. And we've only gone and bloody qualified with

three games to go. Unbelievable. That is the dream start. Have you even lost the game yet? Yeah, we lost one and we should have won. Oh, I mean, that's ideal, isn't it? Like being in positions where you should be winning games, but you're not. At least you're not like out of the race when you lose. Yeah, that's true. That is true. Yeah, we lost by five.

How good. Yeah. So, no, that's amazing. And the lads are on fire. Like, the lads have been so, so good. It looks that way. I've obviously not been able to watch much of it, but I've been looking at the scorecards and it just looks like the dominating and when they are going well. Yeah, and like everyone is stepping up at different times. Usman, who plays for the UAE, was a local last year, he's now and overseas this year.

He got 96 in the last game we played and got out trying to hit her six and got caught on the boundary. Yesterday he was on 96, and he went for a 6, and he got his 100. So everyone was like, well chuff for him. Buzzing. Did he put cake on his face?

Helmut off, no, he didn't. helmet off giving it a big celebrations but strangely enough he takes his helmet off to celebrate a 50 as well oh right okay we've had this conversation on the pod if I ever got 100 there's no way I'm taking my lid off because my hair would be so bad

I think I'm with Usman though I would definitely take my helmet off for a 50 course you would Al of course you would you take your helmet off for a 10 double figures like to celebrate so we were calling him the goat

and the only way he knew how to respond to the goat was going, bah. Oh, yeah, the classic. The classic way to respond to that. Yeah, so now our communication with Usman Khan is just him going, yeah, nice.

Well, he knows where he stands at least. Yeah, how are you? I'm good, thank you. I'm good, thanks. Our schedule has been pretty relentless, so a bit tired, a bit Alex Hartley. But good, we've obviously not had as much success as you guys have had in the last few games

it was a tough night against Mumbai on Saturday yeah we didn't play anywhere near our best cricket which is a good thing because like I said if you are playing really good cricket and you're out of the race that's that's hard isn't it but we're not we didn't really play good cricket and we were nowhere near Mumbai so we know we've got a lot of improvement to make but we've got another game

tonight and we fly to Delhi tomorrow and we've got another game on Wednesday, so it's the thick and fast schedule. Who are you playing tonight? We've got UP again, so the fixes. So just starting again, basically. So halfway through the tournament. You played Gigi? We've played everyone now.

I've played everyone once, so we've gone back round again. Oh, okay. So for whatever reason, I'm not sure why, but we've had five games in Bangalore. So obviously, home crowd, five games out of eight is quite a benefit. So hopefully, hopefully we can give the crowd some good finish tonight, a good send-off, because we have been amazing. I was about to say the crowds have been brilliant, haven't they? Like, all I've seen on socials is like packed houses for your game.

35,000 there the other day. Was there? I didn't see any numbers actually. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wrong game. 26,000. Yeah, 26,000. I spotted that. But I didn't know.

I don't know how many of their Chinnaswami holes. But yeah, it's been, we've basically sold out all our games. And Al, we went into disappearance the other day. And we went to, I can't quite remember what his sponsors, like, offices we went to but everybody stopped working so there's me, Smitty, Renuka and Sov Devine

everybody stopped working to welcome us and like the it was like a crowd of people chanting RCB, RCB RCB and I was just like this is crazy these people should be working

and they're just out celebrating the fact that four cricketers have come into the office for the day I love that I love that it's so like is this like the closest you felt to fame

it's different it's just yeah but but i'm not daft i know i know at that day they're all cheering for like smitty and people who are actually playing cricket so i'm not daft no give yourself some credit honestly if you wear that jersey these fans just adore you they'll just support you no matter what and you've been an rc being be fan for ages and you always obviously take the mick out of me and c skk and stuff but i've genuinely seen what the loyalty is here like there are a franchise that haven't won a trophy for the entire time that they've existed, but these fans are so loyal to the fact that they're desperate for them to win. We are. We are.

We are. So are you staying as an RCB fan or? So I've said that I'll support the RCB women. Yeah. Well, that's good because you're playing for them. Yeah, but I'm still, I've definitely got a softer spot for RCB now. It's going to be tough when CSK play RCB, which is the first game of, the IPL, isn't it?

It came out the other day, the fixtures. But I can't just ditch CSK. Like, what sort of a fan would I be if I just suddenly disappeared? Well, one team had a women's team and wanted you. How have you found not playing? Oh, it's obviously, it's harder, isn't it? You want to be playing, especially when you see the crowds and how good the atmosphere has been.

But it's the last franchise cricket. I was really, like, we've spoke about this, I was realistic. I knew I probably wouldn't play I wasn't going to be one of the starting overseas players so I think I feel like I've made the most of the experience even though I've not played and like the training facilities have been great

like I said we've got the HQ downstairs with that stay at the art gym so I've been training and keeping fit and stuff so it's been it has been really good it's just obviously you don't get the stimulation of playing as much yeah but like you said it's like an experience you're there

and if you go back next year or I don't know You have to stay ready when you're on the bench, don't you? Oh, I'll have to. We saw the other night, like, Pez didn't, obviously didn't play. Yeah. I had big Pez up on the podcast, and then she got poorly and did play the next game. But yeah, she went down, she was a bit ill.

She had some sort of virus. So you've always got to be ready, and obviously, in overseas can only replace it overseas. So, yeah, you've got to make sure that you're ready to go. Was there a part of you that, like, see your Pez, I'm in? No, because I wasn't in. Yeah, but then we're like, for God's sake, see you, De Clerk, I'm in. No, Nadine had a really good game actually. She got hit for six first ball and I was like, oh gosh, that's a really tough start to your WPL debut.

And then she came back so well, got two real key wickets for us. Oh, good. Good. Well, it's actually going well for you. I actually, the games that I've seen, I watched one the other night and I'd actually say that was a tough watch. But you played bad cricket, which is probably a good sign, like you said. And like when you've played good cricket, you're in winning positions, you've won two games. You've got a really good team.

We've got a belting team genuinely got like one of the most balanced in the tournament I think it's just that classic like believe in yourself situation like yeah you want the girls to go out there and know that they can win from anywhere

and it doesn't matter if you only get 130 on the board in the first innings you can win from there that's the kind of team that RCB are so fingers crossed we go out there tonight and put on a better performance because like I said we didn't play as well as we should have done the other night

and then that'll take us into Delhi, three more group games in Delhi, and then hopefully eliminate her a final and then off to New Zealand. Yes, what a schedule. By the time you get to New Zealand, you're going to be exhausted. Well, I hope not. I'm hoping to get a little bit of time before the ODIs start. So I rang my family yesterday, I FaceTime the family, and they were like, it feels like

it's spring now, like the summer's shining, and it was March, and it was like, oh, we're nearly getting towards summer, and it felt really nice. How good that we've left And when we get back It's going to be summer I know With that is one of the massive benefits Of travelling in the winter

Isn't it? You miss all the crappy weather Although we did have January together In England That wasn't great Oh right I really enjoyed it No together was nice

But the weather was not Crossie I did a little bit of A you yesterday And I got a guest Oh yeah Okay Who did you get Cat Dalton

You did it Well done Hi, my name's Eddie Hearn and this is no passion, no point. I'm excited to be back with this new series. As always, I'll be talking to top performers about what drives them, how they gain an edge over competitors, and whether their dedication to constant improvement comes at a cost. I love golf, I play it until my hands deep.

I just enjoy going out there playing with no fear. What makes them feel fulfilled? It's not the money, it's not the trophies, it's the friendships and the memories I've got. And does that change as their career progresses? It's just a girl who grew up playing football, and now I'm getting packed without even seeing the camera like it's crazy. From BBC Radio 5 Live.

No passion, no point. Listen, whenever you like on BBC Sounds. Well, Crossie, you had your own guests last week and so I've decided I'm going to have my own guest this week and I'm delighted to say finally, Cat Dalton is joining us on No Balls of Cricket Podcast. Finally, Alex, you actually let me come on. She's been begging me.

me for days now days but cat welcome honestly it's pleasure to have you first and foremost for people that might not necessarily know who you are what you're doing and why are you here at the PSL do you want us all know yes sure so I went into coaching when I was playing still so I played for Ireland for about two years played the 2016 World Cup play for England A but wasn't wasn't good enough not like you and crossy wasn't good enough and then ended up coaching alongside it, and now the fast-burning coach for the Moulton's old and salt ones. So you're a fast-balling coach at home.

You've got your own academy or alongside Ian Pond? What's the crack there? Yeah, so we run something called the National Fast-Borne Academy, so Ian Ponce involved, but also Andre Nell is one of our coaches as well. So we run that, and that literally keeps me very busy, as you can imagine. How's your experience been at the PSL here? By the way, guys, sorry, we've just qualified for finals. The first team to qualify, Kat, congratulations.

Congratulations. And you, Al, it's been an incredible experience, hasn't it? And I think having both of us here as coaches, as female coaches, not only is it fantastic to qualify, but it just shows you that female coaches can coach at this level. And to qualify is just the icing on the cake at the moment, isn't it? Have you had any learnings since you got here so far? Yeah, I think massively, when you step up to this level, franchise cricket level as a coach is something that a lot of people aspire to. So it is a high level and you've got some serious players. international players. I think it's just learned, I've learned massively to just back myself in any situation. And the more we're doing that, the more we seem to be winning. So I think I should be doing that a little bit more.

You've fixed a few of the fastball as safe fixed, but Daisy, he was our leading wicket-taker until Osama Mia, pat on my back. He's now the leading wicket taker, but he had a no-ball problem, didn't he? Yeah, he did. And also, when we first met, he wasn't really running in as hard as he could have been.

And now he's clocked 144, which is great for him. But also, As you said, he was known as a red baller, but actually he's got incredible skills in T20 cricket, and he's been highly successful. But yeah, that no ball problem, it's just when you jump a little bit too close, and he just needs to come a little bit further back. But hey, you with Osama Mir, he's now taking Daisy's cap this evening, so we need to hear more about that. We have indeed, he's been brilliant, hasn't he?

Like you, he had a little problem coming into this tournament. He had a full toss problem. So we just addressed that straight away on day one or two and just said, look, keep driving through the crease, don't be lazy. and he's bowled one bad ball this whole tournament and it was a dragdown. It wasn't even a full toss and he's been leading wicket-taker. He's been fantastic. But this isn't about me, Kat.

This is about you and us getting to know you. So you as a player, you mentioned you were on the England Academy and then played for Ireland. Talk to us about playing international cricket because not very many people get to do that. No, I think I was really privileged and blessed to play for Ireland. I batted three, which probably come as surprised as I'm a fast bowling coach. as you know I started as a fast bowler and made so many mistakes it's ridiculous and I think I learned a lot from that I also learned a lot about the biomechanics of fast bowling which is something I kind of specialise in but yeah as you said playing national cricket is incredible

and actually I feel like playing that 2016 World Cup for Ireland gave me that experience what it's like and it's been quite similar in franchise cricket so just those you know big stadiums the occasion the television I think that set me up actually. as a coach and I've learned a lot from failing as you can imagine look a lot of people learn a lot from failing if you just succeeded all the time life would be so easy what is the one moment for you that sticks out playing international cricket what's your favorite moment I think my favorite moment was playing against india in a world cup and I remember just you know as a kid you always dream about playing in a world cup and in the back garden you're like I'm going to win by this last

ball when I hit this last ball for six or I've dropped the world cup or whatever it is. And I remember coming down the steps and seeing Jula Goswami on the right and just seeing the whole India team and I was just thought, I've actually made it here. This is an incredible feeling.

And I think that was probably my favourite moment. That and also when we beat Bangladesh to qualify for the World Cup and we won the qualifications in Thailand, that was also a really special moment for us. I remember that. I remember that. It was class. So you said when you played for Ireland,

you're back number three? But you were a fastballer growing up? up how did you then get into fast bowling coaching because we spoke about on this podcast the reason i'm here was i guess i see it by fluke a little bit you know ali rang and said you know do you fancy it and i said yeah all right then but you've got this academy you know you've coached here in pakistan before you've done you've worked with men a lot which i've actually had to bounce ideas off you because you've worked with men before but how did you actually become a specialist fast bowling coach yeah it was an interesting journey because when i first

started bowling, I had a terrible bowling action. So I think I was about under 17 Essex and I wasn't bowling very quickly. I had a really bad kind of injurious action and I changed my action and then became the player that I did. And I did open the bowling for the England Academy. I wasn't that successful, but I could bowl quickly. And that really interested me. And I thought, if I can teach that to other people and get them to bowl faster and to be better and to be more injury-free, then that's a great place to be. And I just started coaching it. And I've had, you know, off our academy, we've had four go on and play first-class cricket. We've had people represent in Bumbury, people go and play a lot of second-11 cricket, men's second-11 cricket as well.

So that really interested me of how can I make people better. And that's really how I became a fast-boring coach. But as you said, yeah, I have been to Pakistan. It's been my third trip. Work with some PSL players and first-class players before. But that was more on a lot. a specialist fast bowling camp rather than a franchise competition which is where i've learned a lot from you out about you know the tactics and how to go about things has been it's been really cool to bounce some ideas off you so you're basically a local how's your erdo my urge is not bad i i know punny is water i can i can count to five ec do teen char punch there you go um in all seriousness we've got a couple of minutes left before we've got to get on the team bus how have you

found the PSL so far because I remember day one you looked at me and you're like this is surreal how have you found it from that moment now do you know what I feel like I've really settled in the first few moments it did feel a little bit surreal being in this environment you know a lot of TV cameras I know you're used to them out I know you are but having a lot of focus on me you know normally I'm coaching at home or I'm coaching on a camp and it's it's it's not that well publicised I suppose so that was something to get used to it now it just feels like another day at the office which is great well it's been your favorite moment so far bar qualifying today favorite moment in the PSL so far do you know what Alex is and I'm not just

saying this because I'm on your podcast is honestly sharing this with your experience with you has been my favorite moment and also eating sweet and sour chicken every night we have done that and cat's got a nickname it's brown nose and now you know the reason why I will give her that tenor later and before we let you go cat I think you know you've been brilliant so far. We haven't won this competition yet, but we've qualified. What are you looking to take away from the PSL? Because this isn't just a one-time thing for either of us. This is a journey. We're going to come back for bowling camps. We hopefully come back for the PSL next year. What is it you're wanting to take away from this PSL for year one? Yeah, I think the

experience of seeing what it's like at this level and then trying to make sure that when we're upskilling players, that we're upskilling them so that they're at this level. And hopefully developing some of the, as you said, we'll come back for camps, hopefully developing some of these players so that they can make that next step regularly. Like someone like Aftab, who's a young fastball, he did brilliantly on debut, or someone like Faisal for yourself, is how can we make sure that they're consistently successful at this level? And I think that's going to be the most exciting thing going forward.

So Kat, I'm not here for the actual final, but we've made the knockouts. Let's see how the next few games go. But for now, weho. Wayo. See it. So I have to apologise to Kat there because she was really, really nice to me saying it was one of her favourite things

that's been working with me and I just called her a brown nose. And what I have to say on this podcast, Kat, I know you're listening to this because you do listen to the pod. It's also been a pleasure to work with you and I've been really glad that you're here because I've had an ally.

I've had another woman in the coaching staff to like hang around with and talk to and get things off my chest. So sorry I didn't say that to you in person. I'm just a . Oh, well done you to you though because like you said, it was a big thing for Moulton to have a female on the staff

and hopefully that kind of paves away for more teams to do the same. And not allow women into the set-up because it shouldn't be that we allow women into men's setups but just to prove the worth of how valuable women in those environments can be. So well done, you two. The thing that's going around at the minute is like, oh, Moulton, top of the table, because we've got two women.

It's called attention to detail. Or it's called getting the right people in the right spots. Yeah, fact. Fact. We've done it backwards again, but have you got anything like you sticking out? I've got one thing. So everyone might have seen the hat that I put on on socials, like mustache hat. Someone message me saying, why do you look like honey gee?

Oh my God, throwback. And then I was like, that's exactly what I look like. That's so good. Yeah, not ideal. What was her song? I say honey. You say, chie. Honey.

Chee. Honey. Chee. Oh dear. Have you got anything on your sticking out? Yeah, but I don't want to be the one to bring it up. Oh. Yeah, okay, well, let me just have one, there's one more.

We got an email last week, which we didn't have time to have a look at. Should I do that one? Yeah, I'll do this one first, okay. So it says, hi, Kate and Alex. I'm a new listener, having rediscovered my love of cricket after about 10 years of not following the game. And I absolutely love the podcast. Thanks so much for bringing a bit of lighthearted humour to us once a week or so. I was captivated by the washes last year and now love women's cricket.

I've already bought tickets for both the New Zealand and Pakistan series. the summer. But as a new listener to the podcast, I'm a bit confused by the going upstairs with segment of the show. What's that about? I think the reason I find it perplexing is that going upstairs is a subtle way my wife and I talk about sneaking off for a daytime boots meal deal when we're both working from. Please shed some light on this for me. Every time you talk about which umpire you want to go upstairs with this week, I feel up amused and quizzical. What do they mean keep up the great podcast and thanks for the laughs and that's from anonymous it started because was it something to do with the d rs no i thought yes it was d rs and you go upstairs to d rs yeah so if

people are asking us questions which is what the email segment's about who do you ask questions on in cricket we tried to relate it to cricket so we're like you ask the the umpire the question how's that so then we're like right well we'll go upstairs with an umpire to ask questions so that's where they're going upstairs thing came with and then you've just made it lewd and ridiculous since then it is kind of boot's meal deal esk but it's not so yeah there you go so that's it anyway sticky note number three Alexa's up for an award yay yay you're up for an SJA is it sports journalist award but you're not a journalist but I'm not a journalist so I can't win which is annoying well at least you're up for an award yeah so i've been shortlisted i didn't know this was happening

didn't have a clue and then my phone like blew up one morning i was like or one afternoon i was reading it i was like what's going on s ja so i had to go on twitter and adam mountford sent it to me and amazing and honestly i am chuffed even if i don't win um to be like ones to watch on air is just like wow like we're talking like nasser has won it atherton's won it like it's like it's like massive i said to you i said is this something i need to vote for and you said no unfortunately not because i'd definitely win it because i've got loads more followers than everyone else a bit like the podcast awards really yeah yeah basically that's how we're winning our awards yeah so this is an actual sports panel so probably not winning that one

can happen but you might you never know how and if you do then bloody well deserve because you've worked really hard at that sort of side of your life so well done well done for being nominated it's nice to be recognised shame i'm going to throw it all away to become the level three coach joking BBC well if multan sultans win the trophy you you know it's because they've got women in the team attention to detail attention to detail um there's something else that we need to talk about this week big news big old news coming out of the domestic it in the UK. Forgot about that and we planned it before we started a pod.

It's not like us. So the 100 retentions have come out. Yes. Yates. So me and Al thought we'd do something that we've never done before and talk in detail around cricket teams. Firstly, firstly, congratulations. Thank you, thank you.

I've obviously known for a little while. It's not news to me but yes, thank you. I've re-signed with the Northern Superchargers. Yeah, baby. Of course you have. You had a cracking year. Had a great year. Had loads of fun.

We've basically signed the same team, so it's going to be the same group of people together. I'm over here with Georgia Wareham. She's buzzing. I'm buzzing. Saw Litch the other night. She's buzzing. So all gravy in the purple team.

Phoebe Litchfield, Georgia Wareham. Their pockets are full. Yeah. Deservedly so. Let me get down to this. Right. Northern Superchargers women So we've basically

re-signed all the key players as in our overseas we've not re-signed Jemmy because I'm pretty sure the Asia Cup's happening at the same time so I don't think the Indians are available I think the dates cross over

That'll be why there's not smitty Yes So we've got Myself, Phoebes, Georgia ADR, Lins, Holly, Bess and M.K. Mary Kelly Right, you've nicknamed everyone there there's people that will be listening going who, who, who, who, who and who.

Lins, Lins isn't a nickname. Lindsay Smith, Holly Armitage, Bess Heath, Marie Kelly. Thank you. Myself, Georgia Wareham, Phoebe Litchfield. So the superchargers are looking very similar. You can only retain eight people. What I think is going to happen in the draft this year, which is I pretty sure March 20th,

is that a lot of the domestic girls are going to be moving around. I think that's what's going to happen. Yeah. Well, when you look at it, Not everybody's retained eight either, I don't think. So there are a lot of spots up for grabs. And everyone that's been signed are the people you'd expect to be signed. So you're Sophie Ecclestons, you release Perry's, Izzy Wong, Nat Sivabrun, Tammy Beaumont, those sorts of people.

Except Amy Jones. Amy Jones hasn't re-signed for the best. Birmingham Phoenix. So she's one of the England players who could be on the move. Whoa, she didn't get retained? No, she, well, I don't know whether this is my place to say, but she's not, she hasn't re-signed, let's put it that way. But Birmingham Phoenix do have a right to match card. Everyone has a right to match card in the draft. So Amy could still go back to Birmingham, but she also might go elsewhere. That's like the whole Ben Duckett thing with the Welsh Philo, isn't it? He

asked not to be re-signed. And they were like, well, we're not going to write to match it because we know that you're not going to want to play for us. So I think everything's kind of as you'd expect. Obviously, Smriti hasn't re-signed for the Southern Brave. Southern Brave was also last Anya because she retired last year. So their squad's going to look a little bit different. Okay. And if they're going to need a captain, the Southern Brave women.

So Amy Jones, I'm going to like speculate here. So there's top picks for Manchester, Birmingham, London, Oval, Trent, superchargers and Brave. So everyone bar Welsh fire. And then the third pick is Manchester. Is she off to Manchester? Is she off to the Southern Brave? I'm excited.

My prediction is that she's going to go to Trent. Yeah, my prediction is Trent as well. A little bit closer to home. Trent haven't re-signed Lizelle Lee, who wicket kept for them last year. Yeah. And I think they'll be in the market for a wicket-keeper batter, opening batter as well. at the third pick yeah so it's going to be i look the draft's going to be so much nice at this year not being in it not worrying about where you might be going because how horrible was that

feeling it was but then it was just mad wasn't it that night in mumbai that we were just sat watching it was mad um i have heard on the great vine that a lot of the australia women are going to be involved in the draft this year bar t-mac so tali magrara don't think is going in she needs a little bit of a rest apparently um so you've got the likes of Ash Gardner, I'm pretty sure Alyssa Healy's going to be in it because we didn't retain her at Supercharges. I think when someone gets injured, you do have the option to retain. So, like, at least Perry for Birmingham Phoenix didn't play last year,

but she was still offered the retention. Sophie Molyneux, there's loads of big names from the Aussies going in. Belze? Which is what we're always crying out for. Yeah, Bellezy didn't get retained by Wales? No, because she didn't play. She pulled out last year. Yeah, so there's some big names going around,

which I think is great for the draft. really good me too it's going to be exciting as if it's all started again so I had the final email the other day being like you haven't registered for the draft I wanted to reply being like

I've retired I've retired well you never know you might come back and just do the 100 you thought about it for four seconds in a couple of episodes ago do a Neil Wagner he retired for all of three seconds has he come back

well New Zealand have got so many injuries you might have to play Oh gosh Whoa Mowing Ali did that Didn't he Ben Stokes He's dropped him a text

And then There he is Very true Um News from the men Yep No Ollie Pope At Welsh Fire

Okay Where's he gone Nowhere He's in the draft So he's off But I thought The men's Contracted Players

All get assigned a team You Have one contracted player So we've gone Johnny Bearster Okay. Okay. It is going to be interesting.

Like I said, I think we're going to see a lot of the domestic players shuffling around. I remember when I looked at, obviously it all came out the other day and I looked at the names and I was like, oh, everything looks pretty similar. And then it wasn't until two days later, I saw that Amy Jones hadn't re-signed. And I was like, whoa, I've completely missed that. Like, you kind of forget who's where and who's done what. So it'll all come a lot clearer, obviously, on draft night. It will. But it feels like a minute ago that we were playing in this tournament

and now it's all starting again. I can't believe it. It's not starting again. Like you've got another series to play before then and things like that. Two series, three series. We've played New Zealand twice and Pakistan once. Exactly. So there's a lot to go on.

But it's like the 100 for me is peak summer. Yeah. And it's a bit earlier this year. So it actually could be peak summer. Yeah. Don't think, because of the Men's World Cup, I think we're playing it a little bit earlier. Speaking of men playing cricket,

there's another test match about to start. In the snow. Yeah, it looks cold and rainy and darnis, all it, doesn't it? Yeah, it's one degrees, apparently. Surely not. Apparently so, but then I've just seen a... Surely not. I've just seen a video of Paul Collingwood's put on Instagram with them all out running.

They are in jumpers, but they're outrunning. I'm not having that. It's one degrees. That's illegal to play cricket in that temperature. Not happening. But that starts on the 7th of March, which is a few days away yet. Went and played golf the day in a really nice golf course in Bangalore. Finish playing, go up to the bar. England men are just in there having some food and a drink because they've just been playing golf.

So they just travelled to Bangalore and had a little bit of a golf trip, how good. I mean, I told you Bangalore was the place to be. It was. But I think they had 10 days between test matches again, didn't they? so yeah speaking of dubai should we say bye bye bye dubai everyone dubai oh email us snowballers come on then tell us what the email is alex it is are you ready for this drum roll please no balls podcast at bbc.co.ukh she got her right yes It's so good. They said it right.

So many people have mess to me saying, Alex, you've been doing this podcast for years. How have you forgotten the email? Just a mental block, that's all. But I've remembered this week. When do we find out about your SJA award? I think it's the 11th of March, something like that. So by the time we do another pod, we'll know if you're a winner. Or loser. Well, we know you're a loser.

See ya. Bye. Cross comes in round the wicket 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 beauty from cross The drama The drama

They're having to be separated They've both been shorted The Red Card. The Entertainment. The Superstars. Flooded! Oh, yes. What a goal.

Welcome to the Planet Premier League podcast. I'm Mark Chapman, and every week, Cess Fabricas, Neda 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. Do you have straw with that, Al? Honestly, I started calling her a sq the other day.

Oh, you can see her, a palking out. Well, that's going to get cut out.