Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - time for the semis!

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

Kate Cross and Alex Hartley discuss record-breaking scores, breakout stars and the T20 World Cup semi-finals! Plus, more reflections on the franchise opportunities coming up.

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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 a really bad one. And cross strikes in the first over.

It's what England we're looking for. Hartley balls. Down the track comes scoring. This time she connects. It's either six or out. It's six. Hello and welcome back to Nobles for cricket podcast. with me, Cape Cross, you Alex Hartley and Henry, Moran is here.

Hello, hello. Basically, we couldn't get a guest, so we got our producer to go and say hello. Actually, our producers sat here producing us, but we might bring him in at some point. Yeah. We are in Cape Town. Yep. You've got through to the semi-finals. We tried to do a fist pump a minute ago, and it didn't work with...

We're going to take two of this podcast. So you're in Cape Town, because you've been in Stell and Bosch. We have been that. You know what? I'm very excited. It feels a bit sad that it's taken this long for us to get to the best part of South Africa. Sorry to anyone who doesn't live in Cape Town. But yeah, we are now in the mixer. I'm 10 minutes away from you. We're doing the podcast live. I'm looking into your eyes. Those eyelashes, honey. Death taxes and you mentioning them. I'm growing mine as well. I've noticed, only because you just told me.

Yeah, I put mascara on for you as well. Oh, thanks, Al. Yeah, so we're in your hotel, sat in the bar. We were trying to find a quiet room, but couldn't find one. So we're just in the bar. So if you hear this a little background noise, a few clinking of glasses, a bit of a coffee cup.

An empty one. Oh, got half mine left. A slurp. Yeah, so we've made it through to the semi-final. We play on Friday against Seth Africa. Yes. At 3pm, South African time, 1pm English time.

Yes. Good to time differences, honey. It's so much easier being in the same country as you trying to do this podcast. because I don't have to worry about time and difference. Yeah, just you wait. Oh, we've got preseason tour together as well, so we're staying together. We have got so much to tell you guys about.

So much has happened in a week. Yeah. Why don't we just do the World Cup debrief? Yep. How good were England yesterday? England were probably one of the better games that we've had. Is that fair to say? Do you know what?

When you're on the side doing the drinks, it's actually quite hard to watch the game. You don't always take in what's... skill-wise going on because you're so worried about Nat Cow needing a drink or Catherine here there needing a chat or whatever it is so you don't actually concentrate too much but I think it's fair to say that yesterday was our best game. Record breakers. Record breakers.

You want to entertain, you want to inspire. First team to get 200 in a women's world cup. Yeah, the biggest win margin by runs ever. Nat Siver was just striking at 200 and whatever. I've got a Nat Siver brunt question. Why is she not fielding at Midwicket anymore? She's like on the boundary. because she's one of our best fielders

shock, Nat Siverbrunt's good at everything so yeah I think you just want your best fielders in the best positions do you know what I'm a bit blown away by at the moment Nat Sivabrunt took a little bit of time out from cricket at the end of our summer she didn't play in the series against India the back end she's come back and I would love to know her stats because I can't remember her not scoring runs

no since she's come back she's been unbelievable but to get ICC player of the year having had two months out as well. It's just incredible. I just, I mean, she is, everyone knows how good she is. She was the second highest paid woman in the WPL, rightly so. But she is just in the most golden form of her life at the moment. It's unbelievable to watch.

It must be really hard for Catherine. Well, having a wife that's amazing. And like, she's not bowling very well, if we're being honest. She must be like, oh, I'm really proud of you, but I want to play well too. It must be such a hard dynamic actually because cricket is so hard anyway you can have a really good day and your team loses or you can have a really bad day and your team wins

and dealing with that but two of you were trying to deal with that as well in the middle of a World Cup when the pressure is so high like it must be all in the WPL when Catherine was so disappointed not to get picked up but Catherine that Nat has such a good day don't get married kids just don't get married.

Not to a teammate anyway no yeah unless you really love them and then do it well congratulations you too I'm really happy for you Another Valentine's Day on my own this year Thanks guys I miss Pancake Day My favourite day of the year

I missed it Can't believe you miss Pancake Day Everyone knows how much I love pancake day But why did you miss it? Because we had a game Yeah but you didn't start till three Yeah but then you've got a prep Like you're going to play and there's

Can't have pancakes For lunch I'm not a kid anymore My dad used to make pancakes for us Because my dad had very limited culinary skills So we'd either have a pasta bake egg on chips egg and chips how good

to egg and chips great or pancakes because that's the only thing that you knew how to make so we just randomly have pancakes

in like November but it was amazing how good is it are you a lemon and sugar girl lemon and sugar initially but if I'm being naughty I have Nutella and Strawberry

well I went to lovely pancake place yesterday and I've given you the name of it so you can have pancake day minus one plus one plus one yeah I'm early for next year

yeah not late for this year early for next year yeah nice South Africa South Africa. They tried to not qualify for the semi-final yesterday. They tried to not qualify throughout the whole tournament.

They had quite a tough start against Sri Lanka. That was like the shock game, wasn't it? But teams like that are dangerous because they're starting to gain a bit of momentum now at the back end of the tournament, which is what you always try and do as a team. So you actually never know, and I genuinely think the four best teams

have made it through to the semis. Yeah, I was in a really tough situation when I was talking about the games yesterday because if South Africa had lost to Bangladesh, they don't deserve to get through to the semis because they've lost two games for two of the lesser teams, worse teams. But then also, New Zealand definitely don't deserve

to get through to the semis because they've been rubbish as well. So I was like, maybe just England straight through to the final. It would be easier. That would be lovely. Would be really lovely. Australia are obviously the team to beat.

They're defending champions. Remed. Defending champions. But India are so full of confidence at the minute. all got money lining their pockets now because of this WPL. The trousers falling down. Yeah, the trousers are too heavy now. Harmon feels like a different captain to me than what she was.

Certainly two years ago. I think she's improved massively as a leader and a captain. Smitty's hitting a little bit of form. You never know. They could upset Australia. Honestly, I've been saying it from that first game that I saw you, girls. This is the first time I genuinely believe you're going to win the World Cup. Yeah.

Yeah. Every time I've watched, I'm like, oh yeah, but Australia, you know, they're so good. Australia have taken the drama out of every single game they've played. They've made it look really easy. They haven't scored 200, and they haven't chased 150 and 12 overs. Yeah. They're not doing any of that. Yeah.

We're doing that. Oh, God, goose up, Sal. Yes. Let's get England to the final. Let's get England to win, because then Crossie could take me out of tea with a bonus. Yeah, lovely. I've not asked you how you are. Oh, yeah.

Good. recovering you've been poorly yeah I oh we talked about the poorly bum didn't we the poorly bum yeah well I got hit by the flu that day after the podcast double whammy double whammy and my period all at the same time oh it's a bad day it was a bad three days is that why you didn't talk to me for 24 hours we didn't text each other it was weird no I was waiting for you to text me because I didn't are you playing hard to get yeah yeah I know you're in a tournament I don't want to be a bit pushy so I was just letting you take it oh you left it like 40 hours though yeah it was I know I was, but I was like, oh, maybe she just doesn't want to talk to me.

Yeah, no, there is that. Yeah. I'm joking. So I was like, okay, I'll leave her to it. Text Harry, like, does Crossy hate me or? Yeah, did he say, yeah. He said, yes, she just needs to shine away. It's a shame that the secret's out, and actually, everyone knows now.

So that's the end of No Balls to Cricket Podcast. No, it's not because what's happening? What's coming up? We're going on tour. We're going on tour. And we're roomies. And we're roomies. So I am preseason touring with Thunder, as are you.

you because I wasn't picked in the WPL so I was like hello Lancashire here I am please might I come with you but luckily one of our girls was picked Tara has been picked up in the WPL the only associate player to get picked up in the WPL I thought every team had to have an associate player is very confused it's you can all have an associate which means you can play an extra overseas right you don't basically every team will have an overseas on the bench right got you so yeah Tara Norris has gone so that meant a slot opened up in the old Thunder preseason tour so we're doing a week in Dubai Rumi's week in Mumbai, Rumi's, with Fee Morris, also rooming.

I text Fee actually saying, would you be against the idea of sharing an apartment in Mumbai with me and Crossie? And she said, wouldn't be against it, but why are we not staying with the team? And I was like, no, no, no, we have an apartment. Everyone has apartments. Did you think we were Airbnb? Yeah. Yeah, we're just going a little holiday. Yeah, we're not training.

But I'm so excited about it because the preseason tour last year looked epic. We missed out. And now we're doing it together. And the last time we roomed together would have. been 2019 rooming together yeah

we've not had rooms with England no no but we did with Lancashire when we used to travel with Lanks we'd still have to

room until COVID hit so I reckon it was before COVID yeah and then proper roomies would have been Loughborough

back in the day like 2014 so we're gonna should we do a tour diaries? Yeah it's like especially no

balls on tour again but also I'm so excited because like Dubai we only play one game in seven days

nice yeah nice I can see you those eyes sparkling what have you got planned

Well, I know a few people there We might go and sample a few Dubai and beverages We'll have to ease our way back into cricket Because neither of us played for a while No, I know, I know Well, Thunder actually said Do you feel like you need to come on pre-season tour

Are you old enough and experienced enough That you don't need that build-up? I was like, honey, I haven't played cricket since August I need to go on that pre-season tour And especially Mumbai as a spinner I'd be silly not to go Yeah And there's only one game in Dubai

so that's perfect yeah perfect i'll run the drinks i'll drink the drinks how are you anyway i'm all right um yesterday was a tough game not a tough game it was a tough day um obviously tough pill to swallow yeah i was in the 12 so we we named 12 going into the day with the view that we hadn't seen the pitch because training got cancelled the day before when we were men are trained at newlands um it absolutely hosed it down for like 24 hours it was awful and then so I was in the 12. We were resting Lauren Bell, so there's a good chance to see him I was going to come and play. Went and looked at the pitch. We went three seat spinners and then Freer played. So, draining day. Like, you kind of had the expectations, well, I had the

expectations of not playing coming over here. I think I said that on the pod right at the beginning because I didn't even anticipate being in the squad. But it just doesn't make it easier even though you set yourself up for it. So yeah, yesterday was tough about 10 hours last night and feel a lot better. Oh, that's good. Sleep always helps. It's always a thing, isn't it? Because we often talk about no expectations and we did with the Whipple. There's always that little bit of your, what if, or when? Like, what if you'd have had that opportunity yesterday and what if you'd have taken three for ten like anyone else could have done yesterday?

What if you had Catherine's day out? Would you, they, England then, have been like, oh, can she play the semi? Yeah. It's so difficult because they always talk about having the depth on the sideline. But the longer you go without playing cricket, the more your confidence goes. Yeah, and I felt for Freya because she's been thrown. that game because belly's been rested England will go out just give it

Freya see how she goes and as that player you know you're playing for your spot and she'll have known if I don't bowl well crossy's next in and she'll be going if I do bowl well then it keeps crossy out for a little bit longer it's so hard and then she didn't really bowl that well but she'll have put so much

pressure on herself yeah and I think what I've been getting not wound up about recently but for some reason Twitter's been getting to me this week why are you looking everyone has got an opinion on me on my mental health on my cricket on my stats on everything

I hate to say it crossy but you are I hate this word the most famous cricketer in this team though so of course people are going to talk about you no I'm not saying that they shouldn't do but I think it's just like there's been so many times I've wrote tweets out to people and then been like don't interact

I don't need to like I know what's going on I know why I'm not playing I know this team is I know the best 11 for this team and I'm not in that and I've got to work hard to get into that. But even like with the 100 stuff, like everyone's had this opinion on the draft and what's going on there. And no one knows.

And no one knows what's going on. Shall we talk about that? We should probably talk about it. So the 100, so everyone's asking why the women's team, bar Welsh fire, everyone's only retained four players. That was, you're only allowed to retain four players. So there was a max of three internationals and one domestic player. Basically to make the teams a little bit more even.

Because if we look at the teams, they're not evenly spread the talent across English domestic players isn't evenly spread. Yeah. So for the integrity of the tournament, they needed to even out that talent. I think there was a stat that Southern Brave and Oval Invincivals have won 86% of their games. Manchester and Superchargers have won 27% of their games and the Welsh family have won 4% of their games. So for the integrity of the tournament... I was that 1.4%.

Well done. So for the integrity of the tournament They needed to do this now To spread that talent around And make sure the teams are a bit more evenly balanced And we know for fans it's frustrating Because it's frustrating as players Because like I don't want to be a player

That plays for three different teams in three years But that could happen And all the fans that follow you for Manchester And me for Welsh fire They're a bit annoyed And I've had loads of people be like I can't believe you've not been retained blah blah blah. It's all tactical with the team. So you retain four and there's a right to match

card in the draft. In the draft. So let's just say for example Welsh fire get first pick and they go we would like Danny Wyatt because she's in the draft. Southern Brave can go actually we want to right to match that. You play your right to match card. She's our player. We're playing that card, then Danny Wyatt goes back to the Southern Brave for that money and Welsh Fire pick again. We want Kate Cross now. We're keeping her. She's ours, Manchester original. So Welsh Fire then pick again. So it's all very tactical. Basically, in my opinion, every team has got five retentions because of that right to match card. However, four of them have to be done before the draft. So you have to say which four you're retaining before the draft. There's

been a lot of talk as well about the men get 10. Yeah. The men's game is in a very different stage of the women's game so I think it's right that they can retain a stronger squad as in stronger as in more of the people that have already been there Welsh fire didn't retain 10 I feel like we can't just keep bagging out Welsh fire because this could be the year that they go and win it well because we've got the first pick as well you've got in the men's and the women's and you're the only team I think with two 30 top bracket whatever the 32,000 pound bracket is you've got two of those and every other team has got one so I think it's really

interesting watching how the teams have done it because my Manchester have left a slot of every single bracket open. Whereas some teams haven't. Some teams have already taken up, say, the second bracket, they've retained two players at that. So they can't write to match anyone at that level. So I'm fascinated by what the draft will look like. So I honestly thought the Welsh fire were going to retain me

because I was the best bowler. And someone tweeted me yesterday saying that my economy was 0.7 better than any other bowlers in the team. Yeah, you were fairly surprised, weren't you? Yeah. But basically, I might as well tell you. or they haven't retained me because they don't think I'm going to play enough 50 over cricket

leading into the tournament. Odd. What? Yeah. Very odd. Okay. So... This is just a really good example of like

professional sport, we're not as used to it as the men are, but professional sport is just so out of your control. Yeah. Like you can be as good as you are and not get what you think you deserve. And this is just why professional sport is such a mind-fitting. Yeah. So that is why.

I would probably play all the 50-over comp this year. But basically the back end of last year, when I thought about going into commentary a little bit more full-time, I said, oh, I don't know how much 50-over cricket I'm going to play. I'll speak to you in January. We'll go from there. The retentions all had to be done, and they just presumed I wasn't going to play any 50-over cricket.

Right. Okay, so you're going to be in the draft. I am in the draft, and it doesn't mean to say Welsh fire aren't going to pick me up. I don't know what they're thinking. I could end up anywhere. We could end up at the same team. We could end up at the same team. Yeah.

But it's a minefield. It is a minefield. I think that, again, the difference between the men's cricketing landscape and the women's cricketing landscape at the minute is the depth of the talent that's going to go into the draft for the men will be very different to what the women have. So the WPL is probably thrown a spanner in the works because I imagine not many of the Australians

will put themselves forward for the 100 because that's their time off. I spoke to one Australian actually. And I said, are you still going to come over? And she said, well, it actually depends on how much cricket I play because she's in the WPL. She's then got the ashes. There's then the 100, and then they go straight into a series, then straight into the Big Bash.

So that's their time off, the 100. And she just said it purely depends on the cricket that I'm going to play. Yeah, so I was speaking to another Aussie, and for one of the, someone who will probably play a lot of the ashes, so then they'll end up being away for three months, and that is a big tour. Yeah. So it's, you can imagine that the overest,

sees standard that's going to go into the women's draft will be very significantly different to what the men get, which is where women's cricket needed to... And if you're being honest, if you had to pick the women's Premier League and the Ashes or the Ashes in the 100, and you get paid 100 grand to go to the Premier League or 80 grand and 25 to go play in the 100. I know which one I'm picking. Yeah. Yeah. And unfortunately, money talks. And I think we're going to see the landscape of the women's game changed quite drastically

in the next two years because I think I've said it before on this podcast but you can't have three franchise tournaments around the world that earn you more money than your central contract and at the minute that's the way it's going so yeah it'll be interesting to see how governing bodies catch up with that

and how quickly they catch up I'm worried in case the likes of Danny Cap, Ishmael whoever else go you know what Haley Matthews imagine West Indies without Haley Matthews they'd be rubbish Yeah.

Scary. So, how long have we done, Henry? Two minutes. That was quite good. It would actually be interesting to hear Henry's opinion on the 100, actually, and the retention. He's playing a game on his phone. Yeah, he is. He plays like Mario Kart or something. Excuse me.

I was very busy, actually. What were you doing? I was doing some high-level analysis of the 100 draft. Ready for this chat we're bringing you into? You got it. It is interesting, but I think this is a huge problem, because you're suddenly finding a situation where player power is absolutely coming to the fore

and you guys are in a situation where you can turn around and say, no, not interested in that, not interested in that, you can pick and choose. Well, you can't out, but yeah. I'll take it. She's collecting the kits. She's going to be the one with eight kits after the eighth season. Yeah, I can't wait.

But, you know what I mean? Suddenly, players legitimately, if you play international cricket for a country that doesn't provide as much money and you're told you can play three franchises, tournaments without perhaps the fitness testing what are you going to do you're going to go and you know for someone like my age 31 now like I'm at the back end of my career I'm not saying I'm near the end but I'm at the closer to being at the end then I'm at the start the money is so

important because you're starting to see a lot more money come into the game my first England contract was 10,000 pound yeah that was what I was salaried in my first contract in 2014 and now you see money that can change your life you're going to chase the money because you don't how long your career is going to last. Your career doesn't last forever, does it? And you'd be stupid to go, oh, now I can't go over to the Whipple and play for 90 grand because I've got the 100 in August. Yeah. It's just not going to happen. Yeah. And that's the problem, because you have a limited earning time, particularly for those players that, as you say, you've started at a very different landscape. If you're easy Wong now, you're going to look at a career

where the sky's the limit. But you guys, why would you sacrifice? you're earning power, you can't criticise anyone for chasing money because it's a job, you're earning money. On the other hand, though, how exciting for the likes of Izzy Wong that hasn't been picked for this T20 World Cup, but still getting franchise cricket around the world, and we'll have some players that go and play in the PSL as well that aren't here, it's only going to get bigger and better, and women's cricket's going to get better. And we've actually seen that throughout this World Cup.

Me and Henry have spoken about it a lot. The fact that Bangladesh and Pakistan are competing in cricket games for the first time ever. Yeah. It's amazing. And the fact that the PSL is happening will only improve the Pakistan players. You're then going to drip feed more players into those tournaments and they're getting more exposure, more pressure, more learnings. It is going to improve the standards so quickly. It's exciting.

It is exciting. It's also a bit frightening, isn't it? Like, where was women's cricket five years ago? And where could it be in the next five years? Do you not wish you were a little bit better at cricket? I wish I was so much better at cricket, especially the short format. What if I've been wasting my time with a red ball for? We were laughing yesterday on air, so.

we were comparing the generations of cricket. So we went Charlotte Edwards, me and Aisha from Pakistan, the young gun that's come on, and the athleticism between the three of us. So you've got Charlotte Edwards, like, not athletic. Me, a little bit, but not really. And then a young girl that's clearly been in the gym since she was a teenager and now an absolute unit

can hit the ball out of the ground, an unbelievable athlete, and like just how it's all changing. Yeah, I still think Lottie'd beat you in a race. Come on. She would. Running backwards. Yeah. Blank folded.

Oh, you've actually, you've offended me. That's her, she's got red in her hands. Right, shall we, um, she'll go upstairs? No. I think, no, there's someone we need to go upstairs with because I owe a public apology, I think. You do, because she, she, um, said this to me yesterday. Anna Harris. You are an apology.

What she said to you? She said, all right, Al. I said, what are you doing up here? I just come to say hello and I was like, all right, okay. when is your next podcast episode so we're doing it tomorrow she said oh um crossy asked me actually the back end of the england series if i wanted to come on but she was slightly worse for where in the tavern at lords and i gave her my number and she's never texted me back and i was like oh it'd be great to get you on you're the youngest umpire 23 you're training to be a doctor you are so

clever and a message you're like did you ever ask Anna Harris to come on the pod and you're like I don't think so yeah so I was convinced that I didn't have her number so I went through my phone book and there she was and I sent it to her I was like oh this must have happened but I don't I don't often get drunk where I don't remember things I'm quite good on a night out I'm kind of the one that pieces everyone's night together because I remember random things but you also don't drink really not passively you know what I mean like you don't drink on my level. No, you get like white girl wasted in a nightclub at 9pm, but I don't. And yeah,

I was convinced this didn't happen. So Anna, I'm so sorry. I do have your number. Shall I text her now? Yeah. Let's drop her a little message. It's like, hi Anna. Hi Anna. Doing the podcast. We're currently going upstairs with you. Hi Anna. Just on our way upstairs with you. Would you fancy joining us one day. Thanks. Kate. Hello and welcome to Cammy's football shorts with Cammy and just Cammy, not me. Oh, thanks, mate.

Anyway, each week he's bringing you more tales of his extraordinary life and career. He doesn't need me getting in the way. My wife and I went to L.A. She says to me, I want to do that tour bus round the Star's house. He says, you probably won't know this guy. His name is Beanie Jonas. And I went, I know him. Think about it.

Vinnie Jones. These bonus episodes are available. Just search for proper football on BBC Sands. Hi, Kate and Alex. I'd be interested to hear your take an umpire's soft signal catches. I forget the soft signal for the hard. half-olly non-catch given out on replay by Darcy Brown to dismiss Bernardine. Bezalden Hout.

Thank you. First time for everything. Anna's just text me back. Ha ha ha ha. I see Alex passed on my message then. Winky face. Of course I would if you'll have me. I love that.

Winky face. Stop flirting. Stop it Anna. Anyway, it looked out at speed and the fingers of her hands are under the ball. Side on, Kelly's body position looks, who's Kelly? I don't know, Darcy Brown I don't know what's going on here Basically, moving on

The soft signal needs to mean something If there is one in cases of both umpires Obscured slash no clear view Exactly like a run out or a stumping In other words, there needs to be clear evidence To overrule the call on the field Rugby Union uses a similar route For example, if there are any reason

Why I cannot award the try Okay, so the soft signal is purely in case the technology fails. So that is why the soft signal is there. So they can get rid of the soft signal, but what if the camera angle or the camera doesn't show it? So that is why. So basically the umpires come together,

they have a discussion, is it out? And just imagine you go to the cameras and for some reason there's a power cut and all the cameras stop working, then the decision is out. Yep. So it's not, that isn't to sway the off-field umpire at any point.

It's just in case of that. It doesn't change. the third umpire's decision is in case the technology fails i wonder then if there's a way that that soft signal can be given through not through being seen if you know what i mean so the the umpire just says to the third umpire i have given this out on the pitch yeah so then it doesn't confuse anyone else yeah i think what we do though is watchers of the game spectators spectators is we go oh the soft signal's out and then it's sort of like you think oh they how can I make this not out in my head?

Yeah, you try and disprove something. A bit like a conspiracy theory. Yeah. Although I like proving conspiracy theories. Oh, interesting. I haven't yet. Hi, Alex and Kate. Firstly, I have a good quiz question

for the two Mancunian ladies. Which brother and sister have represented their country at the recent T20 World Cup tournaments? I know this. Brother and sister? So they're not both playing this one? Well, I know that.

that bit out so it must have been someone you've played with him on a cricket pitch you've played it for the same franchise team right so that must be someone at Manchester little Josh Little yes yeah the little we were wondering actually if they were if they were related I thought not but oh they are related and Harry Tector and And opening by Gabby Lewis, have been dating for years. Oh, right, okay. It's a very small-knit country. I notice that you have not been picked up for the 100,

but I hope it doesn't get you down too much. But I hope it doesn't get your down too much. I'm sure you both get picked up in the draft, and I look forward to watching you again when I'm watching the originals. And on that subject, the answer is Louise and Josh Little. I thought Josh excelled last summer for Manchester and deserved his place in the team this summer. Go well, Andrew and Andrew from Roe Green Worsley.

Oh, nice, not far from where we are. Ix. Hi, Kate and Alex. They've run their course, surely. It says, hey, Alex and Kate, I've just been so biased about that. I know you said you're done with X, but one just came up that I needed to share. People eating salt and vinegar crisps with chocolate. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Keep up the good work and stop ruining crisps, Sam. Sam? Is that my cousin, Sam? Is it Ashworth? No, hardly. Surprisingly. Makes sense. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

So Henry and Dan Norcross were giving me jip all day about me eating chocolate and crisps. And we got back from the game and I gave it to Henry and some crisps. And what did you think, Henry? It was better than I was expecting. No, this is not what you said on the night. Yes, I know, but it was on the night. It was about one in the morning. I was tired and emotional.

It was all right, but the next day Daniel and I went for a wine tasting and to get some supplies for you to take back to Mum and Dad Hartley. And they gave us some chocolate with the wine. And there was pairing notes. Was that a better pairing? Yeah, it was like the taste of oak, cherry, honey, nose, whatever. And I thought back to eight hours earlier when I was sitting in a smoking lounge at the hotel with Alex feeding me salt and feeding.

Finnic and crisps and dairy milk. I've got to be honest, one was better than the other. It was okay, but it wasn't the culinary revolution that you made it out to be. So I've got a confession to make on this. So I don't always keep up to date with your social media when there's been a game. Because when you get your phone back, it's quite hard to see, because Twitter and Instagram do that thing now where they don't put things in chronological order. But I did come across this video, but I watched it without the sound on.

But I saw exactly what was going on. And I had a friend at school who used to love having a dairy milk chocolate bar with a packet of salt and vinegar crisp, but I like it. I wouldn't put them together on like the crisp, the chocolate on the crisp, but I would eat chocolate at the same time. And then eat salt and vinegar crisp because I think the salt outweighs the sweetness. So I'm with you here, which is not often we're together on something like this. Yes.

Hi, Kate and Alex, long time listener and emailer. This is a question for you both. How does the coach, captain and team deal with partners in the same team? particularly when one is performing better than the other, for instance, could dropping Catherine affect Nat's performance and the teams? It is a decision made because they are married as opposed to cricketing performance. The team comes first, but would love to hear your thoughts, and I don't believe men's cricket has ever had to face this that we know of.

Love listening to your honesty and personal quirks that make the podcast special, Patrick, Victoria, BC, Canada. Formal. I think it's a pretty easy answer. can't give the actual answer because we're not the coach or the captain or the captain but uh you treat everyone like a cricket player yeah you treat everyone professionally it's like if you were in an office environment and two people were dating would you treat them any differently because they were dating not cricket comes first you judged them on their performances so uh it's

we get asked this a lot because people seem to not be used to the idea of two people being married in the same cricket team um but you wouldn't know that they're married they're so professional around training, around games. Yeah, they want each other to do well. So does everyone else in the team? It's something like I want you to do well or I want Gleddy to bowl well. Yeah, it's really not that bigger phenomenon.

I don't know why everyone gets so obsessed with it. Hard to commentate on the Catherine Syverbrunt, Nat Siverbrunt, a bit of her. Yeah, well, my sister messaged me saying that the score cards are just saying Siverbrunt caught one or Siverbrunt bold, so they need to start putting the K in the end there. I think they have now. I put a little something out on Instra as well,

so I'm just going to nip over to our Instagram page. what is the dumbest thing that Hartley has done this week well it wasn't myself this week good that wasn't dumb that was ill that you were ill

oh about that would you throw away the pants or would you wash the pants someone message saying thank god crossy didn't lend Alex so what I did is I put them in the shower and wash them and then put them in the laundry is that wrong no Alex

no no put them right in the bin I haven't done anything silly this week that I know of. Okay. Keep thinking. There will be something. Probably. Is that it?

Well, there's more ones on Instagram, yeah. Oh, I thought it was, wasn't that. Hi Alex, Yeas, Hartleys and Kate Cross. Firstly, thank you for the consistent podcasting as of late. Proud of you above, some X. People who buy the equivalent contents of a weekly shop from a petrol station.

Sometimes you have to do that, though, because, like, there's so many times I'm coming back from Loughbara and I know I need milk, but I don't want to go and do a big shop, so I'll go and get milk from a petrol station when I fill my car up. Yeah, but people who do their weekly shop from a petrol station. No one does that. People who try to click their fingers in time to music, but fail miserably.

Yeah, that's embarrassing, actually. Thanks, Paddy. P.S., please can England play women's cricket at Old Trafford one day? Yeah, please. We'd love that. It says here, preference on a World Cup final opponent. I don't think I've got a preference. I think World Cups are funny because, well, they're not funny, but you've got to beat everyone to win the tournament

so it doesn't really matter you've got to play your best cricket you've got to play the best opponents you've got to win I think if India beat Australia India are more inconsistent when it comes to finals

pressure and pressure they quite often collapse under pressure but how good how good would it be if you'd be in Australia I'd want to beat Australia yeah I'd really want to beat Australia you've done it properly yeah I'd really want to beat them

someone's asking If I nick that England shirt of yours, no idea. We need to tell that story, don't we? Yeah, so that England shirt that was on the Instagram page, I had a plain black tea on, and you were doing some filming content where you couldn't wear any branded kit, so we had to swap tops.

Half a story. I was in kit, and Catherine turned up, not in kit, so I didn't want to be in kit. So I was like, can I borrow a t-shirt, so we swapped half an hour, and that is why you wore your England top again. Should you do one more? Yeah.

Is it ever awkward talking to the kids that you walk out onto the pitch with? Oh. How cute were there yesterday? Yeah, really cute. The teeny tiny ones. They were in high order as well, so... I saw Jotty from Bangladesh carrying hers. Oh, well, Heather got the teeny tini-tiniest one yesterday because obviously captain goes first

and that was the smallest and then it got up to the tallest, but they're so cute. They are. You just ask the standard questions how old they are. Do they play cricket? If they do play cricket, do they bat, do they bowl? And then by that time, you've kind of lined up. but it was so cute did you see Cap

at Quebec the other night had her niece and nephew with a singing the anthem and her niece was so huge she was tiny oh one thing before we leave I forgot to ask you if you were all right

no you did ask me oh did I okay good we're not doing that again right thanks very much everybody see you it's been a shambles you can get in touch with us on nobles podcast at BBC.co.com.

Noblespodcast at bbc.combec. It's so good They said it twice. There's a great chance. There'll be an emergency podcast coming out very soon. Emergency podcast on Sunday. And I'm on holiday next week, but the week after, I have lined up ex-Captain Danay Van Neerkerk to come on this podcast. You've actually got us a guest.

I've got us a guest. And she said, you finally asked, I listened to the podcast, it's an honour. Love that. Amazing. Right, we'll see you then. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye, bye, bye. Bye. See you, Henry. Bye. And cross strikes in the first over. It's what England we're looking for. Partly balls.

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