Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - Women’s IPL, Hugh Grant lookalikes and Greg James in the bath

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

England bowler Kate Cross is in India taking part in the Women’s T20 challenge, hopefully a forerunner of the women’s IPL. She’s joined by World Cup winner Alex Hartley who’s been enjoying mixed fortunes back in the ranks for the Thunder side playing in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. They answer your questions, set a new challenge and find out who Alex mistook for Hugh Grant on a train and why Kate was perturbed by pictures of Radio 1 and Tailenders host Greg James in the bath!

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. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, this is Ian Carter. Before you get stuck into this pod, I want to tell you quickly about a brand new podcast series

all about the Open. Every Thursday, Catherine Downs and I will revisit memorable moments and discover unheard stories from past championships from some of the biggest names in golf, like Rory McElroy. To win an Open Championship, the Clara joke,

a trophy that you've dreamed your whole life of winning. Those are the moments that you'll never forget. Colin Morikawa. For me, all I'm focused on are the goals. How do I go win this week? How do I defend the Open? And we'll hear all about Sevi Bayersteros. He was a highly competitive player, but he had a delightful game.

He changed the way the game was played. It's to get you in the mood ahead of the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, which 5 Live will bring you from the 14th of July. Listen on the 5 Live, all about podcast feed only on BBC Sounds. Guys, this is your warning. We do swear occasionally. Every now and then, we'll say the word Sometimes, sometimes, and even maybe

But don't let that put you off with nice people We beep them out So your kids can listen Enjoy And cross strikes in the first over It's what England we're looking for Partley falls down the track comes scoring This time, chicken out

It's either six or out, it's six. Hello and welcome back to Nobles, the Cricket Podcast, with me Kate Cross and you, Alex Hartley. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. Who knows? I actually had to text you about an hour ago being like, just checking, 11 o'clock is in half an hour for you. because we've tried this so many times with time difference and we always get it wrong. Always, always get it wrong. But it was and it swiftly reminded me that I should get out of bed for the podcast.

Nice. It's nice to see you. We've actually not spoke for a full on week. Literally. You went out to India and I've obviously just been, well, just cricket training. But then this weekend, I've had a weekend like away from my phone. And yesterday he texted me like, hello. I was like, hi.

Well, you've been playing cricket, haven't you? We've had the first installment of the Charlotte Edwards Cup. You've been busy with that. I've been busy flying to India. Yeah, yeah, that took a week. For anyone that doesn't know, you're there for the Women's Challenger Cup, is it called? The Women's T20 Challenge Cup, yeah, same same. Basically, a women's IPL that's not a women's IPL,

because you can't call it a women's IPL because there isn't a women's IPL, but it's connected to the IPL, so it's a women's IPL. Yes. So it's the exhibition games of the women's IPL. Sophie Eccleston and Sophia Dunkley are also here, which was very funny because basically we got announced based on our passport. So we sent our passports over to the BCCI, and they obviously saw that I'm Catherine on my passport,

so I was announced as Catherine Cross. And Dunks has gone out on the internet as Sophia Brown. And everyone's like, who's Sophia Brown? But she's Sophia Dunkley Brown, and she's been announced as Sophia Brown. So it's all a bit confusing. Yeah, but she's got Dunkley on her shirt, as she, I guess. I did see it all got changed

but I was like Sophia Brown I was like I know exactly who that is so yeah it's all been a bit random I found out like four days before I was flying that my visa had been approved so a bit of a rush job obviously it was meant to be playing for Thunder

in the Charlotte Edwards Cup we didn't actually need you I'm in Pooner we didn't need you that one game no you smashed it always always turn up against Yorkshire literally always and then I guess

we needed you for the game after. Yeah, we watched that on the live stream, actually. By the way, can we just talk about how good the live stream is? Like, we were able to watch over here, and it's so good. It is genuinely so, so good. Yeah, it is amazing. We had 45,000 people watching against Yorkshire. Well, four of them were in my room that weren't even counted,

because Alana King was watching, Dunks was watching, Eccles was watching. So I'd at least three more onto that. Oh, so there was four people watching us. Just not ball straight. That was my feedback. Yeah. It was tough to watch.

It was tough to play. Anyway. Anyway, we're won from three as the Thunder. We're going to be fighting uphill, I think, to get into those finals day. Do you know what? It's fine. We win the next three. We're in finals day.

You're flying. You're fine. I've got something on my sticky note that I want to ask you about. I feel like last, it wasn't the last, it wasn't last week because we're a bit behind on this podcast I think we're about 10 days since the episode came out but we just brushed over it in the last episode and I think we should address it

but I don't know I genuinely don't know if you want to talk about it so you're allowed to say no we said in our roundup of the news that wasn't the news anymore because it was hindsight that you'd step down as captain and we just didn't talk about it so is it something you're willing to talk about? Yeah, have you got some questions for me or something?

Well I've got it written on my sticky note and it just says you stepped down as captain but I just thought we'd give people maybe a bit of I obviously do know but a bit of an insight into why you step down because in the roundup episode of the World Cup prior to our break you said you weren't ready to talk about it so maybe now is a good time oh did I yeah well I just thought right I'm not going to play cricket forever and do I have an idea not many people do no well okay I'm not going to play cricket for the next five years whereas that team will probably all play together for the next five years. I don't know when I'll retire.

It might be tomorrow. It might be next year or the year after. I genuinely don't know. But I just thought while I'm still playing or definitely still playing, I can help the next captain so I can be there to guide them, give advice. And also another part of it was that I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to go back and play. So to make it more fair on the team, I thought, well, if I stepped down as captain, selfishly I can just turn up to training.

to concentrate on me and try and get a bit of love back for the game. So it took a bit of pressure off you basically. Yeah, and it's kind of working and bowling all right. Yeah, that's good. Best when fresh. But yeah, I guess for people outside of our environment, it might have seemed like a strange decision or a bit sudden or whatever, but I guess if people didn't know where you're at with your cricket

or where that group is at as a, like, their environment where it's at, then I thought we'd give a bit of background. Yeah, I also thought it was unfair that, like, I work quite a lot and like I miss a few training sessions and I thought it was unfair that as captain I was doing that as well so there was a lot of things when I told the coach I cried and I started shaking I was really anxious told him on media day but I guess having that communication they really respected that and they were like thank you they were like um okay you need to find any captain thank you next see yeah oh good right okay so you're okay

yeah yeah that's all that matters yeah i are we going straight in sticky notes i'm not even asked you how you are yeah i'm good i'm good i'm embracing the indian culture over here is everything spicy still i love spicy food so it's so f's struggling sof always struggles with the do you remember we were there once and it was so spicy they brought her out some vanilla ice cream mid meal yeah the guy felt really sorry for us who brought her out some ice cream Yeah, she's not got any better Crossie, before we actually properly get into this podcast

you haven't started your timer and we're eight minutes in. Oh no! Right, let me start it. Sorry, we're going to be a bit... I'll start it for 35 minutes. I think you need to do 32. All right, I'll do 30

because we've done eight minutes already. Sorry, Hemey. Everyone hated that by the way. Everyone hated the timer last week. Which is why I put it on my sticking out to carry on with it because it's funny. All right, I'll write it on mine, so I don't forget, but we've got to remember these things.

We've got to be better. On my sticking out, I've got a few points. The first one, Greg James had COVID and put it on his Instagram story that he was at home, he was poorly, and he couldn't go into work, so he had to have a couple of days off. He put a picture of him in the bath on his Instagram with no bubbles in it. He often does that? With no bubbles, Chrossie.

Oh, I've never noticed that, but he often puts pictures of himself and that does, a bit of Instagram storying from his bathtub. Yeah, no bubble bath. No bubbles. Geez, he's a psycho. Yeah, we had that in it. I've told you, they live amongst us.

They do. And one of the most famous people on the radio is a psycho. Speaking of the tail enders and weird behavior, we got tagged in something, didn't we? On Twitter, saying that they had basically copyrighted the pig and rat theory. Yeah, but then we... And called it something different. We got really angry, though, really angry about it.

And then we actually listened to... it was and it's not the pig and rat at all no it's not but we we thought right we'll start a little war with them on Twitter and not one of them engaged in it so that was a great yeah well done and then someone was like it's it's actually more they do it on your vibe so you're what is it punk or punk or hippie or something so you could be like a hippie pig or a punk rat or something so yeah anyway ignore it sorry guys we'd got the wrong end of we did and we actually played hippie or punk at the dinner table at one of the games right okay so it makes sense and it's not pig or rat it's quite a good game you're definitely a punk

am i what are you i don't know they didn't they didn't actually answer well i don't know what the theories no me neither is so i can't answer either i've just gone punk because like dark clothes bit grumpy could wear could wear loads of dark makeup i imagine you with got makeup off what oh i've taken this too far this makes no sense um there's a few things on my sticky note one of them you thought this is going back a while now and if you follow us on social media you'll have definitely seen this but you were sat on a train and you thought that you were sat opposite Hugh Grant honestly like I was like I'm crossy I'm sat opposite Hugh Grant this is amazing so I was like get a selfie with him for the purposes of the podcast you were like

no too embarrassing not going to do it anyway you found out it wasn't Hugh Grant even after you googled who Hugh Grant was like still convinced the man sat opposite you yeah So I was like, Hugh, I think it's Hugh Grant, so let me Google it. So I googled Hugh Grant, and I was like, oh, definitely him. They look the same, definitely him. Turns out it was someone from Gavin and Stacey. Rob Bryden. It was Brin.

Brin from Gavin and Stacey. So you were very close to going up to Rob Bryden saying, hi Hugh Grant, please could I have a photo? I really was. Such a heartly moment. I know. And even after a bloody good. He googled his name as well.

You were looking on Google at photos of Hugh Grant and we're convinced that that was him sat off at you and it wasn't he? That's like, honestly, that's like, you being sat next to me and me Googling, Paloma Faith, and being like... Yeah, exactly the same. And being like, look, they're the same. Don't know why she just came in.

to my head. Yeah, that was a really, really weird person to come into your head. You did the same last week, though, with the little Red Riding Hood story. Yeah, I did. Like, so rose. My next sticky note is hashtag 907, which is just the code to get out of the David Lloyd car park. And then, Samboca times nine, which is just an order when I went to the bar. Oh, how could you possibly forget that?

That's such a difficult order. No, there was other things on there, but you know when you have to write them all down, I must have deleted them. But it turns out, I've been using our podcast notes as just like a bit of a shopping list, clearly. Just a general note.

Yeah. It's dangerous that. We put up on Instagram the other week how shocking our return to cricket was when we played at Hove in the first game of the Charlotte Edwards Cup. And I actually invited people to share their terrible stories about cricket matches,

and I wondered if you wanted to go through a few of them, because some are very good. We put a few up on the story but since then more people got involved and I didn't want to waste how good these stories were. Right, so we had one. We basically,

we were on a coach for eight hours. We were bowled out for 100. We got one wicket between us. Your strike rate was under 50. I batted and my straight was under 50 and then we had a six hour coach back and we lost. So it was a bit like, oh, cricket.

Why do we love you so much? Someone replied saying they drove for three hours for a T20, got a diamond duck. They were all out for 62. They didn't bowl and they knocked it off in six overs. Diamond Duck is when you get run out

at the non-strikers end having not faced the ball. Stinker. Yep. Got sent to play for the second team to try and strengthen up their batting, got dropped twice on the way to the ugliest 17 runs

you've ever going to see. At least you've got 17. Seven hours watering and roll in the wicket. Two hours early pre-game for setting it all up. Three drop catches, golden duck, 10 pound matthie. Oh, nah, stinker.

I saw one, right, of a team down south getting bowled out for 25 and the other team knocked it off in two overs. Imagine all those players played 15 pound stubs as well. It's mad, isn't it?

It's mad what you do for club cricket. Here's one. Drove to Brighton from Liverpool for the game to get rained off as soon as we pulled into the car park. Then on the way home there was a crash and it took us 15 hours to get back. How fun.

Fifteen hours? Oh, we thought we had it bad on the way. her down. This was a interesting one and I'm not sure why anyone would admit to it, but I did screenshot and sent this to you. Thought it was a fart. Sh-h-myself. Got sunstroke, twisted my ankle in the footy warm-up to finish off, work at a.

m. the next day. Didn't win. Why are you wondering that? You could have told us that without telling us you've pooched your pants. No one needs to know that you pooge pants. your pants you know like me just tell Alexa Grossey I pooed my pants

maybe because they thought we weren't going to talk about these on the podcast but here we are we didn't plan this but here we go well that's what I was actually out for dinner yesterday I mean you get you get the idea I was out for dinner yesterday with a woman called Susie and her husband and they were like do you plan the podcast

I was like no and they were like so do you not write a script or like organise it when your guests come on I was like well it takes us 10 minutes when the guest comes on and we just freehand do the podcast. Well, you do do as a disservice there because we've got a sticky note that's got your drinks order on it.

Yeah, true. Well, should we do some questions? Or have you got some more sticky notes? I do have a few more sticky notes. So I've got written down here, dumb things that you thought were a thing when you were a kid. And I saw it on Twitter the other day and someone tweeted,

I've actually forgotten what their thing was. Okay, that's... Which probably defeats the point of this story But it did remind me of something that I thought Was a real thing when I was a kid So I was thinking we could maybe open this up to our listeners Maybe they can email us and let us know Some of the things that they thought were real

Or not real, but things that happened That just are so obviously not going to happen Like the crocodile that's going to get your toes at the end of the bed Well, so I'll give you my example You might understand it a bit more Here's a perfect example of us not are planning this podcast before we do it. So I used to think that street lamps had someone inside them turning them on every night and

turning them off every morning. Right, bit like the man on the moon. It's a similar, like everyone used to think there was a man that lived on the moon. Did they? Yes. Did you not know? There is a man that lives on the moon, crossy. Isn't, wasn't that an advert, a Christmas advert? And you can see its face when it's a full moon sometimes. Is that not the face in the moon? Yeah, the man on the moon. I don't know what you're talking about. Right, well, there's no man on the moon.

Sorry, if you believe that, and there's nobody that switches straight lamps on. People want to email us in with dumb things that they thought were a thing when they were a kid. I like it. What can we call it? Dumb things that people thought were real when they were a kid. That, yeah. Good one.

But imagine, I actually thought there was small people living in the... the street lamps that used to just turn the light on. Oh, I've got one. I thought the borrowers were real. I always wanted to be a borrower. What, you thought they lived in your skirting floor? No, I just thought I just genuinely was like, I just want to go and live with the borrowers. I mean, your size growing up, you were an absolute,

you were a tiny, tiny, tiny person. Like, you could have done. Yeah, my parents used to call me the sparrow. Oh, nice. Right, what else you got for me? That's me for this week. have got one more but I think we need a bit more time to explain it so I'll leave that for next week. Save it for next week. I've got nothing but what I am going to have to do is

just stand up because, Crossy, on Saturday we were playing and I had a back spasm. Oh my God, how bad are they? Oh, they're awful. Right? So I'm like having to do laps while we're batting because I can't sit down and Boise gets 70 odd and gets out in like the 18th over and comes off. She's like you're right why are you doing laps it's absolutely village i was like i've got a back spasm shh the opposition will hear you i was like i'm pretty sure they can tell something's not quite right the fact i'm doing laps on my own at grace road so now you just stood up doing the podcast now i'm stood up doing the podcast looking out the bedroom window because i can't sit down for too long it really hurts okay okay so i'm just going to stand up right should i just ask you some questions

then should we go upstairs with someone no it's okay i mean you're not in a fit state to go upstairs with anyone I don't think. It's a struggle. Let me tell you that. Yeah. I would, I would put my back out for Sue though. Come on then. Right, let's go upstairs to Sue. I'm getting my questions up. I've got one. Do you miss Crossie? Yeah. If you're the delay has gone bad hasn't it okay I'll go do you miss Crossy

yes I do nice thank you next question if you could only play one form of cricket for the rest of your life which one are you choosing ODIs test match I've never played it so I'm probably not getting picked it doesn't matter though it's just whichever format you want to play

what the hundred The 100? Oh, the 100. Happen the morning, I'm going to play the 100. Yeah, nice. You need to practice your Welsh accent, by the way. We as. That's all I've got.

Good start, good start. What are you playing? Probably, I did really enjoy The 100, but ODIs, I feel like my bread and butter, really. So I should stick with that. Yeah. Right, not a question, but love the podcast, makes me feel like I'm not driving alone every morning. Lovely. But Amy, yeah.

are if you look around amy there's actually no one in the car oh my god do you ever get that feeling when you're in the car and you're on your own that there's someone in it with you yeah or i get the feeling that someone's going to poke their head from the top of the car through the back window yeah honestly sometimes if i part if i go to the shop like to go to the shop i was going to the name of a shop then but we're not there. So you go to a shop and then I just think what if I left my car open and someone just sat there waiting to jump out at me and they're in my car but I'm driving so what do I do? Things you thought that were real when you were younger that are not true. No this is adult Kate this isn't kid Kate this is adult Kate. It is scary

the dark is scary. What are your thoughts on the new England shirts? Oh yeah I like them what's your favourite? The ODI shirt yeah I do like the blue one what about you? I think I prefer the T-21. I think I like the lions on it. Oh yeah. Yeah, nice. What does Kate want to ultimately do with her master's degree? Work with Lanks, cricket, ECB or even the ICC, or even leave cricket? I don't know, honestly. I think it depends what doors get opened up for you. And I'm sure, well, fingers crossed, there will be plenty of opportunity to, like, get involved in a sport. But I think I've done it to help cricket and to help women's cricket in particular. But I'm also getting to the point

where I'm starting to think about my dissertation and I'm like, why am I doing this? Why have I got 25,000 words to write in the middle of the busiest summer that I'm going to play? Yeah, I mean, silly from you. But I guess once it's done, it's done. Yes, it'll be very, very good to have on the old TV. Why are you hiding now?

Because I got... Because I got... Honestly, got to see my back. He's so sore. I've got a physio in an hour. Okay. If the 100 had mascots, would you sign up to be inside the costume and for the mascot race if you weren't playing?

Absolutely not. Have you, anyone that's ever been inside a mascot costume knows how much it stinks. It's like mouldy. They are not nice. I once dressed up as the All-Star. I went down to Haywood as the All-Star. There's pictures of me dressed up in it. It's horrible.

You're in like these braces and then they put this big star costume on top of you and you can't see, because it's probably designed for a man, so the eye holes don't match up. But I was watching, like, the T20 blast starts this week, doesn't it? And I do enjoy the mascot race. I would love to be involved in that. Do you remember when we commented on it at the finals day? That was so much fun.

But I think we should, in fact, weirdly, I'm trying to find it now, but someone also mentioned a question about whether me and you should have a time trial as lanky. So both of us dress up as lanky, and we do like a lap of the picture. who does it quicker wins? That'd be actually very good. I can't find the question?

Here it is. Can we have a mascot race, town trial between you two dressed as lanky? That's from Dom. Don. You think we could get that out of age? Yeah, we can do that?

But can I do it with my spine's all right? Because I think I might... Yeah. Die. Yeah, okay. Not to be dramatic or anything. Not to be dramatic. I've just got, you know,

a bit of muscle sonners. How many runs will Crossy score in the Women's T20 Challenge Cup? I'm hoping non-be. because I really don't want to have to bat if I'm being really honest because Al, I've had two nets over here and it's like I've never played cricket before.

It's like I can't hit the ball. They're a bit slower the wickets than what we used to at Old Trafford. Yeah, very true. But I've just also not done a great deal of cricket since coming back from the World Cup and our time off. So I'm really hopeful I don't have to bat. If I do, then maybe 10 runs would be great. Which of you is better,

at getting the other out. Well, you've never got me out and I've got you out. So technically it's me, but actually factually it should be you. Yeah, yeah, I probably agree with that. I think I face you more in the nets than you face me in the nets as well. That's because I avoid you at all costs. Do you remember when we had Leah to hoo-hoo as an overseas and every time I went to bat, she went in the other net?

Who is your guilty pleasure of world cricket? Oh. Stoyness. Oh, I love that man. There's some... Is he yours? Yeah, there's something about him. Well, actually, you're lying, aren't you?

Because yours is actually Chris Wokes. Crossy. I'm not over that. Like, I'm anxious again. Guys, guys, you've got to listen to this. For anyone that's not... across our social media. We were bored on the bus

on the eight-hour coach trip that we mentioned before going to Brighton to lose really badly and we did some Q&As and one of the questions was do we like

or do we yeah do we like any of our guests and we didn't get it really did we? So I was like I don't get your question but do I fancy

any of my guess? Yeah Chris Wokes Mark Wood so I'm putting the story up and I'm like can I tag them I'll say yeah they're not going to see it

next minute Chris Wokes replies. He replied to the Nobles' Instagram story, being like, classic Hartley at it again, saying what she thinks. Says it how it is. Good luck tomorrow. Oh my God, Crossy. Like, I have never died inside so much. And then I was like, right, so yesterday I checked if Mark Wood had seen it as well, and he hasn't. And that was what was supposed to happen. Why is Chris Wokes checking his DMs? Chris Wokes is, if you go on Instagram, Chris Wokes has liked everything

so it's either not him doing it or he's mad keen on Instagram As in everything on the nobles account No, just everything in general like ESPN Crickin, Bo, BBC Cricket everything, he's liked everything Him and Maya Bouchier Like everything on Instagram

Bush likes every meme on the sun Exactly, on the sun Is that not the right of saying? I don't know what's Under the Sun Under the Sun? Is it under the Sun? Yeah, I don't think, because on the Sun you die.

Yeah, that's true. Who is Crossy... Maybe on the moon. Man on the moon. Who is Crossy supporting in the final stages of the IPL and our CSK have been knocked out? I hate to say this, but I really wanted RCB to get through

because of Glenn. So they obviously won their last group stage game which meant that they gave themselves a chance to get through. I also love D.K. I'm really, really pleased that D.K.'s got back into the Indian team and he's had a really good season, so I'm going to have to support I've got a spare shirt you can wear

Who is the most improved player In the Charlotte Edwards Trophy this year Oh great Question Maybe Somebody like Charlie Dean I guess Because she's now playing for England

Boosh's had a great start Hasn't she she seemed to have scored runs in In so many of the games I've seen a real difference in Boise Georgie Boyce Yeah Yeah Her and Lammy wow they've batted so well haven't they

Honestly without them We'd be up for it's Greek Maybe they need to get you in the middle order Crossy now, I've dropped the captaincy I've gone down the batting order Is that how you're getting yourself up to nine? Yeah, I'm back at 11 Favorite quote or piece of advice

My favourite quote which I have got tattooed on me Which my mum hates me for Is tough times don't last, tough people do I love that And every time you're in a tough place I say it to you And you're like, oh yeah, okay Yeah I do really like it

Because it's true isn't it It is literally so true My dad said it to me when I was going through my really bad phase of my mental health. So it's just always stuck with me and I like it. Oh, it's Mental Health Awareness Month, isn't it still? What are you planning for dinner? I will definitely be having more Dahl. I've had Dahl literally every single day.

So, yeah, a bit more of that for me. What about you? I've just got some chicken breast out of the freezer, so I'll have to see what is in the fridge post-training. So you'll probably order Ananda. Yeah, yeah. Right, who would be the better least? leader, Prime Minister Hartley or Prime Minister Cross?

Do you mean better as in, like, more fun or better as in actually doing the job? You would be like the leader of the Monster Raven Looney parties. You'd be the person that brings out the 99P coin or sell socks in three so that you never lose a pair. That's genius, crossy. That's what their policies were. Shut up. That was someone and the Monster Raven Loonies were led by a. cat out a cat they had in charge of their party and these were the policies that they that would be

you no it wouldn't i would just make sure that we had a four-day working week yeah i think we need to do that i say that like i've got a real job i don't yeah so i only have to train twice a week i have a four-day working week so i don't know what i'm complaining about i'm technically a three-day but everyone that actually does work properly we feel yeah um if you weren't cricketers what job would you want to do i always wanted to work hear me out here but i always wanted to work on the tills in the shop i always wanted to do the beep and then they brought out self-scanning machines and it was like the best thing that ever happened because your dream came true yeah because i got to do it so actually i've lived that dream so maybe

i need to think of something else the police i'd like to work in the police i mean would you not want to be like a director of cricket like you're doing your master's? Yeah. I did apply to, did I tell you that I applied when I finished uni to go into the prison service? No. Yeah, I applied for a post-grad scheme at HMP. I didn't get it.

I got booted out after the first round. They didn't like me. But I wanted to go and do psychology with people in there to be like, why do you think it's acceptable to like murder someone? Who would be the better bowler, crossy bowling spin? or Alex bowling fath? Do you know what really annoys me because all seamers think they can be a spinner?

Well, they can. Al, have you ever heard of a spinner going into seam bowling towards the back end of the career or how many people have you heard of being a seamer who then going to spin and make a career out of it? Yeah, and it makes us genuine spinners look like absolute mugs.

Well, it does because it's a simple skill, isn't it? No, it's not a simple skill. I want to see you pitch a ball outside the off stump and click the middle stump. Yeah, I could do that. You actually do that with your seamers, and it pisses me off. Someone tweeting me in the World Cup saying, why are you just a fast spinner? So the answer to that is Crossy would be the better spinner. Yeah, you used to bowl a bit of pace, didn't you?

Yeah, my first length game, I was a seamer. When you were a little sparrow? Yeah, ball 12 wides, never again, ball seam. Never again, not been seen. Sometimes I like to run in a ball seam just to see if I've seen. still got it you know do you no absolutely not no absolutely not um we've still got a bit of time out before the timer runs out so what do we do now we've not we've not thought about this scenario no should we just wait for it to tick over we just leave it silent for three minutes i could tell

the story that's on my podcast sticky notes to finish it off okay it's it's quite a scary story you know it obviously because you know everything about me but couple of weeks ago i don't know why this podcast has involved the tail enders so much but here we go again a few weeks ago i had a miss call from a number that i didn't recognize oh my god i can't believe you're going to tell this yeah i'm going to tell it because it was weird as so um missed the call it was like midnight and then had a text message what's that message from a phone that i had the same number didn't know who it was saying hey kate long time no speak how you doing so i was like sorry don't have your number who's this and they replied saying it's felix

So I was like, oh, hey, Fee, thinking how many Felix's do I know? There's only one that I know is in the tail enders, Felix White. So I'm having a nice chat with Felix. He was like, when I'm next up in Manchester, I'll let you know, we'll go for some lunch, grab a drink. I'm like, yeah, sure, sounds great. And then he happened to be in Manchester the following Wednesday. So we arranged to meet up, go for lunch.

And got to the day before, and I hadn't heard much from him for a couple of days. So I was like, Fia, we're still getting lunch tomorrow. He didn't reply. He didn't reply. it just one ticked on WhatsApp so I was like oh this is weird the time has just gone off quick

I'll round the story up I'll make it shorter so you Instagrammed him Instagramed him because he put an Instagram story up so his phone's definitely working so sent him a message saying Fee don't want to sound

mad keen like messaging you on two different platforms but are we meeting up tomorrow or not and he was like Kate I don't know what you're talking about you've not messaged me and I'm in Spain so for a full week of life i was talking to someone that i thought was felix from the tail enders and it wasn't and i still to this day do not know who this person and they pretended to be felix and they wanted to meet you

for lunch it so happened me and you were getting lunch that day so i was like i'll come meet felix but i was genuinely going to go and meet this person who was catfishing me on my own and then the day well they've blocked you now haven't they so we still don't know who it is their number is out of service. Oh, I don't know who it is. So fake Felix. Yeah, we tried to ring it when we had that night at the cricket club, didn't we? We tried to ring it and the number doesn't exist anymore.

So somebody out there, whoever you are, that was not a nice trip. No. It's actually pretty scary. Well, I had a night in the flat where I was like, gosh, I am actually like, for the first time, scared to be on my own. So that was my story on my sticky note. I got catfish. There's some weird people out there. There wasn't there like.

By Felix from Taylend. And then I messaged Felix. the next day be like lunch was rubbish without you and they were like seriously i think she needs to go to the police yeah you want him to ring the police so weird what are people doing with their time do something meaningful start a podcast do something better make the world a better place don't make it a worse place good i like that that's how we're finishing this podcast make the world a better place not a yeah come on guys if you want to no ballers you can get in touch on no balls podcast at bbc No Balls Podcast at

BBC.co.com. It's so good. This is going to be terrible. It's so good. They said it twice. They said it twice. Thanks guys. That was terrible.

Bye. Bye. 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. That's a real cutthroat business. And if it doesn't happen and it doesn't work the way you say with as a manager as a coach, you will be sacked. And you say, well, if it does work, well, basically you've got another weekend. It's the podcast that lifts the lid on just what it takes to survive as a football manager. So you talk about falling into a job, I'm well and truly fell into that one. Join Craig Levine, me, Amy Irons and guests as we look at the stresses and joys of football managers.

All of a sudden, you're leaving one or two out of the team, you're telling them that they're not playing on this Saturday. Oh, it's different. Sacked in the morning. Listen on BBC Sounds.