Test Match Special - No Balls: The World Cup debrief!

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Kate Cross & Alex Hartley look back at the 2025 Women's World Cup which saw India win their first ever title. They discuss India’s incredible victories over Australia and South Africa, the unlikely hero in Shafali Verma, and why it feels like the beginning of the end of an era in women’s cricket.

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Your grandma listens to this. She does. She also abuses me on social media. But don't worry, we beep it out. See your kids can listen. And Grandma Jean. First ball, castled. Now I'm celebrating for Crossing.

That one was for Crossy. That was a beautiful delivery. The Wobble Ball again from Kate Cross. And that is such an important wicket. Kate Crossing for the Hattrick Ball. Oh, so wide. Hello and welcome back to No Balls of Cricket podcast with me Kate Cross and you Alex Hartley. Hello, hello. How are you?

Yeah, do you know what I love? What? We've both got bikinis on. I know. How nice is that? It's holiday season. For anyone that's weird, we're not doing a bikini episode. It's not like that.

It's just that we're both not in England, so we've both got bikinis on. Yeah, it's the first thing I did this morning. I was like, Bikini on. to the pool, cricket is done. Lovely. A bit of context. So I'm in Tenerife on holiday with our mum and you are in Dubai on the way back from the World Cup. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I thought, you know what? I'll stop in for a few days. Nice, get a bit of downtime, decompression time. He said you actually text me a lot of this morning saying you spelt for 13 hours last night.

Long night, if you that are. Yeah, yeah, a lot of spelling, a lot of spelling. A lot of spelling. Got to get them in. We don't, we don't, we don't, we don't really concentrate on our spelling too much these days so it's good you spent so much time on it yeah 13 hours spelling me mental nice 13 hours sleep and I'm still tired crazy what tall does to isn't it tall life jet lag weird hours as well isn't it he said you didn't finish the final till like 1 a.m was it we were on air at 1 am that's crazy I mean it's not crazy because that's just normal when you're in in Asia isn't it that the games just go on so late but

should we just get into it I feel like we can't listen it's I mean, congratulations, India. What mental. Absolutely mental. What a weird, not weird, wonderful, what a wonderful five days that tournament finished in to say that there were so many like damp squids. Squibs, squibs, squibs, squibs. There's so many damp squibs of games, literally. And then the whole tournament finished with those two unbelievable semifinals.

and then I didn't watch the final, I must admit, but the celebrations look, and still going on, look incredible. It was, honestly. Like, do you know how I feel like Texas for really tough tour, really tough places, like really tough place to be? It's just, it's just finished on such a high and in such a good city that you sort of forget about all the shit that's come beforehand.

And that's what happens in global tournaments, isn't it? Because you get to the business end and it just, you kind of figure. get all those less good moments. But I bumped into one of my mates like yesterday and he was like, I was just walking to my room as he was walking past and he's like, what a great World Cup. I watched all the games. They were all so close and I was like, that is the context I needed. Okay.

I mean, he's wrong because they weren't all close at all. Well, the ones that he must have watched. He watched, yeah, the three that he watched must have been good games, nice. So right, let's take it back, take it back, take it back. So semi-final number one. Yeah. Laura Woolfart and Marys and Cap play the two games of their lives

in a World Cup semi-final obviously it meant England had to go home early but when you see two players like that have games like that you kind of like off you go into the final go have a great game yeah well done well played good luck

I mean honestly it was actually hilarious wasn't it because I was like that England will beat South Africa oh god yeah no absolutely no doubt no doubt you said I South Africa have only beaten England 10 out of 38 times I was like not happening like

most of them will be recent though aren't they well yeah that's the thing most of them are in World Cups are knock out games

yeah but South Africa like I feel like they've got the reputation of the New Zealand men's team where they're so much

better than people think and let on you know what I mean like I saw Laura Wolf out had done an interview must have been after the final

and she was saying like they're getting to some great positions now and obviously made quite a few semi-finals and finals of global tournaments but then it's just that consistency to be able to get over the line but then think about it shoe on the other foot India have been in that position so many times I've never won a global tournament up until Sunday and it won't be long until South Africa get there is kind of where my head's going yeah I mean South Africa absolutely outplayed England like there was so much better than England and they deserved to get through to the final it wasn't like it was a really close game

and you know England like dropped a catch or whatever they were just completely outplayed by two players and every time yeah when someone scores 170 and so on takes five for how many times you win the game probably never I know well think about 2022 it was the other way around wasn't it Danny Wyatt Hodge scored 120 odd against South Africa in the semi and Sophie took the six so yeah it's quite synonymous actually yeah synonymous is that the right word I don't know. That's a big one. Too early.

Too early to be thinking of big words. And then the semi-final. I can't believe Australia got knocked out. But I can because I watched Gemmy Bart. Yeah. And I did say... And I watched Australia drop some catches. Did say India would be the only team to beat Australia.

Can we please talk about Ian Bishop's commentary when Talley dropped that catch? And the only thing she's caught is fresh air. What an iconic moment that was. Not for Talia, sorry Talia if you listen to this podcast. Timak, sorry, but we're just going to laugh about it for the next two minutes because honestly it was iconic.

That was such a big moment as well actually because they're just the moments in the past or when Australia are dominant. They're the moments that you just go, well, that's out. You don't even think about it. There's not a chance anyone's dropping that catch but it goes to show up pressure does. And what about a friend of the podcast, Alyssa Healy,

dropping another sky. I felt for her with that actually because her and Kingie were going to clash, weren't they? They obviously couldn't hear each other. And then it was like, oh my God, they're going to hate each other. They were going to hate each other. Oh, my God, she's dropped it. She's done a few of them, though. She's kind of known for it.

And then when it went up and I was like, let can you catch it? Like, can you catch it? Hard with the helmet, though, isn't it? Hard with the helmet. They are, they are hard. But those are the two moments, really, that, you know, Gemmy then was like perfect. Yeah.

Gemmy I said this to you we would because I was I was going to go out for a room wasn't I there was like 15 overs left of the chase and I was like oh god it's getting dark I need to get out for a run I was back in England at this point and you were like what are you doing why are you going for a run watch this game it's like going to be historic and then I said to you that jemmy's chase in context of world cup well in context of all cricket really but because it was a world cup semi-final India's history of not winning that was the the best chase i've ever seen a female play single-handedly it was the best chasing game of cricket i've ever i've ever seen like women's like it was incredible to watch i mean the fact that jemmy

got a runner ball hundred actually just less than but it was the fact that richard gosh came in and smashed the way she she she went out of like 180 and then deepty did the same deepty ran herself out so jemmy could carry on batting it was just perfect from india someone tweeted saying it was the best chase they've ever seen in the history of the game I was obviously I don't have a Twitter account anymore but I go on Twitter because of X sorry I go on X because of the

no balls account and then I was like have we all just really quickly forgotten Glenn Maxwell cramping up and scoring 200 not out in a World Cup it's quite funny how the cricket memory fades very very quickly after it's all happened but no Gemmy that was just amazing and her emotion

after it like you don't often see that outpouring in like games that aren't finals and I just thought good on you girl because she got dropped earlier in the tournament randomly and yeah to go and produce that for your team was pretty pretty special I tell you what was also special you did your yearly tweet my yearly oh it was a good one wasn't it it was very good because you sent it to me I was like what you're talking about and I really didn't understand until you posted it I just pretended I knew what you were going to post oh well I did say so yeah I sent you the photo I'm going to post this and you're like okay why I was like

because when jemmy came on the pod that's what she spoke about I remember really vividly was being desperate to get hold of that photo because the context for anyone that can't remember the episode or I didn't go back and listen was that she was talking about she'd make shifted this photo that she kept in her bedroom of a like a superimposed picture of her in indian kit so that when she was a kid going to training and she didn't have the motivation that was like what her her goal was going to be to play cricket for India and then yeah she goes and does that in a semi-final and it's like amazing she absolutely manifested the shit out of that she absolutely did maybe what should we do should we right I'll superimpose us on some sunbeds in Dubai and it might

happen soon you've done your 10,000 tell people you've done your 10,000 every day so I set myself a challenge during the world cup to do 10,000 steps per day and nobody believes in me because it's, you know, you know what I'm like. I set all these challenges that I always fail. I took my trusty Garmin with me and I resurrected it from the dead and I completed it. I did 10,000... The 600 pound watch. The 600 pound watch.

Again, for a bit of context. Can you tell this story? Yeah, I can flip the edges. We were in Dubai, weren't we? And you, it was after the... It's been World Cup... Champions trophy. There's always a World Cup.

I was just, I was hedging my bets. Champions trophy and you were moving to meet me because we were having a holiday, so I'd come out to Dubai to see you. And you had woke up a little bit dusty, little bit hung over, packed your bags quite quickly, get to the hotel with me, and you're like, oh my God, I've lost my passport.

I was like, well, it'll definitely be in your room. The situation definitely suggests that you're hung over this morning. You've left it in your room. And then you get in touch with the hotel. Long story show, get in touch with the hotel. And they're like, yes, man, we've got your, we've got your passport. And we've also found your watch. And you were like, my watch.

And you're like, oh, my God, I left a £600 watch in my room. I was like, what? What, a £600, a £600,000 of you got? You're like, my Garmin. My Garmin, Phenix. Who calls a garment a £600 a £600. What is you weirdo? Because that's what it cost me.

But yeah, I resurrected it from the day. I've done 10,000 steps a day. For anybody that is actually like wanting to have a little bit of motivation of like slowly feeling better about themselves, I actually am that. Well, there you go. 10,000 steps today takes an hour on the treadmill, hour and five minutes. It's like takes nothing out of your day and I feel so much better. And if you weren't in India, you wouldn't have to treadmill it.

you were obviously restricted with where you could go and walk and stuff. Exactly. So I'm going to have like these three days of like not doing much. And then I'm going to, I'm going to do it again. I'm going to get back to it. Speaking of not being able to go out in India, so when like we talk about stuff like this on the podcast and there's probably a few people out there being like, God, their security's tight or is this that and the other. Look what happened to Australia.

That is exactly the reason why we have these security protocols. So for anyone wondering why you're doing it on a treadmill, that is why. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You were better safe than sorry. I'm going to do a real no-balls whiplash from that comment to the next, but Australia as a team crossy, knocked out the last two World Cups and the semi-finals,

have never got out the knockout stages without Meg Lanning in their team, as in since she retired, sorry, they've never made it out of the knockout stages. Are they as dominant as we think, or do they not play under pressure enough? They are as dominant as we think because their stats, you don't go undefeated in basically two World Cups up until one final on Sunday without being a very, very, very excellent team. But there's obviously something around Meg's captaincy that people kind of either underestimated or have now come to realize that it was better than a lot of people thought it was. So it's interesting because I saw that start and I was quite blown away by it actually because I knew how good. good she was and I knew how dominant they were with her but I hadn't put two and two together

that they hadn't made the finals since she's retired. And I also think like she's a, she was such a calm character that she sort of fed that into the group and so competitive and had that like bit between her teeth. Healy has definitely got that by the way. I'm not saying she doesn't. But I don't know whether like I was watching that semi-final against India and the drop catch from Healy that tolly McGrath is taking that catch nine times out of ten like I can't believe she dropped it but I don't know whether they just don't play enough pressure situations enough because they win so much do you know what I'm trying to say yeah yeah I know what you mean um but then that's never ever ever bothered

them before so why is it bothering them now like the difference is Meg or a team's just getting better and they're having their one day out which seems to be against Australia. I also think that when you come up against someone like Australia in a final or a semi-final, you know you have to be on your A game. So I almost feel like you as a team have to become more excellent than you almost can be to beat them. And then I wonder if then those tiny moments that actually are happening probably throughout

the game, throughout the group stages of the World Cup, but don't get picked up on as much because they're not as big a moment. I'm sure Australia has dropped catches throughout the group stages, but no one really picks up on it because it doesn't mean that you're out of the tournament. So I'm sure they will be happening. But it, yeah, it's going to look very different for Australia now, hasn't it? Because Alyssa's, sorry, Elisa's announced that she's retiring from One Day Cricket. Well, no, she's played her last World Cup game.

Oh, my mum told me that she's done an announcement saying she's retired. Well, let me just double check. I didn't see it. I must admit, she was on her phone yesterday and she said that she'd announced it, which Let me have a look She definitely hasn't announced anything What she did say at the press conference Was I won't be at the next World Cup

Yeah Which is common sense Because she'd be like 39 To be fair My mum is not a great source of knowledge When it comes to cricket stuff So I won't take her word for Well you did

No I did yeah Well I was just like I'm not going on my phone I don't really like I'm on holiday I don't care so much And then I was like alright It makes sense But this World Cup right This cycle I know it happens all the time

we're going to at the next world cup we're going to miss some legends of the game i know but then in four years time there's going to be new people that are big names like mooney will be mooney's only 31 so he presumed she'd still be there at the next one healy perry harmon yeah like heather white hodge beaumont we did our um our predictions for this World Cup, didn't we in 2022? We decided what our starting 11 would be for this World Cup. And I savagely said you were in my starting 11, but in 8 for some reason. Savagely?

No, no, no. No, the savage part was, I said, your last one though. Yeah, well, that was always, that was always going to have a bit of my World Cup. I read that back and I was like, oh, that's sad. Yeah, but that was similar to Healy. Like, I would be 30. yeah the next one there was not there's no chance i was going to ever try and make that one yeah so we need to do our 2025 yes we'll have to do it 2021 29

well 2029 one we'll write down an 11 and see that'll be harder to do actually i think but it will look a lot different like we had a lot of same names from the 22 world cup didn't we and then yeah i think it'll look a lot different for 2029 yeah it's a bit like india's team from 2017 to today there's only three players that played deep tea harmon and Smitty. There wouldn't be many from the England team, though. No, that's true. I keep forgetting it's nine years ago.

It's eight years ago. It's a long time. It's a long time. Bring more gear, carry more passengers, face, ample cargo space and legendary off-road capability. built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at landrover.ca. Let's just talk about India for a minute because the photos that I'm still seeing now are just incredible. I've just seen one of Harmon Preet and Zuland Goswami where the hug

that Harmon gave Zulan, the way that they all lifted the, as in the ex-players all lifted the trophy. So Matali and Jum all got to lift the trophy and you just forget that they haven't won an ICC World Cup ever. And that's how big this is for this team. Yeah, I know. And I am so frightened of where this team are going to go. Like, I really am. The money that's going to get pumped into it.

You sent me the money, the prize money that they're getting. Well, the prize money for the tournament is 4.4 million US. And then India, BCCI have just thrown in another 5 million, 5 crore on top of that. Like, it's life-changing money. But, like, think of the money that's going to get pumped into. a domestic game, into the WPL, all these cricketers that they could potentially on earth, like, mental. I mean, I'm so happy for India.

A lot of people said, who do you want to win before the final? I said it'd be funny if it was South Africa, but for the women's game, India. I don't think it would be funny if it's South Africa, though, because they've got to the final for the last four years now. So I think they're not far away from winning one. Yeah. You would think the only people, their players, they're going to lose is, cap she's not making the next world cup maybe try it is a big difference that how do you replace

marizan cap because caca as well she's been around a long time which is how good that you know changing that i was about to say how good that we're having these conversations yeah it is all changing isn't it and it i'm so i hate saying this because it's such an easy thing to say but i'm really glad australia didn't win it because it would have just been the same conversations the same boring talks about how good they are and we know how good they are but people are disrupting them now And that's more exciting for the game than Australia going, being dominant again. Yeah, it actually absolutely is. Like, I want, like, different names on different trophies.

The next T20 World Cup, different name, Champions Trophy when that comes around, like, come on Bangladesh, put your finger out. Hey, Bangladesh added us 50 for eight or whatever it was. Yeah, yeah. We've not even taught about the fact that Laura Wolf are scored two, centuries in a World Cup semi-final and then a World Cup final. Like, how's that just not been spoken about?

That's a big deal. That would be like getting two fifers, semifinals and finals. She's been, she's scored the most amount of runs ever in a World Cup. She's like, she's not far behind. Significantly as well. Yeah, not far behind whoever's scored the most amount of runs in the history of Women's World Cup. Like, this girl is still only really young.

She's going to break so many records. And she's just so elite. I know. She's so good, didn't she? So good in the field as well. Shall we do, we put a little thing on socials or jack? Do we still go upstairs if we're just going to our DMs then? We need something new because no one emails us anymore.

So I feel like we probably need, well, let's have a think about this. When we do our team, we'll have a little shift around in the podcast. Yeah, yeah. We've had an anonymous here. A what? Anonymous. A what? Anonymous.

There we go. Anonymous. Love that Oz didn't win already. even make the final. Wouldn't who that one's from? There's one here saying, unexpected knock from Shafali. Sheffali?

Yeah, right. So it wasn't an unexpected knock, but what was unexpected is she took two wickets. Well, it was unexpected that she was there because that was the big news. She didn't drop from the squad, not playing, not involved, and then comes in for a semi-final

and a final and gets player of the match in the final. Yeah, practical rowal. twisted her ankle it was quite nasty actually just before the semi-finals and she finally comes in and looks like she has a point to prove she's like broken her foot it was like um adam ho's lesser version of that injury without the massive dislocation and the footface in the wrong way i read somewhere again i hope it's not come from my mum but i read somewhere that practical doesn't get um she's not then like considered to be player of the tournament because she's then been replaced.

Yeah. Yeah, she's not in the squad. What a lot of rubbish that is? Like, she technically doesn't get a medal. Oh, a load of crap. That is who comes up with that role. Like, who, that is someone who's never played sport in their life is sat around that table going, yeah, she won't matter anymore.

Like, just have a bit of heart. She's like the fourth lead, fifth leading run, score of the comp. Don't get her medal though because she missed out on the semi-final and the final. But there is one good thing that happened. Well, there's lots of good things that happened. Oh, yeah. of the final. You are no longer

the only international wicket of Shefali Burma. Do you know what? I'm glad she's, I'm glad she's shown on a world stage in front of a load of people how good a bowler she is because that ball, knit back, so far, thumped me in the pads. She's a good bowler, I've always said it.

When you said knit back, was she, what was she bowling? Because she was definitely bowling some filthy offspring the other day. She bowled to see him at me. Did she? Yeah. she's it wasn't quick

but it's skinny enough that you just kind of just got you on the position before the other day only ever pulled like 12 overs

and international cricket comes and plays a woke-up final gets Marazine cap and see her Lisa out yeah I told you

she good bowler underrated should have opened seven overs her she was actually in the press conference

laughing she went I was just like, oh, go and have a ball. They all, like, I remember when I played in the, before it was the WPL when it was like the exhibition stuff and I played for Velocity, do you remember? I was on Deepti's team. And they used to like really consider using Shefali as a bowl.

And I was like, are we really, are we being serious? And then she'd always do really well for us. Yeah. So I'm not surprised though. She's had her opportunity. Good on her. She's got three world class batters out, aren't she now? I know, exactly.

Exactly. I was like, I need to tell you, I didn't know you were her only wicket ever. Where was that? Were we in? It was like Derby? Probably Derby, wasn't it? Yeah, probably Derby, yeah. The next one shouldn't be held somewhere really rainy from Hannah.

That is a very sensible comment. Yeah, yeah. I was talking to an anonymous person from the Cricket Association this week. and they were like, well, if we were to do it again, we wouldn't change anything. I was like, you're lying. You're just lying because you don't want me to say anything. Yeah. A comment then just above that is that the hybrid model ruined it.

If India and Pakistan could sort their issues, neither should host an ICC event. If they can't sort their issues, sorry, neither should host an ICC event. I know. I mean, that's just never going to happen because of the impact that India has on world cricket. Yeah. and there was a bit of rain on the final as well wasn't there yeah oh my god yeah so it rains so you get an ex you asked me how much time you get in the game on a final for rain affected and i said you get an extra hour so you get i explained it really weirdly to you but basically the game was meant to start you said let's just tell everyone you said you get an extra hour on top of the extra hour if that makes sense i was like yes l thank you i've cracked your code so you get two hours so you get two hours so it's a normal game the game starts at three it rains till four at four o'clock you start losing overs but you don't start losing over until five o'clock in a knockout game so it gets to like

one minute to five and like play starts at five and we were all like oh my god the game had it have gone the full distance would have gone until a quarter to one in the morning I saw a tweet that was like for a t-20 to start it has to begin by eight minutes past nine yeah oh god's sake And I was like, I've got a flight at 5am I've got a flight at 5am And everyone was taking him to get out Meagas because he gets out as soon as possible They're like, you've turned into Jonathan Agnew

I'm like, I just need to get out A lot of people asking us to get Gemmy Harmon A practica on the podcast But we've had Gemmy on So go back and listen to that one because it was amazing Harman as well Which was very, very good fun

In fact we had to record that twice didn't we Because we lost half of it Oh yeah Phil Salt's Phil Salt's fault, do you remember? No? Phil Salt walked into the room. It was in the 100.

Phil Salt walked into our team room and then from them we just didn't get a recording and we were like Phil Salt's ruined it. That was it. That was it. But yeah, there's been a lot of a lot of rain chat. Emma Lam was done dirty by Charlotte Edwards.

That's a take and a half from the World Cup. I'm not sure she was done dirty. She was playing out of position. don't get me wrong, but I don't think she was done dirty. It's hard, isn't it? I feel like as a bowler, you can kind of bowl it, not anywhere, because I know that the death and the power play are different, but I feel like it's easier to adapt as a bowler

when you may be ball in a position that you're not as used to. Yeah. But I do think with Lammy's summer, it was always going to be harder for her to adjust to playing in the middle order in the conditions that they had. But she'd done really well leading into, she'd played that position through the summer. She batted at three a few times when Heather wasn't there. And then she had the warm-up games batting at six in Dubai.

And she'd done well against New Zealand. So I don't think we can blame Charlotte Edwards for that necessarily. No. No. Alistair says this is the end of women's cricket as we know it. Indians dominance will be supercharged in England and Australia won't know what to hit them. I hope he's not that wrong I mean obviously I don't

I don't want it to be it's not going to be as big as he says but it's going to be important for the game I think yeah I do I think I think the game I genuinely I'm a bit worried about how good India could be in like eight years time good on them they've thrown the money into it they've made the WPL we knew that that was going to be

such a huge part of history when that came along we were crying out for it, weren't we? And now a couple of years later, they've lifted their first trophy. So it does go to show that if you put a little bit of cash and a little bit of resource into some teams, then I'd love to see that happen in South Africa, like make the SAT 20 for the women's tournament as well. I don't know how they haven't done that yet.

I know. And that's the worrying bit for me is that they haven't yet done that and their team is still doing quite well. So actually give these players the opportunity to play in tournaments that are a little bit more pressurized, them in front of bigger crowds and then maybe see where your team's going to get to. Yeah. Gurpri says,

Kate, how am I living in a new country without you and our beautiful daughter? Kate, I miss you. I miss every second of my life with you, my wife. That person messages me quite a lot and they do call me their wife. I'm not married to them and I don't have a child with them. That was the last DM we had.

Right, Al, we've done a lot of chat about cricket but there's one more thing, cricket base that we need to talk about that came out this week. And that is the fact that the 100 is changing. Yes. Yes, it is. I think it's going to be great, is what I think.

It's going to be great. I think there's not as much. I'm worried about the women's game in the 100. Let me just say it straight. I'm worried about where the women's game will be at in a few years' time. That is also slightly my concern. However, there is some good headlines. So they've obviously doubled the women's pot.

So it's gone from, I think the purse was like 440, 440,000, and it's doubled now to 880,000. So that's big news, isn't it? The men's has gone up a lot more, which we were not deaf. We knew that that was going to happen. And it's gone to an auction. So again, I don't think that's too big a surprise for many people, which is going to be a spectacle, but it's just all going to look different.

There's going to be different teams, different kit colors, different people playing at different venues. There's already different coaches. I know. Everyone's moved because of the, a lot of the IPL, what would you call it? Like Lisa, for example,

is the Mumbai Indians head coach. So she's going to then go to Oval where Mumbai Indians have bought their team. So it's going to look different. It's, um, yeah, big names. Yeah, it's going to look really different. It's exciting. It is exciting.

I love an auction and I love what's going to happen. I'm just worried. I think if the women's game, the headlines aren't as exciting as I thought they were going to be, I can't lie. If the women's game had had a million put into it and you could sort of go, oh, okay, well, that's actually really good.

And I know it's only 220 grand, but that's the point. It's only another 220 grand. 120. 120, even less. Even less. These folks earn that in minutes. Yeah.

I fear that, that, again, this happens. It does happen in franchise cricket, so I shouldn't fear it because it happens, and it should happen, but the rich get richer because the best players get paid more money to be there. And that is, that is franchise cricket.

If you're good or better than everyone else, you should earn more money. I fully understand that. And the men should earn more money than the women. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like, that's what, no one's fighting for that equal pay thing, because no one's, if you want Harry Brooke in an auction,

you're going to put your money in your hand in your pocket and get a load of money and give it to Harry so that's not going to be the same in the women's game but it is different and it's interesting but those headlines came out this week and I thought let's just have a little chat about it let's just tell yeah let's just I might feel different when it's when it's closer to the time

I'm very quiet like me about it yeah yeah 35 minutes on cricket all right we've got to leave it there because that's going to be people going to switch off I've got one more thing for after the World Cup chat from Jack there's been an update from the video on Insta where you were both called Xx cricketers. Really sorry for saying you were both ex-cricketers. I was told to keep the video

short so I used the simplest terms I could. Sorry, I did also film a clip with him saying it was terrible you'd not been selected but I don't think he posted that one. Oh, that's okay. I get used to being called that. Yeah, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Smile through it. Right. I'll enjoy your decompression. I'll see you on Friday when I'm home and then... We're both getting our hair done. Getting our hair sorted out. And then we'll be off on our little holiday together. And this is the last podcast episode we're doing.

Yeah. Ever. Ever. This is it. It's the end. The finale. This is the end. We might surprise you to throw the ashes. Maybe.

Maybe. Enjoy your holiday. Thank you. Let's not tell anyone how to email us because they don't. Figure it out yourself. We're off. Yeah. Yeah.

See you. Bye. Bye. Ciao. I just say. Said chow and that's italy. Welcome to the team behind the team, a new podcast series in partnership with the Open University,

where we'll be showcasing the people, the tools and the techniques that help athletes and teams reach elite level. Like all elite sports, it's a pyramid and everybody's trying to get to the top. It's not just my vision. It's a shared vision among the team. What is this?

This is not the way I see. the game. The team behind the team with Katie Smith. In partnership with the Open University. Listen on BBC Sound.