Test Match Special - The King of Spain and I – Ashley Giles

Episode Date: July 6, 2025

Jonathan Agnew talks to former Warwickshire and England spinner Ashley Giles about his life and career. Giles has been an England player, coach, selector and managing director and has experienced highs and lows in all those roles. They talk the iconic 2005 Ashes series and some of the challenges he’s faced with his mental health.

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you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. T's and Cs apply. from BBC Radio 5 Live. I'm Jonathan Agnew. Welcome to a bonus TMS podcast. In this episode, I'm joined by a former England spinbowl who's also had a series of senior roles with the England side. These days, Ashley Giles, the chief executive at Worcestershire,

but still very welcome at Edgebaston, where we caught up with him during the test match against India. We talked about his life and his career and its contribution to that unforgettable series 20 years ago. You're listening to the TMS podcast. from BBC Radio 5 Live. We'd love to see you, Ashley. Thanks, Agus. Great to be here.

Welcome back. I mean, it is your home, really, isn't it? I know not necessarily home at the moment. Yeah, I've got to be careful, but it always feels like home when I come back. It's quite a friendly rival with that, or is it quite a delicately, delicately poised one at you at Worcestershire? No, I think it's a friendly rival. Of course, we want to turn the bears over at every opportunity. Yes.

No, I think it's fairly cozy now. Yeah. Come on, the King of Spain. I remember that day, we turned up here. 2001 wasn't it i think a test match and they're all these very nice looking coffee mugs about they look rather nice bit of a freebie don't get many of those and i thought i'd take one of those home and someone else had a look and then it took a little time it wasn't an immediate thing yeah said hang on a minute that says that says the king of spain not the king of spin and that's when the whole thing sort of broke out wasn't it i mean it was it was very funny

It was. I mean, it was a simple printing error up front. Is that all, is that, absolutely? If you've investigated this, have you? Well, yeah, I mean, there's times when probably the King of Spain might have been more relevant than the King of Spin in my career. Well, we didn't wonder, to be honest. But yeah, the club shop here sent off some sample mugs to sell in obviously our shop.

Yes. And they came back with a printing error. So the King of Spain rather than Spin, it was pretty low key up front. And then I think what really broke the story was Nick Owen, good friend, obviously TV legend. I think you see it tomorrow, yes. He covered it on local news.

Right. Then it was in the papers. And then actually, I think it was around 2004 when I had a really good summer, my best home summer with England. Then it started to build. And obviously then through that year and then going into the ashes, there were Spanish flags and song and everything. And actually, you know, to this day, having spent 18 years in administration or coaching,

it's still the thing if I walk past people. And I know they've clocked me. There used to be a few seconds. And then I get a King of Spain. And it just reconnects me with that period that was actually now in reflection, you know, 20 years ago, such a special time in my career. Yeah. I've forgotten the flags.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. So you know what a Spanish flag looked like? No, well, actually I've got a great picture of Trafalgar Square. Oh yes. The day after we won the ashes. And right at the front, there is a Spanish flag.

Gilo is our king on the front. So yeah, it's great. It is. It's one of those crazy things that happens. So let's start there because, you know, coming here, every time I come here, Ashley, and I look at the Holley's stand, I just get transported back to 2005. because it was so special it wasn't this same box a bit below us since it's a whole new stand but same view a little bit lower and really in it i was talking about that flint off over the ponting earlier on you know we're right in it yeah right in it yeah um and i just get transported back to that match and and and to have played in it and to have been such a part of of that series but that game here your home ground and everything else and that tension and having lost the first test at lords and you know, so close to what should have been quite an emphatic win, really, is it turned out?

And there's that last day when the games are drifting away. Yeah. How often do you go back to that? Regularly. Well, the two things that come up a lot, King of Spain and the Ashes 2005. But, yeah, that week started terribly for me because on the back of Lords, I had a bit of a run-in with the media. I was one of a few who were people were being called to be dropped,

and I carried that with me too much coming into this test match. It's a hard thing to know to read stuff. I mean, it's a bad result at Lords, wasn't it? It was, and we had to take that on the chin. Yeah, you perform badly. There was a hell of a lot of expectation around that series

given the cricket we'd played in the build-up. Yes. Probably just ignored it, as others of, you know, my teammates did, including Michael Vaughn. But I remember the atmosphere, the build-up, that first day. Michael Vaughn, actually before the first day, saying, you know, we went hard at law. We go harder at Edgebaston, which was a totally new approach really for an England team, particularly having just been hammered.

And even just before that, to actually keep the same team though. I mean, they were, as I remember, we were all saying, well, they can't play the same team after this. Yeah. So you would have been anxious. Yeah. At what point did you know, Michael's here. At what point did you know that actually you were going to be back, so you were going to read, if the whole team remained unchanged? Pretty much straight away, I think.

I can't really recall. But I was on that manager. team and I never had a feeling that Vaughney or Fletch had lost that confidence. I probably just lost it myself in that week by getting wrapped up in too much of the outside rather than concentrating on the inside. It was actually something that John Buchanan, the Australian coach, did in the media that really helped me. He did an interview and he said, we know if we can get to Ashley Giles, we can get to the

rest of them, talking about the fast bowlers. actually when I'd gone from a point of thinking I was pretty useless I had value and I had purpose in the team so okay actually if the Australian coach is saying that then great okay let's get on with it but still very nervous coming into this match but it was an incredible game of cricket

particularly to play here at my home ground and you talk about that over a fred it was hard up here it was really hard standing at fourth slip yeah waiting for someone to edge one It was quick, wasn't it? It was one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen. Yeah, and that just summed up Fred's summer.

I mean, he was coming of age. I mean, it was just extraordinary the summer he had. But that over, yeah, sort of encapsulated all of it in seven balls, actually, because there was a no ball. It was, yeah, yeah. Where were you? Well, I'll go back a bit. When it was drifting and when that partnership was building

And when Shane Warren was knocking it about and he got out and chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip. What were you thinking? I think we were okay until Simon dropped one down here at third mat. He did. Really sharp chance, low down in front of it. And I think there was about 15 left or something like that. Then I think you start to think then, you know, have we blown this?

And in that last over, I was actually down at Fine Leg to Steve Harmeson. and the ball before Brett Lee hit a low full toss. I think Harmie went for a yorker, a low full toss hard out to cover. And I couldn't really quite see where deep cover was and thought that was it because he absolutely smashed it. Luckily it went straight to Simon Jones, ball came in, another chance. The ball, the last ball, remember it going in, and as Kasparvich went round, I started moving to my right as you do,

thinking, well, if I have to cut it off, have to cut it off. So I'm Garant Jones rolling, catching the ball. And then everything goes from this somber, quiet, or just hearing the Aussies, to this noise and everything opening up and charging in, actually. And then Garant Jones running the other way because there was a group of Aussies all in yellow down that far inch, just abusing him the whole game. He set off there. Tres and I went after him, so I think we missed all the photos. But just, yeah, a magical finish. and that fine line between being hero or villain as a team kept us in the series.

You mentioned the noise, that's what I always remember, actually, because it was like a tsunami. There was silence, the catch has taken, and it takes however long to transport, doesn't it, to the spectators that this has happened, brain engages, we've won, bang, and the noise just came through our window. Really, the head has stood up. That's what actually, what I'll always remember,

from that moment. Yeah. Just that noise. And that was sort of the start of it, but I still remember that night. I mean, we had a drink with the Aussies. We went to the hotel, we had a few more. They were cheerful, all the Aussies, were they?

And then we all wandered along Broad Street, as I remember, and pretty much unbothered. A couple of people, you know, said well done and whatever, but it was okay. We just got on with our evening and how that changed then as the series went on. It was just incredible. Old Traff had more momentum.

ended in their last overdrawn and that was thousands of people locked out and he felt you're really on a role I think my fondest memory after this was Trembridge and only because I know Matthew Hoggard so well Yeah, yeah

Where did he get that cover drive from? Matthew Hoggaw has never played a shot in his life He hasn't got a shot Certainly not in front of square No, he might have a paddle to the spinner Or a little nerdle but He drove Brett Lee for four through the covers And there was a moment where we both stood there, I think, and paused and went,

yeah, does that really happen? And then we started running, and neither of us are particularly mobile, are we? We're not really Simon Jones across the ground, so we made the first couple of runs looked particularly difficult. But thankfully, it got over the boundary, and I remember being at the other end, and we needed four then, thinking, just do it again, just do it again. Unlikely. Yeah, but he clipped one down the final leg, got two.

last ball huge appeal as I remember for LBW but missing missing another set and when we got into that last over I actually said to Hockey look we don't really need to do anything here because with pace on the ball we'll knit two somewhere so if I block Warnie we block Warnie and we you know if it's a maiden it's fine and I think it was the fourth ball was sort of a half folly full tossish I just sort of lent on and smashed it and you think

wow and i think that's when vaughney jumped up on the balcony and that you know that picture of him smashed straight into cartridges pads didn't go anywhere at short leg right went down a hoggy right let's go again reset get through this over next ball was a bit of width just floated into off-stump through my you know all i could think of then this is it threw my hands at it missed off-stump by you know a whisker okay went back down a hoggy right let's get to the next over and then yeah same thing just drifted into my pads and lent on it and I didn't have a particularly good record against warn but just lent on it and timed it better than anything I've ever timed and went then went through the field yeah we scampered the two and it was

yeah quite a finish and again you talk about the noise here again that that moment when you're in the game and it and it's you and hoggy and bretley and shame warn that it feels like that's the game and then when you win it's like someone just turned the volume up and you just go wow okay that's um it means something yeah and then the Oval of course you and KP batting at the end of dark

yeah yeah that last day you get it was a roller coaster I mean to get to get there yeah I mean it's um KP dropped as I said in the as I said in the book if I could relive two days it would be that last day at the Oval and the next day

the celebrations but that last day the Oval was complete, you know, spectrum of emotions from we've blown this, we've thrown this away, to then, of course, the end of the day and we won it, but batting with Kev. A lot of people talk about Trent Bridge and the winning runs,

but that batting with Kev for three hours was the most important contribution because, you know, when I went in, I think we were at about 200 ahead with 55 overs left, which was plenty. Perfect doable, yeah. But often say I, the best seat

in the house to one of the greatest testinians of all time. Yeah. Incredible. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. That next day, I was on that bus with you. You probably remember that. But there were only, I think, me and one of the journalists allowed on there. I remember turning up and the general mood of, I think, was everybody,

wow, no one's going to turn up for this. Trafalgar Square, an open-top bus. And just being on that open-top bus, going through the streets, the mansion. and all that and down to Trafalgar Square and turning into Trafalgar Square just seeing that sea of colour and the place absolutely packed

to have got to that stage and then 24 hours of the game ending remarkable really yeah we never expected that we thought it would be a bit of fun a bit of a jolly for us and our families but yeah on the way to Trafalgar Square the streets lined almost five deep

people hanging out of windows it probably just demonstrated again that move from what I talk about walking down Broad Street at Edgebaston to how the series had moved on by the time you got the Trent Bridge and the Oval and Trafalgar Square you couldn't see pavement you couldn't see an inch of space so in some ways it was probably lucky in that last idea

we didn't realise quite how much it meant to everyone but I think one of the really big and important things that came out of it was what it did the profile of the game and we're on Channel 4 of course so everyone saw it I think 8.5 million people watched me at those winning runs at Trent Bridge and I think that's probably why still

as I talked about the King of Spain thing that's how people still see me that moment that team and it was a very special time and it lit the spark for so many cricketers isn't it I mean the England players today they'll talk about 2000 2005

yeah whenever I see Joe Root, he still takes the Mickey out of me for my running down the wicket at Trent Bridge of my bat in my hand, looking rather awkward but yeah and it's people often ask what it was like and it, when I reflect

now, there are times honestly when I reflect on my playing career probably negatively or used to but that period it was just a pure privilege to play in that team with those guys and I think there'll always be a certain bond. There's been a lot of water under the bridge but I think there'll be a certain bond between those 12 guys and all the support team

who went through that summer yeah but it has been a roller coaster for you actually hasn't it and it started before that um didn't sort of right in and say what's the point of Ashley Giles or something like that that really kind of began this this roller coaster of ups and downs for you yeah yeah I've had um I've had some particularly low times I would say 2004, beginning of 2004, end of 2003, particularly some really dark moments where at times I'd felt like walking away from the game. Now, you know, we're talking about a game of cricket and we're not talking about life of death, but yeah, some really dark moments where perhaps I just didn't manage the pressure well and just scrambled. I, you know, I often use the analogy of a,

you know a pint glass and we all tend to operate with the level close to the top but there were times in my career where that it was just overflowing and once it starts overflowing it's difficult to control and that's when you start listening to what's being said and the critics and reading

too much rather than we all know you know it's an old saying control the controllables or focus on the process we're actually rather control on what you can do and what's around you could you feel this coming on I mean, did you know when you were going to be starting a bit of a bout of this? I think in those early times, probably not.

I think I just got more and more scrambled. And I knew at times that I wasn't performing as well as I'd like to. In some ways, I think that's part of it, because you're disappointed with yourself and because we all just want to, we want to please, we want to succeed, we want to make people happy, we want to provide for our families, you want them to be proud of us, and I think it's all a mix of that but I think at times I just got

I got really scrambled and at times it led to what I would call sort of performance anxiety but I think at times I was I used that word in the book and I've never used it I think I've really used it before but I think there are times where I generally depressed where I'd be at home with my family

and not want to play with the kids and not want to go out, not want to be seen and when I was there I felt like I should be at cricket and when I was at cricket I felt guilty because I wasn't being a father and being at home and that's just a yeah it was a pretty dark dark place yeah and was there help i mean nowadays a lot of a lot of psychology and so on around the england set up and so on but was that was that much when this started off with you we had a sports psych um Steve bull it was certainly I think something that was more difficult to talk about definitely I'd have thought to go and see him

back then You get quite a deep breath, wasn't it? Yeah. And that was a chance meeting with him, but before that, you know, even, I was obviously very close to Vaughney.

We used to spend a lot of time together, but you don't broach this stuff with you. No. Particularly with the captain. No. You know, I'm really dark. I'm really struggling. Yeah.

I'd not play then. Yeah, that's a really difficult conversation to have. And there's an element of the pride, the what do people think of me, stuff that goes on as well. So, but that's, that chance meeting in 2004 at Trent Bridge with Steve Bull transformed that year, definitely.

There's no other explanation for it. And certainly without that chance meeting with Steve Bull, where we just got, you know, we put things down on a piece of paper, this is what's important, this is what I need to focus on, this is my value to the team, not what other people say. Without that, I wouldn't have got to 2005, I'm pretty sure. So 2005, high. Yeah.

Amazing. 2006, 7, you're in Australia. You get dropped. And you get word that your wife, Steiner, has now been diagnosed the brain tumor. How do you cope with that when you're thousands of miles away from home? Well, it just gives you a huge amount of perspective, actually. When you, I guess you've been there. Yes.

We, us men on tour, you get dropped. You think it's the end of the world. And I remember sitting on the end of my bed with my head in my hands, thinking, oh, poor me. And then you get a call like that. And suddenly nothing else in the world is really important, except getting home and being there for Stina and the kids who were tiny. Of course, you still, you know, I left a team behind

who were going through Ash's Hell at the time. Five-0 hammering. I certainly know what that's like. But it definitely gives you perspective. This is a game and it's a great game and it means a lot to people and it's meant a lot to me. It's been my life but it's not life or death

and in that moment I certainly had true perspective. Yeah. It's also your job. So how did you handle doing your job well when you've got all of this going on? You've got your own issues. You've got your wife ill. Yeah. Where did cricket fit into all of this? Well I think at that point

you know i'd just been through over a year of rehab with my my hip injury in operations three operations um got back into the team didn't been left out um rightly so um and then had this news so while i was injured i i suppose there were parts of me that started to think i might have to get used to the idea that i might be coming to the end of the road um then with steena um similarly that's all that was important in that in that time and actually you start to realize as well you know as Monty comes in um as i talk about in again in the book that you sort of your time in the sun starts to come to an end and that's just the way of things so um again you know you you're one minute you're in the middle of it the next minute you wake up and and that that bus or that that

circus has left town and no one looks back and that's okay that's just you you have to to be comfortable with that but when as you say it's your job it's your purpose it's your life it's everything you ever wanted to do it's your teammates it's your friends um that is quite hard to deal with for many um and and it was it was for me but i think others have a much tougher ride at times yeah i always hesitate to ask because i know when i get asked how emma is that you say well you know okay but how how is steena doing no she's good So she's still on sort of 12 to 18 month checkups. She has two tumours in her head, which we always say are behaving.

Right. But they are still there? They're still there. We have our own trust now, the Giles Trust, which she's the driving force behind, but we're the QE Hospital's Brain Tumor Charity. We're relatively small, but we've raised over £1.5 million now, and it all goes to the right place. But she's good.

And we're lucky. you know brain tumours are still the biggest killer of under 40s that doesn't make one cancer better than another they're all horrible horrible thing don't get me wrong they're all horrible but brain tumours are the biggest killer of under 40s including kids and they get about 2% of the funding nationally so that's what we're trying to do that's the really important stuff yeah good well it's great here she's okay I reckon every professional cricketer actually reckons they could do a good job of running the game yeah give

They know nothing as administrators. You've tried it, I think. You've had to go at all of these things. Yeah. I suspect it's a bit tougher that it actually appears to a player, isn't it? Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's hard. But ultimately in these roles, you're given these roles

because people believe you can do it. And you've got to do what you think is right. You've got to stick to your values and your morals. You know, I don't think, and no one's born leader, but I feel very lucky, almost part of my education, was working with some of the best, whether they be coaches, administrators, players, captains, and you take the good stuff that you like

and that you've seen, and you leave the bad stuff. But I'm, you know, for me, I'm very big on values, on culture-based, on people-based systems. You know, you don't do anything without good people. if you've got bad people you're struggling but with good people you could achieve anything so that's always a good start point yeah I mean managing director of English cricket is a that's a big job yeah I mean I mean are you and I don't know it's like with Rob Key but are you essentially that's it that is you and you are answerable obviously to the chief executive yeah but but essentially it's it's your job to run the whole thing yeah men's cricket stops with you yeah and those big decisions I suppose During my time, you know, I love some of it, but the COVID years were particularly challenging. And again, when you talk about some of those dark days, definitely, you know, by the end of my time as managing director, I don't think you could describe it any less than burnt out.

I was cooked. It's actually too much for one person to do. No, I just think it was everything coming in. I think you can do it, but I just think in that period. you know, being on calls from 7 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock at night I remember doing an interview

with you guys when I came back to Sydney just before the fourth test and I looked back on that I was scrambled that was the COVID series where it was an almost impossible series to manage

I would have thought with no warm-up cricket no games between test matches everything in an absolute isolated bubble I mean, it was impossible. It was different states with different rules

and everyone terrified of a COVID outbreak. Yes, and just one and the impact it would have. I mean, the pressure of that. And on the, you know, when we're playing, we think we're grown-ups and big grown-up men, they're in their 20s. You know, they're very young men, often quite sheltered and brought up through a system.

To try and manage that, on its own would have been incredibly difficult out of thought yeah and trying to manage for me trying to manage both sides so trying to keep cricket on which we did to a large part which was really important for the whole game both domestically and internationally

so honouring our commitments in Australia but at the same time looking after our people I just talked about how important people are and actually you know we went to Australia we didn't really have a chance of winning those ashes you know we were we were cooked management players we were asking a huge amount of them

and then even then when we were there I was I was having to dish out the odd you know telling off because there were certain things we had to do to try and protect the series I could understand why players didn't want to do it because they were at their wits end

other TV revenue that was dependent on the Australians and all that didn't really matter to our players at all absolutely they're young men and they're don't think about these. No, but that's part of the responsibility you carry as managing director of cricket, and that's something I took that responsibility very seriously, but as I do, to look after our people, and did we always get that balance right?

I don't know. I don't know we could have done it any differently, but we did it to the best of our ability, but I don't think we're ever winning the ashes, quite frankly. Should that tour have happened? I mean, Stuart Broad, it's not happening, and it was just cancer, sort of white wash it out and so on. But it's not making excuses, but you were not hiding to nothing of that.

It's difficult in hindsight. I think it had to because we had to try and keep the game on. And Australia would have suffered hugely if we hadn't. Could there have been a better understanding of what was actually going on? I think actually a lot of people on the outside didn't really understand because I think many felt the world had just gone back to normal.

It hadn't. Not there, no. Certainly not for the players. But, you know, that's performance sport. And we lost 4-0. You lose your job, people lose their jobs. That's the game we're in. And there is a, you know, there's a lifespan of all these jobs

because it's both is high intensity and hard work. But they're the cycles anyway. We've got another one coming up now. We've got India now, but we've got the ashes. And that seems to be the big one that is almost a regime. Team changer. Yeah. Why did you, because you left the tour, didn't you, went back home?

Yeah. And then Chris Silver would got, the coach got COVID, his family or something, and they'd all got a bit difficult. Grand Thorpe actually stepped in, didn't he as coach? You came back. What was it, because you really found himself in a bad way then, didn't you? You mentioned that interview, I think, as a assignment, actually. You were clearly in a bad place.

Yeah. What, you know, why was that particularly, do you think? I thought I had to. had to. I had a responsibility of the team. The team were going through it. And I'd spoken to our team psychologist before I left England and he said, I really shouldn't let you go, but I know you're going to go. And I actually got to Heathrow and, you know, these silly passenger locator forms they give you. Yeah. I hadn't done it. And the lady behind the desk said, you just go away and do that and come straight back, leave your bags here. And I had a panic attack, anxiety

and I just sat there looking at my phone and couldn't see this screen for about 15 minutes and I must have been a moment away from getting in a car and just going back home. Sort of you just, okay, let's get on with this. And then I spent four days, five days in my room, quarantine. You just, yeah, it was crazy, but I had to go back. I mean, the team were going through as much. That was my job. Was it the right thing for me?

probably not but it didn't matter at that point it was the right thing that I had to do my job and for the team yeah yeah bizarre when you look back at it all isn't it I mean these things it seems like a different time yeah um which is good because none of us want to go back to that time it was terrible what I think um we're talking about cricket obviously but sport in general has learned since you first started having these issues back in um the early 2000s about sports men and women's mental health and the fact that actually when I played you'd never even talk about it I mean pull itself together and get out there it wasn't even talked thought about in the

1980s we've come okay so now 20 years on from there when you first started having these things and you had this chance meeting with Steve Bull where where where are we now I mean in terms of players at Worcestershire being able to come to you and say look I've got a few problems here and not have the fear of saying well that's it around the team you can't possibly play if that's how you feel because that's one of the big hurdles, I'd have thought. Yeah, I think we are so much further on and so much more sympathetic

to these issues. And that's a lot of what the King of Spain is about. This is okay to talk about because, you know, the King of Spain was this character everyone invented who was this cricketer. But behind that, there was someone else who really struggled with the game at times

and faced adversity in the ups and downs and through life as well as cricket. And again, I don't have a monopoly on that. That's what everyone deals with. And I think that's what this is about. I'm happy to talk about it. Doesn't make me a bad person. Doesn't make me a normal.

Doesn't make me weak? No, absolutely not. In fact, it makes me, you know, I think in many ways stronger to talk about it. That's probably what I helped the first time with Steve Bull, talking about it, writing it down. And in many ways, that's what the book has been. It's been cathartic.

And I started writing some of these words back in 2007 when Steena was recovering from surgery because it was a way of putting everything or getting everything out and putting it down on paper. But it's that saying that we used to, it is okay not to be okay. And it's okay to share. And I hope, you know, all of us who are administrators,

leaders in the game or in business really understand that that our people come first and you've got to take care of them what is unusual about this book Ashley I'm not saying this in any sort of disparaging way but what makes it unusual from most sports books these days

written by sports people is you have written it yourself yeah you haven't lent on someone else to go out and do it for you've written it yourself and that's fabulous that's a great achievement no thank you it's been a huge challenge for me it was again you know I've had a number of them through my career but It was something I wanted to do because, yeah, from what I understand, most don't write them.

I've had some brilliant editing support from Matt Thacker and Phil Walker, Fairfield. But yeah, it's the last six months, particularly working five days a week and then writing at weekends. I think Steena's happy to have me back. I hope people enjoy it. It's not about that, really. It's, you know, if people want to enjoy the story, great. It's not about how many a cell. They will enjoy it.

It's been a good challenge. They will enjoy it. And it's lovely to see you looking so well. Good man. Thank you for being so honest. Thanks, I guess. King of Spain and I

is out any time. I think next couple of weeks. Yeah, can I just say while I'm on? I just want to say hello to my dad. My dad's in hospital at the moment. I hope he's listening to this

and get well soon, Dad, because without my dad, none of this would have been possible. Fair play. Good luck. Cheers, Ash. Lovely to see you. Well, thanks for listening

to this episode of the TMS podcast. Subscribe to make sure you don't miss any of our content and check out BBC Sounds for other cricket podcasts like No Balls with Kate Cross and Alex Hartley and Tail Enders with Greg James, Felix White and James Anderson. On BBC Sounds, this is sports strangest crimes from the man who tried to buy cricket. One night, one game, one or take off, 20 US million dollars. The kidnap of a superhorse. It must have been terrifying.

Of course it was. How we got through a little on. An ill-advised errands, changing F-1 forever. It will haunt the people involved for as long as they live. A trillion-dollar takeover, which never took off. Broadsters of this level, they will never stop. The mysterious death of a superstar cyclist. Entering the world, a professional cycling was like joining the mafia.

And, teammates becoming bitter enemies at one of the biggest football clubs in the world. Betrayal, plot. We've gone beyond women's football in France. Sports, strangest crimes. on BBC Sounds. The following advertisement feature is presented by GoTurkia. You're thinking about a holiday. What about a detour across the Turkish Riviera?

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