Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in Australia and as we look
ahead to 2023, my first thought is to say Happy New Year, but also to pick out a few things to
look forward to. Well, I've got to say that with a women's IPL approaching before that, there will be
a T20 World Cup held in South Africa, but goodness me if India can get to the final and can lift
that trophy, I think the Women's cricket world is waiting for an explosion of interest. Can India do
it? They fell just short at the Commonwealth Games and this is their next big chance.
Hi, Jim Maxwell from Sydney and it's going to be a golden year and maybe with a twig of wattle in our hands because
I think Australia will win most of the tournaments they play in. They'll win the Ashes, T20 in India,
South Africa. It's just what they do. It doesn't take much to be modest about Australia's
achievements does it, but they'll be good contests, that's the most important thing. And
we are going to love watching them and talking to them to you about it during Stumped next year. So
Happy New Year, everyone.
Hello, everyone. This is Charu Sharma and I'm in the middle of Rajasthan, on a wonderful winter break. It's my home
state as it were - I love being here and I'm glad I am, so good luck for 2023. I have two wishes for 2023, one of course for
Australia to be knocked off every perch, but more importantly, what's the big game changer? In men's cricket,
we've seen it already. We've got the T20 World Cup, the ODI World Cup, Test match championship
and so on and so forth. I do believe and I look forward to, and Alison you'd love this,
I'm hugely looking forward to the finally, the start of the women's IPL. Because that's going
to be the big game changer. It's going to be the future of the game for women. I don't know whether
Indian women will do well, as you hope and so do I at the World Cup, but regardless of that I
have no doubt that the women's IPL will change the game for women cricketers in India and perhaps for
women cricketers around the world because if it gets to be anywhere near as lucrative as the IPL,
then I'm sure women cricketers will see that as a massive step forward in the professionalisation of
the game. So, I wish that luck and I hope it gets a decent ratings and the commercial circles start ringing.
Yep, it's a huge year, no doubt about it. Jim, I got a little bit of an issue with Australia
sweeping everything, because the Aussies have not yet come up against Bazball, have they, on English
territory. So, let's see how the men's Ashes plays out, shall we. Now 2022, it's been a year in which
the Gujarat Titans won the Indian Premier League in their very first season, Australia's women are
once again top of the world after winning both the Commonwealth Games and the 50-over World Cup,
Test match cricket will never be the same after Bazball was invented and India has a new star
at the age of 32 in Suryakumar Yadav. Throughout the year, we've tried to keep you entertained and
informed with our weekly mix of news, features and debate from the quirky world of cricket, and this
week we're going to take a chance to look back on some of the highlights from the show this year.
We have to start with reflecting on the biggest cricket story of the year.
On 4th March 2022, the cricketing world was brought to a halt when legendary leg
spinner Shane Warne died at the age of 52. It was about 7pm in India, the middle of
the night in Australia when his management let the world know that Warne had died on holiday.
He was the king of spin - cricket's greatest ever leg spinner. Arguably, cricket's greatest
bowler and surpassed only by the great Sir Donald Bradman as Australia's greatest cricketer. His
sudden death shocked all of us around the world, and also those who might have only had a passing
interest in cricket itself. Warne was not only a master of his art who could bamboozle the greatest
of batters with his leg spin, but his bleached blond hair of his younger days and his charismatic
personality which endured to the very end meant that he was an Australian icon who transcended
the sport. Now, keeping wicket to Warne from 1999 through to the end of his international career
was Adam Gilchrist, who joined us on the show and started by giving us his reaction to the news.
Hi Ali, Jim, Charu. Great to be to seeing you and chatting with you, obviously, preferably
under different circumstances into what has been quite the most unbelievable - I think I've never
used that term and tried to mean it so much as of what has happened in the last seven days. But even
to this point, I think we're all still finding it hard to believe that it has happened. But
look, we push on and we band together. And that's what's happened, hasn't it? The tributes,
the reaching out of people of just wanting to hear each other's voice if nothing else has been quite
remarkable. And I guess at the end of the day, Warnie like to shock us in everything he did,
and that's the way it's finished for him but the legend will continue to grow.
Yeah, you worked all summer with him in the Fox Sports commentary team. Had you spoken to him
recently, just before he went to Thailand? When's the last time you've had contact? Yeah, I spoke
to him about a week before, obviously. Yeah, was basically sitting alongside him most of the summer
and then received a text from him. Ah, look, I've assumed can't be more than a few hours before he
passed away. He sent me a really nice message just saying and acknowledging the tribute that
we've had done and that I had the absolute honour of providing the voiceover to the pictures that
our production team at Fox put together to acknowledge Rod Marsh. And that was,
as I say, a really challenging thing to do. But it was a huge honour and I think it like so many of
these tributes came up really nicely. And Warnie message me just to say, well done, Churchy. He
referred to me as church in relation to a nickname that probably only those in the inner sanctum ever
heard - Eric Gilchurch - which young English fan gave me way back in 1997. But it felt like a term
of endearment, and it still does whenever anyone calls me that, so I guess that means some someone
knows a bit about me if they refer to me as that, so that was Warnie's way and yeah, working
with him all summer. Just reflecting on all the thoughts and around the commentary, Warnie was...
he had such brilliance in commentary. We all joked at times that sometimes when he got onto a good
point, he probably hammered the point a little bit too much. He probably went over it and backed over
it and drove over it again. And everyone would laugh sort of quietly saying 'come on Warnie,
your point is brilliant, but don't go overboard' and then all of a sudden,
signs would appear in the commentary box from production staff saying, 'just let it breathe,
let it breathe' and Warnie being Warnie, he'd turn around go 'who've they written that for?'
So, he probably missed it a little bit, but jeez he was astute, he could be so brilliant and so
often was, and honest, and had an opinion. And that's what I think everyone will always allow
someone to have and that's an opinion whether you agree or disagree. We hope that in the societies
we live in, that everyone's allowed that and entitled to it and then hopefully it can be
respected. So, Warnie had all that. He was he was box office, wasn't he, in everything he did.
Whether you wanted to agree or wanted to look or not, you tend to find yourself
just glancing and taking a look just in case something magical happened.
Hello Gilly. Jim Maxwell in Sydney. Yes. It's a shock to everyone. Just talking about the
relationship. I mean, you mentioned Marsh and he had a great relationship with Dennis Lillee,
Allen Knott and Derek Underwood, Ian Healy and then you took over from Healy. Were you able to
read his mind as much as Ian Healy seem to be able to do? What was it like keeping to Shane Warne?
I would hate to have got inside the mind of Shane Warne. I would have had nightmares,
I would have had no sleep. But yeah, I say that in gest. The greatest pleasure was to wicket keep to
him. And then at the end of the over, I had the pleasure of standing next to him while he was at
first slip. So, I knew Warnie and his insights and his mindset extremely well. And you're right about
that keeper-bowler relationship, Jim, particularly with Heals. I mean, Heals was another hero of
mine. He was in a position that I aspired to be in. And I don't mean that in a way that 'come on,
get out of there.' When Heals started, I looked and just thought "imagine being in that position
after you know, Rod Marsh had been there." So, I idolised Ian and then watched the work that he
did with Shane. And that was my biggest that was the most nervous component of me moving into Test
cricket. Just trying to maintain or get anywhere near that standard in that partnership that they
had, because I knew how vital that partnership was for Shane. That Ian Healy's masterful glove
work was paramount importance for Warnie to succeed the way he did. I could pick Warnie out
of the hand. I don't think he would ever have said that he was a difficult bowler to pick,
but there's a big difference between reading him and then being in the right position either to
hit it or to wicket keep to it so yeah, that's what I worked hard at that. Just trying to get
that right and it took a little bit of time. Although every batter talks about 100 on debut,
I didn't get that. I got a lot better. I got a leg-side stumping off Shane Warne on debut.
So that was good enough for me. I wouldn't say I was perfect to Warnie right from Test one.
I learned a great deal, but it was again the highlight and to have affected 59 dismissals
in partnership with Shane - which I think is the most that he had in partnership with any
wicketkeeper - well there's only two of us really so yeah, that was a huge thrill and pleasure.
That's former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist paying tribute to his dear friend Shane
Warne, who died this year at the age of 52. Now, it was a standout year for the next star cricketer
that we're going to hear from. England's Test team started 2022 with Ashes humiliation Down Under,
losing the series 4-0 against Australia. Confidence was low and there were calls for
major change. Well, in came a new coach and a new captain and an exciting yet unpredictable style
of cricket that got dubbed 'Bazball.' One player who flourished under the new regime of Brendon
McCullum and Ben Stokes was Jonny Bairstow, who hit six Test centuries in 2022 and reached ten
thousand Test runs, becoming only the 11th English batter to reach that milestone. Unfortunately,
though, in September he broke his leg in a freak accident whilst playing golf and that
ruled him out for the rest of the calendar year. He was awarded the Bob Willis trophy
after being voted England's Player of the year by the Cricket Writers' Club and just after that
I asked him what his favourite moments of the summer was.
I can't remember any of it.
Do you know what, it's one of those summers, that we'll remember as a group of people and
I'm sure as a cricketing nation and we'll look back and go 'I remember the 2005 Ashes summer
very fondly.' It's that kind of summer of that, I was inspired by the guys in
2005 with the spectacle they put on and hopeful that we, as a group of people have inspired the
next generation, if you like, to say or however you want to put it or even people
that haven't played the game of cricket that have flicked on and we've entertained them.
So, to point out one thing, I don't think it's fair and it probably wouldn't be one
of the hundreds, to honest with you. What would it be? Well, I just look at the shift in which,
from a vocal side of things, from my way of going about it, from the approach that
we tried to go about it, we've been brave enough to speak about going towards the danger. We've
won six out of seven Test matches this summer, which hasn't been done for a long time. So,
we must be doing something right and we've been brave enough to take that challenge head on.
What do you like about Brendon McCullum and working with him and Stokes in partnership?
He's a hell of a bloke. He's a great guy! He's good golf partner cos handicap should be less
than what it is. Yeah, that's always a plus when you're playing on his team. I just think that the
way in which he went about the game and then how he's tried to empower people to play a
game with freedom and bravery is... There's a different way of looking at Test cricket,
which like I mentioned, it's not gonna work every single time, but I think that
understanding that we're playing at the highest level with joy, rather than heaping a load of
pressure on ourselves whilst we're doing it. At times, it can be tricky to separate the two,
is one thing. But then building that relationship with Ben as well.
The relationship is still building and will carry on building.
The common vocals that the speaking about all the way through the summer. You know, you'll
have said, I'm sure when you've spoken to both of them. They're both singing off the same hymn sheet
and the consistent messaging that's been there all the way through is from both of them.
So, I think that's a very strong thing to have as a leadership
pair, because we weren't in a good place at the start of the summer as a group of players;
as England cricket, we weren't really, and it's actually quite interesting to hear the shift of
people now speaking about Test cricket being stronger than white-ball cricket
and then questioning things like the white-ball team. You're going, 'hang on a minute.' 'Ah, well,
yeah, it was not this strong, it's changed. We're in transition.' So we're not really a transition.
Yes, Eoin Morgan has stepped down from captaincy, but other than that there's not many personnel
changes. The bowlers haven't been fit, we're missing five or six people from the white-ball
team that we would have liked, but that's exactly the same as what happened in the red-ball side.
There was five or six people missing in the red-ball side that over a period of time that
we'd have liked to have played, of course. So it's interesting how the shift then changes
from side to side. With Baz and Ben, the constant messaging has been fantastic and the buy in from
the boys has been brilliant too. That's England's Jonny Bairstow speaking to me back in
October and we really do wish him a speedy recovery. Well, Bairstow was picked up by the Punjab Kings in
Indian Premier League mega auction, which is where we're going to finish our look back at 2022. The
auction itself stole the headlines when the main presenter fell ill...and our very own Charu
Sharma had to step up to take over proceedings. Here is Charu telling us exactly what happened.
There I was returning from the coffee plantation last week. You remember that I did the show from
Mysore; somewhere along the way we stopped and then I got back home. It was supposed to
be an average, unremarkable, weekend with the family. Then I get a phone call and then, what
can I say? It led to some pretty dramatic scenes over the weekend.
So, you weren't at the auction anyway? I presumed that Hugh Edmeades collapsed - thankfully he was okay - and you just
got sort of hauled straight up. How did it happen? The shortest end is that I was at home having lunch
with the extended family and I got a call from Brijesh Patel, who's a friend of mine. He's the
chairman of the IPL, but much more a friend from Bangalore; he runs the Karnataka State Cricket
Association for many years. He said: "Charu, where are you?" And I said: "At home." He said:
"Can you get to the ITC Gardenia immediately?" And I said: "Well I suppose I could. What's the
problem?" He said: "Well, you know our auctioneer, unfortunately, has just collapsed. He had an
incident," and so he said: "You've got just enough time to put on a suit and get here as quickly as
you can," which I did. And then one just sort of carried on because it's like a little river
that you immerse yourself and just go with the flow. I don't want to undermine or underestimate
the auctioneer's job in a sporting scenario, but really, it's pretty elementary because
the players are the centre of attraction. And you just have to go along with the auction book. So,
it wasn't traumatic at all. But it would seem that a lot of people didn't really expect it of me. So,
that was the funny part, but anyway, Alison. Jim, I mean, it's really about the players.
And if you're in the auction at seat all you need to bother about is what's the next team
coming up? You don't really get carried away with the figures; it's all for the players
and it's all one fuzzy couple of days. I don't remember who went to whom and for how much!
That could be a problem for the next five minutes of this podacast! I've done a little
bit of homework for the show, so... Well done to Charu for all of that and
congratulations to Gujarat Titans who won the Indian Premier League in their very first season.
Now nearly every week, Stumped broadcasts to you via three different continents with guests
joining us from all over the world. But sometimes we have another welcome guest trying to join us
on the show. It's Jim's dog, Rusty. Look at this tyrant. Oh, he's so cute! This is little Rusty. He's
stealing the show, Jim. You'd better watch it. There you go and chase a ball, Mr. Away you go.
Well, that is it for the best of Stumped 2022 here on All India Radio. A huge thanks to all
of you for keeping us company throughout the year on BBC World Service and on the BBC World
Service's YouTube channel. We look forward to speaking to you next year but until then,
from me and the whole Stumped team, a very Happy New Year. Bye. Bye