Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in Northamptonshire, the village
of Walleston. It's about 20 minutes drive from Wantage Road, home of Northants County Cricket Club
and they're playing a game against Yorkshire over the course of this weekend. There's been much
change in English cricket since we last spoke to you on Stumped, with Joe Root resigning as
the men's Test captain and there's a new managing director appointed as well for the England men's
cricket, so plenty to talk about throughout the show - we'll get to that in due course.
Hi there everyone. Jim Maxwell back here in Sydney after a spell up in Queensland over Easter.
Probably the only thing of significance if it's that, was the confirmation
that Andrew McDonald is going to take over as coach of all three forms of the game.
And that seems to be a very happy outcome, particularly for Pat Cummins. It's the man
he wants - a calm figure behind the scenes. He's got a lot of experience as a coach,
and we'll see what happens next when we start playing cricket again.
No major shake-up in Indian cricket so far. Hello, everybody. I'm Charu Sharma for All India Radio back home in Bangalore
waiting this weekend for the start of the kalo India University Games - a big new sporting initiative
by the government following the success of the Kalo India School Games, which is this very large,
country wide participation thing that the government started. Of course, these are also to be the
selection or the trials for the World University Games, so plenty for sportspersons to look forward to.
Charu. Jim, good to see you both. We're going to start this week with arguably the most famous
sports book in the world. The 159th edition of the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack has just
been released, where the top cricket writers and broadcasters have been commentating on cricket
and the extraordinary wider circumstances that dominated 2021. Now the Almanack,
which is known as cricket's "little yellow Bible" has been published every year since 1864.
And it reflects on a year when Azim Rafiq forced the sport in the UK to examine more painfully than
ever, its attitude towards racism. The launch of The Hundred gave a huge boost to the women's
game whilst raising just as many questions about the men's and then in the last two
months of the year, Australia's men won the T20 World Cup and retained the Ashes. Well,
to tell us more we're joined on Stumped by the editor of the Almanack, Lawrence Booth. Lawrence,
welcome. How are you? Do you have any sleepless nights getting this one put to bed this year?
Ali, it was... yeah, there wasn't a lot of cheerful stuff to write about in English cricket, unfortunately,
so didn't always sleep well, especially not when I was in Australia.
No, that was a longer tour than most, wasn't it?! Now just tell us first of all, a question I want to ask is who are the two stars
who are named at the leading cricketers of the year for this edition?
Joe Root is the leading cricketer in the world. I know he's just stepped down as England Test captain, but he's got the
gong for his batting. He had an exceptional year - 1708 Test runs, the third highest
annual tally in Test history and Lizelle Lee of South Africa was the leading woman cricketer in
the world. She scored more ODI runs than anyone - 630-odd and averaged 90. So, she was quite
a straightforward choice as well. Lawrence, Jim Maxwell. What about the other names? What are
the names of the cricketers who have made it into this book, for good or bad?
Hi Jim. Yeah, well, there's a powerful piece at the front of the book by Azim Rafiq who in many ways was the Man of the
Year for reasons that he probably would have wished wouldn't have happened. He of course,
raised several allegations of racism against Yorkshire, caused a big inquiry and he really was
the catalyst for lots of players of Asian heritage and African Caribbean heritage to talk about their
own experiences. So, he has forced English cricket to look at itself in the mirror and to ask whether
it's really doing the best it can to make the game as inclusive as possible. His story hangs over the
whole book really, and it's up to English cricket to move forward to do something about that.
Hi, Lawrence, this is Charu Sharma from Bangalore, India. You've been fighting some
people off on Twitter, but let me assure you, you'll get many more fans because of
the some of the top five cricketers that you've chosen are from this part of the world.
There's plenty of delight, I can assure you because of Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah. But
what are some of the key things that you wanted to highlight this year?
Hi Cahru. Yeah, just before I talk about that, the point about Burma and Sharma is quite interesting because it's the first
time ever that two Indians have been together in the five, so hopefully that's something to celebrate!
In the notes themselves, I lead on... it's unavoidable really, but I lead on what was
a poor year for English cricket both on and off field. I mentioned that the Rafiq scandal, which
hung over the whole game leading to the ECB chief executive Tom Harrison having to appear in front
of parliamentary committee to talk about the work that English cricket is doing to tackle racism.
And of course, on the field, it was a pretty poor year for the Test team. They've now won one test
out of 17 after that recent defeat in the West Indies that brought about Joe Root's resignation.
So, what I argue in the notes actually is that the last year that news emerged that Tom Harrison, the
Chief Executive and a few other executives were due to share a bonus pot of over £2 million for
ostensibly for getting The Hundred through. But my argument is that taking that bonus in the current
circumstances with the game in such a plight is not appropriate. It's made a lot of people angry,
and I've suggested that that money be given back to the ECB either to re-employ some of the 62
staff who were sacked last year, or to be ploughed into the African Caribbean engagement programme,
which has been run by Ebony Rainford-Brent and is aimed at attracting demographics that have not
previously felt welcome. So I think that money could be put to much better use than going in a few executives' pockets.
Well, quite obviously, English cricket's in all sorts of turmoil, and
you mentioned a few of these points, but also globally, politically, we've seen Afghanistan
in some sort of trouble with the Taliban moving in. In terms of cricket, the Afghanistan team also
now Ukraine, although maybe less important for cricket, but there's some turmoil there as well.
And how have you captured this in Wisden, if at all? Yes, well, we have. We spoke to Tuba Sangha
who was, of course, a guest on Stumped. Ali interviewed her I think it was last year, and
that actually gave me the idea for getting her in Wisden. She used to work for the Afghanistan cricket
board, and she was forced to flee the country when the Taliban took over. She's spoken quite movingly
in her piece in Wisden about hoping that the world doesn't forget the Afghanistan women's
team. And also making a good point about saying if you ban the Afghanistan men's team,
that won't necessarily have a good impact on the women's side. If the men aren't playing, the women
certainly aren't going to be playing because of the Taliban's attitude. You mentioned Ukraine, and
oddly enough, we had a piece on cricket in Ukraine in our cricket around the world section. It was
written before the war started, so you don't get much of a flavour of what was happening. I think
the some of the tension in the eastern part of the country is mentioned, but it was more about how
cricket in Ukraine was growing. I suspect that's not the case anymore. And we don't know if that
situation will ever improve, really. It was interesting to note that the last ICC
board meeting, of course, they've got this Afghanistan working group set up. The ACB,
the Afghanistan cricket board confirm their commitment to developing the women's game and
the board said that they will submit "A full action plan and budget to do so" to the ICC's
working group that's been set up. There hasn't been a timeframe set on that, so I think it is
something certainly to be keeping an eye on. But yeah, I was really heartened to see Tuba making
her contribution to Wisden certainly, but it is something which absolutely needs to be kept at the forefront.
Yes. I mean, I think Tuba makes the point that please don't forget us. I mean,
she thought there might be a bit more support from other women's teams around the world. There was
initially, there was a lot of sympathy when it became clear that the Afghanistan women's team
was going to be in trouble because of the Taliban. But it's sort of gone quiet as a story. You know,
people have their own lives to lead, and she wants people to remember the situation that
she and her colleagues were in. Lots of them are in hiding, you know, they're not able to
speak freely. They're worried about being tracked down. Lots had to leave the country and it's a
desperately sad story. And we shouldn't forget it. One thing I wanted to pick up on Lawrence,
is the naming and the convention of the naming of the leading cricketers of the year, because when
you first look at Joe Root, who is the leading cricketer in the world, and then there's the
leading woman cricketer in the world. Just explain how and why those awards are termed as they are,
because there's been such a move hasn't there to ensure that women aren't seen as sort of
other where there's this assumption that a cricketer is a man and then a women's award?
Makes it seem like it's been an add on. Yeah, and you raise a fair point. I mean, look, the
thinking behind it was that women in general in cricket history have been excluded and, you know,
include Wisden in this. We didn't start naming leading woman cricket in the world until 2014, so
what we didn't want to do is exclude them further. We didn't want to not give women cricketers the
chance to win the overall award. So that's why the main award is called the leading cricketer
in the world and women are eligible to win that. But because while we wait for women's cricket to
catch up in general, in terms of professionalism - the Australian team we saw how good they are,
but there is a big gap between them and the rest of the world... though other sides are catching
up with England and some have overtaken them. Until that moment, we felt probably men would
end up winning the leading cricketer in the world award, so we didn't want to have women not getting
their own award. But look, I appreciate what you say and we may well have reached a point where
it should just be the leading male cricketer and the leading female cricketer. That's certainly
something for us to think about. Lawrence, thank you so much for joining us on Stumped.
Thanks for having me, guys. All the best. That's Lawrence Booth, editor of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.
Well, the only constant thing about English at cricket at the moment seems to be change. First on
Joe Root, he has stepped down after five years in charge citing the toll and the impact that
the role has had on him. He led his country in a record 64 Tests. He's overseen more wins than any
other England Test captain, with 27. But he's also overseen more defeats as well, with 26, including
a dire run of just one win in the last 17, which really seems to be the tipping point. But then you
look at Root's runs tally, and it is extraordinary in the face of all of this - 5,295 runs as captain,
the most by any England skipper. He scored 14 centuries whilst in position, and he's currently
England's second highest Test run scorer of all time behind Sir Alistair Cook. So, good news for
the team, of course, that he's going to continue to play, but he just won't be captain. Jim, Charu,
we've discussed this a lot, and particularly Jim, in the wake of the Ashes defeat that need for
change. You only surprised in a way that he hadn't stepped down earlier?
Well, you might recall some time ago, I think after the 2019 Ashes, I was advocating that Ben Stokes should take over the
captaincy when they next come to Australia at the least, but of course circumstances affected the
likelihood of that occurring. I don't think there's any doubt that if he wants the job now,
Ben Stokes should take it, because he's likely to give more inspiration and have a bit more nous,
tactical savvy than we've seen from Joe Root throughout all that time. I mean, I've always
thought as great a player as he is, he doesn't quite have it as a captain. And that's unfortunate
for a number of reasons around the amount of cricket, the bubbles, all this sort of stuff.
But it's really come down to a lack of tactical awareness, more often than not, apart from the
varying quality of the players under him, and the amount of cricket that England have played. So
yes, where they go from here is a very interesting question. Do they have an interim captain now or
wait until now Ben Stokes has got it sorted in his head about whether he can manage it? It's a very
tricky one. Even though the England women lost to Australia in the final, they look to be in a
bit better shape for major cricket than the men's team. And that can be said about the likelihood of
what happens in The Hundred too, which it strikes me there's probably a bit more focus and future
for women than men. Because to me, The Hundred for the men is irrelevant while their Test cricket is
in such parlous state. But you know, that's the manoeuvring that goes on about trying to
get the game back into a place where people can watch it. Because for far too long, they haven't
been able to and that's had a big effect on the game. So, Joe Root has been absolutely fabulous,
and it's sad to see this occurred, but it's a good thing he fell on the sword because
I think the sword might have come out anyway. Rob Key, who's the former Kent and England batter who
has taken on this role as Managing Director, he's come from the Sky Sports commentary box. Jim, you
know, something has been said about the fact that he doesn't necessarily have managerial boardroom
experience to step into this role. But you know, I like to think that cricket generally teaches you a
lot of transferable skills. He's certainly got great ideas about the game, and he's shown himself to be
a real thinker through what we've seen of him in commentary. Yeah, well, I was certainly impressed
with his work on the Australian Pakistan series as a commentator. And I've heard him in another time,
so he seems he seems to have a good head and potentially the organisational skills to manage
this role. But you just keep coming back when you look at English cricket at the instability of it
all, right. Who's going to be captain, who's going to be manager? Are you going to go back
to having a chairman of selectors? How are you going to select the team? Andrew McDonald said
quite openly that he can handle all three modes of the game, whereas in England, they're not too sure
whether to have a coach for the Test and another white-ball coach. It's just all over the place at
the moment, so I think it's going to be a while before you get some kind of stability there that's
going to lead to a better performance. So, Gary Kirsten's name... his name still around as a coach.
Yep. And I wanted to ask you, Jim, how much traction both Langer and Ponting have been getting in Australia?
I can't quite imagine that Ponting, given his commitments with Channel Seven
and with the IPL... Has that had much traction or has Langer been focused on? Not really, you know,
I think most of the punditry is saying it's too soon for Langer to jump to that role after
being Australian coach. And Ponting, well, you've probably answered this question. He's probably got
too much on his plate. They've been trying to get him into a role with the Australian team. So no,
I don't think that's feasible at this stage. Maybe some other time, but what's wrong with Kirsten?
The name keeps coming up. Why don't they go there? He's got a good record, has he not Charu?
Well in India, certainly, but this might be a fabulous opportunity. Just to be a little contrarian, for
England to go back to the manager ways. I mean, you have a batting coach and a bowling coach,
I suppose they're important and fielding coach as well. But don't have a head coach, just go with
the manager and get on with it. Probably only to prove that it doesn't really matter. I mean,
this whole coaching thing, you know, I'd like to go back to you Ian Chapell about getting
you to the field, but instead of appointing somebody else and sacking him again. Because
they're just far too many sackings going on English cricket. I don't think that's helping at
all. And it might create just, you know, a little bit of apprehension for somebody taking that job
up saying what am I supposed to do? Win every test match rather than be sacked in half a year? So,
don't have one. How about that? Yeah, I'm not sure whether Gary Kirsten was up for doing all
roles because he was in the mix the last time the coach was appointed when Chris Silverwood was appointed.
Whether he's had a change of heart or indeed whether Rob Key decides that he does want to have
split coaching for red-ball and white-ball and maybe that's more appealing to different coaches.
It did not work harmoniously when England last did it, when it was Ashley Giles in charge of
white-ball and Andy Flower in charge of red-ball. There was constantly a bit of push and tug as to,
you know, which format had priority and when you haven't got the players available to them,
it does make for not the most harmonious of setups. Those are all things which will have to be
unpicked and decided very, very quickly because the first Test match for the men is at the beginning of June.
Alison just very quickly about the whole managing director thing. I mean,
is it not a professional job? Why must you have a cricketer, what's the criteria anyway? Do you have
to have somebody who's played five Test matches, 100 one-dayers or what? I mean have a professional
manager as the managing director. There are hundreds out there who run fabulous companies and
large organisations. This is an organisation to be run. So why are we leaning on... I mean, there's
a cricket manager there's a cricket side to it, but a managing director really needs
to get on with managing the whole organisation and successfully and efficiently. There are many out
there who are fabulous managers. Maybe fabulous managers didn't want to join an organisation it
doesn't currently have a chair and has a chief executive who's been rumoured to be leaving
multiple times over the last year or two. That could also be part of it. Well, that is all we've
got time for on this week's Stumped. My thanks to Jim Maxwell and Charu Sharma and of course to you
all for watching. Make sure you join us again next week. We'll be here. See you then. Bye.