thefinalword

T20 World Cupdate 8

Geoff’s first visit to Homebush, where the ghosts of Tatiana and Jumping Jai ride the endlessly confusing Sydney rails.

T20 World Cupdate 7

The action is done in Canberra. The morning after, I got together with a safari-print Amy Lofthouse, a slightly dusty Alex Hartley, and a dapper Henry Moeran to record a BBC podcast. Yes, I’m see...

The Final Word with Thailand

Season 7, Ep 22: The first bilingual Final Word. People have wondered how Thailand made it to the World Cup, and we've got the full story in English and in Thai, with three of the women who have be...

T20 World Cupdate 6

Is the ICC trying to BUY THE SILENCE of journalists with bribery backpacks? Find out more from our scoop reporter.

T20 World Cupdate 5

Thai time! Officially 27.27% of the Thai team joined us today: Sornnarin Tippoch, Nattaya Boochatham and Naruemol Chaiwai all had a family chat with The Final Word along with their coach Harshal Pa...

T20 World Cupdate 4

Wouldn’t you know it, a Mankad controversy on the opening weekend of the comp.

T20 World Cupdate 3

Another Geoff injury, but this really wasn’t his fault. Also come along for a tour of a special place.

T20 World Cupdate 2

Just easing into the discipline of daily posting, following the tournament from the MCG. Guess what Sibley's score is? Nice. 

T20 World Cupdate 1

From sunny Melbourne on the first day of the tournament, here's our first subscriber-only video from Geoff (and Ted),

Adam's baby is here!

Season 7, Ep 21: Please welcome Winifred Mae Collins. Thanks to some  stellar work from Rachel over a long couple of days, we now have the first Final Word bub. This week you can hear Adam, ne...

Bangladesh win the World Cup

Season 7, Ep 20: The Under-19 World Cup, that is. But still. What a huge moment for a country that has battled at the top level, and against their biggest rival in India too. Cricinfo's Bangladesh ...

The Final Word with Ebony Rainford-Brent

Season 7, Ep 19. We love Ebony. She's got a huge heart, a beaming smile, and a great laugh, and she makes commentary boxes around the world better. But more than that, she's a deeply impressive hum...

South Africa's sudden slide

Less than two years ago South Africa crushed Australia 3-1. Since then  they've had a dire World Cup and consistent Test losses, while the national administration has fallen into chaos. With E...

Dan Christian interview

Season 7, Ep 17: Following the release of CA's new indigenous reconciliation plan, Wiradjuri cricketer Dan Christian joins The Final Word to talk over what it means and what hopes it carries for th...

The winter newsreader, played by Daniel Norcross

Season 7, Ep 16: With Geoff away on holiday, Daniel Norcross joins Adam Collins for The Final Word's weekly dance around  the cricket universe. From Mumbai to Melbourne, then over to Port &nbs...

Sunny Munn and 4-day Tests

Season 7, Ep 15. After hammering New Zealand one final time, the pause button is hit  on the home international summer. But that doesn't mean the cricket  world slows down: a magnificent ...

The 2019 finale

Season 7, Ep 13. You know what New Year's Eve means on The Final Word? It's gonna get loose. It's gonna get wild. It's time for our biggest show of the year. We have our Best and Worst of  201...

Merry Christmas with Mel Jones

It's our now-traditional Christmas Eve episode, for when you need to escape family or friends for an hour and cry on your own behind the wood shed. 

Like last year with Harsha Bhogle, we...

Fixing the odds

S7, Ep 12. Giving we've been banging on about sports betting, it was timely when the ABC Investigations unit gave a good rinse to the massive company whose name is all over cricket. We speak to Ste...

All triple centuries suck

Season 7, Ep 11. Look, it's true: pretty much all triple hundreds been made against dross bowling on flat pitches. They're still amazing. This ep covers Warner's triple, Root's captaincy, New Zeala...

Triple Test time

Season 7, Episode 10. Three Test matches happening at the same time needs a lot of Final Word.

Smith versus Smyth

Season 7, Episode 8, not quite in sequence. We've neer been sure whether Rob Smyth is real. He's just a voice on the far end of the OBO line. So we arranged to at least speak to him on the phone as...

How Steve got his head right

Season 7, Episode 9. We managed to squeeze in one more important episode before Test season. After handing down Steve Smith's ban, Cricket Australia took the  unusual step of linking the playe...

Shaun Marsh is coming home

Season 7, Episode 7. What's that November sound? Snow in Hobart, Nat Fyfe at the beach, and  the the pitter patter of early-season Marsh runs. "He's coming, he's  coming, Shaun is coming ...

Got a great interview lined up

Fake Nathan Hauritz: revealed

Season 7, Episode 6.  

For all these years, the identity of a Twitter sensation was shrouded in mystery. Now the puppet master emerges. Dan Liebke has written another book full of obscur...

Cricket and climate change

Season 7, Ep 5: Since we're in the month of serious topics we might as well do the most pressing one of all. Climate change is going to have a huge impact on cricket over the next few decades: drou...

Policy Week is like Book Week but no costumes

Season 7, Episode 4. You know nothing gets us excited like policy. Not even joking. Cricket had a big policy week: England's £50million plan for women's cricket, Australia's world-leading parental...

From Laxman to Lara

We did it! All of you, plus us, together... we've gone past VVS Laxman's 281 for the number of patrons on the site.

Can we say with all sincerity, this is life-changing stuff. It has enabled ...

Scribes of the shortest form

A lot of people don't take T20 cricket seriously. At the Final Word, we're kind of agnostic. But our guests on this show are the real enthusiasts: Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde, who have written a ...