Reverse Swept Radio - a cricket podcast

Reverse Swept Radio 161: Remembering when Bangladesh nearly broke their Test duck, review of ”Cricketing Lives”, Ponting’s masterplan and the MCC’s wrong turn

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Ricky Ponting has a plan to save Test cricket, and the MCC take a mis-step when issuing their clarification on the Mankad.

"It goes back to that thing called 'the Spirit of Cricket', and the MCC don't contribute towards a debate pro-actively about the Spirit of Cricket when they use language like this"

FROM THE ARCHIVES (12'00): Pakistan vs Bangladesh in Multan, 2003

"They decide not to call the batsman back - which is odd, given that it's the captain who has dropped the catch."

THE REVIEW (23'15): Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History from Pitch to Page by Richard Thomas (May 2021)

"Archie MacLaren was a limousine salesman later in his life. "By all accounts, what he tried to sell to his customers what they wanted or needed." A wonderful way to prick the pomposity of a man who is very much seen that way...."

Recorded 29 January 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 160: ”An innings played with one eye and one leg”, the new Ben Stokes doc and cricket’s restorative qualities

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Listening to the Aus SA series from an English winter, and re-learning cricket's self-control

"When you're watching cricket, you can swear at the umpire as much as you like. But when you're on the pitch, you have to switch to see the umpire in a very different way."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'00): "An innings played with one eye and one leg" - The Nawab of Pataudi's 75 

"As well as having double vision from childhood, he's nursing an injury from the first test - he comes in with a runner and can't play front-foot shots."

THE REVIEW (21'50): Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes (Amazon Prime, 2022) 

"I don't want to labour this point (while slightly labouring this point), but you need to enter into the experience of watching a documentary like this with the understanding that a deal has been struck: access has been traded for a certain narrative."

Recorded 09 January 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 159: A West Indian silver lining, the Test debut of DRS, and England’s year of four captains

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy welcomes a legspinner into the world, the test debut of Tagenarine Chanderpaul, and a promising tour match from the South Africans

"As yet, she hasn't displayed the level of patience and self-control required of an opening bat."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'10): DRS' test debut

"Every referral that had been sent to the third umpire in the Friends Provident Trophy had ended up back with the on-field umpire's decision."

THE REVIEW (21'40): Long Shot Summer - The Year of the Four England Captains, 1988 by Neil Robinson (2015)

"Viv Richards wins the toss and says to Cowdrey 'I'll have a chat to my team and let you know what we're going to do'."

Recorded 11 December 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 158: Farewell to Bob Cattell, a mathematician’s love of cricket, and a poor effort from the BBC

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: farewell to Bob Cattell, author of the Glory Gardens series; and Jonathans Agnew and Liew talk about that incident

"This week of all weeks, we don't want to talk too much about politics, but..."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (09'00): Godfrey Harold Hardy - the mathematician who loved cricket

"That was only the start of his new year resolutions, that also included 'Be the first man atop Everest' and 'Assassinate Mussolini'."

THE REVIEW (18'00): One Billion to One: The Great Indian Cricket Dream (BBC - September 2022)

"One of the things that is best about it is that... it's very short."

Recorded 30 October 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 157: the curious tale of Sammy Guillen, Jon Hotten’s ”Bat, Ball and Field”, and swapping the cricket for a curry house

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: cricket in the rain at the Oval, and Shomit Dutta's new play Stumped

"It's a very liberating thing to take a day off work to go to the curry house and the pub, and you wouldn't do that under other circumstances."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (08'40): Simpson 'Sammy' Guillen - the man who played test cricket for the West Indies and New Zealand

"Ironically it was Guillen who was responsible for New Zealand's first-ever test victory - in a game against his old team."

THE REVIEW (19'00): Jon Hotten - Bat, Ball and Field: The Elements of Cricket (July 2022)

"I was astonished to read the section on Shane Warne's mural - including his friends, imaginary friends, and people he admired, all chilling by a swimming pool."

Recorded 30 September 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 156: Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, Eisenhower goes to the test, and a close encounter with a Yorkshireman

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: meeting 'Yorkie' and Australia's new friendship with Pacific cricket

"Once you've messed up your own innings, you can take on the umpiring and muck up someone else’s."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'45): When the President went to the Cricket: Eisenhower at Pakistan vs Australia in Karachi

"We hope Biden can meet Eisenhower's standards and make it through a whole day... without yawning."

THE REVIEW (20'55): Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams (2022)

"Anyone who has spent time with teenage boys will recognise those challenging moments, and will recognise that you get to your limits whether you've been an England all-rounder or not."

Recorded on 5 September 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 155: a batsman attacks a bowler with a stump, and interviews about the Windies Rebel Tours

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: the joy of cricket writing (writing cricket writing, not reading cricket writing); watching Glamorgan's record-breaking innings

"Most undeservedly, I ended up interviewing the curator of the London Transport Museum."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'40): When a stump became a weapon: Rashid Patel loses it

"The batsman has his bat horizontally across his chest in an unusual fencing move."

THE REVIEW (20'10): The Unforgiven: Missionaries or Mercenaries by Ashley Gray (2020)

"The pursuit of the players become interesting stories in themselves."

Recorded on 24th June 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 154

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: an update from Lord's and England annihilate the Netherlands

"As someone who has today had champagne sprayed over my back, my feelings are now rather more nuanced. The behaviour at Lord's may not be better, but the product dumped on you is certainly of a higher calibre."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'40): When a captain sent his fastest bowler from the field

"Something exploded inside me. I couldn't go on. All I wanted to do was get off the pitch."

THE REVIEW (15'20): The Ball that Changed Cricket (2018, SevenPlus)

"The laconic Kim Hughes comes up with one of the best lines I've heard: 'Built like Tarzan, bats like Jane'."

Recorded on 24th June 2022

 

 

Reverse Swept Radio 153: watching baseball, Andrew Symonds at the 2003 World Cup

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: watching baseball, and Bangladesh host Sri Lanka

"The first pitch of the game was sent straight into the stands for a home run. That raised my and my wife's sense of what normal drama would be in baseball. It turned out to be very rare."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (12'00): Andrew Symonds at the 2003 World Cup

"There must be a psychological credit to Symonds: you come in knowing that if you don't score there's the next player waiting, and scoring under those circumstances is difficult."

THE REVIEW (22'40): The Test by Nathan Leamon

"Cricket is lacking in fiction compared to other sports, and this is a rare attempt to take on top level cricket in fiction - and it's done really well."

Recorded on 29th May 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 152: Root’s resignation, the Sir Walter Lawrence Trophy, and the Hollywood Cricket Club

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: all change at the top for English cricket

"Many of us fans are attracted to the idea of the specialist captain."

FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'30): The Sir Walter Lawrence Trophy

"For Sir Walter, his money was well spent: his legacy has been preserved by this trophy, while it's hard to find out much else about him other than the description of 'master builder'."

THE REVIEW (19'15): Howzat for Hollywood (BBC Sounds)

"If you were a British actor in Hollywood at the time, and you got the message from Aubrey-Smith, you were pretty well obliged to play."

Recorded on 18 April 2022