Is English Cricket failing the REAL test? - The Sports Agents

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Mark Chapman** (0:05)
Oh my god, this is sensational. The cloud had gone across the sun at Edgbaston, where sky were covering Birmingham against MI London in The Hundred.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:14)
We haven't seen a cloud in about three or four weeks.

**Mark Chapman** (0:18)
And Stuart Broad passed a message to NASA saying, we don't have to worry about the cloud because the eclipse has been delayed until 10 to 9 I don't know where he's got that from.
What Stuart Broad had done was misread an article that said, the next eclipse is in 2050

**SPEAKER_1** (0:37)
It's actually the year 2050 Stuart.

**Gabby Logan** (0:43)
I went for a walk to get a coffee this morning in Birmingham, and passed these two guys and overheard one say to the other, it was really disappointing in the end. It was nowhere near as exciting as I thought it was going to be. And at first I thought maybe that was Villa's performance last night, and the other one said, well, it wasn't supposed to be a total eclipse.
Hello and welcome to The Sports Agents. Hello Mark, hello Nedum, late night for you too.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:16)
Yeah, it wasn't too late yesterday to be fair, Chapman, was it?

**Mark Chapman** (1:19)
No, it was kind of, I mean, it was in and out. It was like half an hour show. It was perfect doing the Super Cup. And you know what, actually for a, well, people can make their own mind up, but for what is kind of a pre-season friendly, it was an entertaining game. And actually, Nedum, we felt quite positive for Villa, didn't we?

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:44)
Yeah, we did, yeah, especially with the younger players out there, like Badgway, sorry, like Maggio and Hemmings, like they were good, but let's be completely honest. Let's take people behind the curtain. We were also watching the athletics. Let's not try and separate ourselves from that.

**Ben Stokes** (1:58)
Yeah.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:59)
You know what I mean? All-round sports people that we are.

**Ben Stokes** (2:01)
Good to be across everything.

**Mark Chapman** (2:02)
We even had Manchester United Leeds on another monitor, which-

**Nedum Onuoha** (2:06)
Yeah, you had that one on. You had that one on.

**Mark Chapman** (2:08)
Just got to be across everything.

**Gabby Logan** (2:09)
Coming up on today's show, the English Football League season kicks off this weekend, and there are loads of big stories to get into across the championship, plus League One and Two. But first, as Chapman said, we're gonna talk cricket. England's men's three-test series against Pakistan begins on Monday, but that might just be a side issue as the appointment of Stephen Fleming as new test coach and Joe Root, back as captain, have raised some eyebrows. Editor of Wisden, Cricket, Almanac and Daily Mail writer Lawrence Booth joins us. Lawrence, thank you so much for coming on the pod.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:38)
Hi Gabby, thanks for having me.

**Mark Chapman** (2:39)
What are your feelings ahead of this test series? I honestly, I'd say this so often on this pod when we talk about cricket, for somebody who it would be my first choice sport to always watch, always has been, but I just don't know what I feel about it at the moment. And now I can't work out what I should feel about the test team really.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:00)
Yeah, I'm supposed to have strong opinions, aren't I? But I sort of share your ambivalence to a degree because, look, it's a holding pattern, isn't it? Stephen Fleming won't start as head test coach until the Tour of South Africa in the winter. Joe Root is back, having last been test captain four years ago. He stood in for one game at the Oval against New Zealand recently.
We're kind of waiting for the next phase of England's test team to get going again. That won't really happen until they go to South Africa in the winter. So it's a strange one. Plus, it's a series they cannot afford to lose. I mean, they absolutely have to beat Pakistan convincingly to get rid of some of the cobwebs from the New Zealand defeat, and, of course, the ashes. So strange times, and it'll be interesting to see what goes on.

**Gabby Logan** (3:41)
How much change do you think we're going to see? I mean, there's, you know, McCullum's still involved, obviously, in the set up, as you say, there. And Joe Root is not a novel idea. 35 years old, he knows what he's doing, but does he bring new fresh ideas? Probably not. He studies things. Stephen Fleming obviously is the new character in the piece, if you like. But will we notice dramatic difference in the way England approached this test?