Test Match Special
England v Sri Lanka: England seal series win
Jonathan Agnew is alongside Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan & former Sri Lanka allrounder Russel Arnold on the Lord's outfield for reaction to England beating Sri Lanka on day four and sealing the series victory with a test to play.
Player of the match Gus Atkinson tells Jonathan that it was "incredibly special" to get his first century at Lord's whilst also starring with the ball and taking 5 wickets in Sri Lanka's second innings. Captain Ollie Pope looks back on his recent form with the bat saying "it hasn't worked" for him, but looks to lead from the front as captain going forward. Plus, Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya De Silva rues choosing to bowl when his side won the toss on day one.
The MCC respond to criticism that ticket prices at Lord's were too high with Senior Head of Club Services Viv Brown & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Katie Maier speaking to Jonathan.
Plus, listen back to the lighter moments from inside the TMS commentary box during the test at Lord's.
- Duration:
- 33m
- Broadcast on:
- 01 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project to do tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So, first, call your parents to say I'm sorry and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee with your first three orders while supplies last, minimum $10 in order, additional term supply. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row, Azman. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign, go to LinkedIn.com/results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. MUSIC PLAYS BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. You're listening to the TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Jonathan Agnew. Welcome to the Test Financial Special Podcasts at the Lords Outfield, where England win again this summer. Here's Woke's, Bowles full again and hoicked in the air. Down to mid on, the crowd know it's going to be caught. It's taken by Stone. Woke's completes it. And England completes a comfortable victory by 190 runs. Their fifth consecutive victory of the summer, they're heading for a rare whitewash. To come, but here for the captains, Ollie Pope and Dallin Jardis, Silver, as well as the player of the match, Gus Atkinson, will also have analysis of the day's play from Michael Vaughan, Sir Alistair Cook and the former Sri Lanka around a Russell Arnold. The MCC responded criticism around ticket pricing. Also, we'll hear the lighter moments from the TMS commentary box from this Test match at Lords. You're listening to the TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Beautiful warm afternoon down here, I must say, and I've got Dallin Jardis, Silver, alongside me, the captain of Sri Lanka. Well, disappointing Dallin Jard, four day defeat. Yes, of course, you know, Luz is always, you know, disappointing asset team, you know. We could have done better, I think, yeah, yeah, much better team than this, I think, yeah. Poiseel bounce back and next game. Yeah. I'm going to take you back to the toss, I don't know if you had a second chance, whether you do the same thing again, or would you have a rethink? I'll bet first, definitely. When did you think maybe you hadn't got it right? Well, you know, I'll take the toss as well, you know, we could have bet first, but, you know, the top order was exposing in the last minute, so I thought I'll give them a break and, you know, let's see how it goes when you go. But yeah, we've done better, you know, we've done well in the till, the time, I think, 230, 46, and then the route and at Kingston, you know, took the game away from us. I must ask you about Joe Root, he's had an extraordinary game, he's breaking records. What do you think of him as a batsman when you're standing there watching him play? Well, yeah, you know, he has proved himself, you know, he's a well-class player, you know, alongside, he played with, like, 10, 12 years now, he scores runs, and, you know, as you said, breaking records in every match, so I think he's a well-class player. Right, you've got a few days to get it together down in Georgia, for the oval, what are you going to do? How are you going to regroup? Well, I said this earlier also, we have to bring our game to the first inning, either we bowl or either we bet, so I think that's the point I have to mention to the boys as well, you know. We had to do in the first inning, so then the second inning will be easier. Good luck to you, thanks for talking to us, there we are. Dan and Jada Silva, who, yes, who said he would have, on reflection, might have backed it first, which is very honest, actually, to be Michael here, with Russell Arnold here, it's very honest, isn't it? Yeah, I like Timmy other smarties, you know, you can hide beyond decisions, or when you get things blatantly wrong, you're just going to accept that they made a poor call, it was the only way, really, I felt, I always felt this week after old travel, I thought, oh, he shrunk about first, you know, and get 300, 325, with the way that Jaya Saria bowls, I think it could have a good week, but when, as soon as he won the toss and asked England about first, even though they got a few early wickets, and it was, mistakes, wasn't it, from the England batters, not because of the conditions in the pitch, as soon as England were back and first, in particular when Joe Root got to around 40-50, it was pretty much game over. Colin Russell, you heard a captain there, I mean, that was very honest, and with the smile on his face as well. And he did give away the reason as well, exposing the top order, but if you want to beat a good team like England in conditions that you're not used to, you've got to set the game up for yourself, and once again he set the first innings, which means we all know in Test cricket that you do the hard work early and then the game gets easier for you as the days were on. So mistakes all around, and they'll really need to look at what their strength is, stick to that plan accordingly, and then execute. Do you think they're competing the next week? I think they can, because I'll look at Old Trafford, and I'll think they didn't play too well, but in that fourth innings, there were times we felt if Joe Root was dismissed, they can get over the tops. They were not totally outplayed in the sense, they were always there and there about. You can create that opportunities once again, and there's no team that's unbeatable. Get out there, put some pressure, and you never know what can happen, you have to believe. I think we'll chat to Oli Pope at a minute, he's just putting his cap on, getting his sunglasses sorted out. When do I go 8-0? No, no, not the first question. Hello, Oli, well, there you go, another victory, well done. Good win, yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously some pretty special individual performances, Gus Mann in the match, and Rudy with his two unders, just doing exactly what Rudy does, so pleasing week, and yeah, nice to get the series one. But once the bowler gets the award, you're about to get them all the time, that's a fantastic award there. Well, he saved bowler, I mean, he obviously went and got his 100, which is an unbelievable effort from him. So now, what Gus he did was pretty special, I know people wouldn't have expected it, but I know exactly. Did you expect it? I wouldn't say I was expecting him to get on that board this week, but I knew what he was capable of with the bat, he's hit some 50s in first-class cricket, and for him to be able to go on and go big is awesome. Yeah, and to make it look well, not easy, but I mean, he's looked very relaxed about it. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of just the nature of him as a person. He doesn't really over-complicate things too much and goes into each game knowing exactly what he can do and just takes it in his stride, and that's probably one of his best attributes. Are you disappointed to have missed out? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think cricket is the way it goes sometimes. You go through good phases and you go through bad phases, and unfortunately, the last two weeks hasn't worked for me, but I'll be working hard and hopefully put a score together next week. Yeah, and do you take with you the solace, if that's the right word, of actually winning games as captain? Does that kind of keep you chin up? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, it's in an ideal world, you go and leave from the front with the bat and go and score 100, but the fact that we're turning up in the series, and I haven't made the contributions I wanted to with the bat, you're still taking that every day. I mean, it feels sometimes like an individual game within the side, but there's a bigger picture to it as well. And it is the way cricket goes sometimes. Some games, things just don't quite click for you, and that's just the way it is. And yeah, hopefully, like I said, I'll work hard this week and hopefully put a score together and leave from the front next. Are you a football man? Yes. Did you ever listen to the football results on the radio with James Alexander Gordon? If I go, if I go, DRS, eight, Ollie Pope. I'll tell you what, the guys behind the stump sign helped me out too much. But yeah, it was a weird one. I think we had one today where even the battle was just waiting around to see if it carried to the keeper for some reason. For some reason, Snico said there was nothing there, which was a bit of a strange one. But yeah, I'll hopefully get one next week. You will. Good luck, Ollie. Thanks for talking to us. There we go. Right, well, we'll be building up for that fair plate, smile on his face. And yeah, I mean, it's here, I'd like to score two runs for England and winning. And on we go cooking and having a laugh. Well, he almost said Neil, but he didn't quite say Neil that he'd been here what I meant. I was just asking him about the DRS. It's not as easy as it looks, does it? No. I think, Ultra, this game has played a few little funny tricks with them. They were saying that a few batsmen have said they've, you know, they've hit it and they haven't hit it. Oh, really? And so, you know, the Chandamal one, they're saying that the owner, Cooner Outney, said he had hit it and he didn't pop up. So I don't know whether the technology was foolproof this week. Yeah, interesting. I've been talking about, you know, I was just pointing out that score runs, Michael, but the fact that he's winning, he's captain, he's winning games. I mean, you do take that with you to the final match of the summer. Absolutely. And, you know, as he caps in, you're obviously wanting to score runs and contribute to the team, but he contributed in the field. You know, some of those kind of funky fields on the legs side, I've never known a field with so many catches on the legs side that I've seen. We've got two legs that catches, he had two there today, short legs in place, very proactive with these kind of tactical side of the job. But, you know, it is quite easy as a skipper when you're so far ahead of the game, you've got four quicks who are fresh, you've got a spinner who holds an end. We just want a bit more competition. That's what we want to see from Sri Lanka on Friday. Here it comes. Well, gosh, I'm not sure what to say to you. Do I start with the bowling or your batting? I think I know what the answer is going to be here. Yes. Well, come on. How about that? Yeah, I'm an incredible, um, 100 Lords. I mean, 100 in general. I haven't spent a long time since I've got one of those, but to get it here is incredibly special. And, you know, I'm looking forward to, to, you know, challenging myself with the bat going forward. And, yeah, it was pretty surreal. But the way that you played as well, it was a beautiful thing. So, I don't mean to sound surprised, but, you know, I don't think many people are expecting to just play so confidently. Yeah, I know. It was just one of those days where, you know, things went my way. I felt really good at the crease and I just seemed to time the ball and get in good positions. And that was it, really. I mean, I just tried to play my natural game and be, be, be aggressive. And when the ball was there to hit, I tried to hit it. Yeah. People have said, I mean, Ollie Pope was just saying, look, you know, we've seen you score 50s. It's obviously haven't got the 100. So, you know, also, well, leg pulling aside, you, you, you're perfect capable of doing it. Oh, yeah, I guess so. I mean, looking forward, going to try and, you know, score as many runs as I can, but, um, pressure's on now. Pressure's on. Yeah, I know. I know. Um, but yeah, you know, forward. Um, I'm going to try and do as well as I can and test cricket with the bat. And I know, I know that, you know, adding batting to, um, will be huge for this team. And wickets taken as well. And it's, it's a handful of tests that you've played it right up there. They're the top now for, for those taking wickets in such a short time span. He was really proud of that. Yeah, 100%. You know, I, I didn't feel like I bold as well. This, this game as I did against West Indies here, but, um, you know, things, things went, went my way. And, and yeah, I guess just one of, one of those innings where it worked for me, but that's a unit we, we've, we've all done so well. I thought, I thought everyone was great. Stoney ran in really hard, bold bounces, bold, difficult overs, but yeah, all around, we were brilliant. This may sound a strange question, but the, the, the step up then, from Surrey, you know, county champions to this level, it, how, how big a step is it, do you think? Yeah, a big step, I guess. I mean, obviously I'm pretty inexperienced in test, in test cricket, but I'm sure there'll be harder challenges going forward. But, you know, I think the intensity and, and everything is, is a big step up and, yeah. You've made it look easy. Thanks for talking to us. Yeah, good to see you. Well played. Well played. There we go. I knew we'd go batting first. How many years? Yeah, we've got a, we've got a, we've got to talk about that. Ah, I love him. I, I just hope he never changes. I hope he can have that simple kind of method. As he said, there would be more difficult challenges ahead, but I just hope he has that dead pan attitude. I just love his kind of, his character. He just, to just kind of weather his back. Well, he's just got the same kind of body language. He would say a psychologist, a look at his body language, or he needs to get those shoulders back, get those eyes, it'll be a bit more confident, but, you know, does he? He's just being him. He's just enjoying the game. And, you know, as he said with the bat, he just stood at the crease. He looked at the ball and he thought, 'Oh, it's there to it.' Oh, it's it. Very simple. Very uncomplicated, Russell, isn't he? Certainly very different to the, to the English players that we played against. Yeah, they were soft, I think. The winge about the heat, the calls. So easy. And I think that'll make them play better. He's giving me a smart warning. Very well said. We've got to talk about Joe Ruta again. Obviously, again, Cookie can be excused in this conversation if you like. But, I mean, it is phenomenal. What has achieved in this match? Yeah, I mean, there's so many words to describe, Joe. And he's, you know, had many say this week, is the greatest ever England batter. I absolutely think that. But I just think it's a pleasure. You know, I think every time you see someone go out to bat, and Joe just seems to play the same innings all the time. But it's just a joy to watch. You never get bored of watching him bat. He's just got pure stroke play. He's got that defensive technique. He's got such great balance to work it on the onside. And the most important thing, he's got hunger. You know, I think someone that's done so much, and, you know, people feel like he's captained for a long, you know, he's captained over 50 games. And that can take a huge amount out of anybody. And he just seems to have found that enthusiasm again to just walk out. That, that process that he has coming down the steps here in the long room, he gets to the edge of the boundary, he stretches and then he sprints on. He sprints it on a bit quicker. And the second thing is that he did in the person. So his process was slightly off. It's a real joy to watch, to watch a magician. And it is like a poet, isn't he? He's just an absolute pleasure to what juice is magic. And at the minute he's producing his magic, and he has them for many, many years. He produces magic on a regular boat. Look, if you had five minutes to yourself with Ollie Pope ahead of the oval, what would you say to him? Gosh, if he wants a good question for me, Maggie. It's very tricky because you don't want to go too technical now, because that is a big danger of a batsman who's out of form in a series, because then you can complicate him. You've got a bit hundred cents certain when you go out about that you are knowing what you're going to do. So if you start tinkering, which we all do, and you make major changes, this is not the time to do it in the four days. I think he's just going to go clear his head and work with what he's got, get through the say wrong, do everything to get through the first 30 balls and then play, because actually that is, in the minute, he's not a great starter. On a purely technical thing, he does fall over offside too much. I think his left shoulder is a little bit closed up, so I would like to open his left shoulder a little bit and try and keep his head up, and I think that will make him defend straight up, be less movement after the ball, but I think that's a project for after next week. Is it fair to say, being a non-batsman, of course, that that's actually quite a common fault, actually, in batsman, it does seem to creep into the game, that question of balance and the head going over. Absolutely, it's amazing. Every batsman, when they're out of form, for whatever reason, the head is one of the first things to go. I don't know quite why it is, and everyone says the heaviest part of the body, so that is why it does it, but I don't know why you're out of form, it just accentuates it even more. But even when Ollie Pope is batting well, I still think his head falls over to the offside, so I think that is something which he, I'm sure he's aware of, I hope he's aware of, and I do not, I might be wrong on the technical side, because different people have different technical elements of their game, which they kind of find their own method to do it, but I just think fundamentally, I'm looking at it, that's what I will do if I was coaching him. It's home ground next week, does that count for much? Absolutely it does, you know, he's got, we're up until this year, had a great record at the oval playing for Surrey, so that'll give him all the creature comforts that he knows, there's none of that uncertainty about the Lord's slope or how's his pictures playing old traffic, he will feel absolutely at home in the changing room, in the environment, so you know, it's like lined up for him, the series is one, he's ultimately, that's his job as a captain to win the series, he's done that, so he can almost part that, so he's got a good, her needs score runs and a good opportunity to do that. Maybe just go back to some old-fashioned test cricket, absorb, get behind the ball, get yourself going, maybe he's just caught in between with going after the bowling and starting a test in through, the style England have been playing lately. Let's go to Andy Zoltzwin for some closing stats. Well yeah, let's start with Gus Atkinson and that extraordinary feat of a century and a five-week hall in the same test, only the third England player to do that in men's test cricket, Tony Greg did it once, Ian both of them did it five times, so Atkins is just the third on that list, also the third to do it at Lord's, Ian both in 1978 against Pakistan, had an eight foot and a century, and then the only other player to have a century and a five foot in the same test here at Lord's, it was Vinou Mankat in 1952 for India, who had I think 72, 184 and 5, 196 in a very hard working game. Looking at Atkinson's start to his career, 33 wickets in five tests, only one England player has ever taken more wickets in his first five tests and that's Nick Cook, the only other two with 33 in their first five tests, two of the greats of English fast-boulding, Fred Truman and the 19th century sorry player Tom Richardson, and looking at just the list of players who've had 33 or more wickets in a five-test sequence at any point in their test careers, there's a pretty illustrious list as well. Graham Swan most recently, Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Harmerson, Nick Cook, and before that it's pretty much who's who of the greats of English bowling in, both from Fred Truman, Tony Lock, Jim Laker, Frank Tyson, Alec Bedsa, Headly Verity, Harold Larwood, Morris Tate, SF Barnes, and a few of the other early greats of English bowling, so I mean that puts in context quite how extraordinary it is for Atkinson to have started this well. Neither Stuart Broad nor Jimi Anderson ever took 33 wickets in a five-test sequence in their entire career, so it's truly extraordinary what he's done. Joe Roots, he mentioned or talked about him yesterday, the first time he's two centuries in the same match in his career. England now won seven in a row against Sri Lanka, only twice if they won more consecutive games against a single opponent, that was against Bangladesh, the first nine-test they played against them, and the first eight-test they played against South Africa way back in the 19th century. And Ollie Pope, not never had a great game with it, but he's won his first two tests as England captain, and since 1967 only one England captain, immense test cricket has won his first two tests, and that is Alistair Cook, when he was a standing captain in Bangladesh in 2010. Thanks to Andy, Michael, and Russell. Stay with us, as very shortly I hear from the MCC, who respond to public criticism of ticket pricing offer a very below-par attendance here at Lordz. Hey, it's Mark Marin from WTF here to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. And I'm sure the reason you're listening to this podcast right now is because you chose it. Well, choose Progressive's name, your price tool, and you could find insurance options that fit your budget so you can pick the best one for your situation. Who doesn't like choice? Try it at Progressive.com, and now some legal info, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Price and Coverage Match, limited by state law, not available in all states. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. There's a disappointing crowd here today. A sunny Sunday, and there's lots of criticism of high ticket prices for adults. Under 16s can attend for £15, and the adult prices did start at £95. Viv Brown is here. She's a senior head of club services at the MCC, and Katie Maers of Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at MCC is also here. What do you think? Look out the window. Well, it's a beautiful day, and all of us want to see a very full Lord's. The attendance today is not something that we would hope to see on such a lovely day. If I could give you some background, maybe. Please, absolutely. We move ahead with this. We actually start pricing. We're doing the pricing for next season at the moment, and we put a ticket strategy in place, and we sign that off in September. A critical part of that, I think, is at the end of every season that we also review that. We have a look and think, well, did we make all the right decisions, and what can we learn, and how can we move forward? When we set out at the beginning of this year, we very much pegged the West Indies and the Sri Lanka Test Match at the same level, and we priced them at the same level. We saw much greater interest in the West Indies Test from the beginning of this year. Certainly, also from a hospitality point of view, that was also more popular, but even the West Indies Test Match the day four sales did lag behind a little bit. They were sitting at about 17,000 until the Jimmy News, and then they took off and went stratospheric, so that was very beneficial, though. Obviously, those people didn't get to enjoy their day here. As we've moved ahead with day four here, we've seen that the sales have lagged, so we have put certain elements in place. Group offers for 6, 12, and 50 size groups. We obviously very much priced the under-16 pricing at the weekend to try and attract a family audience, but when we look ahead, comparing, we do benchmark ourselves again against other grounds and similar environments such as Twickenham, The Oval, Wimbledon, and we try to benchmark our prices to match that. With all of that said, when we look at this, we know that we want to improve, and we want to improve year-on-year, and so I think as we move forward, we'll take into greater consideration how we address day four, as it seems that the dynamics of day four have slightly changed over the recent years. The problem is, though, it's easy because next year, you've got India. They'll have sell out, so actually, this will be forgotten. I don't think you'll need to learn any lessons from this because you'll sell out the fourth day because it's India. It's these matches, it's the lower profile games. The West Indies was the first test match of the summer, and it was people have been gagging for test cricket, so I'm not surprised that sold out, but this speaks for itself the public have spoken. Well, we also have looked back through historic pricing and historic attendance as well, and actually, some of the historic attendance for a day four of a Sri Lanka test matches were in around 17,000, indicating that there is that level of demand. Looking, I think the overall day four is on a Monday. I think their prices are similarly matched. I'd be interested to see how they attract, what decisions they make there, whether they decide to do some dynamic pricing, and dynamic pricing is something that we've talked about as a management team, and if that's something we need to introduce as we go ahead. So certainly lessons learn, very keen to learn those lessons and ensure that we see a much fuller house for days like this, especially when it's such a lovely, sunny day. Kate, you're the communications officer. Have you got this wrong? I think it's a learning for all of us, but ultimately we do a lot of work here to attract large crowds, if not full crowds, across the entire season. We've actually seen more crowds coming from international matches this year than we have ever previously at Lords, and we're really growing our new audience since coming through. We've got more new children coming in, women, non-cricut fans across the various inventory that we have this summer. I know over the weekend with the children's pricing that's been reflected in some of the children's numbers. So we're very focused on doing what we can to just continue growing that. So clearly if there are days where we're not filling the ground, we will look at that and consider what ways we can bring in the following year, and the subsequent years on perhaps there's some slightly less popular teams playing to really maximise that attendance. The problem is that everyone is desperate for test cricket to survive. You sold out the 100 for the final. Wow, 30,000 people. Fantastic. Let's bring them into the bigger game, the wider game, if you like. Was there marketing during the course of that to say come and watch Sri Lanka play in the test match? Was that good? They haven't come. Absolutely. I mean, we market heavily right from the get-go when the ballot goes live around September the previous year, and this has been intensively marketed, I'd say probably more so than any of the other internationals this season, because we are constantly on a weekly basis looking at those sales numbers. And we knew that this day was lower, and I know that it's not unique to us. Our fellow venue over the river has had the same, I believe. So it's something we're all focused on across the game, not just for us when we're talking with the ECB and our friendly venues. And we've done lots to try and engage, not just the England fans, but the Sri Lankan fans as well. And things like bringing in the group offer was part of that to really try and engage them. I think we've got some sort of macro issues playing at hand with this particular match this week. There's obviously the the basketball effect and the day for possibly being a bit more like a day five in some people's minds. But this is also obviously the end of the summer holidays. It's later than we would normally host a test match. It's a bank holiday last week. It's back to school for many people tomorrow, certainly in the coming days. So I think that has played a little bit into some of the struggles with today's sales particularly. But we're very keen to maximize it in future years to come. Explain to me the question of not being able to refund people who have paid, say people have paid £100 and you decide when it's all, we haven't got the numbers right, 40 quid. That means people might have paid £60 more. Why can't I just refund those people on the cards that they've paid for online the difference? Because you say it's not easy to, or at least I'm not saying you personally, but the line is, it's complicated to refund people. Why? If I overpay something somewhere, I'll take my card back and they put it back on my card. Why can't you do that? We have done that in the past and it has caused some complications. What we're very keen to ensure is that there's no, it's not fair for people who've paid full price and have come in at that level. So we want to make sure that we're treating people in an equitable fashion. Again, that's something maybe we could look at. We did introduce that last year for the Ireland test. Actually, it was for the day four and the sales for that were very low and it didn't eventually in the end anyway. But certainly something that we can look into further. One thing I would say maybe is across the first three days of this test match, we have welcomed 85,000 people into the ground. But we took fully take on board the point and we want to make sure that moving ahead, we're protecting day four test matches of this nature outside those of India and Australia as we move forward. Yeah, the problem is that Lord is the home of cricket, isn't it? And so it is under the microscope. People in muttering about, well, they shouldn't have two test matches a year. I mean, it's all that sort of wider argument. It's opened up, isn't it? And next year, when we look at the matches that we're hosting here, that's something we have to take into consideration and have a very stepped pricing schedule to make sure that it is marketed at the right levels to attract people to come to the ground. And that's something that we need to take on board and make sure that we continue to try to get right. And if I had a crystal ball, I'm sure this would be much easier if I'm afraid I'm lacking that at the moment. But I look forward to it as we move ahead. Well, we're all lacking crystals, but I just think that next year it's going to be different because it's going to be India. These are the years when it's like this and is an opportunity to get people who can't pay £100 plus. It's an opportunity for them to come and we're busily marketing the 100 and shouting out from the rooftops and 30,000 people, the whole idea of being to open the game up. Here's the chance to do it and it hasn't been taken. I think a particular opportunity on that front as well will be 2026 with that women's test match, which we're very excited that we got to announce last week. And I think we'll be front of mind when it comes to pricing the women's test match project product. 50 is on from Rachel Herrflint led out the team here to make sure it's as accessible to as many people as possible. So it's very much front of mind and that will be a year. I think that's quite a good test for getting as many new audiences in for the particular format that we're looking at today. Well, thanks to Viv and Clayton for speaking to us. Before we go, let's hear some of the lighter moments in the TMS commentary box throughout this test match. Special to a live commentary. It's the 16th. There's not the 15th. I've sent up a day early. Thank you, Robert. It's the 16th. It's Northern Agnew proudly marks you through Melton Moebre playing the youth onion. Live commentary? Live commentary. You look rather nice, isn't it? I could do the stats. Well, notes that you can carve out. Yeah, well, that would be cool. It's not going to be great commentary, is it? Or what he's put his left foot in front of his right? I think that is the longest light check I've ever seen in a test match. No wonder the overwrites are so poor. Yeah, I mean, that's just over five minutes to decide whether you can or see. Anyway, I've had enough. You're on our behinds, if it updates, you must be closer. Or is it just frozen? Sure, it hasn't frozen. I think this is all my torture. Roger, Matthew, he's lowered his trousers there at first with my jaw. He's up too. All back up again now. I was about seven or eleven places. He had a little hop skip. A little hop skip. I never know about him. I've got it to the, um, Australian breakdancing. Get the running up, right? What would you have called yourself? I don't know. Tough cat. Tough cat. There you go. Coffee down your shirt. Your flies are undone. You're in absolute shambles. What's going on? I'm sorry, my trousers are too small. I've happened that, I'm doing all right. Yeah, right now, because test-building average is heading towards a new territory. Is it possible? Yeah, so the 4th of 51 against those four players. Well, your challenge... Your challenge tonight's ult is to find, I guess, at the bottom of some bowling table. That's not a challenge. Eight mil or that. But did you go that way or did you go eight mil? Well, how do you say it or the things in that? Ollie Pope, Neil. Joel Wilson. Eight. D-R-S. Eight. Ollie Pope, Neil. That's it for this episode of the TMS podcast. Make sure you've subscribed on BBC Sound, so you don't miss anything from this test series between England and Sri Lanka. And while you're there, make sure to check out my conversation with the journalist, Ali Martin, Lawrence Booth, Rex Clementine and the BBC's Chief Cricket writer, Stefan Shemmelt, on the cost of Test Cricket for a fan. Test my specials back on air on Friday the 6th of September for the 3rd and final test between England and Sri Lanka at the Oval. What's up, y'all? Janice Torres here. And I'm Austin Hankwits. We're the hosts of Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories, a podcast presented by iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios and into it QuickBooks. Join us as we speak with small business owners about the tools they use to turn their ideas into success. From finding that initial spark of entrepreneurship to organizing payments and invoices, we've got you covered, so follow and listen to Mind the Business, Small Business Success stores on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.