Atharva 'Ath'

Spot on.

You know, there's a love and passion of the game.

I think that's the most important thing.

Why did I take up cricket?

It was because it came from my family, my dad and my brothers, and there was a love and passion for cricket in the family.

And you can see, any time Nepal play, there's a real passion for the game.

Italy are a slightly odd combination, aren't they, of...

Italians that play the game that have had to go abroad, you know, like the Mosca brothers, the Menentis, to go to Australia to further their game, and then people from cricketing countries going to Italy to get on the big stage.

And what is the future?

We've all seen their praises, and I've just given the thing about how brilliant it is to see the Associates, but come now, they're gone.

They're on their way home, and we all sort of forget about the Associates.

I think that's clear with the associates, but then you go to maybe Ireland,

Zimbabwe and we had Alistair Campbell on didn't we on the pod and he talked about Zimbabwe and he was quite not critical but of the opinion that they shouldn't be playing as much test match cricket if any and to focus in on white ball cricket and we saw that test match at Trent Bridge where they were just hammered by England but we've seen them in this tournament where they've been a real force so it is when you start whether you just stick to white ball cricket whether you just stick to T20 cricket I think it is

Once they get, if they get to India, they will have to fire.

I think actually the type of cricket played here in Sri Lanka helps England a little bit because it does grip a bit.

So those, and Nick Knight made this excellent point at the end of the show the other night.

So I'm not trying to nick your points, Stitch.

your spinners, your bowling attack, you then have Bethel.

As he bowled Sri Lanka out here in the games before the tournament, you then have Jacks, you obviously have Adil, you have Dawson.

So the bowling becomes a little bit more dynamic and you don't just rely on Adil and Jofra.