 You're watching another episode of 5.75 oz. I am Jamie Alter and join as always Nikhil Nazh with me. Our third musketeer Arjun Pandey is not here today but we have a very special guest all the way from England. Ali Martin writes cricket for the Guardian and the Observer. Ali how are you? I'm very well, thanks Chaps. How are you? As good as possible. Yeah. Ali I'll get straight into it because you've been watching things unfold from very close quarters including the three-day inter-squad England match. How do the players look first of all? You've seen them on the ground. What's the feeling you get? Is it awkward for them? Are they all just trying to do the best they can? Actually it's more awkward for me to be honest because I'm still in Birmingham. The first test we're not allowed into match day. There's only one reporter on the ground at the moment and we've been watching events unfold on a live stream on the HTV website. The players understand that we looked a little bit rusty. I think it's been 111 days since the Taurus Sri Lanka was abandoned midway through England's final tour match. They've been back in training now for a good month or so but there's nothing that quite replicates being out in the middle. So we saw a little bit of rustiness yesterday on day one but we also saw a couple of uncapped youngsters in James Bracey and Dan Lawrence make an impression and those guys weren't on the Sri Lanka tour and yet they just nudged their names forward that little bit more. So good from England's point of view. Do you think with the players, I mean obviously this is a very awkward situation for all them but you know just beyond the players, what about the coaches, the support staff, do you see them all getting along at a fairly normal level despite all that's going on? I think so. I mean it's quite a hot house situation isn't it because while in the past we probably had tours to say Bangladesh or maybe we've seen the Pakistan Super League where there's been heavy security details and guys have really stuck between the ground and the hotels. In this instance both test matches are being played at grounds that have hotels on site and that means that there really isn't any escape from cricket for the guys. A couple of them have sort of said it's a bit like a bit of a cricket prison in a way. You know there's a few distractions set up for them. I know that the West Indies team in Old Trafford have had their own Caribbean chef on site who's been sort of whipping up a storm for those guys as well. Try and make them feel as welcome as they can be because obviously without the opposition there would be no test series but yeah I think it's a bit of a goldfish kind of existence for them and I think that that's something that the ECV certainly have been mindful of in the preparations because you know they don't want to overburden these guys mentally because they wouldn't be able to deliver out on the field and put on a show when the TV cameras are rolling. Ali I just wanted to know has the media or the press box reached a consensus on the vocabulary that they'd be using? I mean what are you going to call those elbow bumps or elbow fives or sanitizer? Will there be sanitizer pods or sanitizer stations, sanitizer break? Have you guys reached a consensus on that? That's a very good point. I think day one we're going to have to sit down and see all two meters apart and sort of get our story straight on that front but you're right. I mean the cricket lexicon has expanded quite heavily this summer. We've got things like zones and functional areas and contact clusters. All part of the social distancing measures and you know all factors for us to sort of write about and report and try and get across to the reader what a sort of unique summer this is going to be. Right if I could ask you a couple of cricket questions you know the first thing that just you know and you'd be amazed the kind of interest that we've got in India for a West Indies England series. I mean you know Indians love cricket but not so much when it's India that's not playing but this time there's a lot of interest because they're so staffed for cricket that they're wanting any sort of cricket action. The first thing that people have noticed here is of course you know all eyes were on James Anderson I think it's been what six months since he last played international cricket whatever we saw little of him in that practice game he seems to be right on the money. Yeah I mean he's a sort of modern medical miracle in a way isn't he but what is he now 38? He keeps trucking in. He's still bowling in the mid 18s he's got all those skills that he's built up over that long career. He looked he looked in pretty good shape I mean obviously his last test match he signed off with a fiver but in the process actually bizarrely broke a rib actually you know bowl just from bowling which was I guess sort of shows you know that time is kind of catching up within and he is starting to pick up a few niggles and what have you but the guy loves it he absolutely loves cricket he's determined to keep going as long as his body will allow him. I think on the last Asher's tour in 2016 2017 2017 2018 we probably thought that was his last time in Australia but but you know he's still targeting the next tour and you know he wants to win those Asher's back I think if he retired with them in Australian hands he'd probably leave a slightly disappointed man. All right also the other thing I don't think the saliva ban is making too much of a difference what's the word on that because whatever little we're reading both you had James Anderson as well as Stuart Broad you know doing a lot with the ball in the batsman did find themselves in a bit of trouble there so is it really affecting the bowlers as much? Well certainly I mean from watching yesterday's action which is probably the first action we've seen there was a bit of movement we're kind of lucky in the UK and that we used the jukes ball which is I know they've actually just phased it out of Australian state cricket and now they've got the Asher's and they're carrying on with the Kookaburra but the jukes because it's got that very prominent seam it kind of holds it's the leather holds together a lot better I think they can get a good dry shine on it and obviously the ICC rules mean that you can put a bit of sweat on it if you can produce some which in English conditions is not always a given. Yeah another thing I just wanted you know what's the consensus we know that Joe Roots out for their first test match and you've got Ben Stokes captaining the team I mean what's the consensus on Ben Stokes the captain there amongst the cricket funders? Well I mean like a lot of modern day captains it's one of the great unknowns because Ben Stokes hasn't captained a team since he was I think it was the Durham academy back in I think it's probably 2008 or something probably you know it's a good good while ago I mean he's he is such an obvious choice in terms of his vice captaincy because he is I mean I think I spoke that was in the paper this morning and you know he sort of explained that you know Stokes is this natural leader of men in the dressing room he is the talisman people are drawn to him people want to know where he's going out for dinner that night they want to know what he thinks on the game he's the one guy in the dressing room that really stands up and challenges the coaching staff probably more than any other you know and he's you know after after the summary had last year you know the World Cup the ashes being awarded an OBE for his for his efforts and sort of completing quite a career turnaround from where he was a couple of years ago with the Bristol incident I think the sort of rise of Ben Stokes as a force meant it was just the obvious choice what kind of a captain he's going to be I mean in his press conference the other day he said he was going to have nine slips in the gully which I think the wicked keeper might be a little bit nervous about that one as to how funky he's going to get but um yeah I mean he's going to be he's going to be an aggressive captain I guess the natural thing for for English pundits and writers to sort of go back to is probably people like Ian Botham and Andrew Flint off and we saw that they were probably a bit diminished by the captaincy um uh as all rounders you know they have to balance so much in their game already whether that um affects Ben Stokes I don't know because he's the kind of guy that you know you just you cannot write him off because he's such a you know such a dormant character and because he has the dressing room's ear I think he's going to handle it well I think the only question really for him would be how much he manages his own bowling because um you know as an all-rounder he does put his body on the line quite a bit um and he's got such determination and such a will to win um but then he might need a strong vice captain in who's going to be Joss Butler just occasionally just to say look mate take a blow let's look elsewhere but that's the kind of main issue I see um I don't worry too much about sort of both the Flint off factor because they're different characters as well given the fact that this is going to be the first the first live cricket so many of us three three and a half months do you have a sense of what the general sporting public is is doing this this series like because I remember when when we met last year in the World Cup I being an outsider I was surprised at the general sort of ambivalence towards the World Cup going on do you think perhaps there are more people tuned in now for this series yeah it's um it's interesting I mean when you were out in the World Cup obviously it wasn't until the final of that um but that game is put on free to air television otherwise cricket in England is a subscription service and it probably spends a lot of its time preaching to the converted there is something that's happened since then which is that the the main highlights which used to be on channel five which is a free to air channel but probably doesn't get the same sort of passing audience that the others do well that those have moved to BBC now so BBC two every night seven o'clock an hour of test highlights there's a BBC website as well that was a big factor in the deal a lot of people talked about the hundred with the broadcast deal but I think getting test cricket back onto the BBC even if it's just highlight a highlight show I think that's going to create an extra buzz and also you know the kind of the starvation that we've had during lockdown of a lack of sport I think that's probably going to answer it as well even if the spectacle on the field is going to be slightly weird with with no fans and you know possibly a bit of a lack of atmosphere but I'm hearing they may pump a little bit of noise out there just to give that that sort of lords I mean we're not going to be playing at lords but they're going to use the sort of lords hum just in the background just to create a bit of atmosphere for people at home on a personal note how are how are you sort of looking at this series because I mean you'll be wearing a mask you'll have to maintain social distancing very very strange feeling a to be in the press box with your peers but then looking out at empty empty stadium yeah it is weird actually this morning I've just had a document through for the ECB kind of is quite a weighty a weighty thing that is just explaining all the all the various protocols that we have to go through I'm due in for a coronavirus test on Monday the results of which will obviously you know that will that will sort of decide whether I can come into the ground we're only allowed in on matchdays there's a very restricted headcount there's only one per national newspaper two news wires and ESPN quick info as well so it's going to be a very diminished press back in terms of presence on the ground guys are we watching from home and writing from home etc yep we're going to have to keep our distances we're going to have daily tech preacher checks there's an app that we have that we have to fill out our daily symptoms to report anything temperature loss of taste you know all the different things that are kind of swirling around with coronavirus and yeah if you if you sort of if you if there's a red flag at any point you're going to be whipped out of action so I think the bit I'm probably least looking forward to is being sat in a face mask all day which I think is going to feel pretty alien and also and on a personal level I mean a lot of my work I like to get out and about in the ground I like to buzz around have a chat to people get down to the nets chat to the coaches especially on training days we have press conferences which are normally in person all of that is is off limits the press conference will be conducted like we're talking now over zoom or another another online app sort of thing so it's going to make the job a little bit harder in that way but I mean there's going to be plenty to write about because it's you know we've been waiting best part of three months for this again a cricket question because we're getting to read a lot about you know Dan Lawrence would it be what I mean are England really going to consider him in the playing 11 now that Joe Root is not there or is it going to be too premature to talk about that and then Lee is going to be the man that they'd rather go with yeah there's a there's a bit of a knock on effect here because when Rory Burns twisted his ankle playing football in Cape Town at the start of the year that opened up a position for Zack Crawley who came in and opened alongside Dom Sibley and actually in South Africa in the in England's three one win those two put on some some pretty decent openings partnerships I think they averaged about 50 runs for their opening partnership so that was encouraging from his point of view but then now Burns has fit and back again he had such a great Asher series last summer you'd like to think he England would go straight back to him and I think probably the tendency there was to think with Joe Root out that you know Crawley would drop to three then he might drop to four or perhaps those two switch around maybe but ultimately those four players who looked to be competing for three spots would get a sort of stay in execution for one more match while Root is out but yeah Lawrence I mean you know this guy is in serious form at the moment he actually took it he took the trigger movement out of his game in in sort of a last year so he now just stands very still at the crease but it's actually unlocked his runs he started scoring huge volume of runs he was very impressive for England Lions when they won in Australia for the first time in February and he knows Chris Silver with the head coach from their time together at Essex as well so you know he's 23 years 22-23 years old he's from the kind of he's from Essex he's from the Grand Gooch sort of lineage he was part of the he's one of the sort of recipients of the Gooch scholarship so he which sort of allowed him to fly out to Australia as a kid and and learn his trade I saw him as a 17 year old maker a hundred in the county championship I think he was second or third youngest man to do that so he's a kid with a lot of talent he loves he's a really wristy play he's great to watch he loves to sort of whip it whip it through the leg side anything on the stumps he's you know he's pretty deadly there but yeah it's kind of whether they want to go with continuity and that kind of pecking order that's built up I mean Joe Denley is probably the interesting one here because it looks to me like a straight shootout between those two Denley has had a played about 14 tests averaging 30 hasn't quite had the breakthrough score but what he has done is he's battled a lot of balls and I know that you know the critics of gamer runs but actually it's also about taking that shine off the ball isn't it and he's occupied the cruise for long spells he's I think only minus labyrinthian has passed a hundred balls more often in the last year or so for Australia so Denley has done a job but on the other hand he's you know he's 34 do they look to the coming man it's a tricky one for Ed Smith Ed Smith is the one that's championed Joe Denley and kind of brought him back from the wilderness when he became selector a couple of years ago so interesting call they've got to make there if it was me personally I'd be tense to look at the coming man especially you know West Indies you possibly say that England are pretty strong favours are home against them so you might want to get a bit of experience into the youngster but if they went with Denley that would be understandable too to be honest because he's not done much wrong he's just hasn't quite had that that big score that you're kind of crying out for thank you Ali Martin I have to say honestly and I'm sure Nikhil can also agree that despite all the uncertainty and the fact that you have to wear a mask and think I would really give a lot to be where you are right now and getting to watch live live live test cricket play despite and I'm sure that both of us Nikhil and Arjuna our third must continue to be watching this match every ball of this match on TV and but again thank you Ali for your time we wish you all the best and good health and hopefully we get a we get a cracker of a series and there's no further incident which um leads us to any negativity which we need anymore because it's been far too long we'll we have six months left in this god forsaken year but let's hope that the return of the return of test cricket especially can make things a little easier for us yeah fingers crossed on a personal level I'm looking forward to seeing some of the quicks on the show West Indies have got a great set of fast bowlers England have got Jofer Archer, Mark Wood obviously Broad and Anderson as well so I think there's going to be a lot if you like your pace bowling this is going to be a good series for you yeah the last time these two teams played we know what happened so yep should be good should be good Ali Martin thank you Nikhil last thank you once again this has been 5.75 ounces we will be back as as the three musketeers for our preview show in a few days thank you for tuning in