This Week In Cricket #68 - Black Caps and England abandon tours to Pakistan, White Ferns drama and Virat Kohli steps down as captain

The Top Order Cricket Podcast

We were planning to take a pause of our This Week in Cricket episodes to dive into our Men's Test Cricket Hall of Fame, until the Black Caps tour of Pakistan was abandoned just hours before the first ODI was scheduled to begin. Then, the morning after we'd talked through our initial reactions to that news, more stories broke - the upcoming England Men's and Women's tours to Pakistan have also been cancelled, and reports of a scare related to the England v White Ferns ODI series - so Baldy and Binksy got together again to react to a situation that appears to still be evolving, as politics and sport collide once more.

In the remainder of the show, you'll find a quick whip around other news, including:

• White Ferns v England ODIs so far;
• Virat Kohli stepping down from the captaincy of India's T20 side and RCB at the end of the ICC T20 World Cup and the IPL;
• Amazing catches and an evergreen Darren Stevens in the Vitality Blast;
• and Covid disruption to the New Zealand home summer schedule.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out our Hall of Fame, both via our website and by listening to earlier episodes (we've introduced 100-86 so far, with 85-81 coming later this week). You'll find the Preamble, plus the list, which will eventually feature detailed write-ups and discussions about every player from 103 to 1 as we make our way through the Hall in the coming weeks and months. We'd love to hear if you agree or disagree with our rankings, and whether you have your own stories and memories to share about these legends.

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Thanks for listening.