Cricket Badger Podcast · Cricket Badger Podcast

600: Daniel Norcross meets... James Buttler, the Cricket Badger in a milestone edition

·1 hr 12 min·4 clips

James argues old institutions were built for white men and says cricket is not immune to racism.

1. Cricket Badger Podcast episode 600 centers on James Buttler and Daniel Norcross reflecting on Buttler’s career and the podcast’s history. 2. James Buttler is the host and Daniel Norcross is the recurring guest who returns for milestone episodes and helps drive the conversation. 3. The episode asks why Cricket Badger started, what it became, and what Yorkshire cricket and English institutions got wrong along the way. 4. Buttler says he left Yorkshire Cricket and went freelance around the end of 2012 or start of 2013. 5. He explains that he and Graham Harcastle first planned a website, but Harcastle moved on and Buttler realized talking to Dan for half an hour was faster than writing 500 words. 6. Buttler describes press-box life as a place where the morning was for chats, the afternoon for watching, and the evening for getting work done. 7. He says he worked at Yorkshire as a supporter, a member, and later inside the club, which made the job personal. 8. Buttler remembers being introduced to Darren Gough and reacting like a fan before learning to separate work from emotion. 9. He says Yorkshire was skint after four years, made him redundant, and then rehired him as a freelancer for roughly the same role. 10. Buttler also says he later went to Barbados at his own expense to cover Yorkshire’s pre-season trip. 11. The conversation turns to the Yorkshire racism scandal and how it became a defining stress point for the podcast. 12. Buttler says he initially defended Yorkshire Cricket and did not think he had seen anything wrong. 13. After speaking to Azeem Rafiq, he says Rafiq sounded like a broken person rather than the self-confident player he had known. 14. Buttler argues his loyalty was to Yorkshire Cricket as an institution, not to individual people inside it. 15. He says the club should have taken Rafiq’s complaint seriously, brought people into a room, and acted before the issue escalated. 16. Buttler says organizations protect brands, but they still need to admit when they are wrong and try to be better. 17. On wider institutions, he says most old institutions were built for white men and still reflect those structures. 18. He says racism is present in the UK and that cricket is not immune just because sport likes to see itself as clean. 19. The tone is conversational, reflective, and often probing, with Norcross pressing Buttler on loyalty, responsibility, and reform. 20. Cricket followers interested in Yorkshire, ECB reform, and race in sport will get the most from it, while listeners wanting only match chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A loose, personal Cricket Badger conversation that leaves room for cricket talk and fan voices.

James Buttler treats Cricket Badger like a show he can take anywhere, and that gives his chat with Daniel Norcross an easy, unrushed feel. He moves from the IPL to England's Test team to the Hundred, then to the fan badges he brought in during lockdown.

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On the Cricket Badger Podcast, you get a relaxed cricket chat that goes wherever the mood takes it.

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