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Vaughan, Cook, Lloyd and Tuffers joined by Piers Morgan
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Morgan says sorry to Cook for "38 weasel references"
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Dishes on Brett Lee, Simon Cowell and much more
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Betfair Predicts is your guide to winter Ashes predictions
Betfair and The Overlap proudly present Stick to Cricket, a captivating show featuring renowned England cricket legends Michael Vaughan, Sir Alastair Cook, David 'Bumble' Lloyd, and Phil 'Tuffers' Tufnell.
Each episode offers insights and discussions, with special guests joining the cricket icons to discuss the sport's hottest topics.
In episode 16, English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality Piers Morgan joins the Stick To Cricket team to discuss his love of the game and the upcoming Ashes series in Australia.
Watch the episode and read a selection of Piers' quotes below.
Piers Morgan: Sorry to Sir Alastair Cook for "38 weasels"
Me and Alastair Cook fell out without meeting because I felt that the whole thing with Kevin Pietersen was badly handled.
I loved watching Pietersen bat. He had been to me the greatest post war batsman we produced, certainly the most entertaining. He was fit as a fiddle; he had been the top scorer in that series and yet he became the sacrificial lamb who never played for England again.
I was very full on against Alastair without knowing him. And when I look back at some of the things I tweeted about him, I did go over the top.
So, I will take this opportunity to say, I'm sorry for the 38 weasel references.
I could have spanked Brett Lee's bowling
Brett Lee properly got me - if he'd bowled from the correct distance I'd have spanked him. I was giving him the old Rocky Balboa 'come on then' so he did just get faster and faster. It was like being in an abattoir with 1,000 people. It was live on Sky and Channel Nine.
The first one hit my wrist, and I thought he'd literally broken my wrist. The second one I dived for cover, the third one clean fractures my rib and then the fourth one he hit the broken rib.
We had these headsets, and he ran down to me and said: "Mate, did you hear that one crack?"
I literally did not see the ball. It was a white ball with a grey background, and the whole thing, I just didn't see it.
Captaincy was not Alastair Cook's strong point
As a batsman and as an opening batsman for England very few people could compare with Alastair Cook's record, and I have great respect for that. But I don't think captaincy was his strong point.
But I talked to Mike Brearley about this, and he had a lot of big egos in the team when he was leading it. How you handle those people and get the best out of them often dictates how good the team is.
When I ran a newsroom with 400 people in it a lot of the best talent were really difficult people. How you managed them and kept them onside determined how good the paper was. With a sports team it is the same principle.
I think those players with big egos like Kevin needed a different kind of management. That is where I personally think captaincy was not Alastair's strongest suit.
I look at Ben Stokes and I think he has grown into being an amazingly strong good captain in all areas of what that job now involves.
Sir Ian Botham is the reason I am obsessed with cricket
I was 16 in 1981, and Ian Botham changed my life. I was on holiday with my parents in France, in a little hotel that had no television in the rooms. There was just one small television down in the bar.
It was the summer of the Ashes. I went down into that bar one evening and on this tiny TV I watched Botham single handedly destroy Australia at Headingley.
I had never seen anything like it. The charisma. The swagger. The sheer force of will. He turned that entire Test match around almost by himself. I was completely transfixed.
Kevin Pietersen was ahead of his time
I felt with Kevin (Pietersen) that he was way ahead of his time with the IPL and all that kind of stuff. The cricket establishment here was very anti him and that permeated into the rest of the team.
There was a lot of resentment that he was getting all these millions in the IPL. Now everyone is encouraged to do it but at the time he was treated like a pariah.