Episode 3637: El Parrott Has Landed, The Afghan Cricket Question
Troy Parrott has officially signed for Real Betis, and their social media accounts have covered this news in exhaustive, some would say deranged fashion. Are they even more excited than we are?

Last Saturday, Ireland concluded a five-game one-day cricket series against Afghanistan – Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole wrote a column about it earlier in the week, highlighting the brutal repression of the Afghan women’s team and women in the country more generally, and it’s led to a spotlight on Irish cricket’s ongoing relationship with the men’s team, and the 7-game series that will go ahead next March in the UAE.

©INPHO/Rowland White
Peter Oborne is one of Britain’s foremost political commentators and journalists, and he also this year released a wonderful book called “Full Circle: A History of Cricket”, and he’s on the show today to talk about the efficacy of boycotts in international sport, why a boycott of Afghanistan would achieve nothing, and also why that may not be true for other international fixtures in other sports involving Ireland between now and the end of the year…
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Go to PatreonReal Betis await the arrival of Troy.
We chat to @migueldelaney.bsky.social
www.secondcaptains.com/2026/08/19/e…
— Second Captains (@secondcaptains.bsky.social) 19 August 2026 at 13:51