Finalists, and not even a year old.

On Thursday night The Switch is a finalist at the Broadcast Sport Awards.

We only launched on 10 November last year, so to be up there already is something I will take.

Thank you for reading, voting and sending it on to your mates. I will let you know how we get on.

I asked who was the biggest name I left out of my XI. You did not need long.

Not one vote for Brett Lee. I swapped him out for Steyn and nobody complained. Binga will not be happy.

One rule. All four of us played international cricket. No tour pros, no mulligans, and the losing pair buys dinner.

Golf is what I do when I am not doing cricket. I have been lucky enough to play the Dunhill Links ten times, and it is the best week of golf there is. Every year the cricketers find each other on the range and the arguments start.

So this is the fourball I would put together if I could take anyone I played with or against. Two of them are the best golfers cricket has produced. The other one is my partner.

He captained my XI in my newsletter a fortnight ago. On a golf course he would want to captain that as well.

Nobody loved golf more. He played the Dunhill Links fourteen times, and in 2017 he shot 75 round the Old Course in the first round and beat a stack of tour pros doing it. In 2021 he and Ryan Fox finished second in the team event, beaten on countback. He never stopped talking about it.

He was never the lowest handicap in the group and he never needed to be. He always seemed to have a couple more shots than he needed, and he knew exactly when to use them.

Punter makes my XI as a batter. As a golfer he would make it on his own.

Plus one handicap. A career-low 66. Gary Player watched him swing and told him he had picked the wrong sport. Jordan Spieth played a pro-am with him in Sydney and called his ball-striking pro-level.

In 2014 he played the Victorian Open pro-am, went round three under, beat his tour pro partner, and then caddied for the same pro in the tournament proper.

Here is the catch. Off plus one he gives shots to everybody. Warnie used to beat him with those shots, and it drove him mad. That is exactly why Warnie is on my side.

He is in my XI because he could do everything. Same on a golf course.

When he made his first Test double hundred, he celebrated with a golf swing. That tells you where his head was.

He plays off 0.3 now, and his best round is a 65 at Durbanville. He once said he would rather play golf than watch cricket. I believe him.

He is also the quietest man on any course. No chat, no celebrations, just fairways and greens. Which is the last thing you want across from you when you are two down with three to play.

Warnie and me against Punter and Jacques. Better ball, full handicaps, Kingsbarns.

Kingsbarns because it is my favourite of the three Dunhill courses, and because the wind off the sea turns everybody’s handicap into a guess.

Mine has been a guess for a while. Last year the system had me off plus one. I am not a plus one. I said so at the time, and I would say it again on the first tee to anyone giving me shots.

On paper Punter and Jacques win. They are both better golfers than me, and Warnie would have been the first to tell you they were better than him too. But nobody plays golf on paper, and Warnie never did anything the way it said on paper.

Who wins the match?

Vote below. Results at the top of the next issue.

See you in a fortnight.

Kevin Pietersen

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