June 22, 2024 • 17 mins
The cricket landscape is going through some changes.
T20 cricket is gaining momentum, leaving the future of other formats uncertain.
ICC Board of Directors Chairman Greg Barclay joined Jason Pine to take a look at the future of the game and whether the red ball format is becoming a thing of the past.
He told him that we are likely to see more people turning down central contracts in favour of opportunity within the T20 franchise, and the traditional approaches and contract models will need to change.
“My view is that we should be embracing working with the leagues more, as you say they’re here and they’re here to stay and they’re going to grow, they’re going to continue to be a big feature on the cricket landscape.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk zedb SO.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
As mentioned, the big story of the week landed on Wednesday,
Caine Williamson turning down a New Zealand Cricket central contract.
He'll instead move to a casual playing contract that's going
to allow him to take up overseas T twenty franchise contracts,
and he's confirmed he'll play in the South African competition,
which runs in the month of January. Now New Zealand
(00:34):
have no scheduled internationals in January, which in itself is
quite odd, but the fact remains. But New Zealand Cricket's
rules don't let a player take a central contract if
any overseas deal can conflict with availability during the home summer.
So the fact that Kin Williamson's taken up this playing
contract in South Africa means he can't take a New
(00:55):
Zealand central contract. He'll also, because he's not on the
contracted list, relinquished captaincy of our white ball sides. But
in speaking to the media when he got back from
T twenty World Cup came Williamson re emphasized his long
term commitment to the black Caps in all three formats.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
That's simply the contract, which you know, for the rules
that currently exists, meant that I wasn't able to have one.
But in terms of playing for New Zealand, I'm not
missing almost any cricket really, so that was important to me.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So the shifting sands of the global cricketing landscape continue
to take us into uncharted territory in terms of player availability, contracting,
and the ongoing battle for relevance in the international game
amidst the proliferation of T twenty leagues right around the
world and right across the calendar year. Greg Barclay is
(01:45):
the chair of the ICC. He joins us from the
West Indies, where he is watching the T twenty World
Cup unfold. Greg, maybe let's start with that. What is
your assessment of the way the T twenty World Cup
has gone so far?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Well? Interesting enough. I have actually just liked he I
spent most of the tournament today that we sort of
split the two territories and half myself in gif Amidas
as the CEO. So I got the States for better
or for worse, but at a two or three days
in Dallas, then up to New York for I think
about eight days down to Miami and jumped on a
(02:21):
plane from Miami, I think three days ago you get
to Barbados. So really, my you know, Miami observations have
been of the US, which was a pretty positive experience. Actually, yeah, just.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Tell us more about that. How did the how are
the games you know, received by the American sporting public, who,
let's face it, have a lot of sport they can
they can get involved in.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Absolutely, and you know, there's no doubt that craigns nowhere
near the level of the main American sports or the
main American codes at all. But I was pleasantly surprised
at just how much interest there was, how much uptake,
the involvement of the fans and whatnot. Particularly well, Dallas
was great. I didn't realize I've got something an excessive
(03:06):
twenty teams that play in competitions across Dallas. It's a
big place, begg than I'd realized. And a nice little
ground three New Zealand like ground eight thousand people possibly
something like that, sitting in a tree sort of line
of trees around the park. So that was pretty familiar
for me as a Kiwi and again presently surprised us
(03:29):
with the level of interest, went up to New York
where we'd obviously had the purchase built stadium which was
absolutely amazing thirty four thousand people. And by the time
we got the India Pakistan game where it was full
and loud and colorful and whatnot, it was severed. And
I think by that point helped well Boyd and no
(03:50):
short part by the performance of the USA team. Crickett
was appearing on the front page the New York Times
and was being beamed out live in terms of stories
and storylines across some of the major channels. Television channels
had a lot of the corporate interest of political interest.
So it was really really pleasing, much better progress and
(04:13):
much bitter profile than I actually thought that we would get.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Terrific stuff. All right, Well, a piece of news that
I'm sure you've caught up with back here in New
Zealand Cain Williamson turning down a central contract with New
Zealand Cricket in favor of playing T twenty franchise cricket
initially in South Africa. He's still intends to play for
New Zealand when available. Greg. From a global point of view,
do you think this is a trend we're likely to
see more of, with players turning down central contracts in
(04:40):
favor of T twenty franchise opportunity.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yes, yes, I do, undoubtedly. I just think that it's
part of the evolution of the game that at the
end of the league says well, So I think it's
a really really positive thing for cricket. It's something that
probably has taken some of the administrators and some of
the boards and wills, and I don't know that the
(05:04):
appropriate ethic or recognition of that has, you know, perhaps
have home yet my views that we should be embracing
working with the leagues more as I say that they're
here and they hear the standing and to grow, they
can be going to continue to be a big feature
on the cricketing landscape. So yeah, I think that the
(05:26):
traditional approaches and models of contracting will need to change,
and we need to recognize the fact that the players
are going to be a lot more fluid in terms
of their movements across the franchises, in the leagues and
perhaps the traditional international program. So yeah, it's just the
beginning of a trend that I think we'll see grow
(05:49):
over a period of time.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
How much resistance do you expect from some of your
member nations to this trend, this change in the cricketing landscape.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Well, it's an interesting question. We could talk for agents
about it, but yeah, I've got to be an environment.
Those leagues are actually predominantly domestic leagues of each of
those media countries, so they're perpetuating the issue by looking
to generate both revenue and interest out of their own leagues.
And we've we've got two or three that have come
(06:20):
along runs from me recently South Africa, I think being
the obvious run, which has put itself into a window
that since the top both the U League and more
so the Australian League. So yes, there's a little bit
of banks to the MAXI administrators more I think more
so that their players are getting more and more options
(06:41):
and are more likely madbe to move away from the
leagues of those particular countries. But I think they're really
interesting trenders that a company of the associate countries already
spoke about. The UA have a league up and running
now and done. Of course, the US themselves have got
Major League crickets, so they're moving into I think the
third oberation with an additional team coming up the season,
(07:05):
So with six teams there and the ReSm amount of
backing going into the world's biggest sports market, I think
that that's an interesting development to see. Associate country is
now starting to become a provider of opportunity and a
competitor to the more established leagues. So that's probably something
(07:27):
we're giving will be giving a few of those boards
maybe time to stop and think about what that might
mean for them, for their leagues and in the calendar generally.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Greg, what is the best model for the happy coexistence
of international cricket and T twenty franchise leagues.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I think that a collective meeting the minds, some collaboration
and cooperation around windows. You know that the calendar, as
we all know, I can't give me beaga. We've got
Threeadland sixty five days. We're playing a lot of cricket.
We're trying to jam more and more credit in that calendar.
A lot of that is bilateral cricket, which is lacking
(08:12):
in context, lacking in and relevance. It's been played simply
because we've got a full contracts to broadcasters and other
commercial partners. At some point and I listened to. He
Fails in an interview in New Zealand a few days ago,
(08:32):
made the point that we need to know again rationalize
the windows within that calendar. And to do that, I
think that the boards are going to have to do
something differently around bilateral cricket because the leads themselves, as
I say they are, they're growing, They're becoming a bigger
part of our landscape, and they're going to take probably
(08:55):
given the ability to remunerate some of those better players
around the world, they're going to take more and more presidents.
It's just a trend that we can see happening. It's
going to continue. So yeah, I just think that there
is strategic thinking needed amongst member boards and a bit
more collaboration co operation to creat more established windows we
(09:19):
were playing international crickets.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, So is that what we're talking about here in
terms of keeping bilateral series relevant and giving them context
what they must what they exist in different windows than
they currently do. What is the best way forward for
them to retain their relevance?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Well, I think you as you said context relevance now
and then on the reason we involved in cricket, and
I'm strigking to tell you what series have been played
outside the tests, maybe even bluting tests over the last
twelve minutes. You know, there is a lot of cricket
that's been played that it doesn't really have context, doesn't
have meaning. So again, somehow we've we've got to establish meaning,
(10:02):
We've got to baby drive demand t Ski City. I
just think that there's starting much cricket that's been played
at the moment, and it's been played, as I say,
in a haphazard manner, right across that calendar. We could
move it in the better windows with more context, I
think that we would start to prehap some of the
issues that we've got.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Has the World Test Championship achieved the goal of making
Test cricket more relevant?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I think that it has. Bear in mind that
we've got nine countries that participated in the World Test Championship.
Three four members or three Tests playing countries aren't participating
in the World Test Championship. But I think that one
of the things that has made Test cricket a lot
more interesting is the fact that every time you're playing,
the points are going towards something, which is of course
(10:50):
the by an your World Test Championship. So there is
interesting I met a badge leading into the World Test Championship,
the second World Test Championship final. I know that there
was massive interest in the New Zealand shir Anka series
going on at that time, because of course Sharanka still
(11:11):
could have qualified for that depending on how they performed
against New Zealand. So despite the fact that I was
watching Australia play India, who you know one of them
could have put it well missed out. The interest in
the New Zealand Sharanka series was actually was actually huge
simply because the outcome of that series made it dictated
what happened with India and Australia. So yes, I think
(11:33):
that it's it's not perfect, there's probably more work that
could be done, but yes, I think that it has
helped to create relevance back to the cricket and certainly
rejuvenated interest in the long perform of the game.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
What do you see as the future of fifty over
cricket greg both bilateral and World Cups.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Look, I think that fifty cricket has a place to play,
without a doubt. It's probably the problem child of the
three forms of the game at the moment, but that's
because maybe the ad minister across the board having quite
managed to do what we've done with some of the
other forms, which is to again harp on about the
(12:15):
context and the relevance. But if we had those series
starting to contribute in some way toward qualifying for World Cups,
I think that the one day game would received quite
a shot in the arm. And we shouldn't be side
of the fact that One Day Cricket is still the
most followed form of the game in terms of icy
cy events. It's the plinacle of the icy c events
(12:37):
that fifty over World Cup, and it's the most lucrative
part of the ICC's program as well, So there's a
message interest in it from a World Cup point of view.
We're just going to do better, I think, to make
sure that the way that we qualify it drives and
drives interest in the fifty other games. So I think
(12:58):
that it's eminently capable of being saved and put back
into some form of relevance. It's just a case of
again working on that calendar to work out where it
sits and again how we build that sort of elevance.
But rather than playing numerous menless series across the course
(13:20):
of the year. If we could suddenly limit those and
make them count to something, I think that people would
start to follow it a lot more closely.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And this might seem like a slightly odd question, given
we're in the middle of a T twenty World Cup,
But can you see a scenario where T twenty cricket
is only played by franchise teams and not international teams?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, I can, actually, I think that that's I don't
know that that would necessarily happen. I guess the limitation
there is that it's still the most lucrative form of
for most of the bilateral participants, it's the most lucrative
form of the game, so you know, international T twenty
(14:03):
cricket has relevance. But yes, I can certainly see if
if we could work to a point where they're said,
at the outset better was a better level of cooperation
collaboration between the leagues and bilateral cricket that yes, maybe
there was a very limited amount of international cricket plague
in the twinnie game and a lot more across the
(14:24):
league or the franchise competitions. So yes, I think that
that's one of the potential outcomes, depending on how the
how the calendar gets rationalized, which will which will need
to because if it's not done in a measure manner,
then it's going to happen anyway, because something will break
and it will force an outcome to enable the calendar
(14:47):
to work.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And just to finish, Greg, if we bring it back
to New Zealand, I know obviously you're chair of the
i c C. But in New Zealand, your home country.
What what should the immediate priorities be for Scott Ween
and his team at the moment as they contemplate what
cricket will look like over the next you say, three
to five years.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Yeah, I think that New Zealand credit has gone really well.
They've they didn't play so well in this tournament, but gee,
they've performed amazingly well over the last ten years or so.
You know, they've been consistent semi finalists across world events.
Sitting an inside woman, maybe batting a little bit, but
(15:29):
they're still there are thereabouts, you know, in the top four.
So both me and a woman sitting there, there are
thereabouts in the top four. So I want to get
too upset about what's happened here. You know, plenty good
teams have missed out on semi finals at world events.
It's perhaps just a time to reset, reflect on things.
There's no doubt that the team's starting to perhaps mature
(15:51):
where we're going to see some of our head performing
players over paiing time moving on our trench and one
or two others and that's followed two or three others
that have left the game of recent times. But I
see a lot of good players coming through. I think
the high performance programs serve US and cricket World the
financially in a good position, so I just think stick
(16:13):
with them. If Scott it wouldn't be changing too much.
But I do think that one of the things that
is critical is too is to be flexible around the
way the game is evolving into into contract accordingly and
to maintain a sustainable relationship with the players to ensure
that that's still available for international cricket throughout throughout the
(16:33):
course of the year, whilst enabling them to pursue opportunity
through the through the leagues without a doubt. But but
I'm really optimistic for if he's an impregiance a huge
I think it's waking from a really good base will
be absolutely fine, and it's proud key, I'm sure that
we will be.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's an ever changing landscape for a lot of people
to navigate. Greg some interesting times, thanks so much for
thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Mate,
all the best, Wall catch up again soon.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
That's fasure, Jason, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason and Fine, listen
live to news Talks at B weekends from midday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk zedb SO.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
As mentioned, the big story of the week landed on Wednesday,
Caine Williamson turning down a New Zealand Cricket central contract.
He'll instead move to a casual playing contract that's going
to allow him to take up overseas T twenty franchise contracts,
and he's confirmed he'll play in the South African competition,
which runs in the month of January. Now New Zealand
(00:34):
have no scheduled internationals in January, which in itself is
quite odd, but the fact remains. But New Zealand Cricket's
rules don't let a player take a central contract if
any overseas deal can conflict with availability during the home summer.
So the fact that Kin Williamson's taken up this playing
contract in South Africa means he can't take a New
(00:55):
Zealand central contract. He'll also, because he's not on the
contracted list, relinquished captaincy of our white ball sides. But
in speaking to the media when he got back from
T twenty World Cup came Williamson re emphasized his long
term commitment to the black Caps in all three formats.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
That's simply the contract, which you know, for the rules
that currently exists, meant that I wasn't able to have one.
But in terms of playing for New Zealand, I'm not
missing almost any cricket really, so that was important to me.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So the shifting sands of the global cricketing landscape continue
to take us into uncharted territory in terms of player availability, contracting,
and the ongoing battle for relevance in the international game
amidst the proliferation of T twenty leagues right around the
world and right across the calendar year. Greg Barclay is
(01:45):
the chair of the ICC. He joins us from the
West Indies, where he is watching the T twenty World
Cup unfold. Greg, maybe let's start with that. What is
your assessment of the way the T twenty World Cup
has gone so far?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Well? Interesting enough. I have actually just liked he I
spent most of the tournament today that we sort of
split the two territories and half myself in gif Amidas
as the CEO. So I got the States for better
or for worse, but at a two or three days
in Dallas, then up to New York for I think
about eight days down to Miami and jumped on a
(02:21):
plane from Miami, I think three days ago you get
to Barbados. So really, my you know, Miami observations have
been of the US, which was a pretty positive experience. Actually, yeah, just.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Tell us more about that. How did the how are
the games you know, received by the American sporting public, who,
let's face it, have a lot of sport they can
they can get involved in.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Absolutely, and you know, there's no doubt that craigns nowhere
near the level of the main American sports or the
main American codes at all. But I was pleasantly surprised
at just how much interest there was, how much uptake,
the involvement of the fans and whatnot. Particularly well, Dallas
was great. I didn't realize I've got something an excessive
(03:06):
twenty teams that play in competitions across Dallas. It's a
big place, begg than I'd realized. And a nice little
ground three New Zealand like ground eight thousand people possibly
something like that, sitting in a tree sort of line
of trees around the park. So that was pretty familiar
for me as a Kiwi and again presently surprised us
(03:29):
with the level of interest, went up to New York
where we'd obviously had the purchase built stadium which was
absolutely amazing thirty four thousand people. And by the time
we got the India Pakistan game where it was full
and loud and colorful and whatnot, it was severed. And
I think by that point helped well Boyd and no
(03:50):
short part by the performance of the USA team. Crickett
was appearing on the front page the New York Times
and was being beamed out live in terms of stories
and storylines across some of the major channels. Television channels
had a lot of the corporate interest of political interest.
So it was really really pleasing, much better progress and
(04:13):
much bitter profile than I actually thought that we would get.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Terrific stuff. All right, Well, a piece of news that
I'm sure you've caught up with back here in New
Zealand Cain Williamson turning down a central contract with New
Zealand Cricket in favor of playing T twenty franchise cricket
initially in South Africa. He's still intends to play for
New Zealand when available. Greg. From a global point of view,
do you think this is a trend we're likely to
see more of, with players turning down central contracts in
(04:40):
favor of T twenty franchise opportunity.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yes, yes, I do, undoubtedly. I just think that it's
part of the evolution of the game that at the
end of the league says well, So I think it's
a really really positive thing for cricket. It's something that
probably has taken some of the administrators and some of
the boards and wills, and I don't know that the
(05:04):
appropriate ethic or recognition of that has, you know, perhaps
have home yet my views that we should be embracing
working with the leagues more as I say that they're
here and they hear the standing and to grow, they
can be going to continue to be a big feature
on the cricketing landscape. So yeah, I think that the
(05:26):
traditional approaches and models of contracting will need to change,
and we need to recognize the fact that the players
are going to be a lot more fluid in terms
of their movements across the franchises, in the leagues and
perhaps the traditional international program. So yeah, it's just the
beginning of a trend that I think we'll see grow
(05:49):
over a period of time.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
How much resistance do you expect from some of your
member nations to this trend, this change in the cricketing landscape.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Well, it's an interesting question. We could talk for agents
about it, but yeah, I've got to be an environment.
Those leagues are actually predominantly domestic leagues of each of
those media countries, so they're perpetuating the issue by looking
to generate both revenue and interest out of their own leagues.
And we've we've got two or three that have come
(06:20):
along runs from me recently South Africa, I think being
the obvious run, which has put itself into a window
that since the top both the U League and more
so the Australian League. So yes, there's a little bit
of banks to the MAXI administrators more I think more
so that their players are getting more and more options
(06:41):
and are more likely madbe to move away from the
leagues of those particular countries. But I think they're really
interesting trenders that a company of the associate countries already
spoke about. The UA have a league up and running
now and done. Of course, the US themselves have got
Major League crickets, so they're moving into I think the
third oberation with an additional team coming up the season,
(07:05):
So with six teams there and the ReSm amount of
backing going into the world's biggest sports market, I think
that that's an interesting development to see. Associate country is
now starting to become a provider of opportunity and a
competitor to the more established leagues. So that's probably something
(07:27):
we're giving will be giving a few of those boards
maybe time to stop and think about what that might
mean for them, for their leagues and in the calendar generally.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Greg, what is the best model for the happy coexistence
of international cricket and T twenty franchise leagues.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I think that a collective meeting the minds, some collaboration
and cooperation around windows. You know that the calendar, as
we all know, I can't give me beaga. We've got
Threeadland sixty five days. We're playing a lot of cricket.
We're trying to jam more and more credit in that calendar.
A lot of that is bilateral cricket, which is lacking
(08:12):
in context, lacking in and relevance. It's been played simply
because we've got a full contracts to broadcasters and other
commercial partners. At some point and I listened to. He
Fails in an interview in New Zealand a few days ago,
(08:32):
made the point that we need to know again rationalize
the windows within that calendar. And to do that, I
think that the boards are going to have to do
something differently around bilateral cricket because the leads themselves, as
I say they are, they're growing, They're becoming a bigger
part of our landscape, and they're going to take probably
(08:55):
given the ability to remunerate some of those better players
around the world, they're going to take more and more presidents.
It's just a trend that we can see happening. It's
going to continue. So yeah, I just think that there
is strategic thinking needed amongst member boards and a bit
more collaboration co operation to creat more established windows we
(09:19):
were playing international crickets.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, So is that what we're talking about here in
terms of keeping bilateral series relevant and giving them context
what they must what they exist in different windows than
they currently do. What is the best way forward for
them to retain their relevance?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Well, I think you as you said context relevance now
and then on the reason we involved in cricket, and
I'm strigking to tell you what series have been played
outside the tests, maybe even bluting tests over the last
twelve minutes. You know, there is a lot of cricket
that's been played that it doesn't really have context, doesn't
have meaning. So again, somehow we've we've got to establish meaning,
(10:02):
We've got to baby drive demand t Ski City. I
just think that there's starting much cricket that's been played
at the moment, and it's been played, as I say,
in a haphazard manner, right across that calendar. We could
move it in the better windows with more context, I
think that we would start to prehap some of the
issues that we've got.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Has the World Test Championship achieved the goal of making
Test cricket more relevant?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I think that it has. Bear in mind that
we've got nine countries that participated in the World Test Championship.
Three four members or three Tests playing countries aren't participating
in the World Test Championship. But I think that one
of the things that has made Test cricket a lot
more interesting is the fact that every time you're playing,
the points are going towards something, which is of course
(10:50):
the by an your World Test Championship. So there is
interesting I met a badge leading into the World Test Championship,
the second World Test Championship final. I know that there
was massive interest in the New Zealand shir Anka series
going on at that time, because of course Sharanka still
(11:11):
could have qualified for that depending on how they performed
against New Zealand. So despite the fact that I was
watching Australia play India, who you know one of them
could have put it well missed out. The interest in
the New Zealand Sharanka series was actually was actually huge
simply because the outcome of that series made it dictated
what happened with India and Australia. So yes, I think
(11:33):
that it's it's not perfect, there's probably more work that
could be done, but yes, I think that it has
helped to create relevance back to the cricket and certainly
rejuvenated interest in the long perform of the game.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
What do you see as the future of fifty over
cricket greg both bilateral and World Cups.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Look, I think that fifty cricket has a place to play,
without a doubt. It's probably the problem child of the
three forms of the game at the moment, but that's
because maybe the ad minister across the board having quite
managed to do what we've done with some of the
other forms, which is to again harp on about the
(12:15):
context and the relevance. But if we had those series
starting to contribute in some way toward qualifying for World Cups,
I think that the one day game would received quite
a shot in the arm. And we shouldn't be side
of the fact that One Day Cricket is still the
most followed form of the game in terms of icy
cy events. It's the plinacle of the icy c events
(12:37):
that fifty over World Cup, and it's the most lucrative
part of the ICC's program as well, So there's a
message interest in it from a World Cup point of view.
We're just going to do better, I think, to make
sure that the way that we qualify it drives and
drives interest in the fifty other games. So I think
(12:58):
that it's eminently capable of being saved and put back
into some form of relevance. It's just a case of
again working on that calendar to work out where it
sits and again how we build that sort of elevance.
But rather than playing numerous menless series across the course
(13:20):
of the year. If we could suddenly limit those and
make them count to something, I think that people would
start to follow it a lot more closely.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And this might seem like a slightly odd question, given
we're in the middle of a T twenty World Cup,
But can you see a scenario where T twenty cricket
is only played by franchise teams and not international teams?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, I can, actually, I think that that's I don't
know that that would necessarily happen. I guess the limitation
there is that it's still the most lucrative form of
for most of the bilateral participants, it's the most lucrative
form of the game, so you know, international T twenty
(14:03):
cricket has relevance. But yes, I can certainly see if
if we could work to a point where they're said,
at the outset better was a better level of cooperation
collaboration between the leagues and bilateral cricket that yes, maybe
there was a very limited amount of international cricket plague
in the twinnie game and a lot more across the
(14:24):
league or the franchise competitions. So yes, I think that
that's one of the potential outcomes, depending on how the
how the calendar gets rationalized, which will which will need
to because if it's not done in a measure manner,
then it's going to happen anyway, because something will break
and it will force an outcome to enable the calendar
(14:47):
to work.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And just to finish, Greg, if we bring it back
to New Zealand, I know obviously you're chair of the
i c C. But in New Zealand, your home country.
What what should the immediate priorities be for Scott Ween
and his team at the moment as they contemplate what
cricket will look like over the next you say, three
to five years.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Yeah, I think that New Zealand credit has gone really well.
They've they didn't play so well in this tournament, but gee,
they've performed amazingly well over the last ten years or so.
You know, they've been consistent semi finalists across world events.
Sitting an inside woman, maybe batting a little bit, but
(15:29):
they're still there are thereabouts, you know, in the top four.
So both me and a woman sitting there, there are
thereabouts in the top four. So I want to get
too upset about what's happened here. You know, plenty good
teams have missed out on semi finals at world events.
It's perhaps just a time to reset, reflect on things.
There's no doubt that the team's starting to perhaps mature
(15:51):
where we're going to see some of our head performing
players over paiing time moving on our trench and one
or two others and that's followed two or three others
that have left the game of recent times. But I
see a lot of good players coming through. I think
the high performance programs serve US and cricket World the
financially in a good position, so I just think stick
(16:13):
with them. If Scott it wouldn't be changing too much.
But I do think that one of the things that
is critical is too is to be flexible around the
way the game is evolving into into contract accordingly and
to maintain a sustainable relationship with the players to ensure
that that's still available for international cricket throughout throughout the
(16:33):
course of the year, whilst enabling them to pursue opportunity
through the through the leagues without a doubt. But but
I'm really optimistic for if he's an impregiance a huge
I think it's waking from a really good base will
be absolutely fine, and it's proud key, I'm sure that
we will be.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's an ever changing landscape for a lot of people
to navigate. Greg some interesting times, thanks so much for
thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Mate,
all the best, Wall catch up again soon.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
That's fasure, Jason, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason and Fine, listen
live to news Talks at B weekends from midday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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