June 6, 2025 • 58 mins
In Episode 82 of Scoreboard, Chris Titley chats with Michael Kasprowicz—former Australian Test cricketer and now long-time contributor to the business side of sport.
From debuting for Queensland as a 17-year-old to playing Test cricket around the world, Kaspa shares stories from inside the dressing room and the boardroom.
He reflects on selection setbacks, high-performance environments, and how the patience of fast bowling shaped his career after cricket.
Now with decades of experience across cricket administration, sport tech, and governance, Kaspa unpacks the structure behind elite competition—what’s working, what’s changing, and why trust and relationships are at the heart of modern sports leadership.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hi, it's Chris Titley here and on today's episode of Scoreboard
I'm joined by Michael Kasparovich.
Michael, welcome to to Brisbane.What is a beautiful day here on
the 6th of June. It's magical.
It's starting time of year isn'tin Queensland, and not only
because of set of Origin fever. That's right.
Well, we went one down. What do you reckon how we're
going to go in Game 2? I will smash it.
Yeah, yeah, it was a it was a tough game, the first one,
(00:23):
wasn't it tough. Watch, but it's a bit scrappy.
I'm going to turn this into a CNbased podcast of opinion but it
was a little bit scrappy. But as a Queenslander and
growing up here and seeing the very first State of Origin match
in 1980. With Arthur Beatzman.
Back then, yeah, I think that was the confidence that we had
(00:43):
in Queensland sport and I think in my, I guess 19 years in
cricket, it's always in the background from Queensland.
We'll find a way. We'll find a way now, Casper, as
they call you. What are you up to now, Casper?
What? How's your week been firstly and
then what are you up to? Yeah.
Yeah, really good. I look 3 kids, two of them live
in Sydney now one. So you're almost an empty
(01:06):
nester. Kind of, yeah, Which is kind of
interesting concept where I feellike I actually need to find a
hobby. Right, You don't have a hobby,
you don't have a language or a you don't collect NBA trading
cards. I've been threatening to learn
the guitar for 25 years, so maybe it's time golf.
I'd rather be frustrated not catching a fish than trying to
find a golf ball. But I do enjoy it.
(01:28):
So it's it's in the background. Maybe it's The Walking now that
the right knee doesn't work so well to be able to run.
But beside all that, I'm actually, yeah, I've taken a lot
in my journey. I think like to think I've taken
a different paths. I've always loved to challenge,
if you like the paradigm of the journey of a cricketer in so
(01:50):
many ways. So at the moment I'm working a
couple of days a week in advisory capacity for a private
equity group. Really interesting because it's
a number of different businesseswithin this this Group, One
being a brewery, easy times, which is down the gabble.
But Yep, we'll end. Up the Brewery.
The other one is a venture as a film and production company,
(02:10):
Nightcap Pictures. There's a property development
and project they're actually doing in the back of Mackay W
Mackay that's going to be comingup soon.
So there's different parts of the business and each of them
they've sort of, you know, the owners wants to be involved and
helping like I said, in an advisory capacity.
So the principles that you learnt from sport very
applicable to business, you you believe?
(02:32):
Unreal. It's and that was that was the
reason why post cricket, I wanted to get into business
because of all these lessons of obviously great leaders from,
you know, from hanging out, having a beer with Alan Border,
Steve Wall, Ricky Ponting, you know, and Gilchrist as well.
But all those players seen them perform, prepare also teamwork,
(02:55):
I guess communication and I justsort of saw that in that
experience. So I thought I really want to
get away and kind of be awesome at something else, go post
cricket and try and do somethingthat we can sort of, you know,
utilise those lessons and all those great sort of information
(03:19):
and experience of living my dream.
Like obviously the state of my country, you know, utilise that
in in life after. Going back to that dream as a as
a as a kid, wanting to play for Queensland, wanting to play for
Australia, when did that come about?
When did you first pick up a ball and the interesting
cricket? I reckon I was about, I was in
(03:41):
year 3, so I was 8 years old. Year 3 started in the summer,
February birthday. So all of a sudden the teacher
came round and said who wants toplay cricket now?
Juniors team. So I put my hand up, found I
could bowl fast than the other kids.
I can also hit the ball further than you know the other kids as
(04:01):
well. So I just loved it.
That was cricket season, but then obviously rugby league did
the same thing, running around and doing all that.
I managed to make these junior teams from zone teams.
Brisbane SI made the Queensland Primary School team.
Yep, we played NSW. I think that was the first time
I came across Adam Gilchrist actually, right.
(04:24):
And that's sort of that's. Interesting that that primary
school team is pretty etched in those memories.
I I didn't make it. I got close, but Anthony
Kavanaugh was the keeper ended up taking the keeping spot
there. But in that team, Kav, if you're
listening, might still hold it against you.
But we've got we had one O same Watson.
We had Nathan Horritz who had Steve Paulson.
All right, Beta chatter, beta Trotto.
He's a good team in the end. He's etched in that memory.
(04:45):
But I think they did pretty wellwell.
The funny thing is, I think in my primary school team when I
was left high school around about that sort of age, I reckon
there's only three guys still playing cricket.
Duncan Betts was in there as well.
Betsy. He played for uni, Yeah.
With me, he did as well. Yeah, yeah, he was in that team,
Matt Lyon at the West. But so the I want a point where
it's going to be round the drop off of players.
Yeah, people were there and things change.
(05:07):
My journey was, I guess the realisation of how important
cricket was in my journey wasn'tevident until well later in
life. But my father left the family
when I was nine years old. So nine years old.
All of a sudden I had to become,I had to become almost like the
senior. I had two brothers, younger, six
(05:29):
and four. One of them played for the
Waratahs, Simon, the youngest one.
But growing up I was sort of almost like that, the family
head I guess, and my mum was working and struggling to, to
put food in the table for us. I then went to Brisbane State
High. Now what was so important there
and the reason why I mentioned it is for a single mum to have
(05:51):
her going to State High was great because of the GPS
competition, the facilities, butall the training around whatever
sport it was, whatever season itwas, was before school or after
school. So it was still accessible.
So at the end of year right stayed high.
So I'm thirteen years old. I got asked to come down to the
(06:13):
1st 11 training sessions. In grade 8.
In grade 8, at the end of grade 8, because they were.
Touring into the next season season.
I went, so I made, I got asked to go on a tour with the first.
They call it the five highest tour.
First stayed high. We went down to Melbourne, you
know, sixteen 1718 year old boysin the team, whatever.
We went down there, my mum was not sure about this was a good
(06:37):
idea, but I went down there, played for State High first
since year 9. The next following year I think
I even got player of the year inyear 9.
Then at the end of year was thatturned at the end of year 12 in
1989, having just come back. I won't come back to this bit
(07:01):
with the rugby, but all of a sudden I went back to I got
picked in that school holidays period over over that summer
8990, I got selected to play career for Queensland.
I'm 17 years old. I didn't have a chance to put my
second chance. Q Tech back in the day,
nominations for where I wanted to study, what I want to do.
(07:23):
I was away on a Southern tour with, you know.
So you've got your TE scores. Is it TE?
Scores. Sorry.
That's what it was, yeah. Yeah, but out of I think 990 was
the best I. Recall, yeah, mine wasn't
anywhere near that, but what I did with a few mates, I decided
to go back to school the following year.
So I was actually in, I was actually in playing for
Queensland the summer and going to.
(07:46):
So yeah, so I'm just pointing that out.
So all of a sudden I'm 17, I'm in the Queensland team.
But the reason why I'm staging it like that was that I've kind
of lived my life. I realised later, almost like
with the expectation or the, if you like, the impression,
(08:07):
someone else's impression of whoMichael Kasparovich is, because
I was nine years old, all of a sudden I had to be the adult
household. I'm thirteen years old.
I had to be, you know. Playing with seniors, playing
with people that are driving cars when I'm. 17 years old, I'm
going on a Southern tour. You know, obviously we've, you
know, Alan Borders in the dressing room occasionally.
We had Carl Wreckman, Greg Ritchie and even at the time
(08:33):
going, you know, at school, the sponsorship, it was obviously
forex. And these are the days before
midstream beer having to go away, and we're sort of.
The 4X Queensland Bulls came in around sort.
Of they were just in the background.
Yeah, they were. The Bulls went around it.
Was the Benson and Hedges Sheffield Shield and so I
remember one of my first sessions I've gone there,
there's a pallet of. Benson Hedges.
(08:54):
Special philtres sitting in the dressing room and everyone got
this wonderful yellow bag with Benson Hedges Sheffield Shield
on it that became my school bag.I'm a non smoker, always have
been, but I did take a couple ofpacks because I realised that
cigarettes were a wonderful bargaining tool in the
schoolyard. Right, and then people at Benson
(09:15):
and Hedges, you're like, no, they're my sponsor.
What do they do? Cigarettes.
All right, can I have a few? All right, so there you go.
I'm going to get a touch on the the pressure of, you know,
professional. It was a professional.
It wasn't a professional era. There wasn't.
Exactly. So 9495 I reckon.
I don't know. That's sort of sport change, but
yeah, yeah. So 1990 was my.
(09:35):
First season, so you were growing up going, want to play
Cricket Australia. Did you have anything in the
background going? You know, what do I want to be
when I grow up? It's just.
Cricket just lived my dream. Yep.
What did happen actually in September 1989?
So in Year 12, the first run of it, I made the Australian School
boys rugby team. As well as as.
Well, as so, yeah. So we played Queensland, went to
(09:58):
NSW, Sydney, made the Australianteam, went to New Zealand.
Craig Palomana was the captain, there was a few other guys.
Anyway, we played New Zealand. Unsurprisingly we lost that
game, three games. It was then we came home.
Then I'm playing cricket and I thought right season or I'm
going to play for the Universityof Queensland, that's at Saint
(10:21):
Lucia. I lived at Macrobat and the
irony was the reason why I played for uni had nothing to do
with pathways, opportunity, anything like that.
Wait, Secum, who's one of my best mates, played so many, you
know, games not only for Queensland within four years,
but also University of Queensland.
He said. Casper, you ought to play here.
(10:42):
Scotty Mueller was there as well.
He started off there. Before he went to the Gold
Coast, yeah. Yeah, so I've actually turned up
there and the reason why is he told me there's no lock on the
fridge and everyone just helped themselves the beer.
So I that was my motivation obviously at 1718 to play club
cricket. It's.
(11:02):
Interesting this connection of why people play sports sometimes
and and like kids my age of 1210and eight, they they played
because they're one of their mates plays and it's almost
feels like wherever their mate plays, it doesn't matter it's
down the road or whether it's halfway across the Brisbane.
It's like, well, I'm, I'm. The reason I'm playing is
because I want to play with my. Mates, you want fun?
Yeah, and that is the key. It's nothing to do with like,
oh, you the setup or the groundsor the facilities or the
(11:25):
coaching. It's like, no, I'm just playing
with my mate and I want to play basketball with my mate or
wherever, you know, I'll. Give you an example of that.
There's my son Ed, who is 18, finished last year from Nudgee
after a couple of years in the rugby programme.
Successful, made the Queensland team every year for cricket, 6
foot 80s. He's a fast bowler and pretty
(11:45):
good, but the rugby's taken off.He wasn't, he couldn't play with
his back last year. He's down at Waratahs with their
Academy programme. But back in the day, it's quite
funny because you'd get parents come up to him and say, Oh yeah,
great. Hey, mate, what's, you know, you
must be awesome having your dad as your coach.
And he said they used to say what's what's the best thing?
What's the secret, what's the best thing?
(12:07):
Your dad's, you know, told you. And you'd look at him for the
blankly and say my dad just saysgo and have fun.
And you know what, that is the secret.
If you're having fun, you don't know where this will take you.
The other angle corny line I throw in there is that people
would say, oh, I can see where he gets it from.
You know, obviously, oh man, andall that sort of stuff and throw
(12:29):
away line I'd throw in there next was that, oh, he's actually
got all the tools and said, why's that?
I said because he gets his aggression from his mother.
There you go, a package an all in one package.
I'm just going to touch on that kids parent sport thing at the
moment because going through that now as a parent and we've
talked about in a number of different podcasts around the
(12:50):
the parental behaviour, the parental guidance, I suppose.
And you've mentioned there just to have fun when your son, Ed
for instance, had some bad days and good days.
How did you cope with it? I loved it.
I loved watching the kids play and I think that's the key.
Even that line, so there's AI actually did a session it's East
(13:12):
Redlands a few years ago now andQueensland Korea helped and I
said, look, can I just do a session with the parents?
And I framed it thinking that Queensland Korea did take it on,
but they never did. So I'm not going door knocking
and trying to, you know, got no time to do it.
But the theme I used was the ride home.
And the reason why kids, boys, especially at age 1415, stop
(13:33):
playing, it's because it the ride home, the debrief they get
about their performance and they're only trying to help, I
know as parents trying to help these kids to get better.
But the ride home, all of a sudden they're not enjoying it,
they're not having fun. And so the angle I took was
talking about that my single mumwas great because you'd come
home and she'd drop you off and pick you up and how'd you go
(13:55):
today? And she had no idea about the
game of cricket, football, whatever it was and just say oh
look, it was, you know. Oh good.
Yeah, not bad. I scored 100, got, you know, 5
wiggets, double hat trick. That's nice darling, Did you
have fun? How'd you go?
Did you have fun? And every time, Absolutely.
So that in the background there was no pressure at all.
Now that was my experience. But what I love telling parents
(14:18):
is that when you think about thebest players.
So playing for Queensland, you're playing every game, 10
shield games. If you have 4 great days of
season that constitutes an incredible year that isn't,
that's an outstanding season. And when you think about if you
score 4 hundreds in a season or take 4-5 thirds, you've blitzed
(14:40):
it. We fail, the best players fail,
we're constantly failing and I think that's where the
expectation of your kids and your sons or daughters, whoever
playing, it's just let them play.
I realise you just want to make them feel better and help them
out, but just if you're long andhaving fun, you don't know where
he can take you. Because even that with the
(15:01):
pathways, when you get kids identified at 1315, whatever it
is and getting collecting these teams, have a look at the people
in their 20s that all of a sudden got the chance.
Physically, things change. They got into it, they were a
spin bowler, now they're a fast bowler or you know, well.
Steve Smith even, you know, look, I picked his number 8.
Exactly. You know, a good example, Joe
(15:22):
Doors, you know, 10 thighs we could take for QLD.
You know, it was a medium pacer,you know, at Sandgate.
Then he goes to valleys, gets stronger, all of a sudden bang,
he's picked, you know, got to the point where he's first
picked for a long period of time.
And there's so many examples of players like that and the key,
and I always say this, if you just keep loving the game, you
(15:43):
don't always gonna. Take and from a parent point of
view, do you see some behaviour every now and then of of parents
that sort of like a, you know, yelling or pushing their kids a
little bit too hard? Yeah, of course you do.
And it's not just cricket, it's.All.
No, no I'm not. And you do see that cricket
with, you know, it's camp, you know, camped up for the day and
the I guess the, the feeling of,you know, different balls or
(16:03):
shots or the way they play or it's an easy game from the
sideline. It is when we watch at the best
level. So my son, my other son, Harvey,
he's 15, he's only 6 foot 7, buthe doesn't play cricket.
He never played a game of cricket, never played a game of
footy in his life. Academic blitzes.
He at school at Nudge, you know,biology ducks is that and
(16:27):
whatever. Anyway, he come to school, he
come home from school and he said, dad, I'm going to try
rowing. I said how'd it go?
Yeah, I was just the Australian Rowing nationals earlier this
year. He's blitzing at that.
But the best part, he plays in the 10D soccer team, football.
Sorry. Yep, soccer team for nudging.
And it is the best sport to watch.
(16:50):
Reason being, these kids, they're not useless, but they're
standing around laughing the whole time at their air swings
at bank. And at training as well.
Not train. Not.
Oh no, no, they still train all that.
No, no, as in like they're laughing at training as well,
right? Having a fun time at training.
It's not like, oh, you know, high pressure training as well
as high pressure. Games.
The second best part about goingand 1:00 tomorrow, I think we
(17:10):
play churching. He's got the game.
The attendees is the second bestpart about it all the parents
watching. Not one parent dreams of their
kid playing English Premier League football.
They're. Broken the circuit.
Happy watching Boys and. You're outdoors and you're
you're in a team and all these lessons that you'll talk about
(17:31):
in a second about sport translates to life.
Not just life, not just business, but life.
Absolutely. Yeah, and and so let's go
through your you, you've, you'veplayed for Queensland, you're
David for Queensland. You moved up into the ranks, you
get the call up to play your first Test.
How did you know at that time? What were you, you feeling where
you're, you know, shooting yourself?
(17:51):
No, not all and they're not because a couple of years
earlier I'd actually taken 50 wickets for Queensland.
So 9192 season, I think I was the youngest to take 50 wickets,
more than 50 wickets in the Sheffield Shield season.
So I was confident that, you know, and and ultimately when I
first played for Queensland, IanHealy had come back for a
(18:14):
training session amongst the Australian games.
Heels was I went to heels because I was, you know, nervous
about playing this first game. And he he said to me, he was my
coach for Brisbane S under 15 team Rep team, school team at
the time. So I knew him.
He's my coach. Then all of a sudden I've seen
(18:35):
him play for Australia, playing for North.
He was and after six games, I think Queensland, he got picked
for Australia. But his words were perfect
because I said, oh, look, I'm I'm nervous about this.
So I don't deserve it and I didn't because I was purely
picked on potential. He looked at me, he said Casper,
break this down really simply. It's the best 10, it's the best,
(18:56):
sorry, 11 club cricketers from Brisbane again, it's the best 10
or 11. I don't know why the 10 come in
the best, maybe 11 cricketers, club cricketers from WA.
That's all this is. That's what Shield cricket is.
And when you take it up to the next level, when you talk about
national, it's the best 12, including the 12th man, of
(19:19):
course. Yep, cricketers from state
cricket, from Australia. And when you're dominating state
cricket, which we were. And 50 wickets for that season.
Yeah, yeah. So it's.
It just sort of breaks it down, simplifies it I suppose.
So did you get nervous? Are you a nervous person?
Oh, really? I sort of when I say nervous,
yeah, you are. There's butterflies.
You, I guess there's an anticipation to it, but I
(19:40):
wouldn't call it shooting yourself or anything.
No, no. And and confidence.
You sound like you're very confident.
You've always been confident or not.
Yeah, yeah. I'd like to say I'm very
competitive. OK, Yep.
The other side of it and Yep. And that's come from where?
Oh. It's inbuilt, it's inbuilt.
I think you just don't, not so much.
Not like to lose, but one of thethings I'd love to do is
(20:03):
actually surprise people. Can you go into that a bit
further? Yeah, because I think one of the
things that I found with my whole journey in the Australian
team, the standard line, I get asked all the time and even now,
which is kind of flattering in many ways because I've been
retired for 18 years. I played for 19, but I've been
(20:24):
retired for 18. First of all, people say, oh,
Casper, are you still playing cricket?
And I say no, I'm 53. It hurts too much, but thank
you. The next line you always get is
are you coaching or commentating?
And that whole concept comes from, I guess there's a
perception around the fact that all you're a cricketer.
(20:45):
That's what you do, don't you? You're finished playing cricket
and you go into coaching commentary.
I have, you know, double done a little bit of the commentary
thing. But at the same time, I love
surprising people because the first thing I did when I
finished playing cricket was I, I did an MBA at the University
of Queensland, Master of Business.
And not the concept for me was actually around rebranding.
(21:09):
Identity. Like people go, Oh my, oh, it's
a cricketer, right? How do you feel about that?
Like I said, I love surprising people because in the
conversation, no, no, I actuallywent and studied, I did an NBA
and I'm doing advisory work and,and straight away it doesn't
change perception or opinion. It actually influences the way I
like to call it because people when you're playing sport, when
(21:31):
you're playing cricket, you're on the field, There's a
perception. People have a perception or an
opinion about you based on whichteam you play for.
Or you're a fast bowler. Say you're no brain surgeon or
rotten scientist or whatever. It is, yeah.
Yep, that's just your domain expertise in that.
Well, that's for a period of time.
For a period of time, right? That's right.
But not for the whole period of time.
(21:51):
You're when you say you're 53. Yeah, Yeah.
So cricket's long gone. Right.
Oh, it is. And that's where, like I said.
Playing cricket's long gone. Yeah, yeah.
And even for me it was 19 years playing the Queensland right,
and you know, it's 19 seasons, sorry, of cricket going through
all the different levels from non professional, semi
professional right through to professional on where it is and
(22:14):
the start of where it got to today.
But I I sort of also just yes, that that journey.
I thought I said the start. Let's challenge the paradigm.
Let's take those lessons into a business context.
And they are already of that 19 years, even 10 years, right with
(22:35):
the Australian side. That in itself is pretty
extraordinary. My time, 10 years, I was in and
out of that site. I live life on the edge if you
like. 13 times I was dropped. In 10 the.
Australian team in and out of that site 13 times in 10 years.
So the lessons of resilience wasa big one.
And finally a way back in. And whether it be you're in and
(22:57):
out because of an injury or whatever it was, that's all part
of it too. So you often get asked about,
you know, why'd you keep going back?
And it's like, well, why wouldn't you?
And I think that's why you get competitive, not only
externally, but internally. It's, you know, get injured and
I'm going to come back or get dropped.
I'm going to surprise you. I'm going to find a way back in.
(23:19):
And if you like even internally rebranding myself for the
selectors. You know, you talked about fun
before as a kid and playing sport.
When you got to the highest level, were you having fun
still? A really good example was when I
first play first first Test match at the Gabba at the Gabba
against the Indies. Yep, good team the Indies back
(23:41):
then. It was excellent team yeah, it
was 1 I think, but I didn't get a wicket Yeah, didn't get a
wicket. The second Test match playing
Sydney didn't get a wicket firstinnings Mark Taylor didn't bomb
in the second innings he opened with Mark War.
Second innings highlight was I hooked Courtney Walsh for six so
(24:02):
but out of that I got dropped from the Australian cricket
team, right? SO2IN for two out go.
And see, my best mate on cricket, he got picked, he
replaced me, right? And it was one of those things,
the very next game we're playingdown in SA, Adelaide Oval, which
is not exactly the, you know, bowler friendly.
Yeah, fast bowler Mecca have you?
(24:23):
Yeah. And I remember this conscious
thought that I had, we were going down there and I was.
And you've sort of found now, sorry, it was a couple of games
later, couple of games later, the next game was NSW at the
Gabba and I found myself trying too hard because and feeling
unlucky because all of a sudden,you know, the nick that didn't
carry or they'll be able to comeaway or something just didn't
(24:46):
happen. You don't live life feeling
unlucky. And that ultimately the only
team or people that talk about being unlucky, everyone's the
only refer to being like luck happens to be the loser because
they they're unlucky. And they're they're, they're
blaming something of. Course they are.
And So what that I, I presence of mind go right, Well, that's
(25:08):
not me. I can't do that.
So we're playing SA Adelaide Oval and I stopped and I thought
what was I doing before I playedfor Australia and physically
what how was my mind? What was I thinking about?
And the word fun came flying in there and it was, it was about
that. It was about, yeah, that's
right. I was actually at a song in my
(25:29):
mind, head bang, having fun off the field, on the field, having
a laugh or having a joke and taking that pressure away.
So I went into that game and didexactly that, got 5 wickets.
You brought it back to your roots.
You brought it back to why you play the game.
And that to me was one of those great lessons that I've taken
into life are. You do you feel like you're
(25:50):
having fun still in life? And I in a business sense, yeah,
I've tried to incorporate that. Not taken too seriously.
You're a serious person. Or you can, yeah.
No, no, definitely I can be. But at times I think in a
business context you, you do gotto, you know, obviously head
down and all the rest of it whenimportant.
But the interesting thing is in a business sense, you don't
(26:11):
necessarily the team, the peopleyou're with, it's a very
different environment from a sporting team.
Granted you've all direct in OneDirection.
There's a trophy or a title you're chasing and everyone's,
you know, all these different skills, maybe we're going that
direction. But I've found in a business
sense, 18 years, lots of different experiences, I've
(26:32):
always found business as an individual sport.
Yeah, right. And in that, not necessarily
that we're all going One Direction, but it's quite at the
end of the day, it's not necessary for anyone to share
their toys. So the motives are different,
you think in business and there's a bit of selfishness
(26:53):
not, or I wouldn't say selfishness, maybe lack of
transparency of what the motivesare in business.
Maybe feel like, well, I've, I've got, I want to make
1,000,000 bucks or something. You know, the, the difference is
could be monetary, could be something else.
Whereas as a, as a team, maybe there's a World Cup coming up.
So that would be, you know, a highlight that you're all in
that together. Oh, some of the most
(27:13):
narcissistic people I've ever met were actually not in the
Australian greed dressing room and actually in in a business
context. And you talked about the four
good games a season. How do how do you translate that
to a business year? Well, it comes down to
expectation again. Now obviously if you've listed
company, you've got. Yeah, we've got 1/2 yearly full
(27:33):
year result. Yeah, unprofitable quarterly,
yeah. Absolutely.
And one of the things I've foundon my time and my 8 1/2 years on
the board of Cricket Australia, so as a director of Australian
cricket, was that. But my concept of the
shareholder and what I don't think really was understood from
(27:54):
with cricket and sport doesn't understand this.
When you've got a shareholder, the difference between the
stakeholder and shareholder. Stakeholders investing money,
but easy, their dividend is financial back, they're happy.
Give them a report as you say, they're happy.
Stakeholder has invested time and emotion now whether they're
(28:15):
volunteering they're pretty muchthat's where it comes from.
What you find is that understanding the dividend how
what they're actually expected how you actually tangibly yeah,
what is find it and they don't and no one sort of does it.
But one of the things I like to think I did harness it was I was
listening because they want to be heard and that is exactly the
(28:36):
dividend they want because that time and investment in
emotionally in the sport, they just want to be heard.
You know, and I found quite funny at the Gabba, Oh, I'm not
that in my board capacity. I was going around swanning
around and red wine stained teeth and which is how I used to
always as a player. That's generally how we come
(28:57):
across the board directors of Cricket Australia.
The only time you'd see me in a wedding dressing room and like I
said, red wine saying teeth, notmy style.
And the Gabba Test match, thoughI was always representing I'd be
at the Gabba. I had a guy come to me once and
say Casper must be awesome beingon the board.
I said, why's that? They said because you have the
(29:17):
best seat in the house. There's the food, there's wine,
you're entertaining. It's it's you're.
Behind the glass, watching cricket.
I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, not a 90% humidity. I said, you know how every job
has a shit factor? He said.
Yeah, I said, what do you reckonthe shit factor being on the
board of Create Australia is? I see, I said.
(29:38):
You have to listen to everyone tell you what's wrong with
Australian cricket. And for me that's what came
through loud and clear and I wasalways available, always
listening to people. Not that I could actually do
anything. It's not our job as board
members, that's management, CEO and management to implement
strategy. But we just look at risk, I
suppose, when you're on a board.And so that for me was sort of,
(30:01):
I guess the other thing is sort of understanding.
Yeah, that's where my journey's taken me.
Christine Finnegan, who's the CEO of the Jack Jumpers
basketball team, I interviewed recently, she said she said
feedback is a gift to her. And I thought that's an
interesting way of putting it. How did you deal with feedback
being dropped 13 times? Well, our performance is so
(30:24):
visible, so you're getting feedback on the Monday morning
paper, aren't you? Yeah, or from.
And nowadays you're getting a lot more feedback from blogs and
social media right than your day.
But certainly it's probably pronounced more now.
Well, I think it's the opportunity.
But did you know a couple of times you reckon you were going
to get dropped? Yeah, yeah.
Because you know your spot, you know that you're in, and even if
(30:45):
you took 100, you got 5 or whatever, you dominated.
Yeah, Glenn McGrath was coming back.
And that's, you know your piece,you know where you're fit.
In the team as well, absolutely.As opposed to business, maybe
you said individually, right? Yeah, yeah.
I think that's where even the the role, I guess of 12th man.
I was did a lot of tours with the Australian side.
(31:07):
Did I get on the park all the time?
No was I around? Was I, you know, was IA good
present man? But I think that helps not just
being frustrated about not playing, but actually helping
each other, helping the guys getready or being around.
And I guess I think I'd like to think that we left a good
impression with other players and talk about being, you know,
(31:28):
not a team man. And I suppose it's the branding,
but you're actually around supporting.
And so, you know, at the end of the day, selecting two different
players, you know they're going to pick someone that's going to
fit the environment. I've seen a little bit of an
example of that in in lower grade cricket where someone gets
out for a duck is a better and that's like how the the game's
(31:49):
done. That's it.
But they could crickets, they'rein the field.
They can do something in the game to change the game.
It's not necessarily their core.Like if you get taken off
bowling and you're down, you getyou're getting built and the
body language is down a little bit, but there's one moment in
the game can change entirely because of you.
And you need to keep your head up and keep being part of that
team and pick being present. And even the Brisbane Lions, I
(32:11):
think that when Oscar McInerney got injured and they Darcy
fought, came in the grand final and fired a Ripper of a game and
they won the title. And, you know, I mean, Oscar was
around that grand final. It was like not lamenting that
he was injured. It was their present the whole
day. And you did a lot of that.
And you're known for that as well, being a team person and a
team player. How do you take that into
(32:31):
business now? Oh.
You, you know, that's, and maybethat's the thing.
I haven't spent, you know, 20 years in management positions or
I'm not an engineer, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an accountant.
I did get a distinction in accounting actually.
You've got an MBA. Yeah, but I did my.
Yeah, but that means nothing. That's just a ticket to play,
(32:54):
maybe drive in business. That's all it is.
It's kind of not regarded that high in Australia, India, maybe
it's gold. But one of the things I've found
was for me was it maybe that's the frustration I've had is you
spend 20 years playing cricket professionally and all those
experiences you're going to get MBA, which like to see rounds at
off, you know, probably. But there's been roles I've gone
(33:16):
to into, you know, and being told straight, we can't compare
you with other candidates for this role because they've got 20
years management experience, right?
And you know, and that's just it's not as linear my journey.
And that's where for me consulting even the term an
entrepreneur, you know, like, you know, like to think
(33:36):
differently. You know my not just the Myers
Briggs, but your personality style or where it fits into.
And so a bit like your own performance as a cricketer, you
know your strengths, you know your weaknesses, where it all
fits. And rejection and resilience is
part of that now. So that that particular job
offer potentially was like, oh, OK, did you obviously took it on
(33:59):
board, you know, OK, well there's there's, there's better
fish out there, there's another,there's another job out there
for me, etcetera. Yeah, well, I had AI was had a
contract for two years working for a company called Telehub
huge big private equity they do smart metres in homes 25,000 a
month last two years with a sideproject was brought in just to
(34:21):
head up this side project to which I did go to a stage all
set to go and then they didn't renew my contract.
No thanks. We'll just take it down to
Melbourne now and run it there. And it's one of those things
that having been dropped, as I said many times, and look
ultimately is decision makers and you can know how it works
and that's fine. But taking lessons from that
(34:44):
experience is what I'm doing nowfrom, you know, the whole
journey. I think that's the way for me.
It's important to just, you know, that's where I'm in a real
good spot right now. Yeah.
Not sitting back kicking cans going, oh, look, you know, a
buddy. It's ridiculous.
So you know. I'm unlucky.
Well, exactly. And let's talk about the
(35:06):
business of sport at the moment.You talked about the PE group,
you talked a little bit about India just then, where sport and
cricket is huge. John Buchanan talked about a
programme is setting up in Indiaabout sport, et cetera.
We're seeing private equity enter sport in the UK in the in
the in the 100. Yes, we've got Cricket Australia
here where you've probably got private equity knocking on the
(35:26):
door of every Big Bash team saying heck, we get a piece of
this goldmine that Cricket Australia has held on for so
long, which you're you're part of.
Recently the Brisbane based private equity group acquired
the Jack jumpers. Yes.
How are you positioning and whatare you thinking about the
business of sport now where you know when you started playing,
Playing for Queensland? No, none of that.
No, it wasn't, but that was my goal entirely and I think my
(35:49):
skills, as I said before, from aplayer to board and with
Australian company directors graduate behind it as well.
So I understand the governance of it.
I was the CEO of Queensland creating an interim 6 month
period as well. I have actually done commentary
and it represented every stakeholder group essentially,
(36:10):
so I'd have seen it from every lens around how sport works,
being involved connections. I was on the Australia India
Council for Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for
six years with six people hand picked so about.
So I've got a lot of access understanding also about how
India works. So I'd love to combine all my
(36:31):
skills in that advisory capacity, but also, you know, a
fundraising. Yep, also because it's going to
be something really awesome coming up in sport.
We've just seen. I guess out of that you just
said 100 over in England, they've just made £500 million,
so a billion Australian dollars selling 49% of these 8 franchise
(36:55):
teams that they. To to can be the private equity,
high net worth, etcetera. You know, groups and in
particular, and this is where weknow some of those people, their
IPL teams, all their private equity from the US that have
actually invested and owned their own teams in the US, the
Major League Cricket over in theUS which it started out there's
I think there. Was I think, one of the
(37:17):
Microsoft founders involved in Seattle?
Yes, one of the franchises there.
Sachin Nadella along with his mate, I think.
He's like founder CEO, sorry. Yeah, CEO, who also is his mate
who I think Adobe CEO and all his Indian mates, but you know,
as a passion project, so they bought into the London spirit.
And so straight away you're looking at Australia and that's
(37:38):
even before talk about Saudi Arabia, right, Saudi interests.
Yeah, which is gone to EPL the the Premier League early, you
know. All that stuff.
And so it's a really great time and even someone said to me, oh,
but not in Australia, there's no, there's no investment in
sport. What are you going to do?
You can't find the Melbourne Demons, for instance, you know.
Well, I realised that, you know,like and I'll talk capital and
(38:01):
having had a couple of conversations with them as well
with what they do. They bought the Tasmanian Jack
jumpers as you said, but I even what I love around examples I
use for the business of sport. Wrexham welcome.
Yes, welcome that and the content as well the.
Content. So the Formula One, and I love
(38:23):
that, is they bought it for $4 million.
That was Ryan Reynolds and his mates as well, which.
No one can remember. That's right.
Yep. Sorry, not no one, but a lot of
people can't remember. Ryan.
Reynolds It's like the the U2, like oh, Bono, what's the bass
player's name? Kinda.
Like that anyway, he but they bought that for $4 million they
(38:43):
then someone mentioned it could be worth 400 now right now the
reason being that they've gone up into you know two different.
Divisions. Promotions.
Yep. But.
Obviously they filmed and they produced this whole series on
TV, but it was a storytelling. It was the storytelling around
that journey. That's the business of sport
right now and we've seen plenty of documentaries.
(39:06):
I even spoke with Al Graham fromSuncorp recently with our Bulls
Masters. We're up in far North QLD, I'll
come back to that later perhaps.But we, but I spoke to him, I
said mate, why didn't you go forWrexham?
That Wrexham that come out to Australia, 2 games here, one in
Wellington. He said oh look, I don't think
(39:27):
that really it's going to, you know, fill a stadium with that.
That's his job. The other side of it is that you
want to actually get Brisbane sold, Brisbane to the audience
that are going to be watching that show.
You know, like they're going to be coming here in 19 in 2032.
Yes, yeah. And that is the business of
sport tourism, The benefits for the TV show, for their coming
(39:50):
here. Sure, it's a game, it's a
novelty match, but when you think about the extended value
that actually brings, it's pretty exciting.
I did a a breakfast panel the other day about.
What was mentioned was Magic Round and Gather Round in the
AFL, which is a concept 10 yearsago didn't exist.
But then the QLD stakeholders bid for that and then now
(40:12):
there's apparently Gold Coast bidding for it and there's other
people bidding saying we want the Magic round.
And Adelaide's done a wonderful job with Gather Round in the
AFL. But it's not about the footy as
well. It's about the tourism, it's
about the the hospitality, it's about everything.
And the city has, you know, uplifts.
It goes nuts, doesn't it, when you see everyone come in and
theme jerseys and groups of blokes.
(40:32):
So they might do the Friday night game, but then the race is
Saturday. Yep.
And I think isn't there. There's conferences on now with
the magic, absolutely, the RNA and all that's.
Conveniently timed, of course, but I think that's reason why
and I think tourism is one thingtoo.
If you're going to go to India and everyone says to me, oh
Casper, I'd love to go and you see India the only and no one
(40:53):
knows where to go, what to do. But if you're going there to
watch sport, if you're going to watch an Australian Test series
or watch something like that, and I think that's the beauty of
sport. Sport does it gives you not so
much a reason, but it's a vehicle to go there and then
experience everything around it.When it comes to sport, you
watching now cricket, where do you sit?
You've got the 2020 game, you'vegot the Test game, you've got
(41:14):
the one day game, you've got Sheffield Shield.
Different combinations when you were growing up, where?
Where do you see the future of cricket in line with the
business of sport? I think it's confusing for a lot
of people and even, you know, someone mentioned it's about,
you know, I think next weekend is the world test.
Championships in Lords, South Africa.
(41:35):
South Africa. I didn't hear that play any of
this right. I was over there.
Yeah, And sort of it's like, oh,was it?
And they said, oh, you're not going over.
It's like, Nope. Well, you know, I'm not.
There's no junker to jump on fora start.
So. And it's confusing about who or
what and everything else. I think that's where these 2020
tournaments like our Big Bash set in stone.
You know, December, January, school holidays.
(41:56):
Bang. Tuesday night, Wednesday night,
Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night.
Yep, summer. It's relaxed.
People are relaxed. They turn the TV on.
There's no school, there's no homework.
No. And even I think international
schedule is blocked off for the IPO because it has to be that.
But what you're finding is that the Pakistan league start at the
same time the IPO, you've got the Major League Cricket going
(42:16):
to be starting. The calendar shuffling, huh?
Well, there's lots of that, but I think maybe Crick will get to
a stage where it ends up being abit like international football,
soccer, where there's all these tournaments, English Premier
League or that, but then there'll be World Cups or
(42:36):
competitions where your nationalteams come together.
Now the Australian cricket team,I think, look, you know, there's
an Australian team playing somewhere around the world
pretty much all year. And I was speaking with Brendan
Wilde actually, who is for Cricket Australia.
Wildy is actually head of I guess the, what's the term,
maybe all the grounds. So around every stadium, so
(42:59):
right through the Australian season, you've got every stadium
from Perth Optus to MCG, He's the boss of every ground.
He was saying that seven weeks is what we've got off.
He's head off all year because this summer we've got one T20
(43:20):
matches, I think in One Day Internationals against South
Africa in Cairns and Mackay. We've also got Darwin.
I think it's AT20 match up thereand you've got India coming out
for T 20s before the season starts.
And when I say the season, we'retalking about the Ashes.
And the most exciting part aboutthat is the fact that days 1-2
(43:44):
and three at the Gabba are sold out right now.
And that just shows you the interest there.
I know the MCGI think they're doing the same.
I've got the 220,000 the pre sale that day.
There you go, and I. Think.
That gives you a good example ofthe importance and the value of
Test cricket. It's still number one.
It is absolutely number one. That's got to stay that way.
(44:08):
Fantastic. The India series last year was
magical as well and sort of reinjuvenated with Sam Constance
a little bit entertainment and theatre as well, you know,
chucked in there. But you know, Test cricket
versus 2020. How did you position your your
son to play cricket? Like go out and belt the hell
out of it or just, you know, do the front, you know, block 100
balls. What's where's the thinking now
(44:29):
from maybe an 18 year old? We didn't have that conversation
in the car the drive home. Not the 15 minutes, no, no.
No, I think it's just, look, when you're seeing kids playing
reverse sweeps and all the rest of it, go for it.
Do it, enjoy. You know, this thing on TV,
you've seen the best players do it and master it.
I think that's the other side ofit.
The the benefit is, you know where this is going to take us
(44:50):
in the future. The skills are going to be even
better than they are today. More versatile in in regards to
the testing and kind of the actual shots involved, yeah.
But even John Buchanan, I think back in the day, yeah, he was
sort of trying to get players tolearn to, to throw left and
right handed. Yes, the you mentioned that
about the becoming a versatile 2020 players, a person that can
(45:11):
bowl left and bowl right. I mean AFL kick left, kick
right. Well, we've seen that even I
think in the IPL there was a it.Was a county cricket guy
switched as well? Yeah, yeah, he might play in the
IPL. There was AI think.
It was Sri Lankan guy, spinner was coming in bowling left and
right arm. You do obviously have to tell
the umpire. Yeah, and it might be.
And when you think about it, yeah, sure.
(45:32):
With shorter boundaries, one side left, right handers.
The the run outs in 2020 in the field.
That's fielding. 1st I tell Michael I, I ask my guests this
in around sport is their favourite all time sporting
moment. I'm curious to know what yours
is, whether it's involved you orwhether it didn't involve you or
both. Look.
(45:53):
One of the things I get asked isdo you miss the game?
And in a roundabout way I said no, I'll tell you the things I
miss. Not necessarily I miss
competing. As you get older, it doesn't
work as well. But you miss the dressing room.
And so when you say special moments, for me it was actually
(46:16):
dressing rooms. And for me the number one was
India 2004 when we won the 1st Water Gavaska Trophy for 1000
years. And the best part about that was
that he was with mates. I'd been there in 9798 with,
sorry, 98 with the Australian team.
(46:37):
We lost. So we lost that series 2001.
The famous series. Yep.
The harbours 30 puffs and the hat trick and.
And I was batting with. Them very, very special Laxman
getting. Yeah, that was in 500, sorry,
Eden Gardens. And so, yeah, same thing.
We lost that one full strength. But then going back in 2004, I
(47:01):
remember saying to Dizzy Jason Gillespie on the plane, not that
we would drink breaking any beerdrinking records to India, but
over a beer I just said to him, I said we've got to change the
way we do this. And so the tactic was to bolt to
the Indian strength and so we came up with a plan to bowl
Australia, meaning off stump because normally that doesn't
(47:24):
work because I'll just flick youto the lakeside.
Wants to reverse psychology. Well, what happens, Yeah, what
we did was actually have two menback on the deep on the lakeside
one, maybe even forward a squareleg which was almost like a
sweeper as well. So if you did hit it to
Lakeside, you weren't getting a boundary run one, force them
back with two men back by hook shot if you want to.
You'd also have a short mid wicket if they flick it out of
(47:46):
instinct, if it's in the air, we'll get you and deepen it on
bit what bit straighter as well.And we executed with that plan
and we executed well. Without going into too many
details, Ram, that to me was thebest sporting moment when we had
something so different from the typical Australian plan, what
(48:08):
we've been doing for years and been so successful doing, which
didn't work in India. And so for me, and I guess that
was it, that, you know, taking yeah, that, that, that for me
was the number one. You know how you talked about
surprising? You surprised them because they
came out and they're like, that's normally a boundary.
(48:30):
That's right. And they're like busted.
I remember even watching a game when like the defence breaks up
in basketball or something and they're like opposite.
I normally go to my right to layit up, but I can't do that.
They get frazzled. You frazzled them.
Yeah, exactly. And another question I ask is
your scoreboard moment, which isa moment in your life which you
can remember very, very vividly.And it's almost like a Kodak
(48:51):
moment that you go. I remember that moment.
And from then something changed.So 1998, I mentioned before
India, conveniently, I think everyone was injured.
All the fast bowls are injured. So I was leading the Australian
bowling attack in India, easily the toughest, most hardest
(49:12):
conditions, you know, 30 or 5° plus flat wicket, Not AI, don't,
not a blade of grass, let alone a living Organism in the wicket,
which isn't great for fast bowlers generally.
And we lost, we lost two, the first two Test matches against
India. Tendulk was on fire before that
game. I actually remember well two
(49:34):
things before the game and we'reDennis Lily coming around down
the field. It was like an Oasis, this guy
walking around the greatest fastbowling resource of all time.
Dennis was there and I just saidto him, oh mate, come to watch
training. He was over there with the MRF
Pace Foundation helping their young fast bowlers.
I said, Dennis, you've been watching Tendulkar.
(49:55):
What do you reckon is there's something he's technical,
something he's spotted. He looked at me, look skywards,
rubbed his beard, a bit of a beard, Come back down.
He said no mate, just make sure you walk off with pride.
So when the greatest fast bowl of all time had nothing, it was
like right, good luck then. However, I was talking to Java
(50:17):
Gal Srinath before the game thathe won fast bowl to fast bowl.
I have a chat. I said what's the secret?
It was reverse swing mate. And he said you've got to keep
the rough side dry and out of that.
It's got nothing to do with sandpaper.
Don't worry, that's a lot of shit.
Never did have anything to do with it, mind you.
So it was keeping the rough sidedry of which I mentioned to our
(50:41):
team. I said right, you know the
second innings. So instead of the ball going the
keeper to the slip to the gully to.
Which is the traditional kind ofway.
The ball was actually getting walked over.
Hole held, two fingers bang, andI was.
I'm a good perspirer, a good sweater.
Well, I mean, you're in India aswell.
Well, I'm one of the best to think speak to so you've you're
my mates, your. VIP.
(51:02):
That they'd endorse that and it's literally from middle off
and grab it with two fingers. And all of a sudden from that
experience, I ended up getting 5to 28.
We ended up winning the Test match.
And so the take away from that, and I've always used this in
every part of my life and certainly in a business context
(51:24):
is you have to adjust your skills to suit the conditions,
adjust your skills that you might have that work to suit
those conditions because it might fancy out swingers work at
the Gabba, they're not going to work at Chinnaswamy Stadium and
find a way find. And that's where for me, as a
theme, I think, you know, obviously from the cricket side
(51:45):
of things, I'd love to take themto into everything we do these
days. So you've got your
controllables, your skill set, your mindset, everything to go.
But then you've got the externalfactors, the weather, the
ground, the crowd, everything you need to adjust and adapt and
move and think quickly. And I think cricket, more than
any other sport really, we've got all these external
influences on out my performancethat I have no control over.
(52:07):
So you've got, as you said, the weather.
I've got a pitch, I've even got an umpire determining how
successful I am. Out of your control.
Absolutely. And it can't waste any time
worrying about that stuff. You have to prepare yourself the
best you can and you know it'll dish up whatever results, but
put yourself in the best position and if you like, own
(52:29):
your journey by doing that in your preparation and what you do
so that you give yourself the best chance to succeed.
Cass, we're going to finish on acouple of a couple of fun
things. One's a trivia and one's a
scoreboard scramble, which I do.But trivia which you might not
know or you might know, but do you know how many balls you
bowled as a cricketer in in first class including list?
(52:51):
AII haven't I've known it's a lot.
Like I said, 19 years now I've taken is IT500955 wickets.
In First I, I don't have that step, but I know it's over 500
for Queensland, which still is the record. 900 Yeah, it is.
I don't. Think anyone's close by?
The way not with bowling workloads these days.
I you don't think you think you'll be forever.
There's no way with bowling workloads these days.
(53:13):
I think nieces in the two hundreds I think currently even.
With sports science, the way they've come in, in control
anyway. It's a bit like the thousand
goals with Tony lately. I should be endorsing sports
science. Thank you.
So. Much.
There you go. We're looking for a sponsor.
We're looking for a sponsor as well.
So don't worry, we're not sure what.
Sport science really is, anyway.Oh look, I'm gonna say if you're
saying four day cricket, Yep, one day cricket.
(53:35):
And including. Sorry, over 50,000.
Can I throw some Twenty 20s in as well?
You've got you. You bowled 42 balls in 2020
internationals. Internationals, Yeah, including
the. Very first.
The very first one, which was kind of a gimmick.
Well, I got 4 for four for 20 odd.
And they had the the bigs and all.
Yeah, I was, I mean all the retro gear, it was the very
first time it was a bit of fun. And what was the most
(53:57):
disappointing thing out of that is I didn't get Man of the Match
4 weeks for 20 odd. Well, what on the batters get
it? Did they?
Yeah, Ricky. Ponting really 8090?
So what, 80 versus A4 for an yeah. 2020, yeah.
You reckon the you reckon the five for 100 things similar.
Yeah, it's similar. It's always has been as a as.
A as a, yeah. Has anyone ever thought about
(54:17):
the data behind that? Or is it just kind of?
Well, put it this way, I'm with.Come on, data.
Solvers suggested when we walk off, if you've taken a fifer,
get the ball in hand and walk off holding the ball in the air
and salute the crowd just like so.
We do that. Every bowler does that now.
You had a 5 for a Test. You salute the crowd at the end
when you're walking off. Were you in the era where that
50 became the reverse bat thing?Because that's the thing now
(54:40):
really, where they put they raised the bit reversely now
because it's halfway to 100. Have you seen that in Test
cricket? They're the most stunning and.
When someone gets a 50 now you notice them on Test cricket.
You watch it, they'll put the the other side of the bat up as
the to the crowd to the 50 is. That another chance.
And then when they get 100, well, maybe, but then they get
100, they do the real. Really.
Yeah. Oh, OK.
(55:01):
Well, maybe. I've never noticed it.
I've the the the one that does stand out was when Jason
Gillespie scored his fifty at the Gabba and all of a sudden he
he started riding it like. The horse was that Adam Sandler
movie wasn't. It that was it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Happy Gilmore.
It was the Happy Gilmore celebration.
Well, I'll go through the answer, so this is this.
OK, I'm going to take a rough, rough guess.
Yeah, 75,000. Oh, you're a bit over there.
(55:28):
According to, you know, ChatGPT.It's given me all my questions
from my by the way, I don't know.
Yeah, it's none, None in my head, of course.
Well, this is what it says. 7140Test balls 2225 One day balls,
One Day International balls T20 International 427-O's first
(55:50):
class overall. This is a fun one. 49,377, yeah.
That's. List a 11,000 and 37 Yeah.
Well, the 60. You fight a lot of list that's
the all the one day what 70 and 2020 overall, which is maybe for
T20 for the estate maybe 200 and5240 odd overs.
(56:11):
It would have been about 10 games or something, so 62,000
and 73 there you. Go which comes to I thought.
If you look at the whole numbers, it's you've exceeded
10,000 overs. The other thing that you'd never
be able to find in a statistic is how many balls are bowled in
training. Well, that's on the ground.
(56:31):
Yep. Yeah.
So so 100,000. If there's 100,000 balls at a 20
metre run up. Now call it 20,000 overs then
you know that's the 120,000 makeit around number.
Why not? Yeah, I know.
So the 20,000 overs. Well, think about the distance
we run. No wonder my right knees squeal.
He's sitting here now. And the other, the other
(56:52):
question I ask is the school board scramble, which generally
combines it's, it's a word you have to spell backwards.
But because I've been doing a few podcasts and I kind of
combine the podcast, but let's just not combine the Cabas today
because I've got a good one for you and you need to, I'll give
you 20 seconds to do it. And it's a bit close to home.
You're going to have to spell now.
(57:12):
You're going to have to help me pronounce your last name again.
Cast. Kasparovich, Kasparovich.
Kasparovich. Kasparovich, I've got it.
You're going to have to spell Kasparovich backwards in 20
seconds. Your time starts now.
ZCIWORPSAK. Correct, ZCIWORPSAK.
(57:38):
And why don't you? Why don't you keep going with
your middle name and your first name?
TTOC SLEAHCIM Jackpot. That's extraordinary because
generally I can't remember a phone number, so all right.
(57:59):
My wife. Do you know your phone number?
Yeah. I think I think my wife's
actually diagnosed me ADHD wife diagnosed.
I think those most of us are most smiles are so I'm.
Going to I'm going to start quickly for people
ZCIWORPSAKTTOCSLEAH CIM. I'll tell you what, it'd be
(58:22):
maximum points in the game of Scrabble wouldn't.
It, it would be maximum points because there's Z, there's Z in
there. Oh, there you go.
Should call it the Scoreboard Scrabble.
But Michael Kaspowitz, thank youso much for coming on
Scoreboard, the podcast today toshare your journey, some
insights into around what sport was like for you, what life has
been like for you, what businessis like for you and intertwining
all of them together. Wish you well in the progress
(58:44):
with this private equity group that you're working for and
other ventures that you get yourself into overtime and
looking forward to catching up again.
Thanks, Chris.
Hi, it's Chris Titley here and on today's episode of Scoreboard
I'm joined by Michael Kasparovich.
Michael, welcome to to Brisbane.What is a beautiful day here on
the 6th of June. It's magical.
It's starting time of year isn'tin Queensland, and not only
because of set of Origin fever. That's right.
Well, we went one down. What do you reckon how we're
going to go in Game 2? I will smash it.
Yeah, yeah, it was a it was a tough game, the first one,
(00:23):
wasn't it tough. Watch, but it's a bit scrappy.
I'm going to turn this into a CNbased podcast of opinion but it
was a little bit scrappy. But as a Queenslander and
growing up here and seeing the very first State of Origin match
in 1980. With Arthur Beatzman.
Back then, yeah, I think that was the confidence that we had
(00:43):
in Queensland sport and I think in my, I guess 19 years in
cricket, it's always in the background from Queensland.
We'll find a way. We'll find a way now, Casper, as
they call you. What are you up to now, Casper?
What? How's your week been firstly and
then what are you up to? Yeah.
Yeah, really good. I look 3 kids, two of them live
in Sydney now one. So you're almost an empty
(01:06):
nester. Kind of, yeah, Which is kind of
interesting concept where I feellike I actually need to find a
hobby. Right, You don't have a hobby,
you don't have a language or a you don't collect NBA trading
cards. I've been threatening to learn
the guitar for 25 years, so maybe it's time golf.
I'd rather be frustrated not catching a fish than trying to
find a golf ball. But I do enjoy it.
(01:28):
So it's it's in the background. Maybe it's The Walking now that
the right knee doesn't work so well to be able to run.
But beside all that, I'm actually, yeah, I've taken a lot
in my journey. I think like to think I've taken
a different paths. I've always loved to challenge,
if you like the paradigm of the journey of a cricketer in so
(01:50):
many ways. So at the moment I'm working a
couple of days a week in advisory capacity for a private
equity group. Really interesting because it's
a number of different businesseswithin this this Group, One
being a brewery, easy times, which is down the gabble.
But Yep, we'll end. Up the Brewery.
The other one is a venture as a film and production company,
(02:10):
Nightcap Pictures. There's a property development
and project they're actually doing in the back of Mackay W
Mackay that's going to be comingup soon.
So there's different parts of the business and each of them
they've sort of, you know, the owners wants to be involved and
helping like I said, in an advisory capacity.
So the principles that you learnt from sport very
applicable to business, you you believe?
(02:32):
Unreal. It's and that was that was the
reason why post cricket, I wanted to get into business
because of all these lessons of obviously great leaders from,
you know, from hanging out, having a beer with Alan Border,
Steve Wall, Ricky Ponting, you know, and Gilchrist as well.
But all those players seen them perform, prepare also teamwork,
(02:55):
I guess communication and I justsort of saw that in that
experience. So I thought I really want to
get away and kind of be awesome at something else, go post
cricket and try and do somethingthat we can sort of, you know,
utilise those lessons and all those great sort of information
(03:19):
and experience of living my dream.
Like obviously the state of my country, you know, utilise that
in in life after. Going back to that dream as a as
a as a kid, wanting to play for Queensland, wanting to play for
Australia, when did that come about?
When did you first pick up a ball and the interesting
cricket? I reckon I was about, I was in
(03:41):
year 3, so I was 8 years old. Year 3 started in the summer,
February birthday. So all of a sudden the teacher
came round and said who wants toplay cricket now?
Juniors team. So I put my hand up, found I
could bowl fast than the other kids.
I can also hit the ball further than you know the other kids as
(04:01):
well. So I just loved it.
That was cricket season, but then obviously rugby league did
the same thing, running around and doing all that.
I managed to make these junior teams from zone teams.
Brisbane SI made the Queensland Primary School team.
Yep, we played NSW. I think that was the first time
I came across Adam Gilchrist actually, right.
(04:24):
And that's sort of that's. Interesting that that primary
school team is pretty etched in those memories.
I I didn't make it. I got close, but Anthony
Kavanaugh was the keeper ended up taking the keeping spot
there. But in that team, Kav, if you're
listening, might still hold it against you.
But we've got we had one O same Watson.
We had Nathan Horritz who had Steve Paulson.
All right, Beta chatter, beta Trotto.
He's a good team in the end. He's etched in that memory.
(04:45):
But I think they did pretty wellwell.
The funny thing is, I think in my primary school team when I
was left high school around about that sort of age, I reckon
there's only three guys still playing cricket.
Duncan Betts was in there as well.
Betsy. He played for uni, Yeah.
With me, he did as well. Yeah, yeah, he was in that team,
Matt Lyon at the West. But so the I want a point where
it's going to be round the drop off of players.
Yeah, people were there and things change.
(05:07):
My journey was, I guess the realisation of how important
cricket was in my journey wasn'tevident until well later in
life. But my father left the family
when I was nine years old. So nine years old.
All of a sudden I had to become,I had to become almost like the
senior. I had two brothers, younger, six
(05:29):
and four. One of them played for the
Waratahs, Simon, the youngest one.
But growing up I was sort of almost like that, the family
head I guess, and my mum was working and struggling to, to
put food in the table for us. I then went to Brisbane State
High. Now what was so important there
and the reason why I mentioned it is for a single mum to have
(05:51):
her going to State High was great because of the GPS
competition, the facilities, butall the training around whatever
sport it was, whatever season itwas, was before school or after
school. So it was still accessible.
So at the end of year right stayed high.
So I'm thirteen years old. I got asked to come down to the
(06:13):
1st 11 training sessions. In grade 8.
In grade 8, at the end of grade 8, because they were.
Touring into the next season season.
I went, so I made, I got asked to go on a tour with the first.
They call it the five highest tour.
First stayed high. We went down to Melbourne, you
know, sixteen 1718 year old boysin the team, whatever.
We went down there, my mum was not sure about this was a good
(06:37):
idea, but I went down there, played for State High first
since year 9. The next following year I think
I even got player of the year inyear 9.
Then at the end of year was thatturned at the end of year 12 in
1989, having just come back. I won't come back to this bit
(07:01):
with the rugby, but all of a sudden I went back to I got
picked in that school holidays period over over that summer
8990, I got selected to play career for Queensland.
I'm 17 years old. I didn't have a chance to put my
second chance. Q Tech back in the day,
nominations for where I wanted to study, what I want to do.
(07:23):
I was away on a Southern tour with, you know.
So you've got your TE scores. Is it TE?
Scores. Sorry.
That's what it was, yeah. Yeah, but out of I think 990 was
the best I. Recall, yeah, mine wasn't
anywhere near that, but what I did with a few mates, I decided
to go back to school the following year.
So I was actually in, I was actually in playing for
Queensland the summer and going to.
(07:46):
So yeah, so I'm just pointing that out.
So all of a sudden I'm 17, I'm in the Queensland team.
But the reason why I'm staging it like that was that I've kind
of lived my life. I realised later, almost like
with the expectation or the, if you like, the impression,
(08:07):
someone else's impression of whoMichael Kasparovich is, because
I was nine years old, all of a sudden I had to be the adult
household. I'm thirteen years old.
I had to be, you know. Playing with seniors, playing
with people that are driving cars when I'm. 17 years old, I'm
going on a Southern tour. You know, obviously we've, you
know, Alan Borders in the dressing room occasionally.
We had Carl Wreckman, Greg Ritchie and even at the time
(08:33):
going, you know, at school, the sponsorship, it was obviously
forex. And these are the days before
midstream beer having to go away, and we're sort of.
The 4X Queensland Bulls came in around sort.
Of they were just in the background.
Yeah, they were. The Bulls went around it.
Was the Benson and Hedges Sheffield Shield and so I
remember one of my first sessions I've gone there,
there's a pallet of. Benson Hedges.
(08:54):
Special philtres sitting in the dressing room and everyone got
this wonderful yellow bag with Benson Hedges Sheffield Shield
on it that became my school bag.I'm a non smoker, always have
been, but I did take a couple ofpacks because I realised that
cigarettes were a wonderful bargaining tool in the
schoolyard. Right, and then people at Benson
(09:15):
and Hedges, you're like, no, they're my sponsor.
What do they do? Cigarettes.
All right, can I have a few? All right, so there you go.
I'm going to get a touch on the the pressure of, you know,
professional. It was a professional.
It wasn't a professional era. There wasn't.
Exactly. So 9495 I reckon.
I don't know. That's sort of sport change, but
yeah, yeah. So 1990 was my.
(09:35):
First season, so you were growing up going, want to play
Cricket Australia. Did you have anything in the
background going? You know, what do I want to be
when I grow up? It's just.
Cricket just lived my dream. Yep.
What did happen actually in September 1989?
So in Year 12, the first run of it, I made the Australian School
boys rugby team. As well as as.
Well, as so, yeah. So we played Queensland, went to
(09:58):
NSW, Sydney, made the Australianteam, went to New Zealand.
Craig Palomana was the captain, there was a few other guys.
Anyway, we played New Zealand. Unsurprisingly we lost that
game, three games. It was then we came home.
Then I'm playing cricket and I thought right season or I'm
going to play for the Universityof Queensland, that's at Saint
(10:21):
Lucia. I lived at Macrobat and the
irony was the reason why I played for uni had nothing to do
with pathways, opportunity, anything like that.
Wait, Secum, who's one of my best mates, played so many, you
know, games not only for Queensland within four years,
but also University of Queensland.
He said. Casper, you ought to play here.
(10:42):
Scotty Mueller was there as well.
He started off there. Before he went to the Gold
Coast, yeah. Yeah, so I've actually turned up
there and the reason why is he told me there's no lock on the
fridge and everyone just helped themselves the beer.
So I that was my motivation obviously at 1718 to play club
cricket. It's.
(11:02):
Interesting this connection of why people play sports sometimes
and and like kids my age of 1210and eight, they they played
because they're one of their mates plays and it's almost
feels like wherever their mate plays, it doesn't matter it's
down the road or whether it's halfway across the Brisbane.
It's like, well, I'm, I'm. The reason I'm playing is
because I want to play with my. Mates, you want fun?
Yeah, and that is the key. It's nothing to do with like,
oh, you the setup or the groundsor the facilities or the
(11:25):
coaching. It's like, no, I'm just playing
with my mate and I want to play basketball with my mate or
wherever, you know, I'll. Give you an example of that.
There's my son Ed, who is 18, finished last year from Nudgee
after a couple of years in the rugby programme.
Successful, made the Queensland team every year for cricket, 6
foot 80s. He's a fast bowler and pretty
(11:45):
good, but the rugby's taken off.He wasn't, he couldn't play with
his back last year. He's down at Waratahs with their
Academy programme. But back in the day, it's quite
funny because you'd get parents come up to him and say, Oh yeah,
great. Hey, mate, what's, you know, you
must be awesome having your dad as your coach.
And he said they used to say what's what's the best thing?
What's the secret, what's the best thing?
(12:07):
Your dad's, you know, told you. And you'd look at him for the
blankly and say my dad just saysgo and have fun.
And you know what, that is the secret.
If you're having fun, you don't know where this will take you.
The other angle corny line I throw in there is that people
would say, oh, I can see where he gets it from.
You know, obviously, oh man, andall that sort of stuff and throw
(12:29):
away line I'd throw in there next was that, oh, he's actually
got all the tools and said, why's that?
I said because he gets his aggression from his mother.
There you go, a package an all in one package.
I'm just going to touch on that kids parent sport thing at the
moment because going through that now as a parent and we've
talked about in a number of different podcasts around the
(12:50):
the parental behaviour, the parental guidance, I suppose.
And you've mentioned there just to have fun when your son, Ed
for instance, had some bad days and good days.
How did you cope with it? I loved it.
I loved watching the kids play and I think that's the key.
Even that line, so there's AI actually did a session it's East
(13:12):
Redlands a few years ago now andQueensland Korea helped and I
said, look, can I just do a session with the parents?
And I framed it thinking that Queensland Korea did take it on,
but they never did. So I'm not going door knocking
and trying to, you know, got no time to do it.
But the theme I used was the ride home.
And the reason why kids, boys, especially at age 1415, stop
(13:33):
playing, it's because it the ride home, the debrief they get
about their performance and they're only trying to help, I
know as parents trying to help these kids to get better.
But the ride home, all of a sudden they're not enjoying it,
they're not having fun. And so the angle I took was
talking about that my single mumwas great because you'd come
home and she'd drop you off and pick you up and how'd you go
(13:55):
today? And she had no idea about the
game of cricket, football, whatever it was and just say oh
look, it was, you know. Oh good.
Yeah, not bad. I scored 100, got, you know, 5
wiggets, double hat trick. That's nice darling, Did you
have fun? How'd you go?
Did you have fun? And every time, Absolutely.
So that in the background there was no pressure at all.
Now that was my experience. But what I love telling parents
(14:18):
is that when you think about thebest players.
So playing for Queensland, you're playing every game, 10
shield games. If you have 4 great days of
season that constitutes an incredible year that isn't,
that's an outstanding season. And when you think about if you
score 4 hundreds in a season or take 4-5 thirds, you've blitzed
(14:40):
it. We fail, the best players fail,
we're constantly failing and I think that's where the
expectation of your kids and your sons or daughters, whoever
playing, it's just let them play.
I realise you just want to make them feel better and help them
out, but just if you're long andhaving fun, you don't know where
he can take you. Because even that with the
(15:01):
pathways, when you get kids identified at 1315, whatever it
is and getting collecting these teams, have a look at the people
in their 20s that all of a sudden got the chance.
Physically, things change. They got into it, they were a
spin bowler, now they're a fast bowler or you know, well.
Steve Smith even, you know, look, I picked his number 8.
Exactly. You know, a good example, Joe
(15:22):
Doors, you know, 10 thighs we could take for QLD.
You know, it was a medium pacer,you know, at Sandgate.
Then he goes to valleys, gets stronger, all of a sudden bang,
he's picked, you know, got to the point where he's first
picked for a long period of time.
And there's so many examples of players like that and the key,
and I always say this, if you just keep loving the game, you
(15:43):
don't always gonna. Take and from a parent point of
view, do you see some behaviour every now and then of of parents
that sort of like a, you know, yelling or pushing their kids a
little bit too hard? Yeah, of course you do.
And it's not just cricket, it's.All.
No, no I'm not. And you do see that cricket
with, you know, it's camp, you know, camped up for the day and
the I guess the, the feeling of,you know, different balls or
(16:03):
shots or the way they play or it's an easy game from the
sideline. It is when we watch at the best
level. So my son, my other son, Harvey,
he's 15, he's only 6 foot 7, buthe doesn't play cricket.
He never played a game of cricket, never played a game of
footy in his life. Academic blitzes.
He at school at Nudge, you know,biology ducks is that and
(16:27):
whatever. Anyway, he come to school, he
come home from school and he said, dad, I'm going to try
rowing. I said how'd it go?
Yeah, I was just the Australian Rowing nationals earlier this
year. He's blitzing at that.
But the best part, he plays in the 10D soccer team, football.
Sorry. Yep, soccer team for nudging.
And it is the best sport to watch.
(16:50):
Reason being, these kids, they're not useless, but they're
standing around laughing the whole time at their air swings
at bank. And at training as well.
Not train. Not.
Oh no, no, they still train all that.
No, no, as in like they're laughing at training as well,
right? Having a fun time at training.
It's not like, oh, you know, high pressure training as well
as high pressure. Games.
The second best part about goingand 1:00 tomorrow, I think we
(17:10):
play churching. He's got the game.
The attendees is the second bestpart about it all the parents
watching. Not one parent dreams of their
kid playing English Premier League football.
They're. Broken the circuit.
Happy watching Boys and. You're outdoors and you're
you're in a team and all these lessons that you'll talk about
(17:31):
in a second about sport translates to life.
Not just life, not just business, but life.
Absolutely. Yeah, and and so let's go
through your you, you've, you'veplayed for Queensland, you're
David for Queensland. You moved up into the ranks, you
get the call up to play your first Test.
How did you know at that time? What were you, you feeling where
you're, you know, shooting yourself?
(17:51):
No, not all and they're not because a couple of years
earlier I'd actually taken 50 wickets for Queensland.
So 9192 season, I think I was the youngest to take 50 wickets,
more than 50 wickets in the Sheffield Shield season.
So I was confident that, you know, and and ultimately when I
first played for Queensland, IanHealy had come back for a
(18:14):
training session amongst the Australian games.
Heels was I went to heels because I was, you know, nervous
about playing this first game. And he he said to me, he was my
coach for Brisbane S under 15 team Rep team, school team at
the time. So I knew him.
He's my coach. Then all of a sudden I've seen
(18:35):
him play for Australia, playing for North.
He was and after six games, I think Queensland, he got picked
for Australia. But his words were perfect
because I said, oh, look, I'm I'm nervous about this.
So I don't deserve it and I didn't because I was purely
picked on potential. He looked at me, he said Casper,
break this down really simply. It's the best 10, it's the best,
(18:56):
sorry, 11 club cricketers from Brisbane again, it's the best 10
or 11. I don't know why the 10 come in
the best, maybe 11 cricketers, club cricketers from WA.
That's all this is. That's what Shield cricket is.
And when you take it up to the next level, when you talk about
national, it's the best 12, including the 12th man, of
(19:19):
course. Yep, cricketers from state
cricket, from Australia. And when you're dominating state
cricket, which we were. And 50 wickets for that season.
Yeah, yeah. So it's.
It just sort of breaks it down, simplifies it I suppose.
So did you get nervous? Are you a nervous person?
Oh, really? I sort of when I say nervous,
yeah, you are. There's butterflies.
You, I guess there's an anticipation to it, but I
(19:40):
wouldn't call it shooting yourself or anything.
No, no. And and confidence.
You sound like you're very confident.
You've always been confident or not.
Yeah, yeah. I'd like to say I'm very
competitive. OK, Yep.
The other side of it and Yep. And that's come from where?
Oh. It's inbuilt, it's inbuilt.
I think you just don't, not so much.
Not like to lose, but one of thethings I'd love to do is
(20:03):
actually surprise people. Can you go into that a bit
further? Yeah, because I think one of the
things that I found with my whole journey in the Australian
team, the standard line, I get asked all the time and even now,
which is kind of flattering in many ways because I've been
retired for 18 years. I played for 19, but I've been
(20:24):
retired for 18. First of all, people say, oh,
Casper, are you still playing cricket?
And I say no, I'm 53. It hurts too much, but thank
you. The next line you always get is
are you coaching or commentating?
And that whole concept comes from, I guess there's a
perception around the fact that all you're a cricketer.
(20:45):
That's what you do, don't you? You're finished playing cricket
and you go into coaching commentary.
I have, you know, double done a little bit of the commentary
thing. But at the same time, I love
surprising people because the first thing I did when I
finished playing cricket was I, I did an MBA at the University
of Queensland, Master of Business.
And not the concept for me was actually around rebranding.
(21:09):
Identity. Like people go, Oh my, oh, it's
a cricketer, right? How do you feel about that?
Like I said, I love surprising people because in the
conversation, no, no, I actuallywent and studied, I did an NBA
and I'm doing advisory work and,and straight away it doesn't
change perception or opinion. It actually influences the way I
like to call it because people when you're playing sport, when
(21:31):
you're playing cricket, you're on the field, There's a
perception. People have a perception or an
opinion about you based on whichteam you play for.
Or you're a fast bowler. Say you're no brain surgeon or
rotten scientist or whatever. It is, yeah.
Yep, that's just your domain expertise in that.
Well, that's for a period of time.
For a period of time, right? That's right.
But not for the whole period of time.
(21:51):
You're when you say you're 53. Yeah, Yeah.
So cricket's long gone. Right.
Oh, it is. And that's where, like I said.
Playing cricket's long gone. Yeah, yeah.
And even for me it was 19 years playing the Queensland right,
and you know, it's 19 seasons, sorry, of cricket going through
all the different levels from non professional, semi
professional right through to professional on where it is and
(22:14):
the start of where it got to today.
But I I sort of also just yes, that that journey.
I thought I said the start. Let's challenge the paradigm.
Let's take those lessons into a business context.
And they are already of that 19 years, even 10 years, right with
(22:35):
the Australian side. That in itself is pretty
extraordinary. My time, 10 years, I was in and
out of that site. I live life on the edge if you
like. 13 times I was dropped. In 10 the.
Australian team in and out of that site 13 times in 10 years.
So the lessons of resilience wasa big one.
And finally a way back in. And whether it be you're in and
(22:57):
out because of an injury or whatever it was, that's all part
of it too. So you often get asked about,
you know, why'd you keep going back?
And it's like, well, why wouldn't you?
And I think that's why you get competitive, not only
externally, but internally. It's, you know, get injured and
I'm going to come back or get dropped.
I'm going to surprise you. I'm going to find a way back in.
(23:19):
And if you like even internally rebranding myself for the
selectors. You know, you talked about fun
before as a kid and playing sport.
When you got to the highest level, were you having fun
still? A really good example was when I
first play first first Test match at the Gabba at the Gabba
against the Indies. Yep, good team the Indies back
(23:41):
then. It was excellent team yeah, it
was 1 I think, but I didn't get a wicket Yeah, didn't get a
wicket. The second Test match playing
Sydney didn't get a wicket firstinnings Mark Taylor didn't bomb
in the second innings he opened with Mark War.
Second innings highlight was I hooked Courtney Walsh for six so
(24:02):
but out of that I got dropped from the Australian cricket
team, right? SO2IN for two out go.
And see, my best mate on cricket, he got picked, he
replaced me, right? And it was one of those things,
the very next game we're playingdown in SA, Adelaide Oval, which
is not exactly the, you know, bowler friendly.
Yeah, fast bowler Mecca have you?
(24:23):
Yeah. And I remember this conscious
thought that I had, we were going down there and I was.
And you've sort of found now, sorry, it was a couple of games
later, couple of games later, the next game was NSW at the
Gabba and I found myself trying too hard because and feeling
unlucky because all of a sudden,you know, the nick that didn't
carry or they'll be able to comeaway or something just didn't
(24:46):
happen. You don't live life feeling
unlucky. And that ultimately the only
team or people that talk about being unlucky, everyone's the
only refer to being like luck happens to be the loser because
they they're unlucky. And they're they're, they're
blaming something of. Course they are.
And So what that I, I presence of mind go right, Well, that's
(25:08):
not me. I can't do that.
So we're playing SA Adelaide Oval and I stopped and I thought
what was I doing before I playedfor Australia and physically
what how was my mind? What was I thinking about?
And the word fun came flying in there and it was, it was about
that. It was about, yeah, that's
right. I was actually at a song in my
(25:29):
mind, head bang, having fun off the field, on the field, having
a laugh or having a joke and taking that pressure away.
So I went into that game and didexactly that, got 5 wickets.
You brought it back to your roots.
You brought it back to why you play the game.
And that to me was one of those great lessons that I've taken
into life are. You do you feel like you're
(25:50):
having fun still in life? And I in a business sense, yeah,
I've tried to incorporate that. Not taken too seriously.
You're a serious person. Or you can, yeah.
No, no, definitely I can be. But at times I think in a
business context you, you do gotto, you know, obviously head
down and all the rest of it whenimportant.
But the interesting thing is in a business sense, you don't
(26:11):
necessarily the team, the peopleyou're with, it's a very
different environment from a sporting team.
Granted you've all direct in OneDirection.
There's a trophy or a title you're chasing and everyone's,
you know, all these different skills, maybe we're going that
direction. But I've found in a business
sense, 18 years, lots of different experiences, I've
(26:32):
always found business as an individual sport.
Yeah, right. And in that, not necessarily
that we're all going One Direction, but it's quite at the
end of the day, it's not necessary for anyone to share
their toys. So the motives are different,
you think in business and there's a bit of selfishness
(26:53):
not, or I wouldn't say selfishness, maybe lack of
transparency of what the motivesare in business.
Maybe feel like, well, I've, I've got, I want to make
1,000,000 bucks or something. You know, the, the difference is
could be monetary, could be something else.
Whereas as a, as a team, maybe there's a World Cup coming up.
So that would be, you know, a highlight that you're all in
that together. Oh, some of the most
(27:13):
narcissistic people I've ever met were actually not in the
Australian greed dressing room and actually in in a business
context. And you talked about the four
good games a season. How do how do you translate that
to a business year? Well, it comes down to
expectation again. Now obviously if you've listed
company, you've got. Yeah, we've got 1/2 yearly full
(27:33):
year result. Yeah, unprofitable quarterly,
yeah. Absolutely.
And one of the things I've foundon my time and my 8 1/2 years on
the board of Cricket Australia, so as a director of Australian
cricket, was that. But my concept of the
shareholder and what I don't think really was understood from
(27:54):
with cricket and sport doesn't understand this.
When you've got a shareholder, the difference between the
stakeholder and shareholder. Stakeholders investing money,
but easy, their dividend is financial back, they're happy.
Give them a report as you say, they're happy.
Stakeholder has invested time and emotion now whether they're
(28:15):
volunteering they're pretty muchthat's where it comes from.
What you find is that understanding the dividend how
what they're actually expected how you actually tangibly yeah,
what is find it and they don't and no one sort of does it.
But one of the things I like to think I did harness it was I was
listening because they want to be heard and that is exactly the
(28:36):
dividend they want because that time and investment in
emotionally in the sport, they just want to be heard.
You know, and I found quite funny at the Gabba, Oh, I'm not
that in my board capacity. I was going around swanning
around and red wine stained teeth and which is how I used to
always as a player. That's generally how we come
(28:57):
across the board directors of Cricket Australia.
The only time you'd see me in a wedding dressing room and like I
said, red wine saying teeth, notmy style.
And the Gabba Test match, thoughI was always representing I'd be
at the Gabba. I had a guy come to me once and
say Casper must be awesome beingon the board.
I said, why's that? They said because you have the
(29:17):
best seat in the house. There's the food, there's wine,
you're entertaining. It's it's you're.
Behind the glass, watching cricket.
I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, not a 90% humidity. I said, you know how every job
has a shit factor? He said.
Yeah, I said, what do you reckonthe shit factor being on the
board of Create Australia is? I see, I said.
(29:38):
You have to listen to everyone tell you what's wrong with
Australian cricket. And for me that's what came
through loud and clear and I wasalways available, always
listening to people. Not that I could actually do
anything. It's not our job as board
members, that's management, CEO and management to implement
strategy. But we just look at risk, I
suppose, when you're on a board.And so that for me was sort of,
(30:01):
I guess the other thing is sort of understanding.
Yeah, that's where my journey's taken me.
Christine Finnegan, who's the CEO of the Jack Jumpers
basketball team, I interviewed recently, she said she said
feedback is a gift to her. And I thought that's an
interesting way of putting it. How did you deal with feedback
being dropped 13 times? Well, our performance is so
(30:24):
visible, so you're getting feedback on the Monday morning
paper, aren't you? Yeah, or from.
And nowadays you're getting a lot more feedback from blogs and
social media right than your day.
But certainly it's probably pronounced more now.
Well, I think it's the opportunity.
But did you know a couple of times you reckon you were going
to get dropped? Yeah, yeah.
Because you know your spot, you know that you're in, and even if
(30:45):
you took 100, you got 5 or whatever, you dominated.
Yeah, Glenn McGrath was coming back.
And that's, you know your piece,you know where you're fit.
In the team as well, absolutely.As opposed to business, maybe
you said individually, right? Yeah, yeah.
I think that's where even the the role, I guess of 12th man.
I was did a lot of tours with the Australian side.
(31:07):
Did I get on the park all the time?
No was I around? Was I, you know, was IA good
present man? But I think that helps not just
being frustrated about not playing, but actually helping
each other, helping the guys getready or being around.
And I guess I think I'd like to think that we left a good
impression with other players and talk about being, you know,
(31:28):
not a team man. And I suppose it's the branding,
but you're actually around supporting.
And so, you know, at the end of the day, selecting two different
players, you know they're going to pick someone that's going to
fit the environment. I've seen a little bit of an
example of that in in lower grade cricket where someone gets
out for a duck is a better and that's like how the the game's
(31:49):
done. That's it.
But they could crickets, they'rein the field.
They can do something in the game to change the game.
It's not necessarily their core.Like if you get taken off
bowling and you're down, you getyou're getting built and the
body language is down a little bit, but there's one moment in
the game can change entirely because of you.
And you need to keep your head up and keep being part of that
team and pick being present. And even the Brisbane Lions, I
(32:11):
think that when Oscar McInerney got injured and they Darcy
fought, came in the grand final and fired a Ripper of a game and
they won the title. And, you know, I mean, Oscar was
around that grand final. It was like not lamenting that
he was injured. It was their present the whole
day. And you did a lot of that.
And you're known for that as well, being a team person and a
team player. How do you take that into
(32:31):
business now? Oh.
You, you know, that's, and maybethat's the thing.
I haven't spent, you know, 20 years in management positions or
I'm not an engineer, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an accountant.
I did get a distinction in accounting actually.
You've got an MBA. Yeah, but I did my.
Yeah, but that means nothing. That's just a ticket to play,
(32:54):
maybe drive in business. That's all it is.
It's kind of not regarded that high in Australia, India, maybe
it's gold. But one of the things I've found
was for me was it maybe that's the frustration I've had is you
spend 20 years playing cricket professionally and all those
experiences you're going to get MBA, which like to see rounds at
off, you know, probably. But there's been roles I've gone
(33:16):
to into, you know, and being told straight, we can't compare
you with other candidates for this role because they've got 20
years management experience, right?
And you know, and that's just it's not as linear my journey.
And that's where for me consulting even the term an
entrepreneur, you know, like, you know, like to think
(33:36):
differently. You know my not just the Myers
Briggs, but your personality style or where it fits into.
And so a bit like your own performance as a cricketer, you
know your strengths, you know your weaknesses, where it all
fits. And rejection and resilience is
part of that now. So that that particular job
offer potentially was like, oh, OK, did you obviously took it on
(33:59):
board, you know, OK, well there's there's, there's better
fish out there, there's another,there's another job out there
for me, etcetera. Yeah, well, I had AI was had a
contract for two years working for a company called Telehub
huge big private equity they do smart metres in homes 25,000 a
month last two years with a sideproject was brought in just to
(34:21):
head up this side project to which I did go to a stage all
set to go and then they didn't renew my contract.
No thanks. We'll just take it down to
Melbourne now and run it there. And it's one of those things
that having been dropped, as I said many times, and look
ultimately is decision makers and you can know how it works
and that's fine. But taking lessons from that
(34:44):
experience is what I'm doing nowfrom, you know, the whole
journey. I think that's the way for me.
It's important to just, you know, that's where I'm in a real
good spot right now. Yeah.
Not sitting back kicking cans going, oh, look, you know, a
buddy. It's ridiculous.
So you know. I'm unlucky.
Well, exactly. And let's talk about the
(35:06):
business of sport at the moment.You talked about the PE group,
you talked a little bit about India just then, where sport and
cricket is huge. John Buchanan talked about a
programme is setting up in Indiaabout sport, et cetera.
We're seeing private equity enter sport in the UK in the in
the in the 100. Yes, we've got Cricket Australia
here where you've probably got private equity knocking on the
(35:26):
door of every Big Bash team saying heck, we get a piece of
this goldmine that Cricket Australia has held on for so
long, which you're you're part of.
Recently the Brisbane based private equity group acquired
the Jack jumpers. Yes.
How are you positioning and whatare you thinking about the
business of sport now where you know when you started playing,
Playing for Queensland? No, none of that.
No, it wasn't, but that was my goal entirely and I think my
(35:49):
skills, as I said before, from aplayer to board and with
Australian company directors graduate behind it as well.
So I understand the governance of it.
I was the CEO of Queensland creating an interim 6 month
period as well. I have actually done commentary
and it represented every stakeholder group essentially,
(36:10):
so I'd have seen it from every lens around how sport works,
being involved connections. I was on the Australia India
Council for Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for
six years with six people hand picked so about.
So I've got a lot of access understanding also about how
India works. So I'd love to combine all my
(36:31):
skills in that advisory capacity, but also, you know, a
fundraising. Yep, also because it's going to
be something really awesome coming up in sport.
We've just seen. I guess out of that you just
said 100 over in England, they've just made £500 million,
so a billion Australian dollars selling 49% of these 8 franchise
(36:55):
teams that they. To to can be the private equity,
high net worth, etcetera. You know, groups and in
particular, and this is where weknow some of those people, their
IPL teams, all their private equity from the US that have
actually invested and owned their own teams in the US, the
Major League Cricket over in theUS which it started out there's
I think there. Was I think, one of the
(37:17):
Microsoft founders involved in Seattle?
Yes, one of the franchises there.
Sachin Nadella along with his mate, I think.
He's like founder CEO, sorry. Yeah, CEO, who also is his mate
who I think Adobe CEO and all his Indian mates, but you know,
as a passion project, so they bought into the London spirit.
And so straight away you're looking at Australia and that's
(37:38):
even before talk about Saudi Arabia, right, Saudi interests.
Yeah, which is gone to EPL the the Premier League early, you
know. All that stuff.
And so it's a really great time and even someone said to me, oh,
but not in Australia, there's no, there's no investment in
sport. What are you going to do?
You can't find the Melbourne Demons, for instance, you know.
Well, I realised that, you know,like and I'll talk capital and
(38:01):
having had a couple of conversations with them as well
with what they do. They bought the Tasmanian Jack
jumpers as you said, but I even what I love around examples I
use for the business of sport. Wrexham welcome.
Yes, welcome that and the content as well the.
Content. So the Formula One, and I love
(38:23):
that, is they bought it for $4 million.
That was Ryan Reynolds and his mates as well, which.
No one can remember. That's right.
Yep. Sorry, not no one, but a lot of
people can't remember. Ryan.
Reynolds It's like the the U2, like oh, Bono, what's the bass
player's name? Kinda.
Like that anyway, he but they bought that for $4 million they
(38:43):
then someone mentioned it could be worth 400 now right now the
reason being that they've gone up into you know two different.
Divisions. Promotions.
Yep. But.
Obviously they filmed and they produced this whole series on
TV, but it was a storytelling. It was the storytelling around
that journey. That's the business of sport
right now and we've seen plenty of documentaries.
(39:06):
I even spoke with Al Graham fromSuncorp recently with our Bulls
Masters. We're up in far North QLD, I'll
come back to that later perhaps.But we, but I spoke to him, I
said mate, why didn't you go forWrexham?
That Wrexham that come out to Australia, 2 games here, one in
Wellington. He said oh look, I don't think
(39:27):
that really it's going to, you know, fill a stadium with that.
That's his job. The other side of it is that you
want to actually get Brisbane sold, Brisbane to the audience
that are going to be watching that show.
You know, like they're going to be coming here in 19 in 2032.
Yes, yeah. And that is the business of
sport tourism, The benefits for the TV show, for their coming
(39:50):
here. Sure, it's a game, it's a
novelty match, but when you think about the extended value
that actually brings, it's pretty exciting.
I did a a breakfast panel the other day about.
What was mentioned was Magic Round and Gather Round in the
AFL, which is a concept 10 yearsago didn't exist.
But then the QLD stakeholders bid for that and then now
(40:12):
there's apparently Gold Coast bidding for it and there's other
people bidding saying we want the Magic round.
And Adelaide's done a wonderful job with Gather Round in the
AFL. But it's not about the footy as
well. It's about the tourism, it's
about the the hospitality, it's about everything.
And the city has, you know, uplifts.
It goes nuts, doesn't it, when you see everyone come in and
theme jerseys and groups of blokes.
(40:32):
So they might do the Friday night game, but then the race is
Saturday. Yep.
And I think isn't there. There's conferences on now with
the magic, absolutely, the RNA and all that's.
Conveniently timed, of course, but I think that's reason why
and I think tourism is one thingtoo.
If you're going to go to India and everyone says to me, oh
Casper, I'd love to go and you see India the only and no one
(40:53):
knows where to go, what to do. But if you're going there to
watch sport, if you're going to watch an Australian Test series
or watch something like that, and I think that's the beauty of
sport. Sport does it gives you not so
much a reason, but it's a vehicle to go there and then
experience everything around it.When it comes to sport, you
watching now cricket, where do you sit?
You've got the 2020 game, you'vegot the Test game, you've got
(41:14):
the one day game, you've got Sheffield Shield.
Different combinations when you were growing up, where?
Where do you see the future of cricket in line with the
business of sport? I think it's confusing for a lot
of people and even, you know, someone mentioned it's about,
you know, I think next weekend is the world test.
Championships in Lords, South Africa.
(41:35):
South Africa. I didn't hear that play any of
this right. I was over there.
Yeah, And sort of it's like, oh,was it?
And they said, oh, you're not going over.
It's like, Nope. Well, you know, I'm not.
There's no junker to jump on fora start.
So. And it's confusing about who or
what and everything else. I think that's where these 2020
tournaments like our Big Bash set in stone.
You know, December, January, school holidays.
(41:56):
Bang. Tuesday night, Wednesday night,
Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night.
Yep, summer. It's relaxed.
People are relaxed. They turn the TV on.
There's no school, there's no homework.
No. And even I think international
schedule is blocked off for the IPO because it has to be that.
But what you're finding is that the Pakistan league start at the
same time the IPO, you've got the Major League Cricket going
(42:16):
to be starting. The calendar shuffling, huh?
Well, there's lots of that, but I think maybe Crick will get to
a stage where it ends up being abit like international football,
soccer, where there's all these tournaments, English Premier
League or that, but then there'll be World Cups or
(42:36):
competitions where your nationalteams come together.
Now the Australian cricket team,I think, look, you know, there's
an Australian team playing somewhere around the world
pretty much all year. And I was speaking with Brendan
Wilde actually, who is for Cricket Australia.
Wildy is actually head of I guess the, what's the term,
maybe all the grounds. So around every stadium, so
(42:59):
right through the Australian season, you've got every stadium
from Perth Optus to MCG, He's the boss of every ground.
He was saying that seven weeks is what we've got off.
He's head off all year because this summer we've got one T20
(43:20):
matches, I think in One Day Internationals against South
Africa in Cairns and Mackay. We've also got Darwin.
I think it's AT20 match up thereand you've got India coming out
for T 20s before the season starts.
And when I say the season, we'retalking about the Ashes.
And the most exciting part aboutthat is the fact that days 1-2
(43:44):
and three at the Gabba are sold out right now.
And that just shows you the interest there.
I know the MCGI think they're doing the same.
I've got the 220,000 the pre sale that day.
There you go, and I. Think.
That gives you a good example ofthe importance and the value of
Test cricket. It's still number one.
It is absolutely number one. That's got to stay that way.
(44:08):
Fantastic. The India series last year was
magical as well and sort of reinjuvenated with Sam Constance
a little bit entertainment and theatre as well, you know,
chucked in there. But you know, Test cricket
versus 2020. How did you position your your
son to play cricket? Like go out and belt the hell
out of it or just, you know, do the front, you know, block 100
balls. What's where's the thinking now
(44:29):
from maybe an 18 year old? We didn't have that conversation
in the car the drive home. Not the 15 minutes, no, no.
No, I think it's just, look, when you're seeing kids playing
reverse sweeps and all the rest of it, go for it.
Do it, enjoy. You know, this thing on TV,
you've seen the best players do it and master it.
I think that's the other side ofit.
The the benefit is, you know where this is going to take us
(44:50):
in the future. The skills are going to be even
better than they are today. More versatile in in regards to
the testing and kind of the actual shots involved, yeah.
But even John Buchanan, I think back in the day, yeah, he was
sort of trying to get players tolearn to, to throw left and
right handed. Yes, the you mentioned that
about the becoming a versatile 2020 players, a person that can
(45:11):
bowl left and bowl right. I mean AFL kick left, kick
right. Well, we've seen that even I
think in the IPL there was a it.Was a county cricket guy
switched as well? Yeah, yeah, he might play in the
IPL. There was AI think.
It was Sri Lankan guy, spinner was coming in bowling left and
right arm. You do obviously have to tell
the umpire. Yeah, and it might be.
And when you think about it, yeah, sure.
(45:32):
With shorter boundaries, one side left, right handers.
The the run outs in 2020 in the field.
That's fielding. 1st I tell Michael I, I ask my guests this
in around sport is their favourite all time sporting
moment. I'm curious to know what yours
is, whether it's involved you orwhether it didn't involve you or
both. Look.
(45:53):
One of the things I get asked isdo you miss the game?
And in a roundabout way I said no, I'll tell you the things I
miss. Not necessarily I miss
competing. As you get older, it doesn't
work as well. But you miss the dressing room.
And so when you say special moments, for me it was actually
(46:16):
dressing rooms. And for me the number one was
India 2004 when we won the 1st Water Gavaska Trophy for 1000
years. And the best part about that was
that he was with mates. I'd been there in 9798 with,
sorry, 98 with the Australian team.
(46:37):
We lost. So we lost that series 2001.
The famous series. Yep.
The harbours 30 puffs and the hat trick and.
And I was batting with. Them very, very special Laxman
getting. Yeah, that was in 500, sorry,
Eden Gardens. And so, yeah, same thing.
We lost that one full strength. But then going back in 2004, I
(47:01):
remember saying to Dizzy Jason Gillespie on the plane, not that
we would drink breaking any beerdrinking records to India, but
over a beer I just said to him, I said we've got to change the
way we do this. And so the tactic was to bolt to
the Indian strength and so we came up with a plan to bowl
Australia, meaning off stump because normally that doesn't
(47:24):
work because I'll just flick youto the lakeside.
Wants to reverse psychology. Well, what happens, Yeah, what
we did was actually have two menback on the deep on the lakeside
one, maybe even forward a squareleg which was almost like a
sweeper as well. So if you did hit it to
Lakeside, you weren't getting a boundary run one, force them
back with two men back by hook shot if you want to.
You'd also have a short mid wicket if they flick it out of
(47:46):
instinct, if it's in the air, we'll get you and deepen it on
bit what bit straighter as well.And we executed with that plan
and we executed well. Without going into too many
details, Ram, that to me was thebest sporting moment when we had
something so different from the typical Australian plan, what
(48:08):
we've been doing for years and been so successful doing, which
didn't work in India. And so for me, and I guess that
was it, that, you know, taking yeah, that, that, that for me
was the number one. You know how you talked about
surprising? You surprised them because they
came out and they're like, that's normally a boundary.
(48:30):
That's right. And they're like busted.
I remember even watching a game when like the defence breaks up
in basketball or something and they're like opposite.
I normally go to my right to layit up, but I can't do that.
They get frazzled. You frazzled them.
Yeah, exactly. And another question I ask is
your scoreboard moment, which isa moment in your life which you
can remember very, very vividly.And it's almost like a Kodak
(48:51):
moment that you go. I remember that moment.
And from then something changed.So 1998, I mentioned before
India, conveniently, I think everyone was injured.
All the fast bowls are injured. So I was leading the Australian
bowling attack in India, easily the toughest, most hardest
(49:12):
conditions, you know, 30 or 5° plus flat wicket, Not AI, don't,
not a blade of grass, let alone a living Organism in the wicket,
which isn't great for fast bowlers generally.
And we lost, we lost two, the first two Test matches against
India. Tendulk was on fire before that
game. I actually remember well two
(49:34):
things before the game and we'reDennis Lily coming around down
the field. It was like an Oasis, this guy
walking around the greatest fastbowling resource of all time.
Dennis was there and I just saidto him, oh mate, come to watch
training. He was over there with the MRF
Pace Foundation helping their young fast bowlers.
I said, Dennis, you've been watching Tendulkar.
(49:55):
What do you reckon is there's something he's technical,
something he's spotted. He looked at me, look skywards,
rubbed his beard, a bit of a beard, Come back down.
He said no mate, just make sure you walk off with pride.
So when the greatest fast bowl of all time had nothing, it was
like right, good luck then. However, I was talking to Java
(50:17):
Gal Srinath before the game thathe won fast bowl to fast bowl.
I have a chat. I said what's the secret?
It was reverse swing mate. And he said you've got to keep
the rough side dry and out of that.
It's got nothing to do with sandpaper.
Don't worry, that's a lot of shit.
Never did have anything to do with it, mind you.
So it was keeping the rough sidedry of which I mentioned to our
(50:41):
team. I said right, you know the
second innings. So instead of the ball going the
keeper to the slip to the gully to.
Which is the traditional kind ofway.
The ball was actually getting walked over.
Hole held, two fingers bang, andI was.
I'm a good perspirer, a good sweater.
Well, I mean, you're in India aswell.
Well, I'm one of the best to think speak to so you've you're
my mates, your. VIP.
(51:02):
That they'd endorse that and it's literally from middle off
and grab it with two fingers. And all of a sudden from that
experience, I ended up getting 5to 28.
We ended up winning the Test match.
And so the take away from that, and I've always used this in
every part of my life and certainly in a business context
(51:24):
is you have to adjust your skills to suit the conditions,
adjust your skills that you might have that work to suit
those conditions because it might fancy out swingers work at
the Gabba, they're not going to work at Chinnaswamy Stadium and
find a way find. And that's where for me, as a
theme, I think, you know, obviously from the cricket side
(51:45):
of things, I'd love to take themto into everything we do these
days. So you've got your
controllables, your skill set, your mindset, everything to go.
But then you've got the externalfactors, the weather, the
ground, the crowd, everything you need to adjust and adapt and
move and think quickly. And I think cricket, more than
any other sport really, we've got all these external
influences on out my performancethat I have no control over.
(52:07):
So you've got, as you said, the weather.
I've got a pitch, I've even got an umpire determining how
successful I am. Out of your control.
Absolutely. And it can't waste any time
worrying about that stuff. You have to prepare yourself the
best you can and you know it'll dish up whatever results, but
put yourself in the best position and if you like, own
(52:29):
your journey by doing that in your preparation and what you do
so that you give yourself the best chance to succeed.
Cass, we're going to finish on acouple of a couple of fun
things. One's a trivia and one's a
scoreboard scramble, which I do.But trivia which you might not
know or you might know, but do you know how many balls you
bowled as a cricketer in in first class including list?
(52:51):
AII haven't I've known it's a lot.
Like I said, 19 years now I've taken is IT500955 wickets.
In First I, I don't have that step, but I know it's over 500
for Queensland, which still is the record. 900 Yeah, it is.
I don't. Think anyone's close by?
The way not with bowling workloads these days.
I you don't think you think you'll be forever.
There's no way with bowling workloads these days.
(53:13):
I think nieces in the two hundreds I think currently even.
With sports science, the way they've come in, in control
anyway. It's a bit like the thousand
goals with Tony lately. I should be endorsing sports
science. Thank you.
So. Much.
There you go. We're looking for a sponsor.
We're looking for a sponsor as well.
So don't worry, we're not sure what.
Sport science really is, anyway.Oh look, I'm gonna say if you're
saying four day cricket, Yep, one day cricket.
(53:35):
And including. Sorry, over 50,000.
Can I throw some Twenty 20s in as well?
You've got you. You bowled 42 balls in 2020
internationals. Internationals, Yeah, including
the. Very first.
The very first one, which was kind of a gimmick.
Well, I got 4 for four for 20 odd.
And they had the the bigs and all.
Yeah, I was, I mean all the retro gear, it was the very
first time it was a bit of fun. And what was the most
(53:57):
disappointing thing out of that is I didn't get Man of the Match
4 weeks for 20 odd. Well, what on the batters get
it? Did they?
Yeah, Ricky. Ponting really 8090?
So what, 80 versus A4 for an yeah. 2020, yeah.
You reckon the you reckon the five for 100 things similar.
Yeah, it's similar. It's always has been as a as.
A as a, yeah. Has anyone ever thought about
(54:17):
the data behind that? Or is it just kind of?
Well, put it this way, I'm with.Come on, data.
Solvers suggested when we walk off, if you've taken a fifer,
get the ball in hand and walk off holding the ball in the air
and salute the crowd just like so.
We do that. Every bowler does that now.
You had a 5 for a Test. You salute the crowd at the end
when you're walking off. Were you in the era where that
50 became the reverse bat thing?Because that's the thing now
(54:40):
really, where they put they raised the bit reversely now
because it's halfway to 100. Have you seen that in Test
cricket? They're the most stunning and.
When someone gets a 50 now you notice them on Test cricket.
You watch it, they'll put the the other side of the bat up as
the to the crowd to the 50 is. That another chance.
And then when they get 100, well, maybe, but then they get
100, they do the real. Really.
Yeah. Oh, OK.
(55:01):
Well, maybe. I've never noticed it.
I've the the the one that does stand out was when Jason
Gillespie scored his fifty at the Gabba and all of a sudden he
he started riding it like. The horse was that Adam Sandler
movie wasn't. It that was it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Happy Gilmore.
It was the Happy Gilmore celebration.
Well, I'll go through the answer, so this is this.
OK, I'm going to take a rough, rough guess.
Yeah, 75,000. Oh, you're a bit over there.
(55:28):
According to, you know, ChatGPT.It's given me all my questions
from my by the way, I don't know.
Yeah, it's none, None in my head, of course.
Well, this is what it says. 7140Test balls 2225 One day balls,
One Day International balls T20 International 427-O's first
(55:50):
class overall. This is a fun one. 49,377, yeah.
That's. List a 11,000 and 37 Yeah.
Well, the 60. You fight a lot of list that's
the all the one day what 70 and 2020 overall, which is maybe for
T20 for the estate maybe 200 and5240 odd overs.
(56:11):
It would have been about 10 games or something, so 62,000
and 73 there you. Go which comes to I thought.
If you look at the whole numbers, it's you've exceeded
10,000 overs. The other thing that you'd never
be able to find in a statistic is how many balls are bowled in
training. Well, that's on the ground.
(56:31):
Yep. Yeah.
So so 100,000. If there's 100,000 balls at a 20
metre run up. Now call it 20,000 overs then
you know that's the 120,000 makeit around number.
Why not? Yeah, I know.
So the 20,000 overs. Well, think about the distance
we run. No wonder my right knees squeal.
He's sitting here now. And the other, the other
(56:52):
question I ask is the school board scramble, which generally
combines it's, it's a word you have to spell backwards.
But because I've been doing a few podcasts and I kind of
combine the podcast, but let's just not combine the Cabas today
because I've got a good one for you and you need to, I'll give
you 20 seconds to do it. And it's a bit close to home.
You're going to have to spell now.
(57:12):
You're going to have to help me pronounce your last name again.
Cast. Kasparovich, Kasparovich.
Kasparovich. Kasparovich, I've got it.
You're going to have to spell Kasparovich backwards in 20
seconds. Your time starts now.
ZCIWORPSAK. Correct, ZCIWORPSAK.
(57:38):
And why don't you? Why don't you keep going with
your middle name and your first name?
TTOC SLEAHCIM Jackpot. That's extraordinary because
generally I can't remember a phone number, so all right.
(57:59):
My wife. Do you know your phone number?
Yeah. I think I think my wife's
actually diagnosed me ADHD wife diagnosed.
I think those most of us are most smiles are so I'm.
Going to I'm going to start quickly for people
ZCIWORPSAKTTOCSLEAH CIM. I'll tell you what, it'd be
(58:22):
maximum points in the game of Scrabble wouldn't.
It, it would be maximum points because there's Z, there's Z in
there. Oh, there you go.
Should call it the Scoreboard Scrabble.
But Michael Kaspowitz, thank youso much for coming on
Scoreboard, the podcast today toshare your journey, some
insights into around what sport was like for you, what life has
been like for you, what businessis like for you and intertwining
all of them together. Wish you well in the progress
(58:44):
with this private equity group that you're working for and
other ventures that you get yourself into overtime and
looking forward to catching up again.
Thanks, Chris.
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