Episode 182 - A 20/20 Flavour

We take a look at the up coming BBL Draft nominees and a Test Series between South Africa and the West Indies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Who are yah? Who are yah l?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I am buzzing for the football and now have a
hat trick this season with every live Premier League game,
plus you the Champions League and Europa League games for
the first time ever.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Belly Simo, I take it you're a Foxes fan, nah
united obviously with now stream Premier League you ate a
Champions League and Europa League games or with no contract?

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Now now you know eighteen plus now sports and sports
extra memberships required terms apply, Chase.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Two
Slips in the Galley. It is Aaron Squid with you to.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
Know what I'm doing? Great? Ready to talk about cricket again.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I know I'm sorry, but and holding everyone up. My
job's got funny hours and they don't end up lining
up with everyone else's jobs. But we're here, We've got
lots of cricket to talk about. Oh yes, where We'll
start off with just a brief for I did a
little video about it and I promise to talk about
it more on the podcast. The Major League Cricket too done,
Washington Freedom all the way?

Speaker 5 (01:22):
How good?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Smudge?

Speaker 5 (01:24):
Yeah, gotta love him. Oh look, I didn't see the
whole game. I watched some of the highlights. The man
was on fire.

Speaker 6 (01:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
You know, we've watched enough of Steve Smith over the
years to know when it's clicking into ear and he
always talks about his how his hands have a look
at some of the shots he played in that anyway,
the hands are back.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
It was good to watch it, watch and I suppose
it just goes to show just how good international T
twenty cricket is. That you're looking at Steve Smith and
this guy is not in the Australian setup and probably
deservedly so at his peak irect and you could push it,
but you'd say overall that Smith probably didn't, wasn't the

(02:04):
player that needed to go to the World Cup, and
that he's capable of pulling off innings like he did
in the final. So yeah, Ponting's men in the Washington
Freedom managed to steer them home and they he had
a cracker of a side, you know, ratchin Ravenda was
very good with the ball in the final. They brought
aj Tie in to replace an injured lockey Fergus and
Marco Jansen was unbelievable upfront. That team just had very

(02:28):
few holes in it. One of the only holes that
they were thinking about was just the form of Travis Head,
who was the MVP for the entire tournament, kept a
lot of their middle order out of the game.

Speaker 7 (02:40):
They he was burned, a bit of a burn a
bit of an innings hog, wasn't he.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, which, you know, to get him out what you
want out of your openers. I think you set a
record for most consecutive T twenty fifties. Obviously they going
about cheaply in the final, the San Francisco. San Francisco
Unicorns would have thought they were half in with a
shout getting in early, but you know, the Freedom managed

(03:05):
to keep getting contributions the whole way down. Andre Gauss
was great with Steve Smith. Steve Smith obviously paced that
in is with that with that eighty odd I personally
thought that Cory Anderson was a little bit too timid.
I thought they should have brought Cummings in to try
and bust that partnership up a lot earlier. He sort
of saved him for those sixteen and like the sixteen

(03:27):
and eighteen.

Speaker 5 (03:28):
Overs or the sixteen to the ninth sort of thing of.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
The seventeenth and the nineteenth over when they probably should
have spent one maybe on Smith a bit earlier, to
see if they could knock him over.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
Well, the way that he was going, he was the
key you needed to take him out. I mean, you
have a look at the scorecard and there's nothing really
else besides forty from Maxie right at the end, Maxie Door,
Maxie things and Andre Gausse got the twenty one and
that was That was probably the key partnership in.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
They covered a couple little cameo at the end there
as well. Yeah, yeah, which considering that when he's come
into the game, that was they were valuable runs. But yeah,
I just felt that they let that Maxwell Smith partnership
sort of just carry on a bit too long. They're
they're big gun. He sort of had this plan, I'm
going to give him two of the you know too
early on, and then I'll save two for the back

(04:16):
end when maybe you're sort of trying you sacrifice one
of those death overs to try and break that partnership
up a bit earlier.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
But yeah, possibly a lack of maybe captaincy experience here
as well. I mean, when you think of Corey Anderson
as the captain, it's not really the first thing that
comes to mind, isn't. I don't remember him captain any
any other teams that I've seen him playing.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
YEA, very much struck of this is how we're going
to do things. I've a plan in my.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
Head and we're not going to move from.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know, within reason. We're not going to deviate too much.
I've got Cummins and co. Lined up to get us
through the death overs and we'll just sort of make
it work. I'm surprised they didn't give himself a bit
of a bowl as well, just to maybe just give
Smith and Maxie a bit of a differ look. But yeah,
those two really just powered the freedom on and yeah
they were very much the deserved winners of Major League

(05:08):
Cricket too when it was a fantastic tournament all around.
Love to spend some time deep diving into it, but
it is a tournament. I think that's got some staying
power again.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
I am my big thing with these new two twenty competitions.
I'm looking at the crowd, and particularly when I'm looking
at the crowd in the MLCO, I'm looking at who's
in the crowd, and each year there's more and more
Americans in the crowd. Yeah, it's growing. It's never going

(05:41):
to be a huge sport in America, but certainly there's
enough there for it to be a niche sport. And
no sport makes very very good money in America.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, obviously now we've talked about it, Adnaors and whenever
we've brought this up, is that the big test for
Major League cricket is to get those stadiums up and running.
I believe that there's two in the works. I can't
remember who who they're for. If they're not LA in
New York, then I tea what they're doing. Those two
teams like they're the big hubs, like Los Angeles, New York.

(06:15):
That's not stuff around. There's there's there's more people that
live in the greater Los Angeles area than live in
our country exactly. You know, you've got to get Los
Angeles cricket fans attending Los Angeles night Rider games. They'd
have to be a massive subcontinent contingent.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Is at Silicon Valley, which is full of South Asian immigrants. Basically,
you've got a captive audience there just on a little
bit of a sidelight talking about wickets and stuff like that.
I said that I release the ratings for the wickets
in the last twenty twenty World Cup, what is that? Yeah,
and both New York but a negative. I would imagine

(06:55):
the other one that got the negative. But yeah, New
York was appalling as a cricket I mean.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I love the idea of trying to get the World
Cup front and center in the biggest city in the world.
But yeah, it would have been the ICC would have
been fairy disappointed with the quality of the wicket there was.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
Because it didn't showcase the true nature of t twenty cricket.
It became a dour, scrapping fight, which is not what
we want to be showing to these people. We want
to show them putting balls over the fence, but we
want to show them people Bylin ninety five miles from now.
That's the things that we want to highlight in the
game to them.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I hope it wasn't the Florida wicket, because I don't
think any rate of that Florida wicket would be a
bit unfair, considering it was underwater for the majority of
the tournament. But no, that's the big step. Now we've
had two seasons. There've been two pretty good seasons. In
terms of the quality that's offered. And I think what's
been very impressive. Netra Volga, a US national, was the

(07:55):
leading wicket taker. There was quite a few American players and.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
They've represented well in the in the overall stats of
the time.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, and considering there's I think there's what there's six
overseas players that are allowed in into these into the
run on elevens. Yeah, there've been some been representation from
American like you know, naturalized American players, players that have
been playing in the American system, which is good for them.
So they're they're showing that they do have talent that
can play at a competitive franchise level. So ideally, I

(08:31):
think in the next few years you may be looking
at turning that from six to four. I think I
think that the big showcase is getting big names to
come and play in America. So I don't think there'll
be a big thing where it's going to be like
like the Big Bash where they've only got two imports
or three imports per per run on.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Eleven that the game there can't afford that at the moment.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, I think it's going to be one that is
going to be very much driven by the imports, but
I would like to maybe see it maybe even five year,
five imports and six.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, we're able to face another.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
American in but at the moment they don't need to
fiddle around too much with what's going on over there.
Other than so there needs to be more cricket infrastructure
over there. Fantastic tournament. As I said, anyone that's followed
the podcast for a period of time has known that
I've been harping on about cricket in the United States.
It's about episode ten and all be up to now
the one hundred and eighties.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Up in one hundred and eighties now. So look, since
I've been here, we've been at this, you know what
I mean. And I'm totally on board with pretty much
everything you say in regards to it. In regards to
the development of cricket in America, it's an apple waiting
to be pulled off the tree, but you've got to
pull it off carefully so you don't destroy the tree.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
And as we've talked about a lot of times, if
it gets to somewhere, even taking Major League Soccer as
sort of the barometer, the barometer of a sport that
was is you know, the majority of Americans would treat
with hostility as it's an European sport. There's obviously it's
managed to you know, they've come in. It's taken a while,

(10:10):
but it's thrived, it's grown. It's now attracting talent like
Lionel Messi him in midtedly at the end of his career.
But they've had to fork out big dollars, so there's
obviously money has gone in there.

Speaker 5 (10:19):
And just on a side note, he's been absolutely fantastic
value for Major League Soccer. He really has. He has
put so many bums on so it's and his performances
have been excellent. So there is.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Room for traditional non American sports if managed correctly to
eke out a market share. Now, what would be the
ICC's dream would be if they can get America just
involved at a relatively comprehensive level that's earning some money,

(10:52):
and then that money can then be used to in
the revenue sharing system. To help imagine if it takes
off and becomes one of like rivals the I p
L and India's I think it's going to rival properly
rival the money that India puts in. But if you're
getting that maybe somewhere around the England Australia level. You've

(11:15):
got that's that's a significant amount of money heading into
World Cricket which they can then use so obviously help
out other nations and things like that. So if it's
done properly, it is such a vast revenue stream for
the ICC, So I think that that's going to be
a big push for them for the You know, obviously
the Olympics in Los Angeles have got T twenty cricket there,

(11:37):
which there was a big push for that, so there's
a big more much to keep.

Speaker 5 (11:41):
Cricket relevance in that match is going to be a
key particularly say for arguments, say you had an American
team that did particularly well in the home Olympics.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I don't think that you'll see in American side. I believe,
without having looking too much into it the qualifications, I
think it's only going to be the eight sides that
goes through.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
So I would have thought the smartest thing there would
be to have a qualification tournament, something like we have
in the World Cup, where you get these meno nations
who have the opportunity to get there.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
There's not enough infrastructure in the United States to have
a proper big tournament, so I believe I'll probably have
qualifiers leading up to it, but it'll only be six teams,
six or eight teams, and the United States won't be
in the top eighty twenty playing nations in the world.
You wouldn't imagine, so.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
You're thinking, but it'd be nice, So that would really
be that would be such a kick along for the
game if that actually eventual eventuated. Probably not going to
if they're going to just do it by strict ic rankings.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
But again, this is very early days as so I
don't etch what I've written in Stone, but I believe, yeah,
that they were talking about it being only an eighteen
tournament for the because obviously they're limited as to where
they can play the games. I'm wondering whether or not,
I suppose it's twenty two, there's four years in place,

(13:01):
whether there's any considerations about playing any of those games
in the Caribbean. But yeah, while there's not a lot
of cricket infrastructure, obviously can't then have a big World Cup,
you know, size tournament happening alongside the Olympics because they
just don't have the grounds to support that. But yeah.
So there's a big push for cricket in the United States.

(13:22):
So I think it's in a good spot. I think
it's moving well and go to the Washington Freedom I
still haven't heard how I can buy a jersey. Every
time I try to buy one, they won't ship out here.
I'm really annoyed. Help us the out come on. Help
help an Australian Freedom fan out.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
There's got to be there's got to be some smart
businessman out there who can jockey himself one hundred of
OD shirts and get on the out here and a
pop up store.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Give Smudge himself some money if you can bring one
back for me.

Speaker 5 (13:50):
Absolutely we signature all right.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Right after this, we're gonna have a bit of a
chat about the South Africans and the West Indies. There
just used to two Tests tournament. South Africa has played
another Test series against the West Indies, two teams that
don't get to play quite a lot of Test cricket.
And if Glenn were here, he'd already be lamenting that

(14:15):
why there's only a two Test series.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
Our second is Lament. I personally think two Tests series
are just an absolutely waste of time.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
So South Africa won the Series one, Neil, there was
a gritty draw at the for the second test to
keep the series alive, so there would be a chance
in a third for the Windys to fight back and
try and draw the series. But yeah, I think at
the end of the day, South Africa were probably the
better team.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Yeah, the performances in the games would suggest. So however,
the Windys they keep showing us that there's something there, don't.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Main It is a frustrating thing for the West Indies
is they look like they're a seam that you just
like you're done with, like just put them to sleep,
take them out behind the shed, put them out of
their misery. And then they'll do things like the Gabbap
and you're like, yes, this is awesome, well done. And
then they come back and then it's just like where
is that that same grit, that same determination, that same

(15:13):
execution that you showed in that one. And there's just
there's just moments that a lot of the time that
that cost them that they're they're in the fight, or
you know, they look like they're keeping up for a
little while, and then they'll stumble and they'll fall behind
and then they'll claw their way back in and then
they'll stumble and it's just like you know, so the
first the first Test, the first innings and not South

(15:36):
Africa over three fifty seven. That's not a not a
great bowling effort, but it's not certainly not a bad one.
But you know they showed in that that there was
you know, there was enough in the wicket to you know,
keep them interested. They kept taking wickets at sort of
semi regular intervals. No one really got stuck in to
make a big score. It was just lots of small contributions,

(15:57):
you know, seventy eight from Desorzi, eighty six from timber
rumor forty one from Vanne Maulder at the you know,
not out and you know just sort of like, you know,
if you could get in there and just capitalize a
little bit, you get turned that three fifty into two eighty.
And then the Windys, you know, they get off to
a fairly decent start. Brathweight thirty five of one hundred

(16:19):
and thirty one, Mikael Lewis thirty five off ninety and
then you had Casey Cardy forty two off eighty one
in the top three. I mean they batted twenty six
overs before losing a wicket, so they were won for
fifty three and then twenty six they lost a wickets.
Forty ninth thoughver was when they lost their second wicket,
and then fiftieth over their third fifty six, seventy seventy five,

(16:42):
seventy six, eighty three, eighty five, eighty seven, ninety one.
So it's just they get off to again. Okay, look
it's not a great start, but there's a platform there,
and then it's just there's now.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
And if you're going to do a total analysis of
West Indies cricket at the moment, it basically comes back
to that they just don't have the batsmen. They really
just don't have even one really world class batsman to
stand up and lead the way for the batters they

(17:19):
seem to be. They get to a situation where they're
basically four out all out and you're just not going
to win too many Test matches like that. You need
you need to have your top order going on and
making big runs, and nobody in that top four went
on got a fifty.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
So Athnanza showed a lot of grit in the in
the second ining to actually secure that first Test for
the draw, getting ninety two. But then in this one
Brathwait's out for a duck, Mikhael Lewis is out for nine,
there's a start from Casey Cardy and then it's just

(17:55):
it's just that's, I think is the real big issue.
I think it's a similar issue that England had recently,
where they had a world class bowling attack that would
keep them in games, but if Joe Root didn't score
any runs, then they were and they were stuffed, whereas
the West Indies don't even have that. They don't even
have a Joe Root too. That's a builder end. And
then in the next one they knock over South Africa

(18:18):
for one hundred and sixty admittedly a livelier wicket, but
you're laughing at.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
But you're still take it. Your bowlers are still done
the business, haven't they.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
And then you come out and you managed to score
one hundred and forty four and then at one stage
he was seven for fifty seven for sixty or something,
when it's just like South to South Africa responded with
two forty six all out and then West Indies for
forty run short chasing two sixty three get two hundred
and twenty two in the fourth innings, and again it's
just and like I don't want to read too much

(18:46):
into this particular one because it looks like it wasn't
a great wicket.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
To battle pretty lively.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
But it's just, you know, you can only make so
many excuses for their for their batting lineup. Is you know,
someone's got to stand up and and do the run.
I mean, we talked about consistently, we talked about Brathwait
being that lynch pin, but Brathwait's like, in considering the
amount of tests that he's played as one of the
worst batsman currently going around in terms of the record

(19:16):
that he's been doing, like, he's a fairly consistent opener.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
But it's just you can't just average thirty or as
an opener.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
It doesn't It's just where do the West Indies go
from here? And it's just how they're pushing too hard
for the for the youth movement. Like but I suppose
again in this one they got rid of the guys
like Kirk McKenzie and and that were struggling so much
against England's But you know, would they have been better off,

(19:43):
I don't know, keeping someone like a you know, for
an example, like a Blackwood in there that's been there
and done that. Maybe just a little bit to a
bit of experience. I mean, is it worth going back
to someone like shy Hope who is a proven one
day performer and at least knows his game.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yeah. Look, I'd actually be tempted to go to a
guy like shy Hope and say, listen, we need you
to come and play some test cricket. And if you
come back and play test cricket, we're going to give
you a run. Okay, we're going to Now you can
book yourself in for the next two or three Tests
series barring injury, but we want you to play this role.
Just come in and open, come in at number three

(20:23):
and anchored the innings like you're doing one day cricket.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Just someone who has faced international opposite. I mean, I
know that it's it's not as simple like you saw
Aaron Finch who was an excellent one day player and
just could not crack first class cricket. But I just
think that that's the there's too many bits and pieces
players that haven't really you know. I mean, Keaveem Hodge
were all like, yeah, look at this guy. He just

(20:47):
scored one hundred and you look at him, he's thirty two.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Well, I mean that was a bit of a deflation
for me because I was saying him, he doesn't look
thirty two. I must admit I thought he's a young
fellow there. Found he's going to be in for a
few years and make some runs. But he's thirty two.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
And you know, I think from looking at his first
class record that it's going to be one of those
thirty two year olds that every now and then or
chip him with a score, usually get a start. But
he's not really someone that you can build your team around.
And you know, is it worth trying to persist? You know,
Athananz looks like he's going to be a does like
a good plan, but he looks like he's shouldering too

(21:23):
much of that middle order role on his own.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
And already already he hasn't even played ten Test matches, mate,
So is.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
It worth doing an SOS to get someone like a
Shy Hope who's you know, a very well credentialed international
batsman in the shorter forms and just seeing that if
you know now that a bit like a Mitch Marsha
at a situation, you know he's old enough now he's
well traveled, he knows his game inside and out. Maybe
now is the time to try and get him back in.
I don't know behind the scenes whether or not it's

(21:52):
something that shy Hope's got any interest in.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
I know that obviously that the franchise got it all
around the world, so he's he's clearly in the minds
of franchise and obviously which is going to keep him
in demand.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Very lucrative playing that. And I know that the West
Indies pay package for test cricket is not what it
used to be. But so by the same token, Jason
Holder is a mainstay in most franchise competitions around the world.
Still comes back and place, he finds some way to
get in and play test cricket. So surely there is
you know, some wiggle room there for the West Indies

(22:27):
Cricket board to approach some of these, you know, these
players that are a little bit more seasons and get
them in there. Like I think Mikyle Lewis and Athnansei
are two players that look really good. I think that
there is a certain.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Mikyle Lewis I think looks like a very good player.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
But you can tell there's some seasoning that needs to happen.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
He's a bit impetuous for an opener that the shots
that he gets out to are very very aggressive at
the stage when he probably doesn't need to be.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
There's no issue with the aggression that it's it's also
the timing, like, okay, you're three overs from lunch. Yes,
you're a natural stroke maker, but maybe is it worth
just shelving that for the next twenty minutes and just
get into lunch, get yourself reset, come out of getting
just things like that. That was something that I noticed
a lot in that England series. Obviously didn't see much

(23:15):
of the South africone in terms of actual highlights, but
certainly something that happening. And Kirk mackenzie were two that
were just criminal for that would look okay, and then
they would just play an absolute dog of a shot
like what are.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
You and the thing is the dog of the shop.
A dog of a shot comes from absolutely nowhere. Yeah,
as well, like the cruise along, they're under control, let
and the ball go nicely. You're playing solid defense and
then you're trying to blast off the front foot a
length ball that is it's not there, man, you can't
do that.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Flicking around to the other side of things. I just
want to give a massive shout out to Kegizo Robarta
as he continues to just beat the record be excellent.
I was talking to someone online and working it out.
If you take Ribarda's record and then extrapolate it to
the same amount of innings that Dale Stain played as

(24:08):
a Test cricketer, Ribarda ends up with more wickets, which
I think is an absolutely astonishing statistic when you consider.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
Dalet Dale's greatest bowlers of all.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Not only that, but just the record pace that he
took his wickets, Like, this isn't a guy like Anderson
or Broad that just shurned away and played forever. This
is a guy that took wickets at an incredible rate
of knots. His strike rate is obscene, Like when you
are out pacing Dale Stain that you are in you

(24:39):
are a serious bowler, and you know Robarda is now
up to three hundred wickets. I don't think just with
the amount of cricket that the South Africans are playing,
that he's ever going to get some of those really
stratispheric wicket totals. But I think that average and strike
rate is going to be right, very very low when
he's going to hold himself territory.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
That's sort of like those sort of numbers.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, they're just he's got Marshall and Garner covered. I
think he's got the lower strike right for anyone that's
taken I'd have to double check those figures. I'm pretty
sure he's got the lower strike right for anyone that's
taken three hundred Test wickets. Just just an obscene.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
That he's still a relatively young man. Yeah, I mean
there's thirty yet.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
There's plenty of cricket ahead of him. It'll just be
it'll be whether or not South African crickets, you know,
goes the way sort of New Zealand, where some of
their players, as they sort of get into that back
end of their prime, start looking at franchise cricket and
there's less drive to represent their country. Things like that.

Speaker 5 (25:39):
You don't see that with Roberto. I've read quite a few.
I tend to read pretty much anything to do with it.
I think it's just a fantastic boll and. The last
interviews I've read, he was really really talking about desire
for Test cricket and he wants to play a lot
of Test cricket and he wants at South Africa to
play more Test.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Cricket, which is good, Which is good.

Speaker 5 (25:58):
South Africa as strong Test team, Test crickets usually pretty strong. Okay,
we can't have a true, really competitive Test Championship without
South Africa being right there in the mix.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
With the exception. So India has been fairly strong. In Australia,
they've they've dropped the ball a little bit and suppose
England in their last tour they went, so they've they've
started to travel pretty well. But outside of that, the
last team that really was a team for all seasons
was was that South African side that Grahames won Villiers
hashim Amla jark Kallis Era and they went over to

(26:35):
England they won. They came over here and they won.
They went over the subcontinent they won. So yeah, South
Africa is up. Until like this latest edition of this,
this Indian side was a team for all seasons. They
went everywhere. Obviously, a truly match winning spinner was probably
the thing that stopped them being this generation's West Indies.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
True, but in he's another spinner River, So I mean,
I don't think that that's a really fair comparison because
I think basically both of those nations have always tended
to base the core attack around fast bowling. South Africa
has always done it. I mean you look, Maharaj is
now leading wicket taker for South Africa as a spinner.

(27:20):
He's got one hundred and seventy wickets.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, he's overtaken Hugh Tayfield. Yeah, played before the First
World War. No, he actually played with Richie Beno and
that stuff was a bit later that one. Yeah, so
it's like fifties and sixties. But yeah, like that's how
long it's like that record has stood for and it was.
It's not a it's not a very impressive record in
terms of totals. His average is very good, but his
totals isn't that impressive. And that's stood for a long time.

(27:44):
Obviously there was the apartheid in there, which which hurt that.
But like you think between the nineties and now you
might be able to find one spinner spinner that's sort
of settled.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
The thing is, when you think about South African spinners,
I mean you think it's I think like Paul Adams
obviously comes through that usual action. I guess is probably
the best way to you're talking about Pat Simcox an
absolute dart thrower. Probably Nicki Boyer is another one who
wasn't a bad spinner at Test level. But apart from that,

(28:14):
who who they just don't produce spinners. They just don't.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So Maharaj, Yeah, Mahara doesn't get nearly is enough nearly
enough credit for the player that he's turned into over
the last couple of years. So yeah, so it's great.
It's a big series win for South Africa. I imagine
they would have really been stinging that they didn't get
that first, that first one. They would have liked to
get the two near white Washington terms of the World

(28:40):
Test Championship points, which I believe you've got the table.

Speaker 5 (28:44):
Yeah, I was actually looking at at the World Test
Championship at the moment on ESPN qriick Info, which is
like one of my bibles, and that will basically having
a bit of analysis of where everybody stands at this
point in time. Is it basically halfway through the cycle.
It's very much looking like it's India and Australia. Again,
just from what they've already done in the cycle, they're

(29:07):
well ahead of where they need to be and average
results are both of them I think will get both
of them into the final. It's the ones who are behind.
Sri Lanka are in with a show now. They would
do to do very well in England to get their
points back up, but they're a show as well, and
so are South Africa. South Africa are a chance of

(29:27):
making the World Test Championship Final because of the draw
that they've got. They haven't played many tests series. The
one thing about Australia and India is we do play
all of our test series fairly condensed, whereas the lower
countries seem to have a little bit more space between
between tests series. So when that all starts to catch up,

(29:48):
if results go their way, we could have an India
Australia final. Again, we could also have a variation of
India India, yeah, and South Africa India and Sri Lanka,
Australia and South Africa.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Sri Lanka, sorry, South Africa is going to have to
be very good. They've got the next couple of two
tests against Sri Lanka and then they've got a series
against Pakistan. Sri Lanka have got the two tests against
England and then two Tests against New Zealand. We've obviously
we've got a five Test series against India.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
So so the thing is you're.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Coming away with a Border Gavaska trophy, would be.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
Well, that's that's got to be the goal here. I mean,
we've got it with ten years it's been guys, come.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
On, So there could be it could be quite telling
for the teams are looking to sort of sneak their
way in. They would be hoping that the Border Gavaska
Trophy is very one sided, yes, but I mean I
probably wouldn't care which way it was, but they'd be
hoping for you as close to like a four to
one or five meal or something like that result. So

(30:57):
sort of really put a damper on the percentage.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Points whoever loses the series.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Whoever loses the series to try maybe I think that's
what it will take. I think if it's something like
a three to two or you know, one or two wall,
I think that'll probably enough to keep Australia and India
ahead of the rest of the pack. But if there's
a there's a big if there's a big swing one way,
either a four to one or a five or a
four nil or a five and all sort of series

(31:25):
you might see some of those teams. Even New Zealand's
is in with a shout. They're currently sitting on fifty.
Uh you know they're they're three from three there. But
I suppose they've got a series against India coming up
after the Sri Lankan series, so.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
That'll be they're both way series, are they?

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, so yeah, that's what's Yeah, New Zealand, what have
they got so you know it might be a home series,
it must be an away series, I think.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah, I'm sure they play Shri Lanka, then they play India,
don't they Yeah, and then lank.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, that's what those teams that are chasing, chasing a
spot in that final, we're hoping that, yeah, India or Australia,
whichever way it goes, because I think that you know,
India does have the team with that bowling attack to
properly well they've proven it, so there's no difference to
that they're going to get with large attack, so they'll

(32:21):
it's not like you know the early thousands where it
was just well they don't have the bowlers to take wigets.
In Australia, they most certainly, they certainly do now, so
it would be possible for India to come out and
do that. I don't think it is. I think they
are a bit too evenly matched. I think both teams
will give as good as they get. I would be thinking, well,
I'll obviously have a chat about that close to the
Australian summer, but the teams the next to come will

(32:45):
be hoping for a big result, one way to really
put a dent in the percentage points of India or Australia.

Speaker 5 (32:51):
Yeah, look by basically we are in the box suit,
but it's it's not as clear cut as what you
might see. And interestingly we haven't mentioned in England.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I don't know. Well, I think England are too far
gone to out. They're too far down the ladder. I
wouldn't say like it's a home series, so you'd say
on the face of it, yeah, we should be in
the box seat. But I think our a batting lineup
has quite a lot of questions. There's talk about moving
like Canning the Smith opening experiment.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
I wouldn't be unhappy with that.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
I wouldn't be unhappy with it either, but it just
means then that probably costs Mitch Marsh spots so then
you're trying to find which opener is it going to be?
So there's and and to be honest, you know there
are some players in there that are assured of some
test runs that we'll Obviously we're looking for some big
summers in the Shield because Marnus needs.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
To have a big summer. This year has gone off
the boiler.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
So would Smith. Smith's obviously get the Smith.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
Has so many Brownie points in the band.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
He's the second best batsman that we've ever had, so
but he'd be still he'd be looking to get, especially
against India. He likes to cash in against India and
missed out in the last Other than that big hundred
in Sydney, hasn't had too many big scores against in
the Europe late. So I think there's some question marks
over our batting. I think our bowling will be fine,

(34:11):
but yeah, it'll just be whether or not, especially with
the how our top four will look.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
Well that's it. Hates me. I hate to say it,
but I really think that the Steve Smith experiment hasn't
worked as an opener, and I'm worried about him being
exposed to Boom.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
And sixteen. I think it would matter.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Yeah, but I'd say twenty twenty four now, mate Smith
is looking a lot.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
He's looking at touch slower for those ones that angle
back in at him and things like that.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
So and like Jasper Bomer is a generational bowler, he
will be the greatest West fast ballering you have ever
produced at the end of his career, all things staying healthy.
He worries me every time I see him running. He's
just he's already the best I think. I think he
is will pass final judgment on h when he retires.

(35:05):
But my goodness, if they've had a better fast battle
than him in my lifetime, I've never seen him.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
We won't get too far into that because well, something
we can talk about that. We'll go for another break
after that. So yeah, it's it's good to see that's
South Africa back in the winning ways. I don't know
about the West Indies. I don't know how you fix that.
They're just a frustrating team. You want them to do
well and there are times we're looking at that going yes, awesome,

(35:32):
and then the very next minute you're.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
Just like, no, what are you doing? Why did you
do that?

Speaker 1 (35:40):
I don't know what the answer is. Hopefully that there
can be some influx of capital which will help development
things like that. But I think, you know, their first
class tournament isn't particularly strong, and I think while you're
not having a strong first class tournament, you're you know,

(36:01):
you're pushing it up people to ask the field, your
test team to be to be strong.

Speaker 5 (36:05):
So that's true. And interesting thing is in the heydays
of Windy's cricket, so many of them went implied their
trade over in English county cricket and that turned them
into the team that they were because you had Greenwedge,
you had Richard, you had Marshall Roberts, Joel Garner, all
of those guys over there applying their trade day in
day out, learning how to be professionals, and it showed.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah. So I don't know whether or not that's something
that they need to look at, but until they can
get a more substantial, better quality first class tournent over there,
which I think is probably not in the high list
of their priorities at the moment. Considering there seems to
be a lot of white ball discussions around the West Indies,
I don't think you're going to see a massive turnaround

(36:51):
in their test fortunes anytime soon. You maybe taking little
bites out of it here or there, But yeah, I
don't know how you fix that. It's been a problem
basically since the nineties about what to do with the word.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Basically, what they need to do is those little bites
that they take, they need to be more consistent. Not
a bite here, a bite there, that bite, bite, bite
leading to a bigger bite leading to a bigger bite.
Until they can get that sort of momentum, they're going
to basically be stuck in this trough. All right.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Right after this, we're going to have a bit of
a chat about the Big Bash as the first names
for the Big Bash Draft have been announced, all right,
so having a chat about the Big Bash for the
upcoming of BBAL fourteen draft. We've had the first list
of nominations for the draft. They've already been a number

(37:37):
of players that have signed pre drafts, which I think
is a weird thing to do. If you're going to
all the effort of putting in a draft and then
after the second draft you're then taking the cream of
the crop and just going, oh, you can sign long term,
but win of the Big Bash. Every done that's in
their own interest.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
Yeah, pretty much so.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
The first players that have announced themselves for the AFT
Laurie Evans, whose retention the rights have been held by
the Scorches, Lackie Ferguson, who has no retention rights. He's
a brand new Alex Hayles who obviously can be retained
by the Thunder. My second favorite player in the world
right now, Shama Joseph has joined in with no retention rights.

(38:19):
He need to be the first time playing over here,
so I really hope someone picks him up.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
Maybe you've got to be snapping, Shamara. I'm looking at all.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
I'm looking at you, Thunder do it.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
Seriously. Anybody needs a really impactful fast bowler to open
your bowl and maybe come back at the end.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
He there you go, someone who doesn't mind swinging the
bat as.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Well and hits the ball along.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
One doesn't mind breaking the building and breaking breaking heriagine
structures on his root to score and runs.

Speaker 5 (38:49):
He's become a firm favorite of the of the two
Slips team.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Hasn't Oh yeah, love him, absolutely love him. Chad ab
Khan has come back with no retention rights. Jamie Overton,
who's rights are held by the Strikers, Haaris Rolf who's
held by the Stars. Jason Roy is returning to our
shores with no retention rights. He's been he bounced around
for the Sixers for a little while.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
But look, I think he's not going to be at
the top of the of your list, but he's certainly
a handy pickup.

Speaker 7 (39:22):
I mean, you can's quality. He'll go in the first
two rounds. Yeah, sure, I just find it interesting. But
how quickly things change for some of these players. Like
two years ago, Jason Roy was La Cream and the crop,
you know, I mean, now he's a fickle sports something.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
Yeah. And form is a very, very as very I
always find it's hard to judge people based on form.
You judge him on on consistency and longevity. And just
because somebody has a trough doesn't mean that he' stopped
being a good player. I've never rated him as a
as a first class for a test player of mine.
Jesez doesn't damn it you can hit a white ball.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
And has come back. He was obviously held by the
Renegade and James Vince, long time Sixer's player, has also
announced himself and obviously the Sixers.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
Jimmy Vince at the sixers.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, so some yeah, some familiar names and exciting and interesting.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
One that I didn't hear was one Rashid Khan.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
I couldn't care less if Rashid Khan comes back.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
Neither could either. I just found it interesting.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Hit him on the way out. You know, I don't
want I'm not going to dive too deep into that
whole Afghanistan Australia. But you know, if if Rashid Khan
can't see the gesture for what it is, which is,
we don't think that your mother's sisters, wives, daughters should

(40:49):
be treated like that. And so we're not going to
validate the poor excuse for a government that is forcing
those restrictions onto the women of Afghanistan.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
And it is need to do.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
And this is our you know, we're we're a cricket board.
There's not a lot that we can do to say
this isn't good enough. But what we can do is this,
and we're going to do it, and we're going to
do it. And they all rashly can't can say is oh,
it's not really fair for the cricketers. I mean, what
do we do wrong?

Speaker 5 (41:16):
And it's like, you know, you're talking about what one hundred,
one hundred. Maybe cricketers in Afghanistan make a living out
of the game. Okay, how many people are there in
Afghanistan and how many women in Afghanistan? Probably half enough.
I mean that just says it all. You don't need
to go in and it's.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
And it's something that's you know, it happened in a
passide world Sport got together. I mean there are other
other things that happened as well. What World Sports said, no,
not happening. You know, as you know, you as a
government has made a rule that entire sections of your
population are not allowed to compete.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
You've got to remember half the world boycotted and Olympic
Games to support Afghanistan. Remember that nine eight Musco. Yeah,
well of them up, Russians invaded Afghanistan. The whole world
boycotted the biggest sporting thing in the world, the Americans,
heaps of nations. I mean it was like a half
of Olympics essentially, of the boycott that was for Afghanistan

(42:14):
to support Afghanistan. Okay, So you now, when you're behaving
in such a bad way, you don't get to come
back and say, oh, that's that's really unfair. That you're
doing that. No, stop being so much.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
I get the Taliban is you know, has been considered
a terrorist organization, and maybe it's not the smartest thing
in the world for Rashid can't to go out and
talk shit about them. But you know, if you're not
going to talk about Afghanistan, the least you can do
is not talk shit about Australia that has given a second.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Home, about just shunning up and saying nothing.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
If you're not going to say anything in defense of
the women of your country, maybe maybe just say nothing.
And so if it's going to be it's not really fair,
I don't like it. Maybe I'm not going to come
plain the big bash good cool, don't care.

Speaker 5 (42:56):
We love having the idea. But if you don't come
the door, hit you on the way out.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Life will go on. Exactly, you're an amazing player. But
you know, I'm just sort of I'm just I'm over
the world criticizing cricket Australia for for It's like, it's
obviously a bad thing that is happening in Afghanistan. The
fact that women and children, you know, women and your
girls and women over there aren't allowed to take part

(43:21):
in sports and education over there too.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
Nothing is changing anything that you're actually getting worse for
the female population in Afghanistan. Watch CNN if it's read
some websites.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
And if the worst thing that a cricket board is
done is just in some way you put some light
on it going away. Aren't you playing Afghanistan because of
the way they treat their women? I don't understand why
this isn't being applauded by the international community, going.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
Where's the ICC in this as well? I mean the
ic C are so I don't want to swear they're
so weak, okay.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
That Afghanistan should not be playing Afghanistan. India's voting partner,
so as long as it keeps India happy. AFGHANISTANO. They
don't meet the criteria to be a fully fledged ICC.
They never actually did, but they got dispensation.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
Because because they were trying.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
But anyways, we digress. Yeah, so the Big Bash is
back and it's ready and rare and to go. I
still think that there are huge issues with the logistics
of the tournament in terms of making it the best
viable product for the Australian cricket audience. I've said it
a thousand times both on the podcast than you know

(44:33):
at the pub. After several ales, I maintained the best
time for the Big Bash to be is as soon
as the major sporting grounds can rotate from AFL to cricket.
Should be the very first thing that happens mid to
late October. There's no other tournaments going on, so you
can get all of the players that you want. They're

(44:55):
going to be there for the whole torn I would
imagine that almost all of those players will be playing
in the Essay twenty, so they won't be there, so
everywhere every name on that list, I would imagine, with
the exception of maybe Alex Hales, I don't remember him
leaving to go over there, but I would be I
would be shocked if the majority of those players weren't

(45:16):
playing in South Africa come January, which you know that's
for the finals. Play it in you know, tighten it up,
shorten it up, play it in October. You know I'm
going to have people going when they wanted in the
school holidays. You know, people go and watch football in
Australia all the time, and it's not in the school holidays.

(45:36):
It's it's a children. Children don't take themselves to the cricket. Parents,
parents take children to the cricket. Parents don't have school holidays.
Parents will work all through December through January. So if
they're going to go to watch the cricket after work
in January, they'll go and watch cricket after work in October.

(45:59):
October and yep, like makes no difference, none at all.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
And it's probably the big thing that they need to
get sorted out. If we're going to have a serious
tournament where we're bringing all these great players over, we
need to have them here for the whole tournament.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
The holiday period is great, don't get me wrong, Like
if you could make it work, it could work. But
they've been told about the player. The players have said
it themselves. The tournament eight is too long. They don't
want to spend that much time, you know, especially players
from like England and South Africa that also celebrate Christmas
that you're trying to bring up. No, why we spend
all of Christmas for like a ten week tournament in Australia.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
It's too long.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
It clashes with international and other domestic tournaments, which means
that players are then unavailable. The best players in Australia
are often unavailable because it's happening at the same time
as the Test summer. There are just so many logistic
issues with having it at that time. But they're just
digging their heels in the sand and saying right now and.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
This is when it is, and and it's ridiculous s

(52:01):
that we are still not providing the Australian consumer of
cricket with the best possible players because quite frankly, we've
gone on about this lot. Okay, the scheduling of this
tournament is wrong. Let's just underline it when big capital
letters that is wrong. Okay, we're denying ourselves the opportunity

(52:24):
the schedule that it players here in the world for
the whole tournament.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
The scheduling itself makes sense in a vacuum exist but
like school holidays, you know, all that sort of stuff,
Christmas period all makes perfect sense, absolutely great on do
you let's have your marquee cricket tournament being played daily
through the school holidays all that.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
But you're right, the world doesn't exist in a vacuum.
We have South Africa wanting to do their thing at
the same period of time that we are with much
more money to call on brother, And even if it's
not the money, it's the fact that you are affiliated
with the IPL, so you can go in and play
for the Parle Royals and then get yourself looked at

(53:08):
to get over to the IPL.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
So the IPL have been very clever in this, haven't they.
They've really just set themselves up. It's like first, second,
third Division and isn't it very much like?

Speaker 1 (53:19):
And the Big Bash has proven that it will love
to tinker, even to its own detriment. It'll just change
stuff all the time. They can't help. I can't help,
but they're just bored. It's just like we've run this
for a unit, do just something different. They'ren't happy to
just let it settle in and develop. But one thing
that they just sort of dug their heels in is
just like, no, we're not going to actually do ourselves

(53:40):
any favors by adjusting the length of the tournament or
the lowcal of the tournament to make sure that we're
getting the best players available for as much of the
tournament as possible. It's just no Christmas will work. And
it beggars believe why they think that is the case
when you're and every year will have the same argument
that Rashi can't all have to leave and Josh Butler

(54:01):
will have to leave, and you know there's a stack
of West Indians that are going to you know, there
there's a test tornent or they'll go over to the.

Speaker 5 (54:09):
Certainly the elite, the elite level West Indians will be
in demand in the other T twenty tournaments that are
going on around the world. Why are we setting ourselves
up to fail? Is what I don't understand. Why are
we setting ourselves up to fail? Is this? Is this
like a thing in with Cricket Australia and the Big
Bash Organizing Committee or whatever that.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
I don't think.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
We don't. We don't.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
They're not deliberately setting themselves up to fail. It's arrogance.

Speaker 5 (54:33):
Well, whatever happens, it's a very very very poor business.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
It's the we build it and they will come attitude
and it's the fact in the vacuum.

Speaker 5 (54:44):
Yeah, it does exist in a vacuum.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
But I don't know. We try not to deal dive
down into a bit. We've done done it. We feel
strongly about this, but it does look promising that the
early talent coming into from this draft, there's going to
be stack of names coming in the future. So it
does look like, at least to the early part of
the tournament, we are going to be witnessed to some
very talented cricketers on our shores and what should make

(55:08):
the beginning of the tournament very competitive. Obviously, then it'll
just rely on contractual obligations and you know, who gets
picked up where and all that sort of stuff, so
that see, we get that same.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
The thing is too, while we are prepared to put
ourselves in this stupid position where the best players have
to make a decision to leave a tournament halfway through
to go and play a full tournament somewhere else, that
is I mean, that is just nonsense. That if you
sat down as just as a businessman and said, hey,
I've got a product, and what I'm going to do

(55:41):
is I'm going to market it like this, okay, and
then when we get halfway through and we've got everybody
really interested, I'm going to pull the very best ingredients
out of it, and then I'm going to say, well, here,
suck this up for the rest of the for the
rest of the duration. Now, how long would your business last? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (55:59):
It beggars well, doesn't it? Absolutely that epilation, we got

(57:21):
a surprise. We joined for the last segment. He was
running a bit late, but here he is now. Mark welcome. Thanks,
Thanks guys. Thanks you still ended up turning up even
though we're nearly done for this episode. That's great. My apologies.

Speaker 5 (57:32):
You'll have to come for the next one. I think
I can make that okay.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
For this last second, we're just going to be of
a chat because there's been a bit of a seismic shift. Well,
I wouldn't seismic. Maybe a fantasy, you know, maybe a
bit too over the top, because it's been shifting a
little bit the last couple of years. But what I'm
talking about is the Gabba, which has been historically for
as long as I can remember, and years before that,
we started our Test summer at the Gabba. We're up

(57:57):
until the Border GAVs Coatrol.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
But yes, for a long long time.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Up until the Border Gavesto Trophy, we hadn't lost the
Test there since the eighties. It had always been that
the Gabotoire. It's where we have serted our dominance on
the opposing teams right off the bat, one of the
best cricket wickets in the country. Plenty of bounce, plenty
of swing.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Warn he loved it there because he could get some
you know, he was getting plenty of grip and turn
when he wanted to as well. Great place to bounce,
great place to bat once you get set and we
would just we roll over teams and we're like, that's
what you've got to look forward to for this summer.
It's shifted a little bit over the last couple of
years trying to get Perth and it's big, new, fancy
stadium and all that involvement. Now it has only been

(58:40):
locked in as a Test venue for the next two
years and then it's looking like maybe they'll have to
it'll be kind of like a Bellery sort of situation
where they may not necessarily get a Test match year
in year out from there. So really big news in
what's been a staple of the Australian cricket diet for decades.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
I think if you really want to delve into all
the politics of this, we can have a look back
at the Brisbane bid for the Olympic Games and the
funding that it's going to require to be to create
all the facilities, and the Gabba is in desperate node
of renovation and quite frankly, I think you know, looking

(59:21):
at it over a period of time, the game has
been Yes, they did their redevelopment there for a long
period of time and they do get use out of
it with the lines and everything playing there.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
But it's a tired stadium.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
Yeah, it's a very tired it's a very old stadium.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Great, there's great on field facilities in terms of the
drainage and the actual cricket wicket itself, but in terms
of the actual stadium itself and a dozen the facilities
for the customer that they come in to watch it
is it is a tired stadium and Queensland government has
not seen fit to future proof it in any sort
of meaningful way. And now looking at a huge, huge

(59:59):
bill because that's something that a lot of people don't
sort of realize when you come to hosting the Olympics,
that it's actually a massive, massive financial undertaking for those
cities Queensland looking at me to get the self set
up for the then the Olympic Committee apply to the
host city that demands brand new stadiums or stadiums that

(01:00:19):
are absolute like we're talking about the highest level of
European soccer stadiums is what they're looking at. But the
money they could have dedicated to maybe revamping and refreshing
the Gabba is now being looked at to spread out
across the sporting infrastructure of southeast Queensland.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
Where does this leave Queensland cricket as a home and
Queensland Cricket that's their home as individual home forever.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
On the back burner for at least the next eight
years until they get the Olympics out of the way.
So there's going to be no meaningful upgrade to anything
in Queensland. You wouldn't think for the Bulls or anything
like that because they're going to be busy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
That's going to be interesting. Where does the Big Bash
where there's the Bulls actually go. They're going to go
to Krara.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Well, if you look at so the Big Bash will
be because they play those that predominantly test venues. When
we are looking at the Marsh Cup and the Sheffield Shield,
I think losing the Gabber is going to have a
drastic effect on the Queensland Bulls. I mean they play
a lot of games at Alan Border Oval and things
like that. Anyway, so the Marsh the Marsh Cup I

(01:01:26):
think will and the Sheffield Shield won't be over obviously
they'll be they're missing out and playing on what's a
fantastic cricket wicket. But they'll have their they'll be able
to go and do their thing. But the Big Bash
being obviously the big money spinner being the getting the
people through the gates want. They want that at a stadium,
so that's going to be a thing. I imagine maybe
the Gold Coast. That Gold Coast me get a few

(01:01:49):
more big cans the Great Gray Reef facility.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
Could we say that the heat actually in the Big
Bash aren't going to have in top home ground advantage.
You're going to be drifting all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Of their plans. I don't know that is their plans,
and actually to tear it down anytime soon.

Speaker 5 (01:02:06):
I thought they just I believe that, Yeah, there's actually
plans in the pipeline that they're looking at a total
redevelopment at the very at the very least.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
It's getting ripped down. Could be wrong, but.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
Then which is why they're running it in the two
year contract. Yes, I all of all the contracts that
they have with the various sporting bodies to use that
ground will if they're up for renewal, they won't be
renewed and they will just phase out what they're going
to do up until about sporting.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
What's know, what's going on with the those lies and.

Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
Which is really concerned what this actually means for Queensland
cricket And we haven't really touched on the fact that
you take away their home base, you're also going to
take away all their funding. They're taking away to all
the funding from Queensland Cricket as well. Queensland Cricket is
looking about a thirty million dollar whole all over the
next five years. It's going to be how how do
they continue to provide a first class system? And let's

(01:03:07):
face to Queensland have always been with a very very
strong state.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Don't do what they've always done and I'll just go
and pick up the ones that can't make it in
New South Wales.

Speaker 5 (01:03:15):
Yeah, look, that's a fairly simplistic way of looking at it.
I just think from the point of.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
View that's I think that's my NRL footing fan attitude
towards Queensland speaking.

Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
You know, I was just having looked to see me
had his origin jump right, But yeah, I just think
they're really really going to struggle and where they and
the opportunities that they do provide for these guys who
aren't making anywhere else, and they can throw a bit
of cash at them and get them and get them
to come up north. Best thing that ever happened was
he Yeah, ask Greg Chapel how good it was for him,

(01:03:48):
you know, and both and Viv Richards both come over
to play.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
It's going to be it's going to be a long
for a while because Queensland. You can't imagine the state
government of queens I'm going to put any sort of
serious time and effort and money into developing any abilities
in Queensland cricket.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
After the Olympics, who is going to be the state government?
You know, it seems to be very very up up
in the year.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
I can't imagine any of the state, whether that be
Liberal or Labor, if they come into power between now
and like, it's all going to be Olympics, Olympics, Olympics.
That's going to be.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
Well, now you're committed to it, you you go to
save through to the bit of random.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
That's they're going to be fighting for financial scraps at
the end, moving there's other big news that's come around
off the announcement for the stadiums moving forward. There's going
to be no change to the Boxing Day and New
Year's Day venues. They're going to maintain the next seven
years for the MCG and SCG, which you know, on

(01:04:44):
the face of it, don't mind because who doesn't love
heaving down to Sydney just after New Year's and catching
the cricket. The big issue that everyone always wants to
talk about is, you know, it's a lot more than
just a freak of courage. Now it almost seems to
be a consistent thing that the weather in Sydney at
you know, early late December, early January isn't conducive to
getting five four days at cricket. They've been rain affected.

(01:05:07):
Well it's the most Raine Test venue and it just
had a Manchester and that includes England and we make
jokes that it's raining.

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
All the time. Yeah, it's just again. But where where
do you as as Cricket Australia. Okay, they have financial
forecast and everything that they're going to be looking at
and trying to meet and if they do their financial
forecast based around the fact that their meeting in crowds
at these venues are enough to satisfy that the financial things,

(01:05:39):
they will stay there. It really has very little to
do with the paying punter coming through the door has
to sit.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
There as well as the money they're going to be
getting and to pay for the sec to be there.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
The light is the thing that gets meet yes, CJ.
The way that they treat the light there for some reason,
I think it's different to any other place, you know
what I mean. They will go off for the slightest thing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Absolutely, We've gone down a couple of years and you know,
you always get that thing on and they say, oh,
you know, the camera here doesn't really give a true
indication about what the light conditions are.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Oh, yeah, what a wake that is. And then you
get down to the ground You're like, oh, here's a
bit different at the SCG. And it's like I've been
in the crowd there's been no rain and they've taken
the light and I'm like.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
I will play.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
I will play next to a highway with a bunch
of trees, yeah, and just cars part there for the
light and then and I've got no wishes at all.
The light here is fine. How these multimillion dollar professional
cricketers that do this day in day out. I mean,
obviously I'm not facing anyone here, one hundred and forty coms.
But like, but again it's they take it. I'm not
as good as them.

Speaker 5 (01:06:48):
So no, remember that that they went down. We want
seeing sponge Getty's thirtire and we're watching Ribard and a
charge in and it was dull. Okay, it was dull,
No duller than what we I.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Mean it was.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
It was not the one that you expect international, much
worse out in the royal world. If that's if that's
the standard that they're taking players off for, it is obscene.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
It is. It's wimpish, is what it is. That's the
only word for it. It's wimp pitch. And the fact
that you know that our batsmen are prepared to put there,
oh yeah, the lots dodgery of me footspits sore from
running all of those freeze, don't go put my feet up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
I suppose the other day the batsmen aren't really putting
it because there's nothing they can do with the umpires.
The umpires ago.

Speaker 5 (01:07:34):
Yeah, we you know, I'm sure that there's more than
a little bit of subtle hints from the Batsman when
it's a little bit on a dark.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
It's a bit dark, sir, I didn't quite say that one.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
Yeah, man, that one. You know, it's twelve inches outside
off st up and stand there and squint at it.
Didn't quite pick that one up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
One of the ideas that I've heard and not necessarily
hated in terms of getting the most cricket. I mean,
if Sydney is Sydney, so it's there, it is for
seven years. But if you were interested in getting more
cricket for your New Year's game, would be doing like
an East Coast tour. I mean it's not the case
now because we don't have the Gabba, but typically when
you start at the Gabba, go through Sydney and then

(01:08:19):
you still have MCG being Boxing Day, so your first
before Christmas to end the year, you travel down the
East Coast and then you jump over to Adelaide and
you have your New Year's even if it's a day
night one, how good would that be on it? It
would be spectacular. Adelaide overdes that New Year's big batch
game better than Adelaide.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
Oval does big games really good. And then you produce
a beautiful wicket. These crowds are always full, good and
it's good cricket. Man, that's always good cricket at Adelaide, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Everyone says it's one of the most picturesque stadiums in
the world. And then obviously if you round out your
summer with the with a Test at Perth, if you've
got more than five Tests, then you've got Monica and
bell Reeve vying for that last Test. But I suppose
moving forward now it's going to be like a Bell
reven and whatever they're doing in Brisbane will be where

(01:09:13):
are they're going to go from there?

Speaker 5 (01:09:13):
But yeah, I think something that may we kind of
have haven't really looked at as well as some of
the crowds at the Gabba for Test matches over the
last few years haven't been what we remember. You know,
that's not that's not not just.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Like really what you get your big crowd. You get
a big, big crowd Day one, Boxing Day Day one
in Sydney, Sydney if the weather's good, and that's really it.
In terms of like looking back historically and watching those
people falling off the roofs in the seventies and eighties,
you get anywhere near that anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:09:50):
It's well you just can't. I just wouldn't be allowed
these days. But I remember the old days. I went
to see England and Australia and it was like Lilian
Marsha loud against Boycott and guys like that, and man,
you could not move in the place. Literally the closest
crowd that I've ever been to, it was like it.

(01:10:10):
I went and seen the Swans and Geelong game. We've
had locked down one end, an ablet down the other
and it was forty seven thousand people there. They had
to feed him into the football stagum and that crowd
at the cricket was like that. But that's going back, man,
that's forty years now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Yeah, it's not the same anymore. About you. You get
you get two big days, maybe Day one of border
Gavasca or an Ashes series in whichever venue holds that
can be pretty big as well. But yeah, you're not
getting those huge sell out five day crowds.

Speaker 5 (01:10:44):
That's not a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
It hasn't been a thing for a while in any venue,
not just Brisbane.

Speaker 5 (01:10:50):
I think a lot of that has to quite often
do too with the dominant in Australia has had over
an extended period of time where people aren't prepared to
build four and five days.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Not only that, but you know, you know, obviously there's
a there's a waning interest in test cricket amongst young people.
It's so much more accessible now you can watch, like
I could watch the cricket on my phone. I could
watch the trigger on my phone while doing this podcast.
If like you know, it's the ease of getting into

(01:11:20):
places like the Central the CBD of Risbond or the
CBD of Sydney. The amount of like money it costs
to get into the ground, the amount of money it
costs to feed you while you're at around. Yeah, it's
you get now.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
Though, yeah, if if, if you've taken out a second more, Yeah,
like about twelve dollars each or something, aren't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
They That's just a pie.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
It's pretty it's pretty steep. It's seeing some of the
prices of food at the s CG at times. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
I think that there's a lot of factors that contribute
to it that obviously, and you know, maybe a bit
of cricket fatigue as well. I mean, there's big bash
on so while I go and spend all day at
the cricket when I can go and take the little
nippers on watch the thunder play. Whoever, it's spotless. That
only cost me sort of, you know, four hours out
of my evening as opposed to be I.

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
Mean, there's just another reason to move the Big Bash
earlier into the season, so we don't have have that
competition where said, oh yeah, fellow, taken the boys. I
cannot wait. I say it all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
It's a phenomenon I actually call cricket fatigue. I don't
have it because I'd watch cricket all the time, but
in the middle, in the middle of the summer, when
the Big Bash clashes with the Tests, you're getting up
at ten o'clock. You're you've got to tell the missus
during the holidays, when you've got family and kids and
all that stuff around, do not talk to me between
ten and six except between.

Speaker 5 (01:12:41):
One and one forty and three forty and four and
three forty and four.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
And then you're going to get me for about an
hour and a half until we cross over to watch
the evening Big Bash game. So I'm actually going to
be watching the cricket from ten am till probably about nine,
you know, ten thirty eleven o'clock at night during the
New Zealand tests. In there you going from eight am
to or if there's a test, you're watching it from
ten am to or three three in the morning, or
if you've got New Zealand, you can do it from

(01:13:08):
eight a m. All the way to three in the morning,
saying I've done that so and just you're just you.

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
It's becoming a single man.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
If you're not, if you're not as obsessed about it
as some of us are, you can definitely yourself get
cricket fatigue and your your family members will absolutely get
cricket fatigue because I want something else on the TV.
So that's why I've always maintained you whack it. The
very first thing that you see as soon you go
to the SCG, you go to the MCG, you go
to those places. TONAFL ground, how long to turn into

(01:13:42):
a cricket ground. It'll take us x days. Well, in
x plus one days we're starting the Big Bash.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
And that's and you just do that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
The very first thing the Australian cricket audience gets is
the Big Bash. Because there's no tournaments going on. You
run it nice and short, so you're.

Speaker 5 (01:13:59):
You're everybody's been playing grade cricket and the thing is
too I think a lot of it will also enhance
the grade cricket tournament around.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Tests. So Stark come and speak. Should all those guys
can come and play in it as opposed to missing
out for the whole Test. No, don't go back and
dig dig up, Aaron, dig up.

Speaker 5 (01:14:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
So it's it's going to be a big change for
the Australian cricket public moving forward. It's you know, for
so long it has just been entrenched in this is
how the Australian summer works. And now it's been it's
really been thrown up in the air and so now
I think for the next two years locked in Stone
Perth starts the Australian summer and then obviously it's locked

(01:14:48):
in for longer but then necessarily the first test of
the of the summer. But it's it's just it's going
to be weird. It's going to be obviously the big
traditional ones that we've we've had as part the fabric
of the Australian holiday period being the tests that the
respective g's are staying the same for a long period
of time. So that's going to be good. But yeah,

(01:15:08):
for everyone else it's bites news to ye. They're going
to have stadium in a couple of years.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
A lot of trouble which ground now becomes Fortress Australia
if we don't have the Goaver anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
Depends on exactly. If we're playing India, probably none of
them well that's a very very If we're playing England,
then they're all.

Speaker 5 (01:15:32):
Yeah, so I'm counting down the days for that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
Depends on how flat the Wicked is. If there's any rain,
they might get a drawer. If not, you might have
just send them on to the next venue. We've already
won it the way that they've played the last few tours.
That being said, it's going to be it should be
a good tour of the way that England are shaping
up with some of their you know, obviously the changes
their philosophy and some of the new players coming through
playing on some quick, bouncy Australian wickets.

Speaker 5 (01:15:56):
Just just just a very, very disparate Have we seen
the end of the ginger winder?

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
So good? I would think so?

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
I think I think we have He'll still FRONTI I
love England.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
England's cricket media. They're they're just they just shift moods
so just outrageously fast. It is not funny. Jamie Smith
scored a fantastic hundred. Ye absolutely, it was a great
not for a young bat. Immediately it's talked about batting
at three because Olipope got six in that test. It's like,

(01:16:35):
maybe we should bat him like he's just his first
hundred at six and you're like, oh, we'll just whack
him at three now and then like you watch, he'll score,
like he might go the next three tests, he might
go twenty eight, fifteen and four, and they'll go, sure,
up the bat.

Speaker 5 (01:16:54):
It's just I do feel I do feel sorry for
Ben Folks, I really do. I think he's a fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
Yeah, Ben Folkses don't want to delve in because I
want to finish this episode up so we can get
moving on. But Ben Folks I think is a philosophy casualty. Yes,
he's obviously skill wise probably the best keeper in the world,
but doesn't bat well enough and they want their wicket

(01:17:21):
keepers to be able to contribute with the bat. Supposedly,
he didn't buy into the philosophe in India and with
that corent set up. I think, well, it was probably
like we need you to go six or sticks, made
pretty much Cockney accent again, and I actually it would
be a key accent. So someone came up to me
a key accent and said six or sticks and he's like,

(01:17:41):
have you seen me back? How about I just not
get out for a while and you know sticks get
out enough and then yeah, but yeah, that's the thing,
you know, it's always that big. And I actually enjoy
listening to wicket keepers argue about this because they actually
get quite territorial about like, you know, okay, I might

(01:18:01):
not be as good a bat as these top six bats.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
But none of them can do what I do.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
But I don't have a pretty number that I can
stick next to that to go this is how good
I am as a keeper. I mean, it's really easy
for bats. Steve Smith averages sixty, brad An average is
ninety nine point ninety four pointing Lara Tenduker. These guys
all average the high fifties, so it's easy you look
at it and go, this is how good the batsman is.
He will go out on average and score x runs.

(01:18:28):
Wicket Keepers don't have like this watered down, easy to
consume metric that goes this keeper is this number good?
And without that number then it's really hard to quantify.
And you know, I think they had hadn't They had
Healey and they had someone else in a podcast sort
of talking about the Smith versus phones, and Healey was

(01:18:49):
Alyssa Heely, Sorry, not Ian, he was Alyssa. Heally was
actually quite very much like Well, it just comes down
to do they want the best person with the gloves
to the job or do they just want a bat
when who can keep? And I think Smith is probably
a better gloveman than that infinity. But yeah, that that
comes down to are you willing to short change their

(01:19:10):
primary skill set to make up?

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
You would fall somewhere in between folks, And bear Stoke
is much better keep up than that in himself. That
is a good qualification. Bearst will cost you a test
match someone along those leaden feet and these.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
I wasn't even with his.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
Well actually was when you think about.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
One of the things I always like, whenever you get
someone who's really on one side of the oh, you
just picked because of that, because how hard it's keeping.
Would you pick a bowler based off his batting absolutely
not like so why would you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:50):
Unless you would you unless you're in ran.

Speaker 1 (01:19:53):
Probably then yeah, well Ron Marsh did tell Jackson Birdie
needs to prove with the bat to get more Test matches.
He was a genuine bunny. But like, what I mean
is you're not going to go all right, we really
need to show up our you know, our eight nine
and ten. So we've got this guy who averages twenty
five with the ball, this guy averages twenty three with

(01:20:15):
the ball, and this guy averages thirty seven with the ball,
but he averages twenty nine with a bat. Like you
don't you don't pick him as a bowl Chris. Yeah,
well Chris Chris wokes if he's not playing any And
that's what I mean. So if you're going to do
that to bowl as wide a wicket keepers always end
up getting lumped. And the purely it is because I

(01:20:35):
don't know that metric. How do you look at it
and go this the wicked keeper is this good versus
this wicked keeper? Who is this good? It's all eye test,
It's all yeah, it's almost the you're just going to
go how many times did we hear his name when
he kept this Test match zerright, well he did a
good job. Yeah, and then you know, and a lot
of the time dismissals can be fairly straightforward, especially if

(01:20:55):
you're playing somewhere like you know, you know, you know,
Optus or the Whacker or somewhere like that. Whereas you
just stand as far back as you can go, you'll
get a schnik. It'll come up to you a nice
and chest high and you look a million bucks. And
doesn't matter if you I bought these today, I can
keep or if you're actually really good at it, you
can get some nice easy days and then you can
make up with it with you with your beam, you know,

(01:21:17):
being a good batsman. But then when you get someone
really difficult, it's a tough life beating Keith for I
would want to do it. All right, guys, thank you
very much for listening. Thank you Mark for getting here.
That's all right. We'll get you back on for the
next one. It's going to be a good one. I
reckon you'll like it. So that's that one's done. We're
going to be back with our next episode. We're gonna
have some fun with the next one. It's going to

(01:21:38):
be a draft. You all know how much. I love
doing drafts, so it's going to be a special theme
for that draft one. So hang around for that one.
It's going to be great. Until next time, guys, enjoy
all the cricket going on out there. It's ever getting
closer to summer here, which is great, SOS happy.

Speaker 5 (01:21:52):
So we've got plenty more cricket to talk about. So
until then, by for now, hey.

Speaker 4 (01:21:58):
That this podcast is part of the Sports Social podcast Network.

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over eighteen PTSB personal customers registered for online banking only.
Number of accounts per customer may be limited and subject
to a minimum and maximum balance qualifying criteria. Terms and
conditions apply PERLITTSB Plc. Trading as PTSB is regulated by
the Central Bank of Ireland.