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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk zb in.

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Speaker 2: Trying to improve the consistency of the White Ferns, where

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Speaker 2: should we be focusing our attention? At first and foremost,

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Speaker 2: it seems to me that our domestic competition, the women's one,

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Speaker 2: simply doesn't prepare our players for international cricket. There are

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Speaker 2: a couple of sides that dominate domestic women's cricket, but

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Speaker 2: the overall standard of the comp is simply too far

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Speaker 2: below international cricket. Scoring lots of runs and taking lots

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Speaker 2: of wickets domestically in New Zealand is not a good

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Speaker 2: indicator as to whether applier is ready to contribute consistently

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Speaker 2: at international level because the gap is currently far too

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Speaker 2: big between the two. Now, if you think about the

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Speaker 2: best elite sporting structures that support an international side, the

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Speaker 2: best ones create competition for places in the national side,

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Speaker 2: the realization and crystal clear knowledge that if you do

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Speaker 2: not perform, there is someone just waiting to take your

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Speaker 2: place and take their chance, and that simply doesn't exist

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Speaker 2: right now, and that in no way says that the

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Speaker 2: players who are there don't care because they know they

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Speaker 2: can't get dropped. I'm not for a second suggesting there

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Speaker 2: is complacency among our top White Fern's players, and i

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Speaker 2: am not for a second suggesting that they are not

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Speaker 2: trying as hard as they can. But it's a simple

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Speaker 2: fact that competition for places increases performance. Now, Brian Stronik

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Speaker 2: talked there about addressing that not only the Supersmash and

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Speaker 2: the Halliburd and Johnston Shield our two domestic comps, but

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Speaker 2: the age group competitions and creating a bigger pool of talent.

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Speaker 2: But the word he used the most often was time.

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Speaker 2: It takes time, unfortunately, and the instant gratification and res

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Speaker 2: alts driven business of elite sport, you're not always afforded

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Speaker 2: that time. And as I said to Brian, the worst

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Speaker 2: thing that could happen here is for apathy to set

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Speaker 2: in in the White Fans fan base, especially the discretionary

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Speaker 2: fan base, those fans who will make a decision on

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Speaker 2: various factors as to whether they'll follow a side or not.

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Speaker 2: They'll take an interest and invest in a side they

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Speaker 2: sees making progress and is backed by an organization with

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Speaker 2: a constant search for improvement. Now, my gut feel is

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Speaker 2: that isn't how New Zealand sports fans feel about the

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Speaker 2: white fans right now. They are very much on the

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Speaker 2: fence about watching them or not. And there's only one

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Speaker 2: thing worse than not performing and not progressing, and that

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Speaker 2: is becoming irrelevant. No sport can afford to become irrelevant.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to Newstalk zed B weekends from midday, or follow the

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Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio.