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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 ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: Moves are underway to investigate how domestic T twenty cricket

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Speaker 2: might be revamped here in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket

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Speaker 2: have asked consultants Deloitte to analyze potential options for the

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Speaker 2: future of twenty twenty cricket in this country. Among the

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Speaker 2: suggestions being put forward are a franchise based T twenty League,

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Speaker 2: similar to what exists in most other Tier one cricket nations,

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand team entering the Australian Big Bash competition,

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Speaker 2: or a refresh and reinvigoration of our current Super Smash competition.

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Speaker 2: All Rounder Anton Devsitch enjoyed a long and successful domestic

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Speaker 2: career with Northern Districts, represented New Zealand in both white

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Speaker 2: ball formats and played a huge amount of TEA twenty cricket,

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Speaker 2: including time in the Australian Big Bash, the Caribbean Premier

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Speaker 2: League and Pakistan Super League, as well as our own

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Speaker 2: Super Smash competition. Anton devisit is with us. Anton, thanks

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Speaker 2: for your time this afternoon. First of all, does our

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Speaker 2: domestic T twenty comp need a revamp.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good question. It's a tough one. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I think the quality of the games and stuff are

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Speaker 3: really good in terms of the standard of play and

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Speaker 3: all those things. I think the one thing that it

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Speaker 3: probably struggles to attract is as big numbers at the games.

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Speaker 3: And I guess that's a number of factors, scheduling times,

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Speaker 3: you know, all those things that come into it can

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Speaker 3: affect that. Yeah, But ins in terms of cricket itself,

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Speaker 3: I think it's you know, compared to the other competitions. Personally,

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Speaker 3: I didn't find a massive difference between the standard. It

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Speaker 3: was more so just different styles that that different teams played.

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Speaker 2: What's your view on the Super Smash and how good

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Speaker 2: a job it does of preparing our players for international

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Speaker 2: T twenty cricket.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it has its place. I I think the

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Speaker 3: thing that it probably lacks is the variety of players.

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Speaker 3: You know, when you get into the international stage and

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Speaker 3: you're playing the likes of Angladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,

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Speaker 3: who who tend to produce unique cricketers, let's say, in

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Speaker 3: the way they play the game, we're a little bit

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Speaker 3: shouted by that. We're very traditional with the way we

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Speaker 3: play the game with T twenty cricket, and with the

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Speaker 3: domestic competition structured the way it is, we tend to

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Speaker 3: be playing the same players week and week out, so

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Speaker 3: we know them like the back of our hand. So

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Speaker 3: in that sense, I think, I think it prepares players,

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Speaker 3: but not necessarily prepares them for international cricket with a

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Speaker 3: variety of different styles of players that they're about to

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Speaker 3: come up against.

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Speaker 2: What a franchise based T twenty league in New Zealand work?

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Speaker 3: You are? Oh my, I'm not entirely sure. I think

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Speaker 3: you know, depending on how the structured and stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: From minus standing, one of the big big things is

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Speaker 3: the time time difference and the time zones that the

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Speaker 3: competition will be played in. And let's say India, for example,

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Speaker 3: who i'd imagine would be a large market. If you

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Speaker 3: played like a two or three o'clock. Three o'clock game,

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Speaker 3: for example, it's probably mid morning over there. So I'm

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Speaker 3: not sure how valuable it would be in terms of

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Speaker 3: commercial commercial the commercial side.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 3: And it just it would also depend on how they

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Speaker 3: structured structured the teams. With a year allowed overseas players,

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Speaker 3: how many of you allowed all those types of things.

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Speaker 2: By the sounds of one of the proposals or the

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Speaker 2: proposal i've heard, it would be three overseas players per

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Speaker 2: team and the rest would be New Zealand players. So

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Speaker 2: if that was the guideline, how much of a success

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Speaker 2: or thus success would rely on quality players being attracted here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well quite us with the quality player has been

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Speaker 3: with them coming to the competition, you're going to have

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Speaker 3: to fork out for the man. They're not going to

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Speaker 3: come for small money like they did back in the

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Speaker 3: day when the Champions League was there, you know, about

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Speaker 3: seven or eight years ago, when the Champions League competition

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Speaker 3: was still around. The carrot of going to the Champions

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Speaker 3: League and earning really good money if you did well

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Speaker 3: was enough to get some really high quality players over

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Speaker 3: But without that and schedules and competing with the Big

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Speaker 3: Bash in that time zone that same time of the year, sorry,

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Speaker 3: in the December January period, the money would have to

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Speaker 3: be quite significantly boosted, I'd imagine.

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Speaker 2: And outside of the money, how attractive a proposition do

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Speaker 2: you think a month of cricket and the New Zealand

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Speaker 2: summer would be to an overseas player, given you know,

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Speaker 2: the other things on off, they hear a safe place

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Speaker 2: to bring their family if they wanted to that sort

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Speaker 2: of thing.

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Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, you know that's that's a huge attraction. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: You no one ever says a bad word about their

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Speaker 3: time in New Zealand and put the people of New

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Speaker 3: Zealand look after, look after whoever whoever's over here, and

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Speaker 3: they can kind of escape from So we're talking about

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Speaker 3: a bigger Them player or we're a big English player.

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Speaker 3: You can kind of escape and do normal things without

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Speaker 3: being tested by the public. So I'd imagine it'd be

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Speaker 3: you know, there would be an element of doing that

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: When you were playing in the various franchise competitions that

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Speaker 2: you did, did you always feel financially secure?

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Speaker 3: Not particularly, particularly when you had to New Zealand Cricket.

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Speaker 3: They had the rule where if you weren't available for

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Speaker 3: the Super Smash itself, you weren't you weren't allowed to

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Speaker 3: take contract, which which which. Now that I'm out of

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Speaker 3: the game and I've sort of had time to I

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Speaker 3: guess reflect on that. I think it's probably the right decision.

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Speaker 3: But not no, you're playing for you're playing for your

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Speaker 3: your income every every tournament and you know, it's it's

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Speaker 3: it's high, high level, high stress, and it's quite an

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Speaker 3: emotional journey to be fair, particularly when you're in the

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Speaker 3: likes of Bangaldesian, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and you know,

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Speaker 3: the one thing that you've got to do is play

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Speaker 3: good cricket and it just happens that you're not. It

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Speaker 3: can be pretty lonely, a lonely space.

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Speaker 2: And you know, obviously there's going to be a lot

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Speaker 2: of key He was involved in a in a franchise

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Speaker 2: based T twenty league. If it comes to pass, how

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Speaker 2: attractive a proposition do you think that would be to

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand player, you know, playing in a franchise

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Speaker 2: league in their own country with overseas players and as

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Speaker 2: opposed to what they're currently involved in in our domestic

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Speaker 2: super smash.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's just a variety, variety of different

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Speaker 3: players that you're going to play up against and with

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Speaker 3: the one thing that I can take out of franchise

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Speaker 3: cricket and my hand on hard I can say was

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Speaker 3: the best thing for me was rubbing shoulders with different

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Speaker 3: players from all over the world and understanding their style

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Speaker 3: of T twenty cricket. It's like I said a little

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Speaker 3: bit earlier. All these competitions in terms of skill sets

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Speaker 3: are relatively similar, but they all play slightly different style.

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Speaker 3: You go to the CPL and they're more boundary orientated

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Speaker 3: than you get up for the Pukstan Super League, and

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Speaker 3: your ones and twos and your play of spin needs

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Speaker 3: to be much more effective. And then Australia, the grounds

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Speaker 3: are a bigger square than what they are straight, so

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Speaker 3: there's a lot more a lot more of the bowlers

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Speaker 3: going through sort of your chest region. So it's just

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Speaker 3: trying to pick up the different varieties, you know, As

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Speaker 3: I said, like these domestic players tend to play the

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Speaker 3: same guys a week in week out, and that can

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Speaker 3: get a little bit monotonous, I'd say, And it's really

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Speaker 3: hard to try and crowd a rivalry between different teams

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Speaker 3: because you find yourself playing with one another or against

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Speaker 3: each other more often than not. So yeah, I think

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Speaker 3: I think that's one of the big things is how

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Speaker 3: do we how do we do this tournament if it

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Speaker 3: goes ahead, and how do we get the most out

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Speaker 3: of our players learning from these these superstars and hopefully it.

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Speaker 2: Attracts what's your view on the concept of a new

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Speaker 2: Zealand team entering the Australian Big Bash.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's always been It's always been talked about, hasn't it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, for me, the Big Bash was one of

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Speaker 3: the coolest tournaments to play in because it's it's marketing,

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Speaker 3: its heights, it's just just it's unmatched. The question I'd

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Speaker 3: ask is if we did enter the competition with our

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Speaker 3: New Zealand players then become locals for other teams and

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Speaker 3: you know they'd say where we had an North Island

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Speaker 3: South team and there would would our local players be

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Speaker 3: able to play for the Renegades or the Thunder or

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Speaker 3: another team as a local, and just how it will work,

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Speaker 3: because I think if that was the case, obviously money

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Speaker 3: talks when it comes to that side of things. And

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Speaker 3: would our teams be competitive enough if we had our

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Speaker 3: best players playing for other Big Bash teams.

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Speaker 2: And just back to our own competition to finish Anton

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Speaker 2: Do you think doing nothing is an option? Just just

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Speaker 2: rolling out the Super Smash as it is at the moment,

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Speaker 2: Summer on summer.

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Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I can't. I can't answer that, And

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Speaker 3: I mean, will you look at our Black capsite and

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Speaker 3: you know it's a relatively competitive T twenty outfit, and

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Speaker 3: some would say that the Super Smash is doing its

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Speaker 3: job in terms of producing producing cricketers that can competit

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Speaker 3: that level. The question I have as if we don't,

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Speaker 3: if we did do something, how good could we be?

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Speaker 3: Could we be world champions more often than not? And

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Speaker 3: could we compete more often? I think I think it's

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Speaker 3: definitely lacking something. I'm not quite sure what it is,

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Speaker 3: whether it's the grounds that we play out, or the

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Speaker 3: time of year or the scheduling. In terms of that,

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Speaker 3: you know, I don't see a lot of points playing

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Speaker 3: point playing on a Sunday at seven pm when kids

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Speaker 3: have got to get the school on a Monday, because

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Speaker 3: those are the people we want to attract. We want

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Speaker 3: to attract kids to the game and get a following

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Speaker 3: basically and have kids want it hounding their mums and

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Speaker 3: dads to go down to the cricket every week.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, hey An Tom, thanks mate, great to get your insight.

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Speaker 2: Really appreciate you taking that call. Anton Devsit's their former

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Speaker 2: black cap in both T twenty and fifty over cricket

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Speaker 2: and a huge participant in T twenty cricket around the place,

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Speaker 2: including in a number of franchise leagues, the Aussie Big

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Speaker 2: Bash being one of those.

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