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

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Speaker 1: from News Talk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: The big news on Friday for New Zealand cricket fans.

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Speaker 2: New Zealand Cricket and Sky have agreed terms on a

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Speaker 2: six year deal from the summer of twenty twenty six

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Speaker 2: twenty seven onwards, which we'll see the Black Caps and

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Speaker 2: White Ferns home internationals return to Sky Sport for the

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Speaker 2: first time since twenty twenty. New Zealand Cricket CEO Scott

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Speaker 2: Winning is whether Scott thanks for joining us to wrap

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Speaker 2: some context around it for us. First of all, how

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Speaker 2: good an outcome is this for New Zealand Cricket.

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Speaker 3: It's an excellent outcome. To have some certainty around the

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Speaker 3: short to midterm commercials on our domestic broadcasting arrangement is

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Speaker 3: very good news for New Zealand Cricket. Sky is obviously

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Speaker 3: a very very capable broadcaster and has a lot of

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Speaker 3: experience in broadcasting cricket, so that's also great. And there's

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Speaker 3: also the free to wear element to to the Dell,

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Speaker 3: which which is great tour. That means we're still going

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Speaker 3: to be able to really drive fan engagement through a

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Speaker 3: free to wear product.

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Speaker 2: I want to get into the nuts and bolts of

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Speaker 2: the deal in the moment in terms of the free

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Speaker 2: to wear component and other things. But how important is

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Speaker 2: broadcast revenue to New Zealand crickets balance sheet?

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Speaker 3: Very important. It would be great to keep all of

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Speaker 3: our cricket on freezewear, but the reality is we need

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Speaker 3: to have some broadcast revenue to be able to pay

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Speaker 3: our professional players, the Black Cats, White Ferns and our

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Speaker 3: major association players, but also to invest in the community

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Speaker 3: game to ensure that we're able to bring through the

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Speaker 3: next generation of black Cats and White Ferns. If we

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Speaker 3: didn't have that rene, you know, our whole commercial model

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Speaker 3: would risk.

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Speaker 2: It's such a balancing act for you, though, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: We spoke last year, Scott and you talked about the

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Speaker 2: important of having cricket on free to air TV, even

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Speaker 2: when a pay per view broadcaster has the rights. So

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Speaker 2: we will see some international cricket on free to air

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Speaker 2: TV under this new.

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Speaker 3: Deal, yes, we One of the one of the one

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Speaker 3: of the toughest negotiations to be fair was ensuring that

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Speaker 3: at least one international of h T twenty series would

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Speaker 3: be shown on free to Wear along with the Super Smash,

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Speaker 3: So this Super Snash was carved out, and we also

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Speaker 3: agreed that you know, one international per series would be

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Speaker 3: carved out. So that creates what we think is a

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Speaker 3: really nice package of freeware product that that you know,

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Speaker 3: other broadcasters in TV here or other free toware broadcasters

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Speaker 3: will be interested in. So it's it's it's a really

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Speaker 3: difficult balancing act and credit to Skye being sared to

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Speaker 3: do it because they they also see, you know, the

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Speaker 3: benefits of partnering together to really drive cricket because ultimately

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Speaker 3: that benefit to them are So it.

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Speaker 2: Does, it does, But I guess you're right from the

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Speaker 2: point of view they want it all behind a payball

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Speaker 2: so they can drive subscriptions. You probably want it all

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Speaker 2: on free to wear so you can drive viewer engagement.

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Speaker 2: So what are those conversations like.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, but I mean, you know, social Maloney is

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Speaker 3: ultimately a cricket fan. Her husband and two boys, but

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Speaker 3: three boys all play cricket, So so she was delighted

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Speaker 3: from that point of view of you know, getting cricket back,

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Speaker 3: but also driving it. Look at balancing that because you

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Speaker 3: need to make sure that you're not impacting the financials

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Speaker 3: by providing too much free to wear, So it is

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Speaker 3: it is a difficult balance, but you know it's happy

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Speaker 3: for you where ultimately we think we'll drive you know,

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Speaker 3: subscribing numbers in the Sky as well.

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Speaker 2: So when you're coming up with the free to wear component,

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Speaker 2: do you work with Sky on that in terms of

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Speaker 2: their Sky Open channel or with a free to provider

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Speaker 2: like TV and Z.

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Speaker 3: So so that's open to negotiation. So what we were

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Speaker 3: essentially to have is a package that is the soup

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Speaker 3: Smash and those one game to big series that will

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Speaker 3: be offering to TV and Z or to Discovery and

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Speaker 3: look ultimately not in this is those then you know

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Speaker 3: it might be ended up on the Sky channel and

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Speaker 3: then it's about us, you know, working together the Sky

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Speaker 3: to really drive engagement and participation on that channel. So

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Speaker 3: that might be we'll have our advertising models so that

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Speaker 3: we're out a lot harder.

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Speaker 2: Do you think TV and JET are keen to extend

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Speaker 2: their partnership with you?

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Speaker 3: I hope. So, yeah, the the numbers for super Smash

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Speaker 3: have been extraordinary this year and that's been a combination

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Speaker 3: of a fantastic product that Penians there has put together,

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Speaker 3: Whisper but also the quality of creative and such that

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Speaker 3: you know, people have really engaged with deportments. But also

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Speaker 3: you know that having you know, one game from the

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Speaker 3: series on free to air is a pretty compelling opportunity

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Speaker 3: for a free to provide a lot of TV in

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Speaker 3: ded and but you know, we we as part of this,

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Speaker 3: we have been in discussed with TV and DEAD about

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Speaker 3: what they you know, what they would like to have

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Speaker 3: going forward.

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Speaker 2: Is there any way for you to to quantify the

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Speaker 2: positive effect to the game of having international cricket on

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Speaker 2: free to wear over the last couple of summers?

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Speaker 3: Probably, I think if we if we've got an actually involved,

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Speaker 3: I'm sure.

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Speaker 2: We probably well, I don't think we want to do

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Speaker 2: that today, but.

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Speaker 3: You know there will be absolutely will be some way

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Speaker 3: of doing that. I mean, just just at a really

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Speaker 3: high level. When you know, when we showed a T

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Speaker 3: twenty on Spark, I think there was about one hundred

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Speaker 3: and fifty thousand average previously on TV and there sorry

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Speaker 3: on Sky was remember two fifty three hundred. You know,

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Speaker 3: where we're getting viewership numbers of you know, over a million,

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Speaker 3: you know, one to two million watching our T twenty.

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Speaker 3: So in terms of eyeballs significant and then of course

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Speaker 3: that the drives advertising revenue, et cetera. So well, someone

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Speaker 3: much more than me will be able to actually, you know,

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Speaker 3: try and re number on that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we can anecdotally anyway we can say,

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Speaker 2: can't we that it's been extremely positive. You know, the

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Speaker 2: more people who can watch it, the more people who

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Speaker 2: will engage with it. Anyway, we move on from the

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Speaker 2: free week component. We look forward to seeing how that

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Speaker 2: plays out in terms of the contract length, Scott, six years.

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Speaker 2: That's a decent contract length. Were always keen on that

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Speaker 2: sort of term, Yes, I was.

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Speaker 3: Actually we when we signed up with Sony to show

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Speaker 3: for our Indian broadcast deal, it was six years and

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Speaker 3: essentially that takes in two India tours. So I was

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Speaker 3: came to match those up because what that does essentially

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Speaker 3: gives us certainty of income to enable us to invest,

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Speaker 3: but it also gives your your partners in this case, Sky,

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Speaker 3: the opportunity to invest in the partnership. So yeah, look,

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Speaker 3: Sky would have probably liked the longer one, but six

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Speaker 3: years out about white class.

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Speaker 2: So skytou can on longer than six years?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, because I mean for them, you know again it's

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Speaker 3: certainty of content, so it enables them to invest and

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Speaker 3: enables their investors to look at what is the content

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Speaker 3: that they have come down the track. So therefore to

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Speaker 3: determine you know, the value of Sky of the business and.

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Speaker 2: In terms just clarify for us the nature of when

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Speaker 2: the black Caps and White Ferns play overseas. That's different again,

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Speaker 2: isn't it It is?

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Speaker 3: Yes, Sky currently hold the rights for the ICC, so

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Speaker 3: whenever the black Caps are watching in an icy ICC

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Speaker 3: tournament they will it will be shown on Sky and

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Speaker 3: I think they have that out to twenty twenty eight

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Speaker 3: and then Sky will separately negotiate with other member boards.

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Speaker 3: So as I understand it, they're currently in negotiations with

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Speaker 3: Cricket Australia to show any of the cricket bats in Australia,

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Speaker 3: including Black Caps and White women in the same But

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Speaker 3: he said another.

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Speaker 2: Boards all right, So just to wrap this up, it's

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Speaker 2: a good outcome for New Zealand cricket in terms of

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Speaker 2: your balance sheet and the balance you've struck, you feel

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Speaker 2: it's also a good outcome for New Zealand cricket fans.

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Speaker 3: Scott, Yes, I do, Yeah, I absolutely do, because you know, Sky,

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Speaker 3: Sky's almost like a utility in New Zealand. You know,

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Speaker 3: most people have it, and so you know, the reaction

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Speaker 3: to it being back on Sky has been positive. But

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Speaker 3: also I think us balancing up, you know, having them

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Speaker 3: free to wear and means, you know, we're really going

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Speaker 3: to continue to have the best of both will not

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Speaker 3: not quite the same state that we've had recently, but

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Speaker 3: still are similar opportunity for fantasy free to wear. But

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Speaker 3: also see you know, some pretty compelling, uh and well

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Speaker 3: produced cricket on Sky.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, do you think the black Caps can win the

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Speaker 2: Champions Trophy?

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Speaker 3: I'm just going to go and touch this wooden the

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Speaker 3: three next to me. Look, they are playing some outstanding cricket,

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Speaker 3: you know, but you know there's some incredibly strong teams.

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Speaker 3: I sort of watched England Australia over night and that

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Speaker 3: was quite scary see the quality of some of the

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Speaker 3: batting there. But absolutely we can you know they're playing

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Speaker 3: with The black Caps are playing playing very very well.

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Speaker 3: They look very composed. The great balance and the team

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Speaker 3: at the moment. So yeah, we were one more game

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Speaker 3: and we're into the semes and then anything's gonna happen.

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Speaker 2: I guess indeed, as we saw from the White Ferns

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Speaker 2: last year. Of course, Scott Scott, great to chat, Thanks

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Speaker 2: for wrapping some context around this new broadcast deal for us.

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Speaker 2: Really appreciate your time and we'll catch up again soon.

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Speaker 3: Bye a pleud you, Jason, Thanks for having me on, Thanks.

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Speaker 2: For joining U, Scott Scott went it there, CEO of

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Speaker 2: New Zealand Cricket here on Weekend Sport.

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

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio