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Speaker 1: Now, as you heard yesterday on the show, the government's

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Speaker 1: announced international cricket is going to be returning to the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory for the first time in seventeen years. TiO

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Speaker 1: Stadium is going to host two T twenty International men's

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Speaker 1: cricket matches on the tenth and the twelfth of August

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Speaker 1: to officially open the summer of cricket. Both those matches

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Speaker 1: expected to sell out now Australia, as I understand, it's

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Speaker 1: going to be facing off against South Africa, marking the

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Speaker 1: first time that a T twenty International has been played

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Speaker 1: in Darwin. Gavin Dovey joins me in the studio right now,

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Speaker 1: the CEO of NT Cricket. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Gave morning Catty. Thank you mate.

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Speaker 1: This sounds like very exciting news. Just talk us through

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Speaker 1: these matches.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for fantastic news. Huge for the territory

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Speaker 2: and I reckon in my two years here you and

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Speaker 2: I have had a number of conversations about can we

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Speaker 2: make this happen, So yeah, it is absolutely stoked to

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Speaker 2: bring it to life and as you said, it's opening

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Speaker 2: the Australian summer right here in Darwin. First time men's

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Speaker 2: T twenties have ever been played in the territory and

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Speaker 2: first time international cricket's been here since two thousand and eight,

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Speaker 2: so number of big ticks there.

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Speaker 1: So over the moon it is fantastic. And look, I

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Speaker 1: love seeing these big games, whatever sport it is, but

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory. I think it does a

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Speaker 1: lot in terms of sort of sports tourism and major

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Speaker 1: event tourism. But it also does a lot in terms

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Speaker 1: of just getting the Northern Territory activated and excited.

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Speaker 2: Right, yeah, absolutely, And you know we want to play

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Speaker 2: a bigger role in Australian cricket and part of that's

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Speaker 2: making sure we've got internationals here certainly on a more

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Speaker 2: consistent basis and seventeen years so great that we're back

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Speaker 2: around the table now. And as you said's a number

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Speaker 2: of benefits. We love where we live. We want people

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Speaker 2: to come and see it for themselves, so whether it's

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Speaker 2: visitation from min stay or overseas, or just even been

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Speaker 2: able to broadcast and promote the territory globally as a

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Speaker 2: great destination.

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Speaker 1: So tell me how many people travel with those teams

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Speaker 1: as well. I know you used to travel with the

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Speaker 1: Australian team, like, it's quite a large portion of people

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Speaker 1: actually just required to travel with the squad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I think overall, just in terms

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Speaker 2: of people playing in the event or participating in sort

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Speaker 2: of delivering it, you'll have a couple hundred people, you know,

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Speaker 2: from your teams and your match officials, to your broadcast,

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Speaker 2: to your event delivery. That that in itself will bring

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Speaker 2: a real, really large contingent of people. And then beyond

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Speaker 2: what's been an amazing local response from territorians about this,

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Speaker 2: you know, we expect it's going to be really popular.

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Speaker 1: With visitors in terms of the number of people that

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Speaker 1: you might turn up to actually watch these matches. Any

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Speaker 1: ideas how many I don't, I mean happened, So it's

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Speaker 1: hard to know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is hard to know, and and I'm sort

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Speaker 2: of reluctant to predict, but you know, I think we

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Speaker 2: think they'll sell out. We'd like to think that, and

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Speaker 2: are obviously going to work hard over these next sort

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Speaker 2: of six months to make sure we market and sell

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Speaker 2: it pretty.

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Speaker 1: Hard in terms of the number of people or that

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Speaker 1: you know, how broadly this is broadcast and how many

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Speaker 1: eyes will then be on matches like this. I mean

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Speaker 1: that's what's really quite extraordinary, you would think for the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory is.

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Speaker 2: Nash, Yeah, absolutely. I mean cricket. The growth of cricket

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Speaker 2: globally over the last couple of decades has been just phenomenal.

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Speaker 2: And I always point to the fact that the IOC

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Speaker 2: I've decided to put cricket back into the Olympics, and

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Speaker 2: it's because of its reach, its scale. You've got two

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Speaker 2: and a half billion fans now around the world that

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Speaker 2: are just fanatical about cricket, your cricket in the US

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Speaker 2: now there's talk about Saudi Arabia League. So the global

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Speaker 2: scale of the sport is pretty unprecedented. So I think

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Speaker 2: anytime you've got international cricket, anytime Australia is playing, and

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Speaker 2: then we've been really fortunate we've got a really proud

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Speaker 2: cricketing country in South Africa is our opposition. You know,

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Speaker 2: we think the reach of this content these two two

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Speaker 2: twenties will be huge.

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Speaker 1: Is it part of sort of a broader, broader plan

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Speaker 1: by Cricket Australia to get cricket into other parts of

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Speaker 1: Australia all like big matches into other parts of Australia

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Speaker 1: rather than just some of those major centers.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think what all cricket lovers and sports lovers

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Speaker 2: see through a traditional Australian summer is it's so congested,

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Speaker 2: there's so much cricket, and so the great thing about

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory is we've got this incredible winter cricket opportunity.

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Speaker 2: That's been a real strong part of our narrative the

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Speaker 2: last couple of years is we offer the sport the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to play all year round. So we really would

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Speaker 2: like to see international cricket get into a sort of

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Speaker 2: consistent rhythm in that July August window, which we think

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Speaker 2: offers great benefits for the territory but also great benefits

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Speaker 2: for cricke Australia because it just gives them some extra

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Speaker 2: runway in which to play the sport.

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Speaker 1: Is there any like I know you and I have

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Speaker 1: spoken before and I'm a bit out of the loop

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Speaker 1: with this stuff, but is there any work that needs

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Speaker 1: to be done? Like I know there was a drop

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Speaker 1: in wicket, wasn't there put in? What work needs to

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Speaker 1: happen for this game to get underway here?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we've we've really done the groundwork the

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Speaker 2: last couple of years. You know, when we put that

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Speaker 2: first dropping wicket in in twenty twenty three, you know,

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Speaker 2: that was the first time and had been back into

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Speaker 2: Marara Stadium since that two thousand and eight series, and

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Speaker 2: then we've put two dropping wickets in last year, so

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Speaker 2: we're sort of building that capability and that really is

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Speaker 2: a critical part of it. You know, to host international

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Speaker 2: cricket the highest level, where you know you've got your

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Speaker 2: Mitchell Starks and your Patti Cummens bowl one hundred and

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Speaker 2: forty k's an hour, you certainly need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that the wickets top draw. So we feel like we've

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Speaker 2: done the work to be able to do that and

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Speaker 2: we've got some of the best curators in the country here,

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Speaker 2: so we think that we'll be fine. But I guess

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Speaker 2: the other part of getting more international cricket here is

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Speaker 2: there is a window to get a Test match here

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Speaker 2: next year. So createt Astray spoke about that at the

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Speaker 2: announcement yesterday that there's there's two Test matches scheduled for

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Speaker 2: sort of that winter period next year. They're looking at

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Speaker 2: at Northern Queensland and the NT is potentially an option.

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Speaker 2: So I think what we want to do is we

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Speaker 2: know we can host T twenties, we know we can

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Speaker 2: host Adie Eyes is also how do we demonstrate we

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Speaker 2: could host that longer format cricket.

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Speaker 1: How do we do that? Mate? Do we need to

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Speaker 1: show that our spectators are the best in the world

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Speaker 1: when they turn up here? Like do people need to

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Speaker 1: dress up as crocodiles for the you know, for the

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Speaker 1: cameras that are going to be going all around the world,

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Speaker 1: for all the spectators. What do we need to do?

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Speaker 2: I think we know we've got the best spectators in

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Speaker 2: the world. We know everyone loves turning up the sport here,

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Speaker 2: so that that'll be fine. We'll hopefully make another announcement soon.

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Speaker 2: I think just around what the opportunities this year to

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Speaker 2: show that we can do that, so more high level

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Speaker 2: cricket on it. It's his key. And then I think

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Speaker 2: once Create Australia are sort of satisfied, we then we're

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Speaker 2: back in the race for all future content. And just

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Speaker 2: like you know AFL and NRL have those longer term

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Speaker 2: partnerships the anti government, you know that's ultimately where we

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Speaker 2: want to land as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, well, let's hope so because I always think

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Speaker 1: as well when it comes to any sport, whether you're

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Speaker 1: talking about cricket, whether you're talking about the AFL, the NRL.

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Speaker 1: It's so good for grassroots, you know, for the grassroots

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Speaker 1: sporting community. Also in terms of kids being able to

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Speaker 1: see all right, look, my idol is here in town.

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Speaker 1: You know, I like, if I can see them playing

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, surely I can get to

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Speaker 1: that point at some stage in my life. And you know,

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Speaker 1: they may not ever, but it's good to have goals

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Speaker 1: and it's wonderful for kids to have people to look

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Speaker 1: up to and to see those sports happening here in

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Speaker 1: the NTA.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and we spoke about that yesterday.

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Speaker 2: I think in terms of that restoring the lifestyle, you know,

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Speaker 2: date the government spoken about well, you know, you need

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Speaker 2: to be able to bring those types of events that

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Speaker 2: every other state and territory has access to. So I

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Speaker 2: think it's great for our local community that they can

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Speaker 2: turn up and watch elite cricket here. And then the

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Speaker 2: second part you spot on, and you know as well

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Speaker 2: as I do, is arent you know the power of

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Speaker 2: when you've got young boys and girls that can get

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Speaker 2: within touching distance of their sporting heroes and we'd like

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Speaker 2: to think this can be part of inspiring a new

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Speaker 2: generation of territory kids that want to play cricket for

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Speaker 2: their country. So we know the power and impact of

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Speaker 2: that and that's really important.

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Speaker 1: Well, those participation numbers for cricket in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: are really high at the moment, aren't they unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we certainly need more grounds, like a lot of

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Speaker 2: sporting in the territory, you know, we feel like we

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Speaker 2: certainly need more facilities. Our junior participation numbers have been

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Speaker 2: incredible and women's cricket has been going through the roof.

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Speaker 2: This year, we'll have two divisions in our local dal

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Speaker 2: and the district's cricket competition for the first time, which

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Speaker 2: is phenomenal. So the interest is there, the demands there,

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Speaker 2: and all these things interconnected grassroots through to a pathway

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Speaker 2: and through to that elite level. They all play an

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Speaker 2: important role.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, Oh Will Gavin Dovey, CEO of INT Cricket,

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Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you, mate, Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Fantastic, thanks having me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you