Greenberg greenlights Knight Rider bunce

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1:02We are the right fit and he goes. We're the good trick. The great trick is it's up. That's still my watch. We're the good trick. Shit, it's good. This is easy. I think after you're going to move it to the next set, timbre 11 is going to be amazing. Todd Greenberg says it's the most important strategic decision that Australian cricket will make for a generation. That's right, partial privatization. As the CEO faced the SCG yesterday speaking to the backdrop of more part trees, visually staged with modern legends, the Bunts was greenlit begging the questions. Is this a billion dollar opportunity or are we robbing from the future? Let's face it, the sun will never ever set on the night riders. And as Freddie Mercury sung, I won it all, I won it all, I won it all and I won it now. On the show as well, we'll also talk about Australia's team for South Africa, mana stuff of course. KP is both Mr Beast and England's Whiteball mentor. We preview England Pakistan after the visitors been seven players and confiscated a couple of phones

2:02presumably in fear of England's 2005 case attack. RCTG is very willing today and thank you for your patience on the delivery of the podcast this week. We are late due to the famed content capture day where you neutrally capture content in flat media based fashion. We were the SCG in a box while everything was taking place downstairs. Now in Higgo's barley based leaf, I'll be joined today by special co-host Gideon Hague. We are proud to have a man of intellectual and club cricketing distinction, ably filling in wild puppet Higgo's destroys, bent hangs the lust as it is once and as he well deserves. Gideon Hague cricket out there. We are in hot button territory. How momentous was Todd's announcement yesterday in the history of Australian cricket? First of all, it's a great pleasure to be back considering last time. That's what was ultimately go wrong. How momentous was yesterday?

3:03Not really momentous. We sort of knew that the cricket Australian board was going to be in fervent agreement with itself that private investment was a panacea for the game. It was disturbing, frankly, to see how empty the slogans sounded. I think the word opportunity was used 47 times in the press conference yesterday. I usually in conjunction with the word one billion, a billion dollar opportunity for Australia. The undertone, I think, of the content from Todd Greenberg's content capture, was if you don't do it now, take the money away and we'll be poor the rest of our lives. That set ill with me as an Australian cricket follower. As a devotee of the game, it was it sounded like a cry of a desperate game that lacks confidence in its future

4:06that doesn't really know what the future looks like. It's panicked stricken. It's rushing towards the guns. It's like basketball. They're rushing towards the danger. I think everyone needs to just sit back because we I really want to get into this with privatisation. And particularly now that it has been greenlit, of course we knew that it was coming in some way or other, but the mechanics and the exes and us are not what we expected. Before we do that, let's hear from the punters. We did ask them what they thought about this and Manus. etc. So this is what they had to say. Good morning. September 11 is going to be amazing. I'm amazing. September 11 is going to be amazing. The run is version of Chernobyl. Oh no, the blobby leagues in danger. How do we get Greenberg inside solitary confinement?

5:06A stab, stab, stab. Fuck me, the blue shirts and RM and the ACG members must be beside themselves with all this use of their favourite word. I'm sorry, but the moment they schedule MI Melbourne to play Sydney Super Kings on boxing days instead of a fucking test match, we ride right. I didn't sit through this West Coast season to watch fucking MI scored. She's on the tele. Honestly, this Wednesday episode better be 8 hours long. I need dividends. I don't know how well they want to be. The Sun Racer Sydney or the Sydney Super Kings. Both sound sheer. What is privatisation? Always what's getting me hot is how nuclear code level these nodes must be that Manus has holy shit. Manus is still in the squad. Me want change, me want change, me want change. What's that? Here goes his hour.

6:06That's too much change. What's getting me hot boys is we're in a new era of England cricket. No dickheads. We've got the old ego maniacs out. They were moving forward. What's that? Kevin Peterson to join White Balls Setup. All I ask is that tonight Alex Malcolm cradles my head and whispers things like governance and leadership to me as I drift off into the deep wings of his man. The place where Indian Bobby Money does not yet exist. The scheduling remains ghoulosly open ended. One day tries theories round out of summer and dad still loves mum. Oh, obviously. Bravo to the contributors but a special Bravo to Chuck there for those wonderful. There's wonderful audio interventions. That's well known.

7:07Is your mic on as well here Chuck? Yeah, yeah. Nice. Chuck, Gideon and Pez. We're going to do this together on privatization. So yeah, sit back. I look, I don't know if we have the same views about privatization. Gideon, I want to make sure we try and capture as much of the sentiment as possible. And I don't know how much we should be getting into the weeds of the exes and oes and the mechanics of governance of what's happened in the last three months. We were told three months ago that the states had this kind of fragile alignment on four conditions that need to be satisfied before the self-determination model could proceed. And from a public perspective, they don't seem to have been satisfied. Though speaking to people semi-involved, they kind of say, well, there have been some developments in relation to these things.

8:08Don't worry about it too much. We all kind of knew it was coming. But from a public perspective, we were expecting that suits and bean counters and lanyards and sports admin types would be in musty little bunkers, figuring out words to constitutions. And maybe we could go to sleep for a year and talk about privatization. But instead, there's Todd Greenberg with visual staging of modern legends behind him with the cameras back to the SCG saying, yeah, we're on here, self-determination is on. And the fact that we pretty well expect that it was indicative of just how disillusioned we are with the state of cricket governance in this country. You sort of wake up with them when you go, yeah, that'd be right. That'd be right. That's exactly what they're going to do. They're going to carry on regardless of public sentiment, because I'm not sure that Australian sports fans are all that fond of private investment. They're going to ignore the wishes of at least two state associations who constitute

9:1155% of Australia's population. They seem to have assumed that the wacker is in the tent with them. My indication is that that's not quite the case. Sackers kind of sitting on the fence as the sackers I want to do. This is not the way that privatization should look like. The argument should be compelling. The counter-arguments should all have been entertained and ventilated and concerns are swaged. We should be all facing the right direction. On a strategic decision, that as Todd Greenberg keeps reminding us is the most profound of this generation, but this ragged traipsing towards this far off objective, even in September, when cricket season seems far away. It's kind of sold the strife to have to get up and write about it and to podcast about it. Do you understand that much of the public, and I think it's fair to say,

10:17who oppose this move, don't feel as though their views have been represented in relation to these moves and these developments. The upshot for the majority of the public is more T20 cricket, a likely renaming of their side, irrespective of what may be said, and a further threat to test cricket. It is difficult, isn't it, to ascertain a public mood, because often the most vocal people do constitute a minority. I'm struggling to think of a conversation that I've had in the last 18 months with a member of the public who said to me, hand-on-heart, privatization is a great idea. This is something we urgently need to do. Now, maybe they don't have a comprehension of the secular external forces at work. Certainly none of us are privy to the exact financial state of cricket Australia. The

11:17financials there are almost a year out of date if you look at the last annual report. People are obviously looking at PNLs and balance sheets at Jollimont, and they have a better idea of the current state of the game that we do. But we're on the brink of playing 21 test matches in the next year. We've come off summers against England and India, where they've got a world cup towards the end of next year. We've got big distributions coming from the ICC. It does seem amazing, isn't it, that Australian cricket can't somehow make ends meet under the current administration? Perhaps that's the question that the question underlying a lot of the questions that we've asked is, how have we managed to get into this position? And what sort of comment does that make on the way in which the game is constituted at present? There are so many angles to take on this. But I note the comment you just made about

12:26making ends meet. I know cricket Australia are going to be at pains to present what's ahead as an opportunity. And I suspect it is an opportunity for some. Sure. But an opportunity for who? The idea of making ends meet is a relative idea, isn't it? I mean, who's ends? And what does it mean to have enough money? I personally say this with a level of, I reserve some sympathy for the current administration who I don't think they operate in a vacuum. I think they operate in a least multi-decade context where previous administrations slept on what has been happening in the game and kicked the can down the road, potentially to tidy up their own balance sheets, which is something that's being accused of the current administration. But it still occurs to me irrespective of whatever competence people think the current administration has or hasn't or how responsible they are for this moment. That the game can't generate enough local money from local content to afford its best players

13:34anymore. That it's prized assets and ergo believes it must fall into line with what I would call an Indian vision for a joined up T20 franchise network owned by private conglomerates who can pay these quote unquote best players global market value where Australia will now become a temporary place to dock on the good ship IPL. And you're not going to hear that out of cricket Australia because that's a very disperiding message and I think it's a disperiding day really. But people are at different stages of grieving with this right? I personally, I am cautious about the extent to which this administration's perfectly responsible for. I think this has been a long time coming. You only have to see what happens in other countries. Australia is the last domino to fall with all of this kind of stuff. And to that end, it didn't surprise me that players flanked Greenberg

14:39yesterday like Obama with a community behind him. It's kind of shot. For a long time, it's not just those guys where for a long time players have been indicating privately that they do not wish to be paid a fraction of what their contemporaries are in other countries when they are often the best players. And that this is just the firm invisible hand of the market creating these moves and Australia now seeds control of much of its summer. But of course, how restricted are their opportunities at present? You know, they're all allowed off to play in the IPL if they want to. They have ample sort of opportunities for personal leave. I actually think the lot of Australian cricketers of the mode is pretty good. Yeah, it's relatively well. Yeah, team, how much is enough? You know, how much is it? Is it relative to Virat Kohli? Because that's that's a relatively relatively that's that's almost inconceivable. I think I actually think that yes, it's, it was interesting to see here Greenberg saying yesterday, it's ironic when, you know,

15:44all we really want to do is just put more money into the players pockets. That was a that was a little jab in the ribs for a for Paul Marshal at the ACA. But of course, there's much much more to it than that. And then there's a question of how many players really move the dial? How many players are genuinely internationally marketable? And we recently had the essay 20 auction. We were told that there were going to be mass defictions of key Australian players to that. I can't even remember who was picked up, but it wasn't all that many. Maybe we're not as good as we think we are. And it feels like a conversation like this, which is so philosophically or ideologically driven, you know, compels you to come back to first principles. I mean, who even are the players? It doesn't make sense to the everyday person, not that I pretend to have any sense of what the everyday person is, but people on the outside that the ACA are not in lockstep with cricket Australia at the moment. And yet four of its five deaths were flanked in Greenberg. So who are the

16:52players? You know, and I just get the impression that whereas the last big jost between the ACA and cricket Australia was in 2017, it was a lot of public sentiment in favor of the players. And they stayed solid together. But it feels like the question for the players now is like the difference between between being quite rich and super rich. And then there's everybody else underneath. So is there anything interesting in the fact that Greenberg was sure had this staging behind him of these players? I mean, you should say at the outset that the reason that they were there was because they were proximate, you know, they were at ESCG on the content capture day. And this was more content being captured. They were content being captured by by CA. And it certainly certainly the vibe of the players for most of the day to be honest. And players for 20 minutes in their hour. Exactly. A player's will kind of do the need for just just to get through the day. They'll choose the line of least resistance, which is fine. My mind did go back to 2017 as a veteran of those of that

17:55of that pay dispute. And at the time, I remember CA made an attempt to do an end run past the ACA to the key players. You know, you're Smiths and and Warner's and and and Stark's try and get them on side. And the players, as you say, did stay solid. And the women stayed solid with the men so that they became part of the of the same MOU. And I think that was partly driven not simply by the top players, but also by that echelon of senior players at first class level in Australia. Now the the old the heads in the Sheffield Shield dressing rooms who could remember the early days of the of the ACA and understood the principles of solidarity will get we'll get a better deal if we stick together rather than allowing them to pick us off individually. I remember thinking at the time, you know, if if CA had waited one more MOU cycle, that institutional memory would have been gone. And a generation that's grown up with the idea of players being signed up individually,

18:59players going selling themselves to the highest bidder. If that view prevailed, would CA have got what they expected or what they'd hoped for in 2017 a little bit later? I'm sure that's on the minds of of all the potential antagonists in the discussion of the new memorandum of understanding. Do you I'm sure you understand why many people are mad as hell about this in in the public. There is a part of me though that and I do as well. When you view Australian cricket and the the summer experience through the lens of Australian sovereignty and the curation of the summer and what we see the content captured through the interests of Australian fans test cricket on when we're used to having it on and the white ball cricket almost as a gateway to it as an as an as an ad on. This development fundamentally reshapes that it it smells like the primacy of T20 cricket and white

20:06ball cricket. Yes. And the introduction of people whose interests in the game diverge from Australian cricket's interests. And yet do you reserve any do you do you think there's any merit in zooming out and seeing the global context to this? I mean, I know Todd Todd is at pains to strain the global context of Australian cricket operates in now a lot of Aussies you know I think Donald Horn would say this as well you know where the lucky country and where a sleep when the world is doing stuff and we like we like things done the way we like to do it. I mean do you think cricket Australia is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to trying to sell cricket to Australians the way they want it but knowing that they are having their hand forced by what's happening globally. Yeah. Yeah I mean you've got this proposition don't you that to the Australians are not really all that fast that T20 they kind of it's it's regarded rather lightheartedly that it's good for

21:08the kids but we're a red ball culture fundamentally. Yeah I mean I think I think you could even take that back to white ball cricket. I mean it's a white ball cricket as a as a fun gateway into the real stuff I think that's and I think that's how they they built the big basch league. I mean the big basch league has was originally conceived for kids as a gate I mean it's called big bash league. I mean there's no sense of it being the purest or highest expression of our cricket it is it is an afterthought in so far it is literally on after the cricket that's when the ratings are you watch the real stuff that you kind of graduate to the the slow food movement and then afterwards you have a look with an eye on the fun stuff. Yes. You know Andrew John's played T20 cricket you know the guys are wiped up everyone's smiling and that's fine but I think moves like this suggest or signal to Australian people that T20 is king now and if you go to in Asia it is king in a lot in so many

22:11ways I mean you only have to look at the differences in crowds between the IPL and test matches in India to see where their interests lie and I even note that in the last week motion NAC fee to defend his decisions on Pakistani test cricket reminded people that they have gone up in white ball rankings under his tenure and we laugh at this in Australia you know in the anglosphere because we think who gives a fuck about that but they do in Asia I mean that that is the that can be the expression of improvement or of what your best cricket is so it's very jarring to people he locally that that test cricket is secondary in this decision or so it seems you know that seems to be the core question for T20 cricket because no I don't think I don't think we we like to see test cricket threatened for T20 cricket. Yeah well of course this is a problem of the games I'm making isn't that it's divided that the house is divided and an house divided itself against itself cannot

23:11stand we've created all these separate products all these separate genres for for cricket to appeal to this audience and that audience and the result is an audience that's now extremely fragmented and and and kind of so fragmented that it sort of doesn't really have that much overlap now that the readers of cricket are all my sub-stack are constantly telling me just how much they don't care about about T20 it's it's people like us who who have to care who who follow it and even then you know we struggle at times. Yeah what do you think happens now I mean as we go to where we're expecting a statement from cricket New South Wales who are and have been the chief opponents at cricket New South Wales the producers of one third of professional cricketers in Australia professional cricketers are born out of grassroots programs cricket New South Wales

24:12you know according to them stand to to lose by not not privatising right now. Do you expect them to to challenge this in any material way or because so far I do not know. I don't know I mean for example the chair of cricket Australia is Mike Ben and he is New South Wales's appointment I'd imagine the board is getting together pretty frequently at the moment of cricket New South Wales and that may their position on that might change example. Look it didn't play well yesterday with people even even those who are broadly in favour of privatisation just talking to people around Australia there is a sense that bad I don't know that there not a lot of reliance would be placed on his word I mean the point you made earlier about the four preconditions that were agreed by the state chairs in mid June none of them have been really addressed in any significant

25:18whatever whatever you're hearing otherwise that cricket Australia is embarked on this sort of crash through or crash course each obstacle that hits it runs out of impetus ever so slightly and the other thing is that it played incredibly badly with all fans especially those in Melbourne when the decision was taken that kind of precipitated this self-determination model to nuke the the renegades and to rename the the stars no one could make sense of that it seemed almost inconceivable you had spent 15 years building up a league creating a derby that still draws 70,000 people and you'd immediately sort of declare year zero and say that we're you know we're starting all over again and what was the what was the point of that so I think every step of the way trust is further eroded in in Australian cricket no one really believes anything that anybody else

26:24is saying everyone is seen as having an agenda even the players incurred criticism yesterday from people going well yeah that'd be right that'd be right they'll look after themselves you can sense that that undeterne of criticism in the in the way that people talk about them this collateral damage that the game is doing to itself at the moment no one seems to be taking accountability for that least of all at jolly mond and yet let's I don't mean to you know just confect balance out of this but you know I'd imagine in CA headquarters or those who are charged with executing this they would they would regard this period right now as one where there will be there will be knee jerk reactions to it and there will be frustration with change it's a human it's treason right I mean I still remember when Facebook changed its layout you know back in 2008 absolute garbage stuff no but I miss my space too except to see you know

27:24haha and yet once once that period passes by let's say you know swans are in a prudelium might have a look at that um I'm a goldfish there will be a vision presented for these um you know that the new privatized lake there will be some better players there'll be there'll be color there'll be bells and whistles it will be pumped up as a high quality competition they'll I'm sure there'll be new graphics and new brands around it and I think after 2032 the next the end of the next right still they probably will divide the summer into December for test cricket and January for the bbl or whatever they choose to call them maybe there's a new name that's just me floating it and perhaps the test players can play and maybe in that vision of the game Australia will be more aligned with how things are working globally and that this t20 comp will have the credibility that has been is been crying out for with Australia's stars playing in it you

28:28know it do you are you open to a world where higher quality teams where the current the the local stars are paid what their worth globally might be good quality is a kind of a nebulous concert isn't it um this idea that um that you know the the bbl will be better if we can get Jamie Overton for longer or we can get Matthew Breetsky from from South Africa or we can get yeah he is a good player but but it doesn't necessarily move the dial in the end a lot about cricket is about how people feel about the game rather than the consumer good itself and at a certain point you know tary and up uh is it doesn't it doesn't shift people's sentiment that people have to feel a sense people do have to feel a sense that the game matters that the players are trying um and that it's it's worth something that it's that it has impact um

29:35um if if it simply becomes a kind of a vehicle for Indian expansion if it comes becomes an Australian branded version of of an Indian game how are we going to feel about that um I don't have the answers to that but why not but I but I yeah but I do know that um um people stand to make all money out of this all this bounce everywhere yeah absolutely and maybe for cricket at all I mean what's your price yeah well and as Paul Keating once said you know always back self-interest at least you know it's trying how can we get to this trough can you know now I mean let me give you a hypothetical the FTP isn't out yet for 2027 28 or whatever it is sorry I should know that 27 to whatever the day is that it goes to but people yes they don't even I don't think we know who Australia has next summer

30:36no in the test series right let's say I mean we're expecting it's going to be a down summer uh and by that I mean you know we're going to be playing one of the teams that hasn't with it on the vine in test cricket one of the two teams two other teams that hasn't with it on the vine now what if the renegades whose license is now being marketed uh science Pat Cummins and he's available for uh half the season if we're lucky or Pat Cummins and Travis head I mean we're you know well it's not the renegades for what's the thing so so am I Melbourne Helms by Pat Cummins and Travis head you know that will be the play right that will be the plays you know can the quality of the local player who's now available for the bbl transcend the ill feeling about uh not so much it's not far an ownership but it's ownership of interest that diverge from Australian crickets you know is is that kind of do you think do you think that might get people through the door it's interesting that we can only contemplate that time horizon you know the season after next that is far forward as we can look

31:42we have become very used to this idea of just uh last week seems a long time ago um but but cricket is a game I think where continuity really does count um uh continuity of the calendar continuity of the players continuity of the traditions you know we're just about to celebrate 150 years of of test match tradition at at the mcg next year with a pink ball test match for god's sake so at a point at a certain point I think people do uh shrink back from it they they become dissolution they become uh they become fatigued by by the amount of change and it is amazing the amount of change that cricket has accommodated over the last 15 years people always talk about cricket as being a conservative game that's resistant to uh to to change actually it's changed far far more than AFL and and NRL far far more um

32:44if you're if you're if you're an Australian cricket fan at the moment it feels like you know boheka syndrome you know bend over here it comes again what do you make of the um implication I mean I think Pat was quite direct about it yesterday that that this move further protects test cricket I'm presuming that the the logic is that once you once you hope to have a seat at the table of the the good ship RPL network a barnacle aboard the ship um or attach the ship that you might be able to protect your test window and that if you don't if you don't join the network that another league will be slapped on where you yeah would formally play test cricket and you've got no opposition because everyone's making 10x more rather than playing for their nation but I mean is it is it possible that C.A. is dealing with these kinds of sophie's choice situations or be it presenting it positively I mean I know that they believe that they can quarantine test cricket

33:50from from the outside world but honestly once once outside owners and and outside capital and outside commercial interests and and imperatives become involved I think it's a fallacy to pretend that you can limit its ambitions because it's its ambitions are a completely divergent from the general interests of a Australian cricket and so they should be so would I be right and uh summarizing that you think that this this is not a good day for test cricket look I'm a skeptic I'm an agnostic about private investment but I'm not innately hostile to it I I sort of have waited with baited breath for the compelling knock-and-down drag-em-out argument I've waited for them to seriously consider the risks and to explain how they're going to mitigate them now they've had

34:5618 months and if the best they can do is stand outside the SEG and say the word opportunity 47 times then what of the last 18 months been about hmm interesting times ahead uh uh hey uh speaking of borrowing against the future the Australian test game came out for South Africa now it's a 16 man squad testing Durban uh quibbera there's a click in there and I'm not going to do it um and Cape Town this is an answer a couple of days ago uh I'll just read you the surnames Cummins, Bowlands, Kerry, Conley, Green, Hazelwood, Head, English, Kuhneman, Lava Shane, Lion, Nese, Renshaw, Smith, Stark, Webster now if you're hearing it for the first time that is bizarre but um but there you go you've got the squad now you've learned you've got the news um minus uh I'm gonna shock you here I would have picked him I would have done I would have done the same I probably would have done the same too um and I suppose I should

36:00explain that because he averages 24 but uh at this moment in time I would regard minus as irrational as it sounds and perhaps is as the player most likely to help Australia score runs and win in these conditions to beat South Africa now sadly I believe that because of the self fulfilling selection policy of the Australian team which has not particularly permitted many other people to have a crack at being that guy um and I think by failing to provide younger players the opportunity to to bet in develop within the team they they leave themselves in a situation where extraordinarily there is a reasonable case that minus actually is the best equipped to help Australia win and I think they're very clear that they do not want to rebuild this plane as it flies ahead of three the three toughest away tours I think they want to do this cycle together this

37:02this is a ride or dieting uh I um I think there's a few giveaways to this philosophy I mean they that that has stacked up over a few years that's created this situation the the indulgence of David Warner's curated retirement um some time ago the retention of Ausman who who average 30 in his last three years uh even in this squad they picked minus I thought that should pick minus I was surprised there was no specialist top order backup to him uh and and I mean even the ages of the the fast bowling back up so 37 and 36 respectively I just think that the that's just a signal that they are um they are I suppose shrinking into themselves and picking from a small group of people that they trust yes they haven't developed others who can probably do the job and they only want to turn on the turn two themselves only believing themselves or trust themselves to do this

38:04yes yes to all that yep I wasn't surprised that they picked minus I think every indication their policies of the last three years suggest that they would continue with him I mean apart from Darwin they have been winning um and you know that matters yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean it's it's it's defeat that creates a genuine mandate for change um I think you know the one thing that I did notice I I like minus I mean I actually think that you know he he he he brings something to the game even when he's not making rounds you know he's he's there's a presence about him you know he likes to bowl he's great in the field you know you can almost almost guarantee that you know he will at some point in over two test matches he will have some sort of crucial fielding um intervention during the bang the next series for the first time I got the feeling all right is minus out there

39:07like it seemed as though he'd gone very quiet um and I guess that is a natural sort of tendency to introversion when you're when you're not making runs but there's a sense that sort of minus sort of collapsing in on himself a little bit the selectors will know how minus is traveling much much better than I am but yeah the excuses being made for him are becoming kind of clawing so I do that you know he's padding brilliantly off the field I was Pat Cummins during one of his first time what do you want to call it no cricket outside part he's fourth for me yes yeah yeah yeah I'm betting brilliantly off the field I'm betting brilliantly off a field for years but I was at great yeah yeah especially with legs being yeah so not surprising but who are the alternatives are you going to drop the alternative into the middle of a maelstrom like South Africa are you going to pick McSwini I was quite impressed with the way McSwini battled in the shift would shield final last year there there is a bit about him and he you know he needs the opportunity to prove it but that would be a that would be a real hardship posting he's

40:09already had to open against boomerah and you send into South Africa as well that would be that will be very tough yeah the other the other issue about it surely wasn't opportunity wasn't it to choose a younger fastballer over there as back up you know Nises a very very fine player he is um but where are the next generation of Australian baseballs we spend a lot of time worrying about the batting in Australia don't we but we just can't keep them on the park we can't we're slides morris we're as Marley Beardman we're as we're as Calam Viddler they just cannot string consecutive games together that's that's to me they're in their stress is zero yeah they're stressed you got to have a stress is zero which is a badge of honor yeah of course but what about that you know the is there a lot is there a lost generation in between because of the indulgence of the of the greats that are playing I mean is that is that something Australians just have to accept that when you have a great era then the next generation is overlooked because they're not as good

41:13and we and then we just have to endure the the cliff which is not the problem of the current team they just want to see if they can win well the thing is we continued winning through that period and we and no mandate for change comes through a winning team so yeah I mean it's so Curtis Patterson hasn't even got a gig in the 18 I know he's 33 but that's only a year older than Mars I would have thought he'd better he had a soft start to last season but the last two years generally speaking he's been pretty good in a hotspot in the in the news of the world's top order I don't know I'm supposed to pick another news of the world's player but I actually think he's speaking so yeah he's he's had a period where he's you know dropped out of cricket he's redis covered his love for the game he's he's come back to it he's made a lot of runs there's a bit about him too I think it wouldn't have been bad to take to take him along for the ride he's going to be annoying to hear but you do pick up things at content capture day and oh I love this no no it's

42:15annoying no because I know I'm going to I'm going to go halfway with it but in you know in corridor discussions shit I want to have it both ways here but I suppose that you know given the dearth of runs in Australian cricket which needs to be caveated by those two points one U-rays is that they win most of the time and the other one is that they they out in the last five years they've outscored as in scored even though there's no runs they score more runs than the opposition on 80% of occasions so might say something about the conditions I didn't know for me but it does beg the question of like you know who is in reserve if something goes wrong and some of the names being floated in reserve are interesting and reinforces the idea that they turn into the group when you know if something goes wrong so let's just say that keep an eye on the Australian

43:19white ball squads as they proceed through their half dozen international in those in bubble and so that's how a professional if someone makes runs yeah don't be surprised that's how a professional say it yeah yeah it's my understanding that now Manus is a he's think for Manus is he's a good 65 like 65 innings away from making the new Flatties era series against New Zealand that he's just got to make it through 165 he gets to play New Zealand again I say openly and disrespectfully in a Flatties era where Greenberg needs the bounce right and Manus will be back one of my favorite things from content capture yesterday was showing the players some of the pictures that the commentators played on and a lot of them wanted to don sunglasses let's just say if Greenberg can get those decks back Manus will be back as well maybe one dropped catch away from it

44:23you know we forget that we used to curse Manus through the first half of his career say he's the luckiest prick out there he's always dropped he's always he's always at fault in the first 20 runs he's actually been a bit unlucky recently isn't strange how cricket turns around for you maybe there's that dropped catch in his first 10 balls in South Africa and all of a sudden he you know he glimpses the the sun with the uplands he was um like he was awesome at content capture day yeah you're taking your headphones off so I say that too he was really good he's always really good at every time and he was very sunny and funny and it's a good document too we are we congratulating him on making the squad and he said he's at what it's come to 70 tests and I'm I'm lucky to be in like yeah he's like yeah probably right so yeah he was really good and he's a 65 or 70 away from getting the the the skilies on Flatties anything else from the squad they like Cooper Connolly we know this they like the shapes they like some some RPL stuff at that

45:26that's a that's a forum now to show your your your your international repite kuhneman's in as a second spinner taking two spinners get in I the only reason I raised this is because when you listen to England or the English media talk about there in panning trip to South Africa a lot of the conversation is whether they take a spinner at all yeah so and I do think whatever you know I mean Bailey is the easiest target in all of his strength in conversation to close to the players were so wrong close so stop sitting there dug out and giving cam green throwdowns again straight wins a lot of games he's got some big balls with some selections here but you can't say that they don't do their research into the conditions they're expecting a spare a spare spinner what what how do you read that yeah well I think the perception is from far away that you know South African cricket is played on on green tops but I think the three venues that they've chosen on the on the low weld I think spinners have been pretty effective over over over the last few years they go hammer muthus

46:32whami maharash they got three very good spinners to choose from don't necessarily assume that it's going to be a fastball as a bonfire so you're saying that because in 2014 like Maul and Mitch Johnson like went toe to toe and we just have big and and Cummins there in 2011 which we're all just following to one thing not so much 2018 different things happen there but we should probably less at the better but that's not going to be the same 10 years to 15 years later well the reason that that England is thinking about not taking a spinner to South Africa is they don't have any spinners no it's no point in choosing someone who doesn't exist plus their plus their quicks of reminiscent of a five so I'll come to that in a second they are playing against Pakistan now before we get to an actual preview of the on field game we better talk about offield stuff because that's the important stuff now the guardian the telegraph UK they're reporting that the PCB confiscated and examined the phones of two players that's their understanding that's not an official communicate from the PCB but that's that's the guardian telegraph is

47:35Will McPherson and Ali Martin so they know they're doing not the short broad sense though it's so professionals but as part of an investigation into quite discipline and conduct on their tour of England they've PCB's launched an inquiry two one name players phones have been confiscated as part of that investigation it will says exactly what the board sought to learn from the phones is unclear now what else we've got yet a mere mere the PCB head of comms he wrote on X Pakistan cricket boards initiated internal disciplinary inquiry following media reports media reports concerning discipline and conduct which are currently being reviewed internally at this stage any speculative reports are unverified claims circulating on certain platforms particularly those originating from hostile external sources should not be regarded as credible so we so phones have been confiscated that's true but any suggestions as to why

48:38maybe considered hostile i mean confiscating phones sometimes you step back and you go if that happened here what the hell is going on what do you what do you make of that of with whatever you can make of it well i mean does anyone know these media reports about misbehavior i hadn't seen anything in that certainly in the mainstream press that had been corroborated is anyone know if there's footage on the internet of selma naliyar get trying to flag down an uber half pissed no it's i think there's the PCB is clearly looking for reasons to retrospectively justify their decision to to lasso seven players and take them back to Pakistan you know they made the decision now they're looking for the rationale for it i mean none of the uh it was a you know it was an incomprehensible decision seeing the players that they selected to

49:41to to go back so now they're in a position of of needed to justify interesting i suppose you know when it i mean i mean that they've they've initiated internal disciplinary inquiry following media reports so so does that mean the the chronology is there are media reports and are based on media reports they yeah so the internal inquiries and based on on things they've observed is what they've read or seen or consumed i mean there's a there's a heavy it's hard to ignore an implication but of you know when it comes to taking funds so are you tempted to take the view that they're retro respectively justifying there are rashes well no one does paranoia like Pakistan do they it's wheels within wheels and and it's become a rather pathetic side show i mean it's sort of used to be compelling and interesting because they were used to be a compelling cricket team but they're not anymore they're they're a laughing stock it is extraordinary that if we think about that moment in the second test where there was reportedly a threat to abandon the test if sky

50:46if sky sports aired an interview between micathlete and imran khan that um you know the sons of imran khan were you know taught was we're talking about the threats to their father and his treatment in prison yep largely overseen by a government which is deeply connected to the Pakistan cricket team itself yes i mean that that is the level of dysfunction and drama that is you're scarcely able to wrap your head around yeah yeah come wait till the test match the night can you how much that's like let's preview in the pakistan edge boston um yeah PCB's been half a squad uh this is the test where most people have eyes on whether or not bubba rizam is asked to name his changes at the toss what if you can remember them all is it it's it's it's it's typically the protocol that once the toss is done yeah the uh the interviewer who this person who ever is interviewing has to

51:49do this yeah but says to the captain any changes it has to happen that it must be done yeah um who knows by tonight you might have been sacked true yeah sorry i'm speaking do soon it's like who we're bummer uh micacresons coming as red ball red ball coach he was the white ball coach there's going to be at least four changes for pakistan mml huck uh rizwan allie wasman korem shazard all bone uh tears the enema guyer language pakistan's never one access to that jibasthen uh in eight goes um what chance do you give him kids have you read um just just take a slight size to have you read the piece today the interview with um jason gillespie in the in the telegraph no i know i know dizzy's been pretty um yeah fourth right in the last little while just great i like yeah yeah yeah yeah well he's picked up he's tipped a bucket all over i keep javid oh nice yeah he's didn't he felt totally disrespected by him or something like that well not only that but he sort of didn't get paid and you know sort of details like that uh and that

52:52you know i keep java kind of like that as a sort of a super coach coming over the top of him all the time and eventually does he lost it does he was quite frank he said he lost confidence in himself as a coach it's difficult to uh making clear here that i keep javid's there the head selector who they appointed himself coach yes yeah he's like pooh bar um in in in the pcb as somehow he's never accountable you know he just he just stays the year after year after year must it yeah yeah he's sort of constantly passing accountability down the line um so it goes well beyond what we might see tonight yeah there are just epic levels of of dysfunction in uh in the pcb and in the and in the pakistani state i still got bubber and my big four her top four big boys um now england india last year was an absolute road um as we don't know well i think canny championship at edge batham has been um a bit of both has been some high scoring draws and and then some low scoring stuff funny funny that um no centuries in the in the series so far

53:57which is crying out for runs now from an england perspective big games for amelio gage orden gukes and dan lorence coming up but's assumed jacobeth who's injured comes back and free can't go into two mathematically speaking um have you kept any eye on the arrangement of england's uh you know top to middle order before we go into their rampaging quicks um once again it's hard to judge considering the surfaces that they've been played on i noticed that um you know i don't know how much of the series you've watched um gay's looked okay got terribly unlucky didn't he in the second things that at lords he's picked up a couple of soft outs but um he's you know failed to put things away but he's kind of looked the part uh and looked friendly and having fun while doing so accessible as a personality yeah zero to do with the the competence on on the pitch but on now he appeals to me because he seems like a nice genial person if you met him you develop a relationship you want him to do well and now a big positive thing about

54:57that works exactly no completely yeah that's good i actually want to ask you either and this is unfair to connect this to a millio gay are you a believer there are players who uh might be very proficient first class players and just fundamentally lack the quality at test level and will always produce what will revert to the main accordingly yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well i think that's what i see sorry millio well i mean you know yourself don't you you at your club there are good two players who just can't cut it in the ones i don't know that that feels like an attack but um uh let's look about england's quik that's that he's my career but um england's quik's uh Marcus troscothic after the second test said comparisons with the 2005 attack were fair yeah um and shield berry who has covered 500 tests and written a book about it he said last week quote uh Australians won't be able to sleep a wink

55:59uh okay in in in in view of the the quik's wonderfully balanced you've obviously got the speed yes of archa at consent and tongue combined with the with the gaiel and wobble same of of ollie robinson who only who only recently was bowling in the second net at news at the last training and Sydney uni and the angles too i mean the angle that that angle that tongue gets it's pretty difficult to replicate is you know it's a sort of a physical freak um yes archa gives them the airspeed robinson's a master on those on those pictures you wonder how portable it is you know when you wonder how well it would um it would cut it in different conditions around the world god i simply cannot believe that a system of 18 counties is in capable of producing a halfway distance spinner it's just astonishing isn't it okay with it but let's talk probably now because i haven't been for the entire start of the show but that that is a trend around the world apart from Azure right i mean it again it reinforces itself why would you ball spin why would you pick

57:01except in Asia that's yeah why would you ball spin or pick spin if there's there is no incentive to do so because the conditions don't rewarded in any way i mean when you watch ollie robinson ball you know one one twenty nine k's and it's seeming half a meter that that is unplayable wobbles seem don't don't know which way it's going either way but what why would you ball spin if you know if you're a captain your jobs on the line you're trying to win games and you know everyone's out to get you all the time anyway because the algorithm incentivizes it genuinely why why would you develop a spinner what what incentive is there i did i did wonder last season when when Australia were basically able to get through the same in 2023 of course Australia lost Nathan line and looked half a team as a result but last time they seemed to get by without him yeah and i think i did speculate in print at the time that you know maybe in future spinners will be expected to to bad as well in the way that we now expect keepers to to to bat um we don't choose specialist anymore we choose kind of players who can fit into pieces of of an overall puzzle um

58:09kids uh Kevin Peterson's back in England's Sheds um 12 12 years after his enforced exit now for the last little while he's been uh in only outspoken punters he's been cosplaying as the mr. beast of global cricket he's yelling six seven with his shirt off um like a man hard of hearing and now we'll be back in the England training kit mentoring the players um talk about McCullum running to the danger it's confusing isn't i never understand the expression mentor i mean what does it mean is it it's obviously not a coach is it a kind of a talisman or or or or or a mascot is it a consultant is it uh so it's it's a it's a 12-month contract am i right i think i think it goes up to the next to the next world cup um how much work is he actually going to do there is of course already a batting coach there is Marcus just gothic there i just don't understand what his role is it it's a little bit like a general pinning a medal on himself isn't it with with McCullum look

59:12at me i've got i've got the the kp cross uh yeah i mean it's a super player i think he's got a great cricket brain um but in the end just exactly what difference can a mentor make you know k kp could talk to olipope you know uphill and down del for the next 12 months he's still going to be olipope is he yeah i don't think anyone who's sitting there looking at like england's white ball squad and the broader context of what's happening in england's men cricket men's cricket going you know you know what they need kp let's chuck at list chuck kp in the sheds it makes me think i mean i'm just uh blithely speculating about motivations but i keep coming back to this um prism of of brand McCullum i just wonder in this like a gradual d-bass balling of england cricket you know a move to i mean they've they've moved back to some old school england cricket with seaming decks slower bowlers who have impeccable control of line and length uh like oliprobanson

1:00:19where the brinum accumb might have felt need to just chuck a bit of bass ball back into the conversation but going how how can i assert the brand uh a little like right right now because it feels like it's getting away from it now that's just it's just pure speculation based on nothing but a guy in a seat in Australia so it's worth that but the the team is attempting to move towards something composed of mature and adults and you get the guy in who is working with indian kids scrimming six seven really shirt off and if you wanted to be completely cynical about it i mean i think peterson has been quite critical of of McCullum and the and the england white ball set up over the last year is it a case of you know as as lbj said when he appointed robert kennedy it's only general better to have him inside the tent pissing out rather than outside pissing in that's probably not sure that it as well yeah it's uh yeah it's a it's a watch i guess um

1:01:24did you take any notes of their ashes ticket prices in england g'dian i mean actually yeah i i think it costs somewhere between 40 to 70 percent more to sit in the holies you know and to get to get that experience at edge busting where you sing the uh the the songs Australians enjoy and aren't intimidated by but you feel like you're intimidated yeah yeah and which it which is fun by the way yeah i mean just forget the prospect of taking your family i mean i mean you wouldn't take your family know the holies maybe anyway but um you know a day out the cricket in a in an english test match these days you better start saving now if you if you want to afford it um that is something that Australia has done pretty well um you know qdos to them they have an idea that the game needs to be accessible that people need to see it live that that's kind of fundamental you don't build the cricket culture by sitting at home having people watching it on tv let alone behind a paywall uh so yeah i mean yeah negative publicity

1:02:24earned negative publicity for for the ecb that's just absurd money though supply demand economics skids money people if people pay it yeah it's that's the difference between price and value though isn't it what about sir what about dynamically priced tickets next like with our way so just jump on there and see what they can easily come could easily come um i suspect that um it's probably not far away in Australian sport and if private investors come into the game in in Australia they will be looking to extract value in ways that haven't previously been extracted by by the by the uh the national governing body uh whether that involves paywalls whether that involves dynamic ticket pricing i don't know but um you know once people pay a large sums of money for franchises in in the big basely they are going to be looking for ways to extract a profit you know they're not there for the beneficiation of the game they're there for

1:03:25there for you she responsibility to shareholders therefore they will do things that cricket Australia has chosen not to do um it's largely um agreed that wages haven't risen in line with the cost of things so when people have less money yeah but things cost more what do we call this and what what does this say about macroeconomics yeah look we're in uncharted territory in in terms of people's relationship to to cricket we've accommodated a lot of change as i was saying before uh but it seems like appetite grows with the eating that there is just no end to the change that we are expected to accept uh and that's disquieting if you're Australian cricket follower the game is confusing enough without adding another layer of confusion to it um i think we can get

1:04:26relentless year on your growth personally let's talk about uh well we got questions from the audience hashtag ask to just see getting some of these are pretty willing and i've had to um blank out a few names here as well but um first one comes in from Justin Wanga uh says let's how do i blame j shara on the ipil for making the 150th anniversary test a people game in the middle of march of the g okay well that was um i don't mind that was personally said we can fight but i don't i don't actually yeah i i can take my son people will watch it yeah i i wonder why we're probably one 50 anyway did they play a 50th anniversary test of the ashes i don't think they did no no uh one 50s a half backwards yeah look i mean that was you can't blame Todd Greenberg for this one because that was uh you know the last melodorous fart that Nick Hockley admitted in the in the c o suite before i left i remember the first time i heard that

1:05:27they were going to do that i just thought they i i actually had it as a scoop for about two weeks and i thought that's just so dismaying i don't even want to write about it really and a lot of people still haven't caught up with the fact that it's a it's a day non-test but um all i can say is book for the first two days folks because uh there may not be a third i wonder if it's going to serve as a bit of a symbol uh of the uh you know like the the civil war reenactment feeling of test cricket generally um max writes in uh never give you full name max by the way i looked after you there uh i stopped playing in 2023 but played Saturday as a one off to help out my team um i won't read where that is either max um we're one short i'm hiding away square leg and the ball goes up swirling all over i'm back pedaling drop the catch and fall back on the hilly outfield snapping my arm required requiring surgery and multiple plates permanently fitted

1:06:29i called my dad to tell him and he replied well did you catch it i'm currently still in hospital questioning every decision i've ever made you should have stopped playing it's hard to go back yep indeed um the apostles eleven writes in boys i was talking to a lad at church recently and found out he plays sackel ones while talking to him about the macaques i mentioned the car tell which drew his face into bemused shock i then realized my sinful nature brackets i've never played meant i was only uh the only one in this conversation who listens to this heath and dribble at this i was elated as i can guiltlessly parrot everything that i hear on this podcast as my own will the pictures in heaven have a bit in it for everyone or be roads cheers ha ha ha ha ha ha I never understood about like how i was told about heaven as a kid which was you know it's just basically a it's the little a curated land for anything you want but surely if the other people who are in it dropping surely other people who are characters in heaven like

1:07:33if they're real people they'll have different things that they want i mean do you know what i mean like if i'm bowling quick same up off 15 yards god's given that to me because i can do what I want in heaven. Wouldn't you love that? Well, yeah, but what about the battle? Are they real or are they just a character? It doesn't it just doesn't check out because they want to road right? It's weird isn't it? It's like a hits machine. It's like VR. Do you believe in God? Another time. Paraclete writes in, based on the most recent part, it appears the optimal solution for our national batting was is for Ian Chappell to personally come round and wang a ball of 16 paces at the head of every child in Australia age 9 to 12. This is not unreasonable. Now context is we spoke to Greg Chappell a couple of weeks ago who said that he learned how to play the shortboard because his brother used to belt the meddys head. And so this is just an extension that perhaps we we solve these things. We're having Ian Chappell wang a ball of 16 paces. Yeah, well, he wouldn't be using a wanger. Chipilli would use his own arm. Exactly. Yeah.

1:08:36Well, I consider that as yes. Yes. No, it's you they don't need big answers. Okay. Luke writes in, I'm disgusted at your pronunciation of Manus's last name. What is this love who's scuckney? I don't give a shit about Afrikaans. The last man's last name is pronounced the bus change. And I won't have you continuing to make such a base of mistake. Now we can expect another conversation about this in South Africa. When Manus inevitably goes out to bat the South African commentators will call him Labus Guckney because that's what you say. And I have to say quite sadly in conversations with Manus about this. I don't think he mind me saying it's something it is pronounced Labus Guckney. And I think this is a case with a lot of people with names that are, you know, fractionally difficult to say to a certain tongue. He just says our people can just call me what they want. And it's sad that Manus probably feels like he can't insist on his name being pronounced the way it's intended to be pronounced or the way it's announced at home. Because we just go, you know, I just refer to say champagne.

1:09:38I remember Ray Erasmus telling me that the pronunciation and thinking, I should be, you know, I'm a pedant. I should stick to the correct pronunciation. I think I was, I did the test. It was one of the talking heads on the test and I started to use that pronunciation. And they just said, please stop, please stop. No one will understand what you're talking about. So we agreed that I was going to call him Manus. Oh, well, I guess that's the end of that. Amazon producer just said that. That's not going to fly. And I suppose in the hierarchy of things, the Amazon official probably sits above all. It probably sits above all. All right, Josh writes in, with this current mob of Australian players, what do we think their post-playing days career will be? Will it be media coaching around and business venture or playing Willie Bin-Frees for loads of cash? What do we think of the below players and their possible roles? Head, mana, Smith, Green, Kerry, Webster, Lines, Dark Hayes, all it comes. Can even include Koajah and the likes of Nesr and Weatherold. I think lots of them won't have to do anything to be honest. I've seen a couple of fun businesses and just sit back and, you know, like money, you know, spread the shit around and watch it grow.

1:10:41That's not a power lot. Osman's interesting. Osman of course has his book coming out in summer. Yes. And I think there's going to be some truth bombs in it. There may be a degree of positioning for Osman's future career. I think he's got aspirations. He's got a presence. Players who have a profile and want to achieve change can come up with a means of exploiting it. He's probably the most interesting one. The rest of them, you can pretty much join the dots. You can see Pat Cummins and you got Vincillican Valley, can't you? He's a tech bro. Travee, well, yeah, Travee will put his feet up. He will go on a permanent personal leave. The rest of them, well, yeah. Maybe they'll become investors. I think they already know. Well, maybe they'll become investors in cricket. I think that's one part of it. The number of ex players who are now going back into the game, they clearly made their pile. They got a lot of time on their hands.

1:11:42They like cricket. They feel as if they have an expertise. They probably have a bit of relevant deprivation syndrome. Good way to get back in is to become a team owner or a team shareholder. Maybe part of privatization is the players who will play for these teams can own them as well. Yeah, interesting. Good thought. Yeah. Thank you. I noted that Tugger was talking other day about the decline in batting techniques. So we need to work harder and dig in a little bit more and be prepared to play ugly. And he made those comments as part of media commemence as the partner of Amsterdam Flames. If I'm... I'm... Can't remember whether I'm right and saying this. But I think Haydos has some equity in the Brisbane Heat or potential equity. And if the franchise were sold, it would crystallize. Just on Haydos. And I forgot to mention this in privatization, but under one of the clips of Todd speaking, visually staged with a... Yes, sir. ...a hard-earned... Haydos left a comment on Instagram, like asking Todd a question via Instagram.

1:12:45Todd, with this influx of capital, please, please consider reinstating our National Cricket Academy program. This program was the global cricketing benchmark. Under the Southern leadership, it was scrapped. And ever since I have seen a significant decline in talent ID, cricketing IP, and overall misalignment in pathways and game development, for three decades, it pumped out legends for exclamation marks. Yeah, he made that. So maybe we're going to get into wish lists area of like, we'll lift a billion dollar opportunity. If the bounce comes in, where can we spread it out? Santa Claus stuff. It made similar comments in an interview in the times with Simon Wilde about the National Cricket Center. Yes. And it's not a bad point. I mean, one of the things that undermined the National Cricket Center was the fact that the states began to run their own kind of high performance programs. And want to have dibs on their own players, wanted to keep control of their own players. He's he's harking back to the academy in Adelaide, isn't it? Which operated until I think the middle of the of the 2000s.

1:13:47I got to say from an energy perspective, once it went to National Cricket Center in Brisbane, that I do not regard that as the academy. And these would be called the academy and at a stretched AIS. I think that era leading into the Olympics was the like the zenith of Australians, like athletic incubation and attainment. Yeah. So I agree with like if we can get the academy going again, I've got no idea how it works. All the logistics or the finances behind it, but just as a fan, to know that we've got an academy and it continues lineage from the 90s and before, that's fine with it. With lineage with the 90s, that's all that matters really well. Yeah, well it pumped out legends. Yeah. Doug Wright's in with all the talk about Sydney Uni Cricket Club's round one selection policy of bringing imported players, international players up through the Magus. Now, first I didn't know there was a lot of talk about this. Sydney Uni bringing international players. Now, now the Sydney Uni has got international players, often does. I didn't know they'd run them through the twos. Was this the Vaughan?

1:14:47This Vaughan last season? He was Mossman, Archivore. Okay, right. And I, I know that. Is it time to revisit the triumphant 75-76 season when Tony Greg inspired a wavily. Now he's renaissance with 77, we could say 12.36 and 500 runs of 32. The next season, Jeffrey Boycott took Greg's place and broke the Grade Cricket Runs aggregate record. And they finished bottomed, didn't they? I think they did. He just said that. He just said that. He just said that. He just said that. The table in 76, 77, 1,150 runs at 165.7 with 7 tons. Pommi Grade Cricket tours inspired Packer to launch World Series Cricket. Got point actually because of course, I think Packer became acquainted with Tony Greg when he was out here for wavily. Playing great. Because he was working, he was doing stuff for Consolidated Press. He was doing stuff for the women's weekly.

1:15:47That was I think where they got their first introduction. But he would only have been out here because he was on a dollar of run. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's manager was Bruce Francis, the former Australian opening batter, who sort of moved in those commercial circles. And they got wind. I think even at that early stage, something big was going to happen in cricket even if they couldn't quite put their finger on it yet. So good historical reference. So East bringing over Tony Greg at a dollar of run started World Series Cricket. Wavily, yeah. Thank you. That was a test. No, it was a test for you. And he passed. Scooter rights. In listening to how it says, listening how he games pod recently. Should be good. They were talking modern batting techniques, any sun asking whether he should develop a test or T20 technique. As a new dad, I thought it'd be cool to one day play slash talk cricket with my son. I was thinking about how I'd respond to this scenario. Mate, you're playing third grade wheelie bin dog shit cricket with me. It's four fuckwits like me who fucked their life up to such a degree they do things like marry your mum and play for an idiot's private schooling.

1:16:55Just giving. He's got issues. He really is. He really is in the sweet spot of your constituency, isn't he? I think he did. I guess. How I've got eight and six year old son. What should I be advising them around batting technique? I know some senior people in Australian cricket who have kids similar ages and they say clear the front leg and whack it. My eldest boy can't keep the ball on the ground. He just wants to hit the ball in the air. Can I be his agent? No. I don't know. I mean test techniques are T20 techniques now aren't they? They're converging. That's why basketball is ahead of its time. Skisie, knit wheelie decades. Boys as a skeleton living in Australia, that's a New Zealander.

1:17:56I can let you know the only people more thirsty for minus being dropped from tests than the parasitting media are the Kiwis. As we all know, what happens when minus bats against shield bowlers let alone grade cricketers? O'Rourke aside, a lot of us think he'd look like prime ponting this summer against us, particularly if the Flatties get rolled out. It reminds me of that comment about KP. When KP gets out, he makes the people of three countries happy. Now this next one out, that's just a little strong. Kanga Kanga duck pig ruts in. It's the last one. They're like this one Kanga duck pig. Boys, I'm a long life, sorry. I'm a lifelong North Melbourne supporter in the AFL. I tend to share your views on the AFL media's over coverage and dramatization of the game. So I give most of it a wide berth.

1:18:57With Alistair Clarkson getting the ass this week, I've been reading a bit of gear and much to my surprise, I see an actual quote from Clarko referring to the four peas. Now we've been talking and anyone to us to discuss it. Now I'm going to discuss it with you on our Patreon show and Patreon.com.com for such great Greek or by the way, sign up for that for some very hot chat around privatization. Is that one of the peas? Patreon privatization, what are the other two? I'll tell you a second. Also sign up the Greek and other. A couple of thunderous pieces from Gideon Hague, even today. Now the four peas are pissed out of pussy punts. Yes, I've played huge parts in my career. Now Clarko, according to Caroline Wilson speaking next Thursday over the weekend, everybody in Melbourne read,

1:19:59it was, it wasn't insightful informative article, but it did refer to Alistair Clarkson regularly speaking to players about the four peas, which he referred to as piss powder penis punts. Now look, Kanga Kanga duck pig just wants us to discuss that to close out the show. That's something you like that should be in your sealed section. Really? It's funny you say that. Some people love this stuff. I like to think that we have a Kipling style show where we walk with kings but not lose the common touch. And this is in the common touch side of things. Pissed out a pussy part. People talk like this. Don't we play sport to take our minds off sex? That's a thought. I tend to find it. The English too. I actually found playing cricket in all seriousness.

1:21:03One of the strongest things to do to take my mind off something. I found it very repetitive being on the field. Like anything that was happening in my life, it tended to completely evaporate. I never thought about a while playing cricket. Exactly. Just go into the nets. You could go down to practice with the weight of the world on your shoulders. Being the nets for 10 minutes and walking out thinking what was I worried about before? It concentrates the mind wonderfully. I don't know if you noticed, Gideon, but I realised we're trying to make a serious point out of the piss-powder penis. But speaking of taking your mind off things. Last week we saw that cricket Australia was promoting junior club cricket to parents by emphasizing the ways a parent could multitask. During a game of club cricket. It was a picture of a parent with a dog on a lead holding a coffee. It had Chuck Scott up here. That's how we get it. Reclaim your Saturday mornings with junior cricket.

1:22:05Do you have the other one there as well, Chuck? That's all right. It had some tick boxes next to it. We're looking on screen if you're listening. Get the back of this so Gideon can say to AI legend. The batter seems to be taking strike but the keepers are the other way. But that aside. The idea for parents was that as opposed to other games you can do things like have a coffee, take your dog for a walk, catch up with a friend. One of the tick boxes was online grocery shopping. What we're saying is a real upside of cricket is literally taking your mind off things. The suits and the boffins and the lanyards want us to think the cricket needs to happen quickly so we can get on with the rest of our lives. But don't we all just want to escape? Don't we all want to take our minds off the eternal trudge and sludge of life? People competing for our attention.

1:23:05You go to cricket on a Saturday in a field and all that stuff goes away. Nothing an algorithm can do for you. Certainly in my association where I'm still playing after 30 odd years. Whenever the conversation turns to should we have a T20 comp. People go, not really because we've always budgeted for cricket taking a day. There's something beautiful about the rhythm of the day. Getting prepared on the Friday nights, getting a lift on Saturday morning. The toss, the throw downs, the afternoon tea. You don't want to hurry it. You hurry it in every other aspect of your life. Why introduce that to cricket? Maybe they're onto something. Someone from that association did write in and say like, I've never been able to do those things because I'm umpiring, scoring or stopping a kid from running across the road. You know, I do speak to parents with kids the ages that they are, or my kids the ages they are.

1:24:10And it is common for parents to say, I do not want my child to play cricket because of the time in position on us. And obviously I come from different context and background. But I love how long it takes. I love being at the sports field with my kids. And that being what I'm doing, giving them something that they're enjoying while I'm out in the open. I'm looking forward to the camp chair era. And umpiring and scoring and doing all those kinds of things. Like the longer the better, really. And it's not like a, I don't mean in an old school way of, I want to be out of the house and away from the trouble and strife. It's not like that at all. I actually just think it's great to be outdoors. And your kids being outdoors and kind of protesting the idea that like I need to be home because I have, you know, jobs to do like the endless fixing up of my dwellings to improve the sale of the...

1:25:13So the patio. Well, truly to improve the sale price of it for my own mini privatisation that I'm doing. The other thing is, I mean, I know this dates me. But the thing I loved about cricket growing up playing cricket was being alone, being away from my parents. And actually being autonomous, socialising within my immediate peer group. My mother never came to watch me play cricket. She still hasn't. She's still got a chance. But it never occurred to me that she should be there. Interesting. Yeah. I took it for granted that this world was separate. It had its own rules. It had its own conventions. It was up to me to find my own way. Nowadays, of course, we're not only helicopter parent, but we sort of lawnmower parent at the same time. We want to have them running along flat grass and not coming to any harm. But I think it would be timely if parents rediscovered that idea of just dropping your kids off.

1:26:15And picking them up at the end. I like it. Gideon Hake, thanks so much for joining us this work. And for that trip around. From walking with kings, not losing the common touch. Thanks for the privatisation chat, everything else in between. You can catch Gideon at cricket at our support independent media. And as I said, Gideon is the best writer on the game. If not the best, there's ever been. He's joined by Pete Lawler as well, who was first to the news. He's often first to everything in cricket. If you want to be truly in depth with cricket support cricket at our who we're proudly partnered with. Next week, you will get the dulcet tones of Alex Malcolm in the co-host chair as we keep it warm in daddy. He goes as absence while he slams, being bent hangs deservedly. He's now family man. So was planning to chop up this work, wasn't there? It was. Was it pleasure, Sam? Was it pleasure? And free Emory Khan.

1:27:15Free Emory Khan. Cheers.