But in all seriousness, is privatization going to happen anytime soon? What's the scuttle?

Well, not anytime soon.

I mean, I think you can expect it in some form for next BBL season.

Certainly not this season.

But, you know, I think certainly from Cricket Australia's point of view, they want it up for next season.

But it'll be a very much a piecemeal situation if it goes ahead, because at the moment it's just the Melbourne Renegades.

that have gone to market so we don't know exactly what's happening behind closed doors but according to cricket australia there's a lot of interested buyers so that's sort of rumbling along um to my mind the big thing that needs to happen now is uh an agreement needs to be reached between cricket australia and the players association so oh so that barney's got to happen yeah that barney's got to be resolved before anything gets done yeah selling stuff that's my understanding and Look, there's a few, if you spoke to Cricket Australia and then you spoke to the Players Association, as you can imagine, they would have two very different versions of how it needs to play out from here.

It's almost like an insurance policy against that.

Yep, big shoes to fill, young Hornet, and I'm sure you'll do a fine job.

Yeah, I was listening to the resume that you had rattled off last week.

It was the three World Cups, number one ODI bowler, 233 ODI appearances or New Zealand appearances, and I was feeling a little bit light sitting on this couch tonight.

Just shoulders back, walk towards it and be brave.

Thanks,

Is it all going to be calm and respectful or do you reckon they're going to fire up over there?

Yeah, well look, I mean the build-up's been everything we've expected.

It's really gone back in time to where we were eight years ago and As you mentioned, the broadcaster, it was a fascinating situation because they played such an active role in everything that came out.

But look, I think things will be more settled this time.

The team line-ups, there's a few characters missing from both teams that were there eight years ago that I think really set the... you know the the tension's off but uh the other unknown element is the crowd you know if the south african crowd are there they're getting into the australians you just don't know what might happen on the field

All right, who's going to win?

look i think it honestly is a 50 50 bet this one i hate to sit on the fence but it's really hard to get a read on south africa they barely play any test cricket but one of the last matches they played was beating australia in the world test championship final so uh look i think being at home that they've definitely got a little bit of an edge there i think the pitch is going to turn a bit which probably doesn't help us too much with our fast bowling attack but uh Look, I think Australia's got a big point to prove.

They've got a huge 12 months to come with the Ashes and India.

And what, what I wanna know i- is what have you heard from the, the other leagues on how successful the privatization has been with the Indian owners?

Yeah, look, I think it's mixed, Ads.

I think it's been very good for South Africa, uh, from the position South African cr- uh, cricket was in before they took it on.

I think it, the jury's still out, um, in England.

I mean, certainly there's a lot of critics of The Hundred and how that all ties together.

Look, I think one big difference between a lot of these other overseas leagues and what happens in Australia is the balance of the, the player payments.

You know, obviously the ACA is so strong here in Australia, which is w- which is a great thing.

... or are you gonna be, you know, traditional journalist Ben?

Um, what, what are, what, what are you guys aiming for? Like, what, uh, w- is it, is it towards that sort of triple I space? Is it, is it closer to, you know, something you would have done at, uh, Arkane, or is it, is it somewhere in the middle there?

I think our aspirations are always to, you know, make a game that gets underneath people's skin, that people wanna talk about five years, 10 years later.

Um, and I think that requires the right team to put together that's had experience, you know, working to make games like this.

And, um, we have been so fortunate to be able to recruit people.

We're at 26 employees now that we've worked with in the past on many of these games for years, decades in some cases.

Uh, and I think because of that, we, I think, always have to be honest around how, how can we keep these aspirational goals? How can we keep this, uh, you know, this, this vision, this coherent vision of what we wanna make, while also balancing, uh, the scope around, you know, how much do you need to push to be able to make a game that can really grip someone, uh, that hits our creative goals?

Mm

... to work on this stuff.

Can you tidy it up for us?

G'day, Mannis.

Yeah, great to be back.

Thanks for having me.

Um, yeah, things are all pretty tense in Australia at the minute, I can say.

Uh, even though it's very much the cricket off season, uh, there's a lot going on at the moment.

Uh, and it all stems from Cricket Australia essentially trying to follow the lead of the SA20 and The Hundred and, and privatize, uh, the Big Bash.

If he's gonna turn, not turn your back, but go and play in a different tournament, that must be concerning.

It feels like it's been hard to score at times on that park.

Yeah, that's sort of why I went maybe a bat second could be the option and try and just strangle and get him through to a total of 120 or something like that and then hunt it down in the 16 overs needed to get it through.

The lower the total and the shorter the time, the more wickets you can throw at it.

Obviously, wickets don't come into account when looking at run rates.

So that could be an option.

But I think also it's just about...

Like, nowhere he goes today with the ball.

ground, it's a

It feels like it's been hard to score at times on that park.

Yeah, that's sort of why I went maybe a bat second could be the option and try and just strangle and get him through to a total of 120 or something like that and then hunt it down in the 16 overs needed to get it through.

The lower the total and the shorter the time, the more wickets you can throw at it.

Obviously, wickets don't come into account when looking at run rates.

So that could be an option.

But I think also it's just about...

I know where he goes today with the ball.

Anything jump to mind for you?

Who's next?

Well, I would think...

Abbott, Doggett, Nisa, but I would say Nisa if it's the Gabba.

I'm not sure I'd be putting Nisa ahead of the other two in any other test, but if they look to Michael Nisa, home test at Brisbane with the pink ball, I think he could go well there.

Below that is very interesting.

And we're only guessing.

But I think it is one of those summers where you could just have a shot come from the cloud.

So you could end up writing four, five, six yarns a day

Sri Lanka? I get that they took him on tour and I get that they sent him home, but actually, why didn't they?

I think it was less about him and more about Travis Head opening the batting as the plan that they had conceived before Sam Constance probably even came onto the scene, that this is how we're going to win over here.

They saw that that template worked for them in India, even though they didn't win that series a couple of years ago.

When Travis Head moved up to open, I think they won and drew a test to finish the series.

So yeah, I think it had more to do with, you know, getting Travis Head in the best position rather than, than Constance.

I mean, I was a bit disappointed with the decision.

I would have preferred Constance to play.

Well,