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I'm loving it. It's an interesting time to start because I was falling straight into the busy time of year with the Big Bash and came away learning what a massive program that is. But it was great to be dropped into that and see how our staff put on games everywhere from Alice Springs to Burnie and I'm more confident that I can go into planning a cycle for the year ahead having gone through that.
You were previously chairman at AFL Tasmania, are you finding many similarities between the roles?
It's a little bit different being the chairman to being the CEO. I think the community issues are very similar. What sits underneath this type of cricket is almost a 100 per cent voluntary network right around the state. The hours of unpaid labour that gets put into cricket every week is just irreplaceable and I don't think that's any different in football or netball or soccer. One of the things I'm really keen on exploring is how we better support those volunteers so they have a great experience as well.
Participation-wise, soccer, cricket, netball and football are the big four and we all have our challenges. Providing pathways from junior to youth for males and females is challenging in all those sports.
Tasmania has produced a succession of quality leaders like Ponting, Bailey, Wade and Paine. Why do you think that has been so?
I think because we don't have the breadth of resources of other places, our people are asked to step up more, getting more exposure to things like leadership and speaking opportunities. You're also in a tight-knit community where if you play up you get found out pretty quick and I think it breeds a better type of person. So it doesn't matter if Ricky Ponting comes from Mowbray or Matthew Wade and Tim Paine come from Lauderdale, they are able to demonstrate great leadership qualities because they've been given great opportunities.
If you want to be somewhere where you will be tested in areas you are not used to, it will be in Tasmania. That's where the lack of population actually helps us. All those guys have been exposed to a lot more things a lot earlier than people from other states.
Who do see following their example?
Nathan Ellis is an absolute diamond. He plays really hard and trains the same way. He's got those silent qualities of a good leader. He came from NSW and we offered him a place with the academy. He moved down here and played grade cricket until he got an opportunity through the academy. He's a great example to young cricketers and is a wonderful example to our young group.
We've also had Jordan Silk and Ben McDermott fulfil leadership roles this year. They did an excellent job but are very much in their infancy in those roles. Young Jake Doran is very quietly spoken but has a real role to play in the change rooms. We've got a bit of work to do around who is the next George Bailey.
What's gone wrong with the Shield side this season?
I look at the Shield and Big Bash on equal footing. To be totally honest, I'd be more happy if we could bring the Shield home than the BBL trophy because that's what we play for.
BBL is great but the Shield is the benchmark for where your state is at as far as I'm concerned. We've got a really young team and are in transition.
With Bailey retiring and Paine and Wade on national duties, are you worried about losing that leadership experience?
Yes. We did not know that George would come to an end so quickly or that Matthew was going to play so much more cricket for his country. I do worry that we have a very young side and we're not going to see a lot of our key leaders and that's something we'll look at with our list management and probably look to recruit some older heads.
BBL attendances in Hobart and Launceston were disappointing this season. Why do you think that was?
That was symptomatic of the way the game performed right across the country. The crowds in Hobart were OK, about 8500 to the 10,000 mark. In Launceston we had a game washed out but I was disappointed with the second game because it was on a Sunday afternoon, the weather was great and we were still kind of in the (finals) hunt.
My theory is in Launceston at that time of year, you're better off being in the middle of the week because people go off to their shacks at weekends, they're still in holiday mode but they're back working during the week so I think you've got a better opportunity to capture them and we had a great crowd up there the year before on a Thursday. So I reckon we'd have been better off playing the Sunday in Hobart and putting the midweek game in Launceston.
These are things we're learning. We're determined to keep playing BBL games in the North and growing your regional audience is important.
Your predecessor Nick Cummins said "We are Cricket Tasmania, not Cricket Hobart" and stressed the importance of a statewide approach. Do you share that view?
Absolutely. I've already presented to Cricket North-West. I haven't caught up with the NTCA yet but have been to a few games there. I've got some concerns about cricket north of Oatlands facility-wise. We need to do some work there. It's been such a rich hunting ground for champions and I don't want to lose those athletes to another sport.
But I reckon there's some cricket infrastructure and high performance things that we need to get in place there. Our indoor centres need some work. They're old and need reinvestment. The NTCA Ground is fantastic and steeped in history so we need to make sure that's looked after properly and it is the true home of Northern cricket. We need more turf wickets up there.
What do you think of the Greater Northern Raiders concept?
It's early days but it's important that that program works because it will give young cricketers of the North the ability to compete against the best cricketers of the state all the time. The difficulty for the Raiders is they don't really have a home ground and it's not really a club yet. We've got to help them and we have put a lot of time and effort into them. We understand that they don't have things that other cricket clubs have like a home ground, bar and members. It came out of the Hussey Report as something vital that we keep growing talent in the North of the state.
What can cricket fans in the North and North-West hope to see in the future?
You will see plenty of us. We've got great people up there doing a lot of work in the schools. We've got a vacancy in high-performance coaching in Launceston. We're keen to get the right person to be our coach across Northern Tasmania. We've been patient trying to find the right person, going through the process now and are really keen to get someone who can add value to the playing and coaching stock.
Would you consider playing a Sheffield Shield match in Launceston?
Absolutely and we're working with the council up there on what our future with them looks like. I've had a lot of exhaustive conversations with Rob Groenewegen and Mike Stretton around our relationship. Our quest is to make sure we bring the game to as many people as possible. Domestically, we are continuing to look at how we can take the game right around the state.
The NTCA Ground is going to need some money spent on it and we'll talk to government about that to try and leverage more product to the town. We'd still play BBL, WBBL and WNCL at UTAS, but I've got a vision in my mind that the NTCA Ground should be Tasmania's version of the North Sydney Oval.
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