Malcolm Speed

What Todd's dealing with here is a new form of the game that has taken off.

It's taken off in India.

On one metric, it's the second most valuable sporting league in the world.

On most other metrics, it's in the top five.

So 2020 cricket is a huge phenomenon, particularly in India.

And secondly, since 2011 when the BBL started, so 15 years, what's happened there is that a league has grown that is now worth a significant amount of money if it's sold to private enterprise.

So we hear $600 to $800 million for a 49% share in eight teams or something like that.

So what a problem to have.

You've got this phenomenon and you've got people knocking on the door offering money.

And the question then is, should Cricket Australia go ahead and sell to at least seek expressions of interest from private equity?

And that's the issue that they've dealt with recently.

I've come around a bit.

Initially, I was opposed to it.

I've spent some time on the computer looking at some of the numbers, and I think it's a generational issue.

We're looking to sustain cricket 10 years down the track.

Now, what I think cricket will be like in 10 years' time is that

Test cricket will still be there, but it'll be played by fewer countries.

Maybe we'll get back to where it was in the 70s, 80s and 90s with six or seven or eight countries playing test cricket.

And we know which countries they'll be there.

One or two we might argue about.