Malcolm Speed

private ownership of the hundreds.

So I think five of the counties sold 49%, 270%, 100%.

And they got hundreds of thousands of pounds, I think something like 500,000 pounds for that.

So a massive amount of money.

And the pressure's on.

So their player payments have increased.

They will continue to increase.

The pressure is on Australia now.

How do they respond to the discussion that's out there at the moment?

And that's the issue that Todd faces.

I understand the reticence and both arguments are sound.

New South Wales argument is basically, let's not sell the farm.

Let's try to grow revenue from other sources.

Well, that's fine.

That's a business as usual.

That's what Cricket Australia, Cricket New South Wales will be trying to do anyway.

There's no magic solution there.

There's not going to be a new form of revenue that pops up that provides enough money to do this.

The other argument is we need money to be able to join this arms race to sustain our league.

I'm reluctant to get into a bidding war here, but we need to be competitive.