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Is Steve Smith the last batting legend? · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Kristin Amiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, January thirty one. Commissioner Karen Webb has defended
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  Speaker 1: a decision by New South Wales Police to withhold information
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  Speaker 1: about its discovery of a caravan packed with explosives for
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  Speaker 1: more than a week.
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  Speaker 2: This has a COVID investigation, an investigation that requires us
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  Speaker 2: to go about our business without popromising investigation. There is
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  Speaker 2: a time and a place that we need to inform
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  Speaker 2: the community where there is a vista public safety. We
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  Speaker 2: believe we've mitigated the public reason, but we need to
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  Speaker 2: get on with the investigation and that's why that recurred.
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  Speaker 1: The vehicle was abandoned on the side of a road
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  Speaker 1: in Durall, in Sydney's northwest, containing enough explosives to create
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  Speaker 1: a sizeable explosion. A note containing the addresses of a
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  Speaker 1: synagogue and members of the city's Jewish community he was
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  Speaker 1: also discovered. It hasn't been designated a terrorist incident, but
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  Speaker 1: two people arrested on unrelated charges were in police custody
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  Speaker 1: this week after posting on social media that they were
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  Speaker 1: looking for a caravan. Jewish leaders say they understand the
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  Speaker 1: need for clandestine investigations, but urged police to be more
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  Speaker 1: transparent about community safety. In the wake of a spate
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  Speaker 1: of anti Semitic attacks, a home next door to a
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  Speaker 1: Jewish primary school in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs was vandalized with
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  Speaker 1: anti Semitic graffiti on Wednesday night, an act condemned by
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  Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi on Thursday. This situation is moving quickly.
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  Speaker 1: You can read the latest at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au. Steve Smith needed just one run to reach
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  Speaker 1: a coveted test cricket milestone when he stepped onto the
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  Speaker 1: pitch at Gaul International Stadium in Sri Lanka. But not
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  Speaker 1: content to leave it at that, the skipper put on
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and forty one runs over two days, bringing
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  Speaker 1: his career test total to just over ten thousand. The
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  Speaker 1: question now is when we'll see this incredible feat again
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  Speaker 1: and if it's likely to become a rarity. That's today's episode.
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  Speaker 3: Nine ninety nine test runs? Can you get the last one?
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  Speaker 3: Worse than being on ninety nine?
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  Speaker 1: For Border?
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  Speaker 4: It was historic standing ovation for Alan Border, the second
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  Speaker 4: in history to achieve ten thousand runs ten grand reasons
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  Speaker 4: why is one of.
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  Speaker 3: The greats for war. It was a long time coming.
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  Speaker 3: That was a eficit innex under pressure. You'll see none.
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  Speaker 1: Better for ponting.
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  Speaker 3: It was a relief. What's the best de riggy Ponting?
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  Speaker 1: And when Steve Smith brought up ten thousand test cricket
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  Speaker 1: runs in the first test of the Warnler Litteran Trophy,
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  Speaker 1: it was deliverance.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: There it is first Paul Smith, a landmark moment.
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  Speaker 4: Steve Smith's to ten thousand test drums.
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  Speaker 5: It's a pretty significant moment in any batter's career.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: David Tanner is the Australian's Night Editor.
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  Speaker 5: There have only been four Australians now who've got to
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  Speaker 5: the mark, and only fifteen batters of across crickets one
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  Speaker 5: hundred and forty five year history, so it's a big
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  Speaker 5: number to reach.
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  Speaker 1: The skipper had been left hanging one agonizing run short
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  Speaker 1: of the milestone after he was bowled by Presid Krishna
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  Speaker 1: at the SCG in the final test of the Border
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  Speaker 1: Gavaskar Trophy. Do you think that Steve Smith will feel
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  Speaker 1: differently about this because it's happened off home soil, and
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  Speaker 1: in particular because he was quote unquote robbed of it
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  Speaker 1: at the SCG or do you think he's just happy
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  Speaker 1: to get there.
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  Speaker 5: I'm sure he would have loved to have got the
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  Speaker 5: runs on his home but you would have to think
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  Speaker 5: any better that gets to ten thousand runs is going
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  Speaker 5: to remember wherever it happened in the world, the moment
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  Speaker 5: that it happened, and knowing Steve Smith is probably going
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  Speaker 5: to also look at it as whether his innings helped
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  Speaker 5: his team in the Test match.
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  Speaker 3: Being quite the team player.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Steve Smith's effort in Sri Lanka makes him the equal
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  Speaker 1: second fastest to record ten thousand Test cricket runs. He
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  Speaker 1: did it in one hundred and fifteen Tests, for more
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  Speaker 1: than West Indian Brian Lara. Of course, it's a feat
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  Speaker 1: that might not have materialized at all thanks to a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Test cricket band placed on Smith following the sandpaper Gate
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: cheating scandal in twenty eighteen, Australia's cricket captain Steve Smith
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  Speaker 1: being escorted out of South Africa with his career in tatters.
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  Speaker 1: Smith and his former vice captain David Warner were banned
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  Speaker 1: from international and domestic cricket for twelve months following the incident.
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  Speaker 1: Where Cameron Bancroft was caught roughing up one side of
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  Speaker 1: the ball with sandpaper.
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  Speaker 5: It'd be interesting to know how many runs he might
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  Speaker 5: have had had that not happened.
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  Speaker 1: Smith and Warner were also slapped with additional leadership bands,
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  Speaker 1: and many speculated Smith would never captain the Australian Test
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  Speaker 1: side again, even after the official sanctions ran out. But
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  Speaker 1: as current Test captain Pat Cummins sits this one out
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  Speaker 1: due to the imminent arrival of his second child, Smith
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  Speaker 1: is back in the skipper's seat, meaning he's not only
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  Speaker 1: the fourth Australian to make ten thousand Test runs, but
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  Speaker 1: the fourth Australian captain.
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  Speaker 3: He's been the player of his generation at a moment.
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  Speaker 4: Here that reinforces what a special career this has been.
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  Speaker 1: David Tanner delved into the cricket archives to understand how
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Steve Smith's rode to ten thousand Test runs compares to
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  Speaker 1: that of his predecessors.
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  Speaker 5: Certainly, the Border and Waw ones are very admirable, partly
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: because both of them happened on home soil. They both
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  Speaker 5: got them in an SCG Test in Sydney. When Border
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  Speaker 5: got to ten thousand runs, he was only the second
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  Speaker 5: of any play out in cricket's history to reach the mark.
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  Speaker 5: Sunil gavascar the Indian opener was the first one. So
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  Speaker 5: border was joining a very select club back then.
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  Speaker 4: Here's one hundred and twenty two behind Sril Gaviscar and
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  Speaker 4: let you say he won't reach them in this city
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  Speaker 4: Test much the prolonged deviation from the crowd and well deserved.
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  Speaker 5: Steve Wars was a very emotional one because he had
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  Speaker 5: a really rough year. He'd had a lot of substandard
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  Speaker 5: innings for a long time and if I remember correctly,
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  Speaker 5: there were even some people questioning whether he should keep
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  Speaker 5: his place in the team despite his stellar career.
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  Speaker 6: When you have a thirty five thirty six, when you
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  Speaker 6: start the file or not do so well, people straight
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  Speaker 6: away say well you too old, your past your best,
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  Speaker 6: you should retire. And the fact that I was a captain,
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  Speaker 6: I was fronting every press conference, it was something I
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  Speaker 6: couldn't avoid, was that inevitable question are you retiring as
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  Speaker 6: your formerly good? You know, are you going to be dropped?
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  Speaker 6: So there's a lot of negativity going into the Test.
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  Speaker 5: Match and he came to his home Test in Sydney
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  Speaker 5: against England and desperately needed a good innings. Australia batted
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  Speaker 5: on the opening day and war scored a century on
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  Speaker 5: the first day. He reached his century with the last
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  Speaker 5: ball of the day, which was what everybody remembers, but
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  Speaker 5: it was a shot that got him to think it
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  Speaker 5: was sixty nine runs earlier in his innings that was
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: the one that got him to the ten thousand mark.
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  Speaker 5: But in a way, that innings has remembered more for
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  Speaker 5: him finally breaking a long run of bad innings with
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  Speaker 5: a century.
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  Speaker 1: But it's Ricky Ponting's effort that bears the most resemblance
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  Speaker 1: to Smith's.
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  Speaker 5: He did his in the West Indies, a bit like
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  Speaker 5: Steve Smith getting his in Sri Lanka.
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  Speaker 3: It was a very small crowd in Antigua.
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  Speaker 5: There were only about two thousand people at the ground
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  Speaker 5: to witnessed this historic moment. But one of them was
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: viv Richards, the great West Indian batsman, who they were
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  Speaker 5: playing at a ground that was named after Cyvivian Richards.
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  Speaker 5: Richards never got to the ten thousand mark himself, but
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  Speaker 5: at least there was someone noteworthy there coming up.
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  Speaker 1: We ask if a cricket onslaught could make milestones like
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  Speaker 1: this one less likely. There are few circumstances nowadays when
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: cricket fans are bereft of matches to watch. The Australian
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: men's Test side will play around a dozen Tests this year,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: while the world champion women are in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: a dominant multi format ashes campaign against England. Seventy four
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  Speaker 1: to twenty matches will be played in the Indian Premier
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  Speaker 1: League from March, and then the local Big Bash competitions
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  Speaker 1: kick off at the tail end of the year. They
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: are World championship titles to be defended too, and in
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a few short years cricket will return to the Olympics
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  Speaker 1: following a hiatus of more than a century. But as
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  Speaker 1: players diversify their portfolios, and as India's Viat Collie creeps
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  Speaker 1: towards it, you have to wonder what becomes of that
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand Test run milestone. And just lastly, David, On
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  Speaker 1: the one hand, you've got players like Sam Constace who
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  Speaker 1: are starting younger and building up an incredible number of
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  Speaker 1: runs very early in the piece. But on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: the cricket calendar is so stacked now and the focus
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  Speaker 1: on Test cricket maybe isn't what it once was. So
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  Speaker 1: is there a possibility that ten thousand Test runs could
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  Speaker 1: become a rarity?
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  Speaker 3: I think it works both ways.
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  Speaker 5: There certainly is a more packed cricket calendar than there
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  Speaker 5: used to be, But if look at the list of
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  Speaker 5: the fifteen people who got ten thousand, I mean Samuel
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  Speaker 5: Gavisca was the first to do it.
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  Speaker 3: I think it was in.
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  Speaker 5: The nineteen nineties, so it was one hundred years of
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  Speaker 5: cricket before anyone got there, which spoke to how much
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  Speaker 5: more cricketers were already playing, say thirty years ago. Yes,
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  Speaker 5: you now have t twenty and one day Internationals vying
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  Speaker 5: for time, but there still seems to be a significant
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  Speaker 5: amount of Test cricket being played, so I wouldn't think
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  Speaker 5: it's going to be a rarity. But certainly with more
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  Speaker 5: different types of cricket being played, there might be fewer
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  Speaker 5: batters getting to the mark than there would have been
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  Speaker 5: before TEA twenty and loll.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: David Tanner is the Australian's Night Editor. The first Test
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in the Warnmuerletteran Trophy continues on Friday. You can follow
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: all the action from Gaul at the Australian dot com
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: dot au