Melbourne Stars chairman Eddie McGuire was promoting the ability of new team sponsor Acquire Learning to help people "get the job done" when he thrust a finger into the chest of nearby player James Muirhead and declared: "That's what you blokes have got to do this year: get the job done."
While it was more playful than menacing, it was also pointed. The Stars' hierarchy is fed up with the team's record of thriving in the regular-season Big Bash League matches and then stumbling in the semi-finals, as it has done in all three years of the competition.
Since the creation of the BBL the Stars have won 17 non-finals matches, compared to 15 by Perth and Sydney Sixers, 12 by Hobart and Melbourne Renegades, 10 by Brisbane, eight by Adelaide and three by Sydney Thunder. Nevertheless Perth, the Sixers and Brisbane each have a title to their name, while the Stars' conqueror last year, Hobart, has progressed to a lucrative semi-final berth in the current Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
McGuire commended the Hurricanes for their performances in India, but admitted "the fact that they won four games last year and we won eight, but just won the wrong ones, drives us insane".
"You can have all the showbusiness you like but the business part of cricket is actually winning games, and while we've been very good at doing that - we've won more [non-finals] games than any other franchise - we do have to make sure we win the ones that count at the end of the year and win the premiership at the end of this year," he said.
"We are absolutely desperate to take the jump next year. Our members, our supporters, the cricket-loving public in Melbourne want the Melbourne Stars to be the No.1 team in the competition, and it's now incumbent on us to take the steps [to achieve that]."
Just-announced contract extensions to recent Australian debutant Muirhead (three years), Marcus Stoinis (four years), Scott Boland (two years) and Alex Keath (one year) have continued the sense of stability around the team, despite its shock failure to win a title or at least reach the Champions League yet.
The Stars' final squad berth has gone to Queensland paceman Luke Feldman, who was praised by new chairman of selectors Damien Fleming for both his experience and his trait of claiming wickets with the new ball.
Marquee international signing Kevin Pietersen will arrive on December 6. Chairman McGuire said the Englishmen would have "a bit to prove". He also suggested he would have a positive effect on the team, on the basis he would arrive "maybe with a white hat on rather than a black hat".
