Wagga RSL captain-coach Sam Perry believes the Twenty20 competition is an event on the cricket calendar that all players look forward to.
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Cricket Wagga's second two-week Twenty20 tournament, dubbed 'the Festival of Cricket', gets underway at Robertson Oval on Thursday night when Wagga RSL take on Saint Michaels.
Wagga RSL was one of the success stories of last year's tournament, winning their way through to the final before going down to Wagga City.
Perry said the Bulldogs playing group were again looking forward to the Twenty20s.
"I think it's something that we all look forward to. It's a format of the game that's gotten bigger over the last four or five years and it's something that excites a lot of people to play in," Perry said.
"The atmosphere about last year around the competition and the festival of cricket I think that really got everyone up and about and obviously its really good to perform in games like that.
"You've probably got bigger crowds at the T20s than you do when you play finals so the atmosphere is really good and there's no better way to create a bit more atmosphere than when you're winning.
"It's a format that really excites us as a playing group so if you're looking forward to doing something then you'll always go pretty well at it as well."
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Wagga RSL will be boosted by the inclusion of former club juniors Ethan Bartlett and Josh Staines for a number of games in this year's series.
It will provide some quality to the Bulldogs batting line-up, while bowling has traditionally been one of the team's strengths.
Perry expects his team is well positioned for this year's tournament on the back of last year's experience.
"I think our game plan (last year) was top notch. Everyone knew their role," he said.
"Our bowling plans were quite good. The way we executed our bowling last year, especially against South Wagga in the first game where we won in the final over I think, we executed our bowling plans really well there and pretty much throughout the whole competition, we were pretty good with our bowling.
"Our batting, we fell a few runs short every now and then, but I think it allowed us to gain confidence and know that we can score runs quick enough and to be fair, if you score 140 in a T20 in Wagga then you'll go a long way to winning the game."
Wagga RSL are one of four teams equal on points at the top of the regular season ladder at the Christmas break. They are second on countback and Perry believes a positive Twenty20 campaign can help in the run towards finals.
"Last year was really good and it probably helped us, even though we bowed out in the finals last year, it helped us gain a bit of confidence and know where we sit amongst all the teams," he said.
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