Sydney Thunder's Chris Green is welcoming the chance to continue facing the Sydney Sixers twice, despite reductions to this summer's Big Bash League schedule.
And for his first point of order since being appointed captain on Thursday, Green has declared he wants to end their cross-town rivals' recent dominance of the fixture.
"Sixers have been successful over the last few years and they've had the wood over us, so we'll be doing everything we can to reverse that," he said.
The Thunder's win-loss record against the Sixers is poor, with their last victory recorded back in January 2020, only winning one out of their past five meetings.
"We get to play them twice in a 'Sydney smash' this season, and the reduction of games means there's only a couple of teams we play twice, so those two games become really important," the off-spinning allrounder said.
"There's no doubt that we're going to have great turnouts from crowds ... we want to try and use that and turn it in our favour."
The Thunder will also face off against the Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers twice during the regular season.
Green has led in lime green before, filling in for Jason Sangha in 2022 and Usman Khawaja over the course of the 2020 and 2021 seasons when Khawaja was away with the Test team.
Sangha's appointment last summer came as a bit of a surprise to fans, given Green's experience captaining the side and his long relationship with the club dating back to 2014.
After a minor setback in 2020 when handed a three-month ban for a bowling action violation, Green's talent, patience and loyalty have paid off ahead of his 10th campaign.
"It feels really exciting, a huge honour and I'm very proud to be captaining the team this season,'' Green said.
"(I've) had a little taste of it the last couple of years when Usman (Khawaja) and Jason (Sangha) have been unavailable.
"To get it (the captaincy) leading into this season, I'm really excited.
"I love the club, I love what this club stands for, on and off the field."
This summer's 13th edition of the BBL has been shortened from 56 regular-season games to 40, with teams playing 10 games each.
Cricket Australia made the announcement in May to ensure marquee overseas players are available for a higher percentage of matches, along with giving a greater chance for Australia's Test stars to play all games and not miss out due to representative duties.
