Archaic domestic system needs to be shaken up
Darren Berry
October 29, 2006
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
OUR domestic competition is the best in the world and the history and tradition that surrounds it makes it a very special part of Australian cricket.
One point of view would be if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. The other is if you sit on the train tracks satisfied with past achievements, you will get run over. In any business you must always be looking to improve or to obtain the competitive advantage.
One option would be to expand the state competition by adding a second team out of Melbourne and Sydney and introducing the ACT and Northern Territory to make it a truly national competition.
The state competition has history dating back to the 1890s and it is the cornerstone on which our powerful Test team is built. Most traditionalists will choke at any suggestion of change, but those with vision believe it could be time to revamp an archaic system. Present Victorian Institute of Sport coach Neil Buszard is one of a growing number of people who is prepared to look into the crystal ball.
In Victoria we have more than 112,000 registered cricketers, yet only 12 at any given time have the chance to wear the navy blue Victorian cap. The percentage that makes it through the funnel is minuscule. Our pathway or elite system has talent identification programs set up across the state beginning at under-13 level with more than 1200 young players unearthed each year.
The present under-age system does not miss many players. The problem lies at the pointy end of the pathway, with many talented cricketers lost to the game.
Luke Ball, Luke Hodge, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Jimmy Bartel and Marc Murphy are just a few of the names in recent times who chose football ahead of cricket. The financial gains are significantly higher at AFL level than in state cricket but, just as importantly, so are the opportunities. Perhaps for cricket to compete with football, we need to provide more vacancies for first-class cricketers.
At present only 66 players have the chance to play first-class cricket at any one time. Each state can now contract up to 20 players and eight rookies each year in addition to its Australian contracted players. This is a vast improvement on times past and provides a genuine career path for young athletes to aspire to. But why not add another four first-class teams across the country, providing another 44 players or 112 contracts to the top end? There is certainly enough young talent out there.
Is it possible to break away from tradition and replace the state system with a club format such as the rugby league, basketball, soccer and netball models? Maybe introduce the Melbourne Lightning and the Sydney Sharks as second teams operating under the auspices of state associations.
Archaic domestic system needs to be shaken up
Darren Berry
October 29, 2006
Page 2 of 2
AdvertisementAdvertisement
OUR domestic competition is the best in the world and the history and tradition that surrounds it makes it a very special part of Australian cricket.
One point of view would be if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. The other is if you sit on the train tracks satisfied with past achievements, you will get run over. In any business you must always be looking to improve or to obtain the competitive advantage.
One option would be to expand the state competition by adding a second team out of Melbourne and Sydney and introducing the ACT and Northern Territory to make it a truly national competition.
The state competition has history dating back to the 1890s and it is the cornerstone on which our powerful Test team is built. Most traditionalists will choke at any suggestion of change, but those with vision believe it could be time to revamp an archaic system. Present Victorian Institute of Sport coach Neil Buszard is one of a growing number of people who is prepared to look into the crystal ball.
In Victoria we have more than 112,000 registered cricketers, yet only 12 at any given time have the chance to wear the navy blue Victorian cap. The percentage that makes it through the funnel is minuscule. Our pathway or elite system has talent identification programs set up across the state beginning at under-13 level with more than 1200 young players unearthed each year.
The present under-age system does not miss many players. The problem lies at the pointy end of the pathway, with many talented cricketers lost to the game.
Luke Ball, Luke Hodge, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Jimmy Bartel and Marc Murphy are just a few of the names in recent times who chose football ahead of cricket. The financial gains are significantly higher at AFL level than in state cricket but, just as importantly, so are the opportunities. Perhaps for cricket to compete with football, we need to provide more vacancies for first-class cricketers.
At present only 66 players have the chance to play first-class cricket at any one time. Each state can now contract up to 20 players and eight rookies each year in addition to its Australian contracted players. This is a vast improvement on times past and provides a genuine career path for young athletes to aspire to. But why not add another four first-class teams across the country, providing another 44 players or 112 contracts to the top end? There is certainly enough young talent out there.
Is it possible to break away from tradition and replace the state system with a club format such as the rugby league, basketball, soccer and netball models? Maybe introduce the Melbourne Lightning and the Sydney Sharks as second teams operating under the auspices of state associations.
Perhaps even more radical would be to abolish the state associations and move to franchised clubs that can provide the infrastructure and financial backing to support a first-class team. The Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Tigers and Melbourne Victory seem to be making a pretty good fist of things.
If we want to make our popular summer game truly national, then we need to introduce and totally support the ACT and NT. The Canberra Comets had a brief interlude in the domestic one-day competition in the late '90s before being thrown into the too-hard basket. Perhaps a passionate cricket person with significant dollars behind them could re-invent the Comets. They have the facilities at Manuka Oval to sustain a team in the national competition. The Northern Territory has an improving club competition and also an institute of sport cricket section.
The NT/Cairns Crocodiles and the Canberra Comets along with the two new teams from Sydney and Melbourne make up a 10-team competition. Each team would play each other once with the top four sides playing in a final series in both formats of the game.
For it to work, a well planned national draft would have to take place to ensure the new teams were granted priority picks both old and new so they could compete with the already strong state teams.
It would take some brave people at Cricket Australia to entertain the idea but it would ultimately provide more chances and exposure for younger players, who often stagnate between the age of 19 and 23.
The present system creates a bottleneck with older players such as Darren Lehmann, Martin Love, Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan, who will never represent their country again but are still valuable state contributors and are ideal leaders and role models. Introducing four more teams allows those players to stay on but also exposes more young talent.
The administrators entrusted with moving our great game into the future may well turn up their noses just as they did in the mid-'70s when Kerry Packer gave the game an almighty shake-up. Perhaps it might take someone like Packer to step forward and rattle the cage once again.
Darren Berry
October 29, 2006
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
OUR domestic competition is the best in the world and the history and tradition that surrounds it makes it a very special part of Australian cricket.
One point of view would be if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. The other is if you sit on the train tracks satisfied with past achievements, you will get run over. In any business you must always be looking to improve or to obtain the competitive advantage.
One option would be to expand the state competition by adding a second team out of Melbourne and Sydney and introducing the ACT and Northern Territory to make it a truly national competition.
The state competition has history dating back to the 1890s and it is the cornerstone on which our powerful Test team is built. Most traditionalists will choke at any suggestion of change, but those with vision believe it could be time to revamp an archaic system. Present Victorian Institute of Sport coach Neil Buszard is one of a growing number of people who is prepared to look into the crystal ball.
In Victoria we have more than 112,000 registered cricketers, yet only 12 at any given time have the chance to wear the navy blue Victorian cap. The percentage that makes it through the funnel is minuscule. Our pathway or elite system has talent identification programs set up across the state beginning at under-13 level with more than 1200 young players unearthed each year.
The present under-age system does not miss many players. The problem lies at the pointy end of the pathway, with many talented cricketers lost to the game.
Luke Ball, Luke Hodge, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Jimmy Bartel and Marc Murphy are just a few of the names in recent times who chose football ahead of cricket. The financial gains are significantly higher at AFL level than in state cricket but, just as importantly, so are the opportunities. Perhaps for cricket to compete with football, we need to provide more vacancies for first-class cricketers.
At present only 66 players have the chance to play first-class cricket at any one time. Each state can now contract up to 20 players and eight rookies each year in addition to its Australian contracted players. This is a vast improvement on times past and provides a genuine career path for young athletes to aspire to. But why not add another four first-class teams across the country, providing another 44 players or 112 contracts to the top end? There is certainly enough young talent out there.
Is it possible to break away from tradition and replace the state system with a club format such as the rugby league, basketball, soccer and netball models? Maybe introduce the Melbourne Lightning and the Sydney Sharks as second teams operating under the auspices of state associations.
Archaic domestic system needs to be shaken up
Darren Berry
October 29, 2006
Page 2 of 2
AdvertisementAdvertisement
OUR domestic competition is the best in the world and the history and tradition that surrounds it makes it a very special part of Australian cricket.
One point of view would be if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. The other is if you sit on the train tracks satisfied with past achievements, you will get run over. In any business you must always be looking to improve or to obtain the competitive advantage.
One option would be to expand the state competition by adding a second team out of Melbourne and Sydney and introducing the ACT and Northern Territory to make it a truly national competition.
The state competition has history dating back to the 1890s and it is the cornerstone on which our powerful Test team is built. Most traditionalists will choke at any suggestion of change, but those with vision believe it could be time to revamp an archaic system. Present Victorian Institute of Sport coach Neil Buszard is one of a growing number of people who is prepared to look into the crystal ball.
In Victoria we have more than 112,000 registered cricketers, yet only 12 at any given time have the chance to wear the navy blue Victorian cap. The percentage that makes it through the funnel is minuscule. Our pathway or elite system has talent identification programs set up across the state beginning at under-13 level with more than 1200 young players unearthed each year.
The present under-age system does not miss many players. The problem lies at the pointy end of the pathway, with many talented cricketers lost to the game.
Luke Ball, Luke Hodge, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Jimmy Bartel and Marc Murphy are just a few of the names in recent times who chose football ahead of cricket. The financial gains are significantly higher at AFL level than in state cricket but, just as importantly, so are the opportunities. Perhaps for cricket to compete with football, we need to provide more vacancies for first-class cricketers.
At present only 66 players have the chance to play first-class cricket at any one time. Each state can now contract up to 20 players and eight rookies each year in addition to its Australian contracted players. This is a vast improvement on times past and provides a genuine career path for young athletes to aspire to. But why not add another four first-class teams across the country, providing another 44 players or 112 contracts to the top end? There is certainly enough young talent out there.
Is it possible to break away from tradition and replace the state system with a club format such as the rugby league, basketball, soccer and netball models? Maybe introduce the Melbourne Lightning and the Sydney Sharks as second teams operating under the auspices of state associations.
Perhaps even more radical would be to abolish the state associations and move to franchised clubs that can provide the infrastructure and financial backing to support a first-class team. The Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Tigers and Melbourne Victory seem to be making a pretty good fist of things.
If we want to make our popular summer game truly national, then we need to introduce and totally support the ACT and NT. The Canberra Comets had a brief interlude in the domestic one-day competition in the late '90s before being thrown into the too-hard basket. Perhaps a passionate cricket person with significant dollars behind them could re-invent the Comets. They have the facilities at Manuka Oval to sustain a team in the national competition. The Northern Territory has an improving club competition and also an institute of sport cricket section.
The NT/Cairns Crocodiles and the Canberra Comets along with the two new teams from Sydney and Melbourne make up a 10-team competition. Each team would play each other once with the top four sides playing in a final series in both formats of the game.
For it to work, a well planned national draft would have to take place to ensure the new teams were granted priority picks both old and new so they could compete with the already strong state teams.
It would take some brave people at Cricket Australia to entertain the idea but it would ultimately provide more chances and exposure for younger players, who often stagnate between the age of 19 and 23.
The present system creates a bottleneck with older players such as Darren Lehmann, Martin Love, Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan, who will never represent their country again but are still valuable state contributors and are ideal leaders and role models. Introducing four more teams allows those players to stay on but also exposes more young talent.
The administrators entrusted with moving our great game into the future may well turn up their noses just as they did in the mid-'70s when Kerry Packer gave the game an almighty shake-up. Perhaps it might take someone like Packer to step forward and rattle the cage once again.