Possible solution to early season injuries

[Mister Wright]

I have two possible solutions to preventing early season injuries.

The first one:

Australia v Australia 'A' in two four day games and three 1-day games.

This would be beneficial for both players and selectors. The players will get a chance to get through some overs or spend some time in the middle, it will also give an indication to the 'A' players who are 'next' in line (although the selectors can often pull someone from nowhere). It will also give an indication to the selectors how the Aussie and Aussie 'A' players are performing.

The second one:

An interstate two or three day pre-season competition.

This would be beneficial for international & state players, selectors and spectators. This could involve each state playing each other once and the top two playing off in a final, then the next year those who played away then host the corresponding team. This would give the fans a chance to see the national players for their states and it would also give the state players some match fitness. It would also give the selectors (both national and state) a chance to have a look at everyone.

Just a few thoughts....

 

[age_master]

it might be good for the players and fans etc. dont know what it would do to slow injuries, they dont usually happen that much anyway though, just a bad spot this season

 

[marc71178]

I'd like to know where in the calender you'd fit the games. There's already too much Cricket being played IMO!

 

[Mister Wright]

This would be in place of the camp that the contracted players have. It may not have to be as big a programe as I have sugested, it may only be one Australia v Australia A game. It is better than just going in cold, without any match practice. It would also help guys like Katich, Love, Bracken, Williams, Hogg, Nofke, Clarke, Maher etc. get some match practice in just incase their are some injuries and they get a call up.

 

[Rich2001]

There is no problem IMO

The only reason the sudden amount of injuries is that the Australia team hasn't played from the Bangladesh series which finished way back at the start of Aug.

Now if the Aussies had played a normal away tour in the winter months (say the Ashes for example) the series would have finished very late Aug to early Sept, meaning that there would have only been about a months break at the very most, rather than the two + months they ended up having.

So they went from having no cricket to 40 odd overs in 3 days, injuries would always happen.

All the ACB had to do was to get a couple of OD matches in there and the players would have had some what eased back into the game. They just need to work timings out a bit better or just thrown in a couple of warm up style games like the touring team gets, or more radical if this will be a commom thing would be to start the season 2 weeks earier so players would already be playing as the Tests start.