Why significant reform of grade cricket is needed before SA can succeed at Shield level
SA cricket is in a long drought for Sheffield Shield success. The anchor remains at home with too many grade cricket teams and the SACA without power to force reform, writes Michelangelo Rucci.
Michelangelo Rucci
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Politicians do not vote for pay cuts, turkeys do not put up their clipped wings for Thanksgiving ... and sporting clubs do not volunteer for amalgamations or demotions.
These are the three modern certainties of life to go along with death, taxes and Collingwood believing the world ends if more than one AFL team presents itself in black-and-white stripes.
And we might as well add the South Australian men’s cricket team will not win the Sheffield Shield again unless there is major reform at club level.
Everyone can see that a 13-team club cricket system undermines the Redbacks. No one will act.
“It is the impossible conundrum,” says Redbacks batsman Callum Ferguson of the SACA’s challenge to reform local cricket to bring the Shield back to its trophy cabinet for the first time since the summer of 1995-96.
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By its constitution, the SACA board cannot issue execution or merger orders among the clubs. But this does not mean the SACA - an organisation that proved by bringing the AFL to Adelaide Oval that it does accept “mission impossible” challenges - does not try.
In August 2006, the SACA put former Australian wicketkeeper Rod Marsh to work in reforming SA cricket.
Again the turkeys left the SACA board with empty plates at Christmas.
In July 2014 the Zadow Report to the SACA “clearly expressed ... that the (grade) competition was too large.” Incentives were offered to encourage mergers.
In season 2016/2017, as the West Torrens District Cricket Club (founded in 1857) was being ushered to a merger with Port Adelaide, the Western Eagles won the titles in all three formats in Adelaide grade cricket to put its “check mate” on the SACA’s ambitions for reform.
And the big picture?
Since SA last won the Sheffield Shield in 1995-96, the Redbacks have finished last in the national competition 12 times, including in the past two summers.
There have been consecutive appearances in the Shield final with losses in 2015-16 and 2016-17. It is the darkest chapter in SA cricket’s Sheffield Shield book since the seven consecutive wooden spoons from 1954-55 to 1960-61.
At least the purpose of the Sheffield Shield - to nurture Australian international cricketers - is no longer a dark spot for SA.
Travis Head was the Australian vice-captain in the recent Ashes series in England. The roll call of Redbacks with baggy green or yellow caps includes Alex Carey, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Callum Ferguson and Joe Mennie.
But the Sheffield Shield has not rested on a wall at Adelaide Oval for more than 20 years, the longest absence of the trophy since World War II put a stop to cricket.
Everyone can see the issue; have done for decades.
“I have been a firm believer,” says Ferguson, a member of the West Torrens club that averted amalgamation, “that (an oversized district cricket system in Adelaide) is the cause (of the Redbacks’ woes).
“The talent pool has been spread too far and wide across too many teams. We are losing too many senior players for (the club game) to be sustainable; for it to be a strong enough competition to develop players as State players.”
Ferguson pays tribute to the SACA for seeking a solution with the pre-season Redbacks League that, in Ferguson’s eyes, “gave us a chance to bridge the gap between grade cricket and the second XI so we could develop players.”
But the core problem - diagnosed again and again - demanding major reform of Adelaide club cricket to enhance the Redbacks’ fortunes in the Sheffield Shield remains with too many grade teams.
As the AFL has learned with its overload of Victorian football teams in a national competition, particularly after failing to entice North Melbourne to the Gold Coast, emotions always over-rules plans made with greater interests at heart. Turkeys could wish they were so lucky at Thanksgiving.