OPINION: Twenty20 needed to stay in touch with competition

CLARENCE River Cricket Association will field just 14 teams this season, down from 19 in 2016/17.

Sawtell batsman Ricky Welsh hits out against Nana Glen in the 2016/17 Coffs Harbour District Cricket Association Twenty20 final. The Coffs Coast Chargers team which contests the Plan B Regional Big Bash twenty20 competition draws players from North Coast Cricket Council's four associations. However, Clarence River, which doesn't have its own twenty20 competition, has been poorly represented. Picture: Brad Greenshields

CLARENCE River Cricket Association has resolved to merge its second and third grade competitions to compensate for a massive decline in player numbers this season.

Just 14 teams have nominated to take the field in 2017/18, down from 19 teams last season and 21 in 2015/16.

More and more people are time-pressed due to work and family commitments on weekends, and the traditional format of grade cricket taking out a whole afternoon is endangered as a result.

But this needs to be viewed by the cricket community not as a rejection of the noble game, but an opportunity to embrace change.

The onus will be on individual associations to come up with alternative packages to attract players back to the game. The third grade twenty20 competition suggested by CRCA vice president Andrew McLachlan (see page 32) appears to be a viable example.

For the Clarence Valley's top tier players, a franchise-based twenty20 competition could also provide a much-needed boost. This has proven successful in many other major centres, some who have been running such competitions for a decade or more.

In recent years the CRCA has continued to vote against remodelling the Cleavers Mechanical Night Cricket competition from 30 overs to 20 overs. With no direct form to gauge from, it makes it very difficult for Coffs Coast Chargers selectors to pick from our player pool for the Regional Big Bash representative twenty20 competition.

The younger generation are growing up on twenty20, but there are no obvious stepping stones for aspiring players in the Clarence Valley.

Country Cup cull adds to player drain pain

IT WILL be interesting to see if the worrying trend of player decline in experienced by the Clarence River Cricket Association is reflected in other country cricket associations across the state this season.

It coincides with the Cricket NSW decision to abandon its statewide Country Cup and Country Plate knockouts, which provided a key representative incentive opportunity for country towns large and small.

For instance, Narromine's captain in the Country Plate the past two seasons, Bart Goodman, informed me earlier this month the western NSW town will no longer run its own local competition this year, with players instead forced to merge into the nearby Dubbo competition. He said the opportunity to play in the Country Plate was a massive incentive for some of its stronger players to remain involved in the game each year.

With Country Cup now on the backburner, and rarely more than one or two players from the Clarence Valley selected for the North Coast team to contest the NSW Country Championships each season, the Plan B Regional Big Bash (twenty20) is now the only available avenue to play representative cricket outside the North Coast Cricket Council.

Originally published as OPINION: Twenty20 needed to stay in touch with competition