Clubs now the front line in player development again following Cricket Australian funding shortfall
The alarming financial predicament of Cricket Australia will ironically send club cricket Back to the Future and return it to the No. 1 development ground of future state and Test players. Read about the impact on junior Pathway players.
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The alarming financial predicament of Cricket Australia will ironically send club cricket Back to the Future and return it to the No. 1 development ground of future state and Test players.
With the reduction in CA funding, Queensland Cricket has started to shed staff after a dire financial report card from Cricket Australia, with the positions of General Manager Community Cricket John Stock and General Manager Brisbane Heat Andrew McShea made redundant.
In addition to ease CA’s financial drain, junior Pathway interstate competitions will be reduced and the expensive Second XI interstate competition cut back.
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This will put the focus back on club cricket where all these junior representative players and Second XI players, largely locked away from training and playing with their clubs, will return to club land in large numbers.
Once there, they will learn of seasoned club players and have to fight for positions rather be, in some cases, gifted places in junior representative teams.
One club official said Pathway competitions had basically run in competition to club cricket.
“Now runs and wickets in club cricket will become currency to go to a higher level,’’ the official said.
“Playing for the Second XI has to become a privilege again. Recently selection was not based on performance. They were anointed.
“There had become a belief among grade players that performance in club cricket was not currency.’’
It is known a return to this type of old school club player development has sympathy from key positioned people within Queensland Cricket.
It would mean going back to the future for clubs and players.
As another club official said. “When you played Wests (in the 1990s) you played against Rackemann, Tazelaar and Rowell. And if you got a 100 against them, then you could probably get a hundred against New South Wales.’’
Current board member Ian Healy used to break land and speed records to return from playing state cricket to help out at Norths.
Queensland’s captain of the state’s historic first ever Sheffield Shield winning team, Stuart Law, was playing first grade at Valley when he was aged 15, instead of being locked up in an under 16 development program playing with his peers.
In contrast, in recent seasons it had got to the stage that if a cricketer made the under 19 Queensland side, he trained mostly with his under 19 teammates and was also rested for weeks, sometimes months, leading up to the start of a national under 19 competition.
It is why a club like University, for example, rarely saw their towering young fast bowler, BBC old boy Matthew Willans, train or play at University last season. If he was not being rested, he was training or playing with the under 19 squad.
However, with the under 19, junior and Second XI matches being reduced due to Cricket Australia funding cuts, the likes of Willans will be seen training and playing more often with University at Wep Harris Oval.
While the junior Pathways programs made youth players technically excellent, it could not teach young players match awareness or give them the insight they would glean from learning off more experienced players in club land.
By having these young players in the grade system, they would also leave the bubble of an elite squad and be exposed to club duties like cleaning dressing rooms or putting boundary markers out before play. all of which can be the making of better people.
“It will be great having them playing really good, hard cricket,’’ said an additional Premier grade official.
It is believed no southeast Queensland Premier grade club would close if Cricket Australia grant money, which is funnelled through Queensland cricket, was reduced, although some small junior clubs may need financial help from their Big Brother operations.
Today, Queensland Cricket chair Chris Simpson and CEO Terry Svenson moved to address concerns about possible financial impacts in club cricket brough about the Cricket Australia’s financial position.
“Despite receiving less money from Cricket Australia, QC will continue to provide significant
support to our clubs, associations, and volunteers to deliver cricket programs throughout
Queensland,’’ the letter stated.
“We remain optimistic that we will soon be back out in the community helping to
grow our game once the government restrictions are lifted.
“We will find innovative ways to support all participants; players, coaches, and volunteers from grassroots to the elite level.’’
Originally published as Clubs now the front line in player development again following Cricket Australian funding shortfall