Premier Cricket greats back clubs to run Dowling Shield for elite young talent
The Dowling Shield and the John Craig Shield will form the pillars of the Cricket Victoria under-age pathway next season — and Premier Cricket stalwarts Peter Dickson and Adam Crosthwaite are backing it to work.
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Victorian Premier Cricket greats Peter Dickson and Adam Crosthwaite say a return to a club-based Dowling Shield competition would be a good thing for elite young players.
The state’s so-called pathway program is set for upheaval amid a Cricket Victoria financial squeeze.
The Premier Cricket clubs have been told the Under 14 and Under 18 state championships will be scrapped next season and that the running of the Under 16 titles will go back to the clubs, who until 15 years ago operated it as the Dowling Shield.
The Dowling Shield, the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association’s Under 15 John Craig Shield (formerly the Hatch Shield) and the Victorian Metropolitan Cricket Union under-age carnivals will make up the future pathway for emerging talents, just as they had for many years.
Dickson said he liked the idea of clubs being in charge of the Dowling Shield again.
He said Dowling ran successfully for a long time and there was no reason why it couldn’t do so again.
Dickson said there was enough expertise and volunteers at clubs to do it properly.
He said most of the teams in the region-based pathways championships were coached by Premier players.
Fitzroy-Doncaster batsman Dickson retired from Premier Cricket last season after a distinguished career that brought him more than 10,000 runs, two premierships and a John Scholes Medal.
He started in Premier Cricket at Melbourne after playing Under 12 Mitchell Shield in the VMCU carnival, for Balwyn in the Sub-District Hatch Shield and for the Demons in the Dowling Shield.
“I thought Dowling was the best competition ever,’’ Dickson said.
“I remember playing at Melbourne and having kids from the country come and stay with my family and being introduced to Premier clubs.
“Now the country kids basically play in the country – they might play one game at a Premier ground or maybe a Sub-District ground – and those relationships aren’t formed any more.
“They probably wonder why they need to play in Melbourne, whereas they used to come down and be part of a club and a couple of years later they’d play senior cricket there.’’
Dickson had two seasons of Dowling Shield with Melbourne, playing alongside future Victorian fast bowler Robbie Cassell and future AFL star Luke Ball.
He was part of the Demons’ Shield win in 1999-2000.
“They were two of the most fun years I had in cricket, Dowling,’’ Dickson said.
“I think if it went back to that system it would be fantastic.
“I remember when it initially got taken off the clubs, and they weren’t happy about it. They wanted to keep running it.
“Obviously some clubs would do it better than others and some clubs would be more resourced than others. But that will be a reflection of each club.’’
He said clubs would have to forge strong ties with local cricket competitions to identify the best prospects.
Dickson said senior coaches could be involved in the recruiting process.
“What a great opportunity to find out about kids who for whatever reason might not have been contacted before,’’ he said.
“Fitzroy Doncaster had a meeting about this the other day and I said why aren’t we casting the net a bit further and contacting Brad Knowles more often and asking who he has down in Gippsland. You can do the same with someone in Bendigo or someone in Shepparton.
“The other part of it would be you’d get people who are absolutely invested in the club running it, not someone from CV who thinks it would look good on a resume to do two months of under-age coaching. A bit of old-fashioned values would come back in.’’
Former Victorian wicketkeeper and NSW Grade star Crosthwaite followed a similar path to Dickson, playing for Ivanhoe in the Hatch Shield and Richmond in the Dowling Shield.
He joined the Tigers at the age of 16 and started Premier Cricket in their Fourth XI.
St Kilda captain Crosthwaite said he felt a strong connection with Richmond and absorbed the experience of senior figures such as gloveman Gavin Holland, Jason Arnberger, Paul Reiffel and Ian Hewitt.
Crosthwaite said the Cricket Victoria pathways model had a lot going for it, but with the state body forced to make cuts it was a good time to put under-age cricket in the hands of the clubs.
“That doesn’t need to be an expensive model,’’ he said.
“Club cricket has the coaches and the structures and the quality people to do it properly. You put a St Kilda badge on them and you’ve got a true pathway.
“As much as it’s a tough situation we’re going through, it’s a chance for Cricket Victoria to broaden the horizon of club cricket.
“I’m not sledging Cricket Victoria in the way they’ve put these things together … there is merit in what they’ve done, trying to high-performance and turn kids into Australian cricketers … but not it’s not a bad idea to ask clubs to look after junior cricket again.
“I don’t think I’ve ever learnt playing in my own age group. You learn from playing and training with the senior guys at your club.’’
There are suggestions the Dowling Shield will operate as an Under 17 competition next season.
Dickson believes it should remain at Under 16 level.
“If you take it to 17s, you’re not going to see kids like James Bartel or Luke Ball or Luke Hodge, kids who were gun footballers and gun cricketers,’’ he said.
“If it’s Under 16 all those kids will still play Dowling.
“I remember playing Dowling against Jonathan Brown. I reckon I played against six or eight guys who turned into absolute superstar footballers.’’
He said there was no reason the VSDCA John Craig Shield could be an Under 14 competition, as it was for many years.
Dickson and Crosthwaite both said they hoped the national Second XI competition was retained but with no age limit on players.
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Premier clubs have been told it is likely to be scrapped next season.
Crosthwaite said the gap between club and first-class cricket was significant and a Second XI was a “must’’ to bridge it.
But he said he had never liked the age restrictions, believing they diluted the standard.
“When I was coming through, it was the second-best team in Victoria,’’ Crosthwaite said.
“Guys in Premier Cricket who were in their 30s were still being picked and looked at.
“You’d face proper fast bowling. The problem recently is that you’ll have one or two decent quicks and then you know you’ll be batting on a flat four-day pitch against Under 19 bowlers. Every batter around the country knew all you’d have to do was see off the one or two decent bowlers then you could bat against kids for the rest of the day. That doesn’t equate to first-class cricket.’’
It’s unclear what Cricket Victoria will put in place for the girls under-age competitions.
Last season it staged Under 17 and Under 14 series.
The VMCU operated Under 12, 14 and 16 carnivals for female talent, with players elected from competing competitions.