Cricket Australia needs to increase squad size
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By johnhunt92, 11 Nov 2009 johnhunt92 is a Roar Pro
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- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Cricket Australia
Australia’s current system of 25 contracted players is dead in the water. The series in India has shown that 25 central players are not enough to cover the amount of cricket played around the world.
While it is likely the amount of international cricket will be reduced, 25 contracted players are still not enough to cover the injuries on tour. For Australia to remain ahead of the pack, at least 45 international standard players are needed.
European Football has shown that by having 40 quality players (i.e. Manchester United, Chelsea and Real Madrid having enough players to field three quality sides), success is maintained as the teams have enough quality players to fill spots vacant due to injury.
40 quality cricketers also means the top 11 can be rested on obscure tours to Bangladesh, while giving up-and-coming cricketers a gentle introduction to international cricket and a chance to prove themselves.
Again, European football teams are a prime example of this.
Manchester United plays its youth squad in Carling Cup matches against Low Division sides allowing their better players to rest for big Premier League and UEFA Champions League clashes.
Australia also needs to revamp its 20/20 structure.
The team’s 20/20 record is woeful, as Cricket Australia treats it as a money making fun fest and does not take it seriously.
Again, cricket needs to take lessons from another sport, Rugby Sevens.
Australia’s Rugby Seven’s team is made up of specialist players with no current Wallabies in the squad. Cricket must follow this by selecting players in 20/20 squads with an ability to play a 20/20 game.
This would mean M Hussey, Clarke and Pointing would make way for smash and bang players like David Hussey, Warner, White and Klinger.
This theory is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. James Sutherland knows this is a good idea, as it stops the whining from our top players about massive tour schedules.
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Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:01am | Report comment
Where did you get your info here john?
“While it is likely the amount of international cricket will be reduced” – I think most people would suggest that the schedule will continue to increase until such a time that it is impossible to fit any more cricket in.
And which football team has a squad of 40 players? Most teams would have 20-26 players that they consider first team, you can hardly count the youngsters who might get one or two caps a season in a cup game.
Further, Ponting has already retired from T20′s.
Australia should contract more players, with that I agree but I see a lot of holes in your supporting argument.
vinay verma said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Freud..digest this quote from Mike Coward…”..we have rosters for players and now a roster for Captains”
The point being that the highest office in Australian sport is already diluted by having two captains and there could be a time when there are three captains. This has to be destabilising. Vettori,Sangakkara,Dhoni and Smith are the only ones captaining all three forms and this is any day preferable to having two or three captains of the National team. The anology with Sevens Rugby is tenuous.
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:15pm | Report comment
Vinay, I would disagree that this is chaotic.
For mine, Tests are cricket. That is what matter to me, ODI’s are nice and I find them entertaining and international T20 cricket should be scrapped all together.
Hence, I am quite happy for a younger player to take over the captaincy in the shorter forms to gain experience. Yes there aren’t 5-day ODI’s but they can be tight games and the experience is certainly transferable.
Australia just got very lucky with their last 3 captains in Border, Taylor and S Waugh. You could have given them the captaincy after 5 tests and they would have performed.
vinay verma said | November 11th 2009 @ 7:30pm | Report comment
Freud..the core of the ODI’s comes from the Test Side…Ponting,Clarke,Hussey,Watson,Johson.SiddleHauritz Haddin and Hilfenhaus (though I would replace Hilfenhaus with Bollinger). So Ponting captaining both makes sense.
I am in agreement with you on scrapping Twenty20 Internationals. It is vaudeville.
Actually Australia didn’t get lucky with the three captains you mention. In those instances credit to the Selectors and CA for appointing them. They were fortunate that they had a core of leaders in the side..Marsh,Boon,Jones,Warne,Gilchrist and McGrath all bought leadership and responsibility to the Captains’ Table.
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 8:01pm | Report comment
Yes they were fortunate with the players they inherited but Border, Taylor and Waugh were all natural leaders, if anything the selectors should be criticised for not handing the reigns to Warne who we’ve seen for both Victoria and his IPL side is a fantastic attacking captain and tactically, very astute.
I know he had his problems off the field but captaincy is the sort of thing that will generally focus a player and they leave those bad.boy traits behind.
That is why I feel Ponting has been exposed now, he was extremely lucky that he had Warne and McGrath, Ponting didn’t need to set fields, have plans, he just picked from one of his all-time greats and threw the ball that way, I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. I could have captained Australia with that line up and they could have carried me for a decade, averaging 3 with the bat and not bowling and they still would have won everything.
The ODI side shouldn’t be coming from the Test side either. Yes ODI’s should be seen as important and I’m glad you’ve jumped on the “scrap international T20′s” bandwagon but when players get into their mid-thirties (ie Ponting and Katich) they should focus solely on Tests in my opinion, it is the be-all and end-all of cricket and should be treated as such, I’d much rather see Ponting play only test matches until he is 40 than both forms for just another 2-3 seasons.
Ian Whitchurch said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
JohnHunt,
Sorry, I have to go in to bat for my Tigers.
The West Indies just proved if you play a second XI against the Mighty Bangladesh Tigers, you get smashed. And that was away.
Last time the Green and Gold went to Bangladesh, it took great innings by first the best wicket-keeper/batsman there ever was, and then by the best Australian batsman since Bradman to scrape in a win in Fatullah (and even then, if Mash holds that catch …). Since then, Bangladesh have got better, and Australia have got worse.
So yeah, on a low, slow, turning pitch … yeah, I’m backing the Tigers.
Rabbitz said | November 11th 2009 @ 5:26pm | Report comment
Actually an increase in the squad might help, but I can’t stop wondering where the “highly paid professional” conditioning and training people are? You know the guys like physio’s and doctors and other associated people.
How can a professional outfit, who play cricket, a non contact sport, have so many injuries? AFL, League, Union don’t seem to have as many injuries on a tour.
It is cricket, you know where you stand around most of the day, or in fact sit in the rooms most of the day – especially if it might look like the possibility of a chance of rain.
Clearly either the players are over training, being trained poorly or just aren’t up to it.
Timmuh said | November 14th 2009 @ 10:02am | Report comment
Australian Football, the rugby codes, etc, don’t play competitively 3-5 days a week during their seasons, and have extended off-seasons. They can alter training to limit injury risks, cricketers don’t have that type of control over a match. Cricket doesn’t have the contact of the football codes, but it does strain the muscles over and over again without 5 to 7 days recovery time between having to do it again competitively, especially for bowlers; and tests the stamina of everyone. Its not really that surprising that strain type injuries occur a lot when players are playing so much over a period of months.
There simply needs to be less pointless cricket (i.e. no limited overs only tours outside the World Cup). Unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen, so we are going to see more and more series where nations can not field anything close to their best teams at some points.