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Are Cricket Australia trying to kill Test cricket?

24th August, 2016
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Michael Clarke is ready to come out of retirement. Anyone keen to ask him? (AFP PHOTO/Lindsey Parnaby)
Roar Guru
24th August, 2016
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1625 Reads

Cricket Australia have announced sweeping changes to the structure of junior cricket games.

In plain terms, this means up to Under 15s there will be reduced team sizes, reduced pitch lengths, reduced overs, reduced field sizes, and reduced ball size.

The key objective is reducing the length of junior games to no more than two hours’ play on any day.

Junior Cricket revisions

I am a junior coach, with almost ten years experience over all the different age groups across three different decades. I am also currently the junior secretary of my club, so have an inside view of the issues facing cricket administrators.

Quite frankly, these rule changes, apart from the changes below Under 12s are a joke.

The only logical conclusion is that they only want to teach kids the skills of T20 cricket.

Test cricket is in real trouble.

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How will kids learn to build an innings, bowl the right length, or flight the ball if they are a spin bowler?

Kids that play juniors and seniors, particularly senior comps that are on turf, will be so confused as they switch back and forth between a shorter and normal pitch, and synthetic – where most junior games are played – and turf.

Small grounds, fewer fielders and less time to bat will result in batsmen coming through that can only slog and have no ability to hang in through the tough times.

You only need to look at the current struggles of our Test team to know that all of these skills are already slipping.

Cricket Australia say they will increase participation rates, I argue that it will have the opposite effect.

It’s already hard enough for some clubs to fill teams on a Saturday morning thanks to kids wanting to play basketball. These changes will just push more kids down that path.

From an administrative point of view, this can only place further pressure on clubs that are struggling to field teams. Reduced team sizes means more teams, which means more coaches, more team managers and more parental help.

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In a world where finding volunteers gets harder by the year, this will be difficult.

Then there’s the extra grounds that are needed. Playing double headers is not an option.

Are any other countries around the world making these changes at the expense of Test cricket? I highly doubt it.

As I sat in the boardroom of my employer yesterday, a prominent Cricket Australia sponsor, I noticed a picture of a full house on the Boxing Day at the MCG.

Please don’t kill it cricket, Australia.

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