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Sorting out the domestic schedule for a streamlined summer of cricket

Roar Guru
20th January, 2017
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Carlos Brathwaite of the Thunder catches Sean Abbott of the Sixers and celebrates with Fawad Ahmed of the Thunder who bowled the ball during the BBL T20 match between the Sydney Thunder and the Sydney Sixers at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017. (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Roar Guru
20th January, 2017
18

The domestic Australian summer is a mess for Cricket Australia.

The one-day domestic competition is played half in the school holidays when the national team is preparing for the Test summer. The Big Bash is played primarily during the Test series. While ODIs are generally played as Sheffield Shield cricket comes back into full swing.

Surely with some minor tweaking, this can be done better.

First cab off the rank is the Big Bash competition.

It’s staying where it is; it’s not expanding earlier in December or later into February.

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The school holidays, the Christmas shutdown period, the TV ratings and the crowds – everything lines up too well to mess with the premier bill-paying competition of domestic cricket.

Next up is the domestic one-day competition, which currently opens the season.

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I would move it to the end of the cricket summer, to be played in February with the final falling in March. This frees up the start of the summer for the Sheffield Shield, which will take place from October to December.

Now I can hear the angry typing of keyboards already, but hear me out.

Playing the Shield competition prior to the Big Bash in its completion means the season has closure, without needing to pause all form and momentum for a T20 game.

A three-month stint of Shield cricket also has the massive benefit of Australian representative players actually having a chance to be involved before their national duties kick in.

The Australian Test team often plays Test cricket in late November to mid-January. Starting the Shield in October gives the Test players four to five rounds of cricket to find some form before they represent the country.

If ODIs are played during this time, it’s no different than the current form, where the team is picked based off of winter form, from overseas tours or county cricket.

Would this diminish the Shield? No, since the competition would be having its crescendo just as the Big Bash bandwagon rolls up. The fans that only jump into cricket for the Big Bash would first be greeted with the Shield final, and that exposure could see new fans subscribe to Shield in future years.

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The other side is the one-day competition being at the end of the summer, rather than the start. This is to better reflect the actual international scheduling, as one-day matches and T20 internationals are played at toward the latter part of the summer.

Scheduling domestic one-dayers in February allows players to be in a short form mindset to play either T20Is and ODIs, or Big Bash and domestic one-dayers.

The purists will always say the Shield should be played across the whole summer, and the Big Bash carnival should disappear, but it’s not going to happen.

It’s more likely that the Shield’s small crowds against the huge crowds of the Big Bash will have the opposite effect.

Australian summers are long. Surely there is enough room for everyone to get along and play cricket.

Be it for a few hours, a day, four days or five, there is plenty of sunshine and floodlights to go around.

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