Cricket officials are hopeful of striking another breakthrough over a rival sport in the race to secure talented young athletes.
Fresh from having teenager Anthony Del Borrello commit to cricket instead of a potential career in the AFL, officials are optimistic young star Alex Keath will do the same.
Keath, 17, is a junior star in both sports and is being courted by both Cricket Victoria and Gold Coast’s AFL franchise.
This makes him ineligible for this month’s AFL national draft, but the Gold Coast have listed him as one of 12 young players they hope will form a key part of their side when they enter the league in 2011.
The teenager is yet to decide on a sport but Victoria’s general manager Shaun Graf said the Bushrangers had been encouraged that Keath sees himself as a bowling allrounder down the track opposed to a key-position footballer.
Graf said Keath was training with the Vics, but would be given time to decide which sport to pursue.
The Vics are hopeful he will favour cricket, like Del Borrello did when he informed Western Australia he had not nominated for the AFL draft.
Del Borrello, 18, is a powerful batsman and legspinner, and was also considered a good enough footballer to be in the first 30 picks on November 26.
“It is a bit of a weight off my shoulders because I have spent a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons of both sports,” he said of his decision to stick with cricket.
“I just thought that the chance of representing your country was a great incentive to play cricket, as well as the opportunity of travelling around the world if you were good enough to play for Australia.”
Del Borrello’s decision came the season after Mitch Marsh, the son of former Australian player Geoff and brother of one-day player Shaun, chose cricket over a promising football career and earned a contract with the Warriors.
Many in cricket believe the prospect of earning big money in competitions such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) could sway young athletes back to cricket where previously they had aspired for careers in the AFL.
More than 600 positions are on offer across 16 AFL clubs, and the Gold Coast and the Western Sydney teams – the latter scheduled to enter the league in 2012 – will increase the number of opportunities for young athletes.
But cricket’s international status cannot be matched by the AFL and officials such as Victorian coach Greg Shipperd believe the Twenty20 boom could be turn the tide back to the summer game.
“Cricket has changed enormously with the advent of the IPL and other Twenty20 competitions around the world, so a young fellow looking at that would have to say it’s a pretty attractive set of circumstances,” Shipperd said.
“In football you play in front of big crowds and we’re playing in front of big crowds and that’s only going to get better as Twenty20 continues to kick on.
“In football you’re playing one form of the game whereas in cricket you’re playing three forms of the game so your mind is challenged to be skilled up for three different forms … for a young athlete that would be an attractive proposition.”
AFL stars Jimmy Bartel, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Shannon Hurn, Simon Goodwin, Luke Hodge are among those who were very good junior cricketers but pursued the AFL path, although it cannot be certain if any would have established first-class careers.
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