There has been no embalming of the corpse.
For goodness sake, Ponting has only damaged a pinky. And why the furore over the loss of the Ashes? It is not Ponting’s fault. The fault lines lie in the structure of cricket in this country.
A structural engineer would recommend a strengthening of the support beams. He would definitely order that the termites be fumigated. This points directly to the Sheffield Shield and the coaching practices around the country.
The fact that Clarke and Hughes attended a charity function on the eve of the Boxing Day test had nothing to do with Australia’s capitulation. And for Sutherland to admonish the two is disingenuous.
Hilditch as chairman has not exactly distinguished himself.
However, to shaft all the blame on the selection panel only diverts questions from the overall administration.
Everything relates to context and contests. This column has long championed the restoration of the Shield to its eminence. Where young pups learn from the gnarled predators. A tigress does not let its cubs into the jungle till she has taught them how to fend for themselves.
To throw young cubs like Ferguson, George or Khawaja into the teeth of seasoned professionals is a dereliction of care and duty.
It is madness that the under-12’s in Canberra are being asked to play more Twenty20’s. This was posted in a comment by a Roarer. I know that the Victorian district clubs were forced to schedule more Twenty20 games this season.
I am not against Twenty20, as I see this as a legitimate form of entertainment and vital for revenue.
There has to be a balance and unfortunately, Cricket Australia is blind to this. They have been utterly seduced by the riches on offer in the IPL and the Champions League.
A reminder to the besotted officials in charge of the future direction of cricket in this country: The players commanding the biggest pay cheques in the IPL remain players of established pedigree. Tendulkar, Kallis, Sehwag, Watson, David Hussey and Jayawardene. These are all established Test players.
There will always be exceptions like a Warner or a Pollard. Without proper technique, these kinds of players will be like Don Quixote and forever tilting at windmills.
The talent has not suddenly dissipated.
Players are being given rewards for potential and not for performance. Scholarships are proffered to young people not yet rid of their pimples in an effort to stop them going to another sport. Entitlement is being ingrained into the psyche of young minds not yet ready to distinguish between process and outcome.
Any 12 or 15 year old attempting a reverse sweep should be summarily chastised by the coach. Custodianship of cricket entails the proper nurturing of impressionable children.
Talent is good but hard work is better.
It is time to go back to basics. Learning cricket is like reading, writing and arithmetic. Learning to string together ten overs is like learning the proper use of grammar. Building an innings is adding up the numbers yourself. Not relying on a calculator.
Knowledge does not come from Google.
Curators must be given the licence to restore pitches to a level where the batsman is challenged. Scheduling matches that are friendly to time-poor families. Less policing of harmless fun and more policing of hooligans.
And the price of admission is prohibitive. The food is overpriced and the drinks under-strength. Where, oh! where is the balance. Sipping chardonnay in corporate boxes and feasting on Canadian salmon dilutes the perspective somewhat.
Australian cricket has become soft. I wrote earlier it is a failed business. It is not yet a banana republic and strong decisions need to be taken. These decisions have to involve the grassroots. The volunteers that underpin cricket in this country. The Presidents of grade clubs that do not get paid.
All the unpaid life-coaches that do it for the love of the game.
The reliance on market surveys conducted by consultants with self-interest and broadcasters with ratings on their mind has to be discounted and maybe,even,discontinued.
I will say it again: Ponting for all his perceived failings knows the direction Australian cricket must take. He is a fierce proponent of the Shield. Cricket Australia must ensure that October and November are hitherto off limits for international scheduling. The Sheffield Shield was acknowledged as the best domestic competition in the world.
That eminence has to be restored if Australia is to be a force again.
And it must start next summer. No tour to Sri Lanka and all players to be back for the start of the Shield. The Champions Trophy should never again be allowed to stifle the preparation of a Bollinger or a Hussey.
I have nothing against cricketers being rich. I just don’t want them to be slum-dog millionaires.
sheek
Guest
Kersi, I have been to probably one Shield game in my entire life - 1970/71 season, I can't even remember who NSW played. Yet I followed it religiously through the papers & on the radio for nigh on 25 years - early 70s to mid 90s. The incredible thing about the Shield back then, but probably less so now, is the massive "passive" following it enjoyed. Fans couldn't be bothered to attend live matches, but they knew who was doing what week from week. Interestingly, for a long time, the media were aware of this also. They knew not too many people bothered to attend live matches, but followed it through the media. So for a long time the papers & radio gave it extensive coverage.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
That makes sense. In the end there has to be a vision and a corresponding will to see it to fruition.
Rellum
Roar Guru
You could easily weight a selection and performance based payment system to favour test cricket and include bonuses for being selected captain so that he remains the highest or in the highest pay bracket.
Russ
Guest
Vinay, oh, I largely don't dispute your point - the players union probably would, and they are a powerful lobby group in the halls of CA. You just asked what the numbers were, so I gave them, to the extent that I can. As I said, I am still sifting through what I can find.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Rellum, I am not sure about scrapping the contract system. I believe there should be contracts only for Test Players. This send the right message out regarding priorities. ODI's should be based on match payments and a contract if you have played more than,say 10 matches. I have not given this too much thought except that we cannot have Watson earning more than Ponting,or whoever is the captain. And there cannot be too much of a difference in salaries otherwise there will be friction in the dressing room. Other points speak for themselves.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Russ, my point is that there is enough money being generated...any more then CA is losing its charter. it is there to make enough to run it properly. It is not there to maximise profit.Dividends are to be reflected in the money back to grassroots to make cricket stronger. At the moment the money is being spent to make it weaker. It is simplistic but sometimes we have to keep it that way.
Russ
Guest
Vinay, it isn't possible to extract the exact amounts from annual reports, so you have to estimate, based on a mix of information. Oddly enough, the most informative report was from the WICB. The estimate I read for the ch.9 deal is $30m a year, but that probably increased as the deal got older (so $50m may be correct). As a ballpark figure, a single tv ad seems to cost about 1-2c per viewer in Australia, so 35 days of cricket at 100 ads per day and an average audience of 1m is about $35-70m. I haven't finished disentangling the amounts for the various tours, but I'd estimate about $50-60m for Indian broadcast rights and $25-35m for English ones. The Champions League seems to be worth about $20m to CA, given revenues were around that much above what they ought to have been last year. Player salaries across the board are around 20% higher last year then the year before.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Great article Vinay, I agree with most of it. As I am short of time I will keep this to point form but these are some of the important things I think need to be looked at to address the system. - Scrap the contract system for the elite players. It does nothing but breed meritocracy. Bring in a payment system that is selection and performance based. - Less international matches and as discussed earlier, a good pre-christmas period where all international players are available for their state. Help bring state cricket back to the true breading ground it used to be. - Ban all 20/20 matches from junior cricket. Up to the ages of 12 it should be all about technique. I think we need to bring in a coaching license structure for junior coaching to make sure kids are learning the right things and still having fun. - A review of the Academy. Who it selects, how it selects them, how they progress and how they are coached.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Timmuh,the solutions stare CA in the face and they look away. There is a vast and unfullfilled desire in the bush to see top level cricket. All this talk of nurturing the grass roots is just empty rhetoric from the administrators. They should be helping country centres to host big games. Ultimately the strength of a country and its resilence is found in the country and not in the city.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Lolly,the point I am making is that CA and the States have deliberately run down the Shield. There is enough money from the TV rights to run the game and pay the players. I don't have the figures at my finger tips but the last TV deal with 9 was worthabout 50 million a year. The bonanza years are when England and India tour here. The money India pays for the pictures is huge. I will try to find this out for you. Actually Russ,who is a fount of information should have this at his fingertips. Good technique at an early age flows on to grade and then Shield. The focus now is on letting kids switch hit and reverse sweep before they have lost their baby teeth. I keep saying it : A good Test cricketer can play Twenty20. It does not work in reverse.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Malibu77, you do raise a good point about the regional centres. We didn't get international cricket in Tasmania when I was a kid. Australia's oldest first class venue, Launceston's NTCA ground, has not had a first class match for years and didn't even get a ListA game this summer - West Park in Burnie got its first for the one trip outside Hobart. And at all regional centres, the one game they might get is always played the same day as an international game is on TV. How remarkably stupid is that? Even during the one day series it happens. Surely if the international match is on TV on the Sunday, the game at Ballarat or Launceston or Bunbury Or Newcastle could be the Saturday; or vice versa. Local associations are often happy to move their matches or schedule a bye week to allow their players to go a game, I know the TCL did from time to time when Launceston got a Saturday ListA game and crowds are generally better at those venues. Of course, not too many games can be played there because we need our players to play on the Test venues. But so long as its cycled so that, for example, its not always WA who play at Coffs Harbour and two out three years they play at the SCG, the mix is there to let more people see a high class game and give players who play two full seasons of Shield cricket a chance on all Test venues. Those in the main capitals get a regular chance, and don't go. In places where games are not so regular, give the locals the best chance - and putting the one day of high level cricket a year they get up against live TV of internationals is not doing that.
Lolly
Guest
So do I, Russ. It's not the same for others without his privileges and talent who are wanting to make a living. And I'm looking forward to reading more as well. Will it be in theroar or at your own blog?
Lolly
Guest
The WACA was always poorly attended when I used to go when I lived in Perth. But if I lived there again, I'd rather go to see the Warriors at the WACA no matter how mediocre they are, than the Aussie team.
Lolly
Guest
But they won't even let Aus players play in the Big Bash. Look at the nonsense around Tim Paine sitting on his backside for the ODI's and disallowed from playing for Tasmania for the BB. This is a player we are taking to the World Cup and they seem to think that no cricket is better than any cricket in the lead-up to a big tournament. Really nutso stuff going on with CA.
Lolly
Guest
Tha'ts all well and good,I'd love it if there was more concentration on the longer formats but no-one goes to see Sheffield Shield cricket. The states and CA have to make money somehow. And the very well-paid/over-paid Aussie cricket players have to be paid as well. Where does all the money come from if you don't give the Broadcasters and fans things they want to pay for? When I lived in Australia, I used to go and see Sheffield Shield cricket but that was 18 years ago and even then there were tumbleweeds blowing through the WACA.
Brett McKay
Expert
Russ, I'm looking forward to this piece of yours in the works, if this response is anything to go by...
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Ben,glad you liked it. I don't know if CA would like what the mirror on the wall tells them. Definitely not the fairest one of them all.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Russ,you raise many serious points for debate. I agree with your summation that the Shield should be eminent in its own right and the quality will look after itself. And I take your point about the smaller nations. In a previous article I pointed out that CA is hanging out for the Bonanza that will come its way when India visits next summer. I believe the short term efficacies have diverted the vision of CA. Russ, I will reply to your other points off air as it merits more thought on my part.
Ben
Guest
Great article Vinay. Cricket Australia need to have a long hard look at themselves.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Tom,yet they won't let jason Gillespie get a look in. Belinda clark is the Manager there and she would make a good CEO of CA.