Sheffield Shield shunted to the sidelines

The answer is to stop kow-towing to the ICC and independently organise our own programme. The Shield shoud be 10 rounds of three day games, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: starting in October and ending at Christmas . They should stand alone as a competition without any other competitions during this period and no tours; all australian cricketers would thus participate and the drawcards would be involved and also give proper comparisions of all players available for Test selection. The First Test should always start on Boxing Day and also any overseas tours from this date (We tour England in the winter anyway) All other competitions should also be played at this time... This system would give you three Shield matches every week and additionally give you a proper competition table to follow.... India would go beserk but it is time CA showed some back bone and concerned itself with the standard of Australian Cricket ..As has previously been pointed out , this was the foundation stones on which the standard of Cricket in Australia was developed..

Sorry am I really reading people saying that we should be accepting reducing or potentially getting rid of Shield cricket to make room for a money spinner BBL? Shield cricket hasn't paid its own way since about 1940 but we haven't been calling for its end. The reality that no player is allowed to say is that they don't really care about BBL/T20, and I mean REALLY care. As much as it becomes more scientific and analysed by coaches etc it is still only 3 hrs of hit and giggle. Its like anything, the more you put in the more you get out of it. Playing 4 day cricket requires stamina, concentration, physical and mental toughness and an ability to adapt to conditions. Much preparation needs to go into it otherwise you can't perform. At the end of a day in the field or a 4 day match there is a real sense of satisfaction about what you've done and working your butt off for your mates on a hot day in the field and knowing they've done the same for you. T20 is a merry go round that whilst still requires skill is far less of an overall test and because you've invested less in it as a player there is less meaning in the result. If you are relying on money to motivate people you will never win in the end. If you aren't enjoying what you are doing and getting satisfaction from it you will drop away pretty quickly as soon as things go against you. Or they'll just take a higher offer from some other idiot prepared to send themselves broke. On that topic someone noted the EPL as an example of a sport that we should aspire to. Sure they may have huge revenues but most clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy each year and the same 3-4 teams win every year. That doesn't sound appealing - it sounds boring. As a player T20 is pretty unsatisfying. You don't much of a bat and not much of a bowl and its over before you know it. If T20 takes over as THE cricket game - players will drop away through all the tiers and you'll lose base of the game which will ultimately see the game fall away altogether.

Brett, Robert Frost wrote about taking 'the road less travelled' being the wisest decision he made. As a society we are doing our heads in at all the political correctness invading our lives & the minority getting their way - Why? Because the majority of us can't be bothered. It's too hard to do the hard yards, but so easy to give in or do nothing & hope the problem goes away by itself, which it rarely does. We ended up with a federal minority unworkable government because too many of us couldn't be bothered spending the time to figure out what we really wanted. But we the country got what we deserved - some of this, some of that, & whole lot of nothing! It's so much easier for CA to invest in T20, it's easy money. But is it a passing fad? But to invest in test & Shield cricket requires more thought & effort, & oh it's all too hard. Yet the ultimate rewards could be far greater then the short-term gains from T20 cricket.

Scheduling no first class cricket between now & Feb 4 just makes me sad & disconsalate. What an embarrasing situation CA finds itself in. Poor Phil Hughes. He must be so low on confidence & self esteem right now & the best situation for him would be to bounce back in a Shield right now. Poor bugger has to wait 6 weeks.

The BBL has gone for a fair few years now and hasn't shown that many signs of a decline. I believe that, like the HAL it's also in its 7th season so it's not a brand new novelty concept.. It will be interesting to see how much support the new teams get (though you'd think if the fans were really put off by the new teams then ticket sales wouldn't be so high, even if it is just the first games figures) but the format is clearly a winner, even if that feeling isn't shared by the purists. Certainly the crowds have been significantly higher then other domestic cricket matches, and some international matches. I'm not sure what you mean by feeder league. The calendar is so large that plenty of players already play for both their Aus team and an IPL team, and they've done this for a while without any real issues. Occasionally there is a clash about which team the player will represent if they both make the Chamions League but, like the Asian Champions league, that competition hasn't really gained traction with the Australian public. As for the best players playing test cricket, well that's happened every season so far yet the fans don't seem to care too much. It is possible to watch the test match in the afternoon then watch the BBL at night. The only real difference between the 2011-12 BBL and previous ones is that there a different teams. If the fans take to them, and signs seem to be that many of them are, then I don't see why it will fail. Seems more like wishful thinking.

Sheek, no apologies required, it's already impacting on the Test team. I'm just pointing out that the current schedule really couldn't have been done much differently, in order for everything to be fit in. Just offering the alternate perspective, as we're sometimes prone to doing...

I think sheek too, CA answers to the BCCI in India. The only Cricket board that seems to stand up to them is the ECB in England, they have some financial power, and a voice if you like with muscle. But CA seems either to small, or too weak to stand up to the financial powerhouse of the BCCI. ANd tv networks believe T20 gets higher ratings, and the tv networks run pro sport , without he fans they are 2nd most mportant asset in pro sport the tv networks, and the fans are no 1 and maybe there are more T20 fans than test cricket fans , just Test cricket fans make more noise but may be in th minority, I don't know i am a test cricket fan myself. Bu have lost a lot of interest in test cricket outside the ASHES of late, the kiwi test in Hobart just done has given me some fresh energy and hep for test cricket. And the BCCI are obviously of the opinion that T20 will appeal ot more cricket fans than ODI or test cricket, currently. To me in pro sport fans are what has the power, and clearly even though there are many haters , many indians like the IPL. However i read somewhere that IPL tv ratings were down this year so who knows, maybe the Indians are getting bored of T20 , and want test cricket more in vogue i don't know. Or maybe in australia the reality is there are more T20 fans or even ODI fans out there than test cricket i don't know. test cricket fans seem more vocal sheek and others, but are test cricket fans in Australia now the majority or the minority, i don't know the answer to that question. The big bash tv ratings and crowd figures will give me those awnsers more accurately. And with this world fan or cricket fan, maybe more women and children like T20. I have felt over the years test cricket has alienated the women fan, and women do make up 50% of the world's population. Things like the mcgrath pink day at the SCG are the things that openly welcome women into test cricket. ANd maybe T20 appeal has been a marketing campign of everyone, form all backgrounds, races, religions, socio economic status, age, is welcome where as test cricket has more appealed at least marketing wise just to men, for example. Like the old NSL soccer it had a marketing image to just European migrants rather than all Australians form all backgrounds. SO test cricket has acknolwged in the past it has had an image problem, just appealing to middle class middle aged men, so T20 might appeal to a wider audience of sports fan, women, a finally day ou type way, where as test cricket marketing was elitist and distant and not inclusive and even snobby.

As per most new competitions such as tyhe HAL its sustaining crowds that is the real test not how many come to the opening game or even season. Ultimately I believe the BBL will fail because if you take it serously it will ultimately become a feeder competition to the IPL. After 120 years of seeing top flight cricket CA is now undertaking a campaign expecting us to support a second tier competition whilst the World's best players continue to play Test Cricket & IPL.

Sheek, Wow well there you go. Greg Chappell was already advocating changes to the shield schedule 25 years ago. I like your format and think it could make money too Sheek, good ideas.

There's 2 reasons why they would cut the Shield. Financial reasons and scheduling reasons. I can't see why they would do either. But test cricket is profitable for CA and it is more profitable when the Australian team is doing well so it's in their interests to have a strong Test side, hence why the invest in the Shield. NRL/AFL/ARU/FFA/FIFA/IRB etc. don't make any profit (directly) from investing in poorer nations, club rugby (in the ARU's case) or junior sport but they do it anyway because they know that if they can get more kids playing their sport and improve the resources to those kids then they will produce better players which will improve the standard of their profitable top level competitions. This will lead to a greater spectacle a the top level which leads to greated consumer/fan interest which leads to more $$$. CA follows the same general rule for the Shield. Indeed the fact the BBL is such a money spinner could be good for the future of the Shield as CA will have more cash to throw put into the Shield. Unless the BBL expands to each team playing 20-30 games, there's no scheduling reason to cut 20 days worth of Shield cricket. At the moment you can balance out the increase in BBL games by decreasing Ryobi Cup games, which given the declining interest in One Day cricket in general, seems logical.

Johnno, I remember Greg Chappell actually advocated a reduction of Shield games back around the mid-80s, from 10 to 7. His plan was everyone play each other once, then split into two pools, & play the other 2 teams in your pool, for 7 games. You would still have the final. So 5, or 6, or 7, or 8 Shield matches per team is acceptable, assuming we can keep the Shield going. But I ask the question - why is so much energy & money thrown at T20, when some tinkering at the Shield could do wonders for it? I can't help but believe CA is "preparing the way" for the death of test & Shield cricket.....

Johnno, Reducing the Shield is a reality, if it means getting the leading players to participate in a 5-6 week window. If it had to be reduced, I would make it an even 6 round comp - 3 home games, 3 away games. Plus the final. You could one double-up round each year on a rotational basis. For example, in year 1, NSW would play Qld twice; in year 2, Vic twice; in year 3, Tas twice, & so on. This excludes the final of course. I would accept a truncated Shield in lieu of no Shield at all. But I reckon CA is 'grooming' or 'conditioning' our current & future youth to accept T20 as the established form of cricket & gradually forget about the other traditional forms of cricket.

Brett, The Sydney club competition is the equivalent of the Sydney club competition. The State competition is the equivalent of the State competition. The international competition is the equivalent of the international competition.

Well that is the thing getting ride of the shield final to me would be really sad coz the shield final actually gives the shield some actual exposure and ad revenue and mild tv ratings. But compromises have to me made the shield cost a lot ot run so if they reduce the shield season form 10 to 8 matches or 5 or 6 i think CA can live with it, we have to budget with in our means the shield makes no money, do think any the pro sports comp would host any non profit matches matt F, i could not see the IRB or FIFA begin so charitable to non profit matches, no tv ratings , pro sport is about profit and the shield makes no money for no one.

Brett, If we allow the Sheffield Shield to wither away, because the best players aren't participating & practicing at that level, then eventually that will impact on test cricket. Perhaps the will is no longer there to preserve test & first-class cricket. Perhaps CA is happy for test cricket to slowly die from natural attrition (with a little forced help) but are unwilling to admit as much. Current & future generations aren't emotionally tied to test & first class cricket like we are. They will grow up following whatever it is they are exposed to. Which at present is T20. Apologies if I'm being too obvious!

Dinky Have a look at the form of Peter Forrest. 6 Shields games this season, 581 runs with 3 Centuries. He's the top run scorer. That's pretty good form so why not give him a go (even if he is originally from NSW)

Pre-game ticket sales are indicating a crowd of 50-60k for the Stars/Thunder game on Saturday which would indicate that the BBL might well be very popular. Test crowds aren't that bad when you consider that one game spreads out over 5 days. The BBL has rated its backside off for Fox Sports over the past few years as well. From memory wasn't the main issue with the private ownership that CA was only selling 49% control and the potential investors were only going to put up the cash if they got over 50%?

Big deal if rugby league is more popular. Cricket is just as popular as it has ever been in Australia (revenues remain at or around the same level over the last few years), but Sheffield Shield cricket is more closely alligned to something like Shute Shield rugby, you can't compare it to State of Orgin or even NRL or AFL, it's nowhere near that level and you know it..

The issue most people have isn't the length of the BBL (it's not that much longer then it has been in previous years after all) but that it's scheduled right through the test series, which is unavoidable as it needs to take place during the school holidays. The BBL has existed for a few years now and the Shield has still kept the same format so I don't really see it as being too much of a threat. Besides you can't cut 5 shield matches. That means each player is playing up to 20 days less cricket. That's almost an entire football season. They've cut the One Day competition down from 10 games to 8 games which is making room for the extra T20 games this summer. I wouldn't be surprised to see that further reduced in the future. Keep in mind that there's not that many more BBL games then there were last season. They may eventually get rid of the Shield final but anything more will severely recude the competitiveness of the test team and really seems unnescessary as there's plenty of time to fill them in. Given the uncertainty surrounding the make up of the test team it's not the ideal time for potential Test candidates to not be playing first class cricket but it's unavoidable. It may not be attractive to the "true" cricket fans but it's a magnet to the general public and therefore a big money spinner for CA.

I think the shield needs to be reduced to 5 matches a season, and they did talk about that or 6 matches a season, and CA has talked about this scheduling issues. And simply get over it, it has to be done, pro sport is about money, and we don't want fatigued players for when the big bash starts, the shield matches if it were 5 or 6 would be played with energy and, freshness and motivation. 10 sheild matches is a scheduling nightmare, and the big bash may I say may keep the bank balances ticking over, which just has to happen if a sport is to survive, CA has no choice but too schedule thebig bash in December january. so get over it the shield makes no money per match and has to be reduced so we can fit in matches that make money. You think the EPL soccer in england, or FIFA or the IRB would schedule matches that make them no money dream on.