Changes needed to Sheffield Shield cricket

I notice how in County Cricket they play at least 18 first class games a year as well as their one day and T20 competitions as well and they do this in a 25 week period. Why don’t we in Australia have the Sheffield Shield as a 3 round completion which would mean at least 15 first class games a year. Australia seems to have a dearth of batting experience and depth at the first class level at the moment. This should help advance the next generation of Test players for Australia (and maybe keep some cricketers in Australia ie the next Sam Robson). You can still include the one day and Big Bash competition during the season as well. Cricket Australia is cashed up after the recent TV deal and Shield Cricket is where Australia’s first class cricketers come from, if we don’t fix things now, Australian Cricket will just go into freefall.

NO! I don't even know why I try. Keep your heads in the sand for all I care.

Just have a look at the Australian team and the Sheffield Shield for your evidence for crying out loud! When is the last time Aussie system developed a top batsmen? Clarke? Sad

+1. Want to see some evidence that the whole system is rooted. Stats? Source?

G'day Johnno, The point I was making about the domestic cricket and pay TV is that great teams like the Blues, Bushrangers and Redbacks don't get the exposure like they did when Nine played the state game on Saturdays. It's a great development that the Big Bash would be on free-to-air but I'd like to see the state teams regain some profile. I understand that revenue-wise things have been fairly tight for cricket in the last few years. Half the test tours are net losses, Ashes tours just break even and the India tour provides a 4-yearly revenue bonanza. Previously CA was only getting $45m per annum for broadcast rights (now it's over $100m) whilst maintaining the unprofitable Shield and One-day domestic competitions. Other than this, CA would get ICC dividends and sponsorship. CA were also investing in the expansion of the Big Bash League, the set-up costs of which people on the Roar misrepresented as net losses, were recouped in the new TV rights deal. Yes, I believe with record TV and sponsorship deals CA has a lot more money in the coffers than they did previously to invest in grass roots cricket and player development.

It's like saying scrap reserves teams for AFL clubs. There are very few people who go and watch say Geelong VFL play Collingwood VFL, so why would an AFL club lose $500,000 plus a year to keep a VFL team? Answer, it is the clubs competitive advantage. Ask yourself why Geelong is the most successful team in the last decade? Of the current Victorian teams Geelong has the longest serving VFL team. Having its own VFL team was its competitive advantage. The Sheffield Shield is Australian Cricket's competitive advantage. It is one of the major reasons why Australia's test team was so good, for so long. England changed their domestic competition to more closely resemble the Sheffield Shield, and as a result, over time they have become the standard for Test Cricket. If you want to use a business comparison, money spent on a loss making Sheffield Shield, is like money spent and lost by large companies on research and development. Many large and successful businesses (Google, Apple, Sony for example) have wasted millions on R&D which achieved nothing, no products ever came to market. Yet they still "waste" this money, because a small part of this spending will be very profitable. Biotech companies do the same thing for the same reason. The Sheffield Shield was Australia's competitive advantage, and rather than scrap it, it should be enhanced. Scrap the Ryobi cup instead and use this space to play extra 4 day matches,i.e Sheffield Shield.

There's no shield on pay-tv just the shield final. But Ryobi cup, and Big bash is all on pay-TV only. And Don are you saying cricket never had the money in the past to invest much in junior cricket, like they do now.

@Montero You don't seem to be the authority to lecture on the concept of facts, champ, far from it. Still waiting for your independent data on cricket participation, if you refute the existing data, the burden of proof is on you, pal. Are you expecting us to immediately replicate players the quality of McGrath and Warne? These are 'once in a generation' players. I'd be the first to admit however that succession planning in the Australian cricket team has been extremely poor. It was wrong of the authorities to assume the Warne phenomenon would last forever and Stuart MacGill would be there for a couple of years to fill his place and have no players in development. I'm also the last person to trust implicitly the cricket authorities on player management and selection...frankly I've been embarassed by it. However, Cricket Australia is now getting almost double the revenue from the TV rights deal previous years and are ear-marking it for grassroots development. I hope they do and I hope they're successful. And please don't pretend you care about cricket either, you smell very strongly of soccer troll to me. Stick to your second tier sport and don't interrupt the grown-ups while they're talking.

Someone who brings up the cyclical argument shouldn't have shots at people about facts. The "it's just cyclical" is just the biggest BS excuse ever to cover over that CA can't develop players anymore nor can they attract talent young sportsmen to their sport anymore. Cricket Australia are now going to invest money into talent and developing players? Why didn't they do this before?! Is this the first time they've ever had money is it? And you are actually going to trust the same people who got Aussie Cricket into the s***hole it is in now to get out of it? Good luck you mate. And anyone who believes Cricket Australia statistics is a fool. They are hardly going to come out and say kids are turning away from Cricket are they? Not the greatest PR ever.

It is necessary to have players play on the Test venues, but every state should play two Shield games and two ListA games outside their capital every season. Take the game to the people. And schedule these matches (as much as possible) when there are no internationals on TV - as opposed to the present situation where CA seem to deliberately cause a clash. If theres is an ODI happening on a given weekend and a state ListA game in a regional area on the same weekend, it always seems to be played on the same day. Why not play it on the other day, contact local comps about possibly having a bye that weekend if necessary to encourage people to go. Sure, the attendance will still be very small, but it might get a few more along. On weekends when there are no international matches on, there would be the chance to actually see a Test player live in a regional city; something that doesn't happen often. A few more might turn up for that. Its rare enough that international players play state cricket, having them do so in regional areas would be good. City people get to go to Tests, ODIs, T20s; the best that can be hoped for elsehwhere is to see the same players playing for their states.

+1

I did say "over $550M".

I'm still of the belief that it is possible to market the Sheffield Shield if done properly. At the moment, it seems fans are disconnected from the great state cricket sides. The games are all on pay TV, there's no merchandise to purchase. Shield games are played mid-week. The rebranding of the 90s i.e. Bushrangers, Redbacks, Bulls was effective and for a time and the fan support generated by the Merchantile Mutual Cup flowed on to the Shield teams. Unfortunately, Nine dropped domestic cricket from free-to-air and Cricket Australia seemed happy to place the emphasis on the all-conquering Australian team and allowed the domestic game to become merely an unseen feeder competition. Baseball is a sport where history is recognised and effectively used in the marketing of the sport...the Shield is 121 years old and has a rich history. The VCA, NSWCA and QCA can be as iconic as the 'NY' logo of the New York Yankees or the 'B' of the Boston Red Sox. I can see no reason why the old logos could be revived for fans on New Era caps and the nicknames retained and current logos be used as shirt logos. A stand-alone Ryobi Cup tournament in October, as it being proposed, may allow for Shield games to be played on weekends with perhaps experimentation with twilight or day-night first-class cricket again.

Someone who is completely devoid of details themselves accusing someone of relying on feelings. Pots, kettles.

Mate, thanks for all those 'facts'. I think I'll need a team of statisticians to sort through all that overwhelming data you provided. Know your history. The talent pool situation is a cyclical issue. Australian cricket struggled with talent in the 80s, were unbeatable in the 90s and 00s and are struggling at present. England had an almost mirror-image cycle to that of Australia. Cricket Australia's books are in rude health at the moment to invest in talent and develop players. Unlike you, TV networks and sponsors are aware that there's an appetite for cricket which rates around 900K-1mil for international matches and an estimated 600k-700k for the BBL on free-to-air. Certainly cricket needs to address the loss of talent to sports like AFL where they have significantly more opportunities to be profesesional sportsmen. Personally, I see expansion of cricket squads i.e. ACT/Canberra Shield/ODD/BBL as an answer.

Don't worry everyone, Baggy_Green has a sense! Forgot the fact that the whole system is rooted and Cricket Australia are struggling badly to get young talented sportsman to commit to cricket everything is going to work out because he has a feeling! lol

So much money, then why is the talent pool so bad? Why can't we develop players? I think the TV stations and sponsorship partners should ask for their money back.

You people are either completely delusional or you actually don't have a clue what's really going on. I wish I was like you actually, I wish I didn't know what's really going on.