The Sheffield Shield needs to expand to eight teams. Expanding the competition would allow for more young players to have the experience of playing first-class cricket.
Many talented young players are unable to earn selection for their state team and are forced to play for their state’s second eleven team or for the CA XI in the Matador Cup.
To give more young players the chance to play first class cricket the Sheffield shield should be expanded to eight teams.
The two new teams should be based in Canberra and Northern Territory. Canberra would play at Manuka Oval, while the Northern Territory side would play most of their games at Traeger Park in Alice Springs – both of which have hosted first class matches in the past.
The Northern Territory side could also play a couple of matches in Darwin, either very early or very late in the season. The number of matches that Darwin could host would be limited due to it being the wet season during the summer.
With these changes the domestic season would remain relatively the same. The Matador Cup would be played be played in October with each team playing each other once. The Shield would be split into two six round blocks to be played either side of the big bash followed by the final.
Each team plays each other once at home and once away, this will give each team an extra two shield matches per season. This would hugely benefit the Australian side as it would give younger players more experience at first-class level.
T-Bone
Guest
Agreed. And whatever the 2 new teams are, they should play home games in Colombo and Karachi.
Geoff Foley
Roar Rookie
The Comets now is essentially an ACT/Country NSW team already in the Futures, as a partnership between Cricket NSW and the ACTCA. A shield berth for the Comets would be short-term pain for def long term gain. Less kids would leave Canberra cricket for other states second XIs, which would strengthen a really uneven local first grade. Country NSW kids and those in Sydney who can't quite crack it would come to Canberra. Make it a requirement that all Comets players play Canberra first grade. Might even see the likes of B'Dorff, Carters, Ayre, Lyon and Floros come home.
Sanjay Poojar
Guest
No no no MUST be India !! Thank yu
Gordon Smith
Guest
One of the weaknesses of WA cricket at the moment is too many district teams that dilutes the strength of the competition. I fear that this would happen to the shield making people less prepared for test cricket. A few recent test player end up with better test than shield averages as most shield teams would beat the lesser test nations. The strength of test cricket depends on the strength of the next level down.
Mark gorrie
Guest
The Australian cricket board should invite 1 team from New Zealand & South Africa to join our shield cricket. We do this in rugby , basket ball , netball , . I emailed this comment to the Australian cricket board a couple of years ago . This idea would make Australian , New Zealand & South African cricket stronger all round & lead to a better standard of test cricket world wide.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
The issue isn't playing spin per se, but playing spin in sub-continental conditions. Foreign teams come here and their spinners get spanked all over the park. In fact, it's even been shown that our spinners haven't been able to bowl in those conditions that well either. So it's not just the batsmen. Adding a Sri Lankan team wouldn't mean much unless it meant playing away games in Sri Lanka as part of the Sheffield Shield. If, on the other hand, you mean seeing if they can almost get an Australia A like team playing regularly in the first class system of India or Sri Lanka or something, that might make more sense. Just like some players go play county cricket in the off season, some could go play sub-continental cricket in the off season.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
To some extent that's what's happened already. A lot of recent tour matches have been played simultaneously with Shield rounds and rather than take players out of the Shield they've largely featured young players who are just on the fringe of Shield sides.
craig swanson
Guest
Music to my ears to hear a Qlander say that. Usually the noise coming from north of the border is '' oh not another player from there.. get a blue cap then a green cap". I have been posting for years that New South has far too many surplus cricketers. Why do you think we lose so many good cricketers to other states? Two NSW sides currently play in the national junior competitions. So how about a combined NSWcountry/ ACT side? I also believe the NT. deserves a shot at the big time.
craig swanson
Guest
I like the idea of our cricketers playing in the Ranji Trophy. If we are going to improve our spin play we have to compete against the best spinners and best players of spin in world cricket. Makes perfect sense to me but will the all powerful BCCI sanction it? Me thinks not. Never give a sucker and even break as the great DK used to espouse often.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I'd love to see some of our players play half a season in the Ranji Trophy or something. Unlike County cricket, the cross-over with our Shield season makes that hard though.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I tend to agree with Matth, that splitting New South Wales may be the preferred option given the player depth.That is, if an extra team is required. I'm not really convinced, if you are good enough you can land a contract somewhere and we only need to fill one Test eleven at a time. New South Wales (playing games between Sydney, Newcastle if #1 Oval is made to meet to CA's requirements, and another regional centre) and Sydney perhaps. Naming a team "Sydney" has potential conflict with the BBL franchises though I guess.
Matth
Guest
As a queen slander it pains me to say this, but any extra teams must include a second NSW team, given the strength and depth in that state.
MH
Guest
-- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
MH
Guest
What about some lateral thinking to fix (improve) our lack of capacity to play spin - we can't play spin from a batting perspective. How about spin from a bowling viewpoint? How many talented spin bowlers do we have per shield side? Of those who we do have how much variety do each have? Why not explore the option of including Sri Lanka as "extra" in the Shield competition in such a way that each state side plays in Sri Lanka Perhaps to way out in thinking (& cost) but are we dinkum in fixing or spin woes!!!!u -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
bearfax
Guest
I like the idea but Gr8tr makes a good point regarding scheduling. The cricket season is already choked and international players are too often absent from their team. Or in a situation like with Maxwell, he rarely gets to play longer form games because of the 20 and 50 limited over matches. Maybe like in League, play all teams once but only three or four of the teams twice would give that space. However its a worthy idea, just not sure how to work it. Probably have a second NSW team or a combined NSW-NT team rather than NT though, at this stage. Just too few people in the Territory by itself , though play some games in Darwin.
Jumbo
Guest
I don't think Australia has the cattle for eight teams. We've already seen what Super Rugby expansion has done to dilute quality.
Ruminate
Roar Guru
Not so sure about the NT, but ACT should be, perhaps ACT and lower NSW as a team
Linphoma
Guest
Why not throw in some first class fixtures between the Shield sides against touring teams like they had in the not so old days past? There's another first class fixture to add to the schedule; because its not part of the Shield the states can blood youngsters; and its a revenue opportunity for the hosting state.
Gr8trWeStr
Guest
While I'm open to the idea of adding a couple more teams to the Sheffield Shield comp, fitting 4 more games for each team into an already tight schedule means it isn't likely to happen, while I'd be happy to shorten the BBL to accomodate it I doubt the powers that be would.