Until Monday that is. I have little interest in which players are putting their name in front of the national selectors as I am far more interested in whether Queensland can finally snare a win against South Australia.
You too should be focusing on how your State is doing in the latest round of Shield matches currently being waged across the country. Seeing if your team can build a big lead, make a dramatic comeback from a disastrous collapse or push for the outright on the last day. Discussing who should or should not be picked in the State teams.
I say this not for a longing for days gone past, when people actually went to games and the main sports story in the local news was the match report from that days shield play, though I do miss turning on the ABC to hear the coverage of the games. I say this because your apathy towards this once great comp is a large part in why the Shield is not as strong as it used to be.
Decisions made by Cricket Australia clearly have had a detrimental effect on the Shield, as many including myself have said, it now resembles a series of practice matches.
This is in part due to their schedule that stops international players suiting up for their States, partly due to their interference in team selections and bowler limits and partly due to their subbing players halfway through games. It is partly due to all the marketing going to the national team and none to the Shield.
But to me a big reason that the Shield has lost its gloss is because most of the fans who used to follow their teams fortunes now focus their attention on the Test team and no longer care who wins the Shield.
They only care who is putting their hand up for the Test team. The media have now also adopted this same attitude. This lack of interest translates into a competition with no real pressure on players to win games for their state, they only play for themselves.
I wonder if any of the modern players actually care about the state they are playing for. Can you imagine how successful the NRL would be if the fans didn’t care who won games but just focused on who is playing well enough to make the kangaroos squad?
This malaise is affecting the quality of player that is coming through the first class system and contributing to the standard of the national team.
These players need to play under real pressure to win in a team environment. The intense pressure to win will drive the states to improve much faster than anything Pat Howard can come up with, points system included. The harsh glare of the public expectation to win at state level would prepare the players for that same expectation at Test level.
Cricket Australia can help by allowing the States to again be autonomous in their team selections and make sure with a bit of advertising everyone knows it is now game on in the race for domestic glory but I argue to all those who only focus on the Test team, if you want the Test team to be strong again then you also need to care again about if your state can win the Shield.
So when the Test team is announced, hold off on your internet rage until your team wins or looses their shield game and do your bit for the national team.
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