The Sheffield Shield final's success proves there is room to reshape the domestic calendar

Will never forget when S. Marsh got the call up for the Boxing Day Test based on smashing it in BBL. :sick: :unhappy:

Talk about overkill! :sick:

I have never heard anybody complain when shield matches coincide with tests. And we only lament the lack of shield matches played by test players. It’s not about a dropped player having first class cricket to work his way back into the side – that is only a secondary issue. The primary issue that people rightly complain about is that when a player needs to be replaced for the Melbourne and/or Sydney tests, whether because of form loss, injury or even retirement, then the player called up has played nothing but T20 for the previous three weeks. And often the player is picked on the basis of ‘stellar’ T20 form, even though their shield form previously was ordinary. This is particularly problematic when the player picked is a rookie or even a debutante. Then when they fail because they are still in T20 mode (and rookies/debutantes will often fail even under the best of circumstances), they are publicly deemed to be not of test match quality and thereby permanently confined to the scrapheap, their confidence in being able to cut it at the top level consequently completely shot. All this can also mean that inevitably the wrong players are being picked in the first place all because of the current structure of our cricket summer. But even if the right players are picked at the back end of our tests scheduled, they still fall victim to the afore outlined faults of our summer cricket scheduling.

If you want to get 5-10 year old kids to the cricket, make it an adventure/fun time for them. At that age they'll treasure having a run around with mates (old and new) far more than sitting in a bucket seat watching 6 hours of bat on ball. That's what will get them (and their parents) coming to watch Shield - and by the time the kids are 12+, they will actually come for the cricket.

There were/are two T20WCs planned in a row. 2021 was always going to be in India. The 2020 edition in Australia was moved to 2022.

Hardly. It's absurd that people complain about shield matches always coinciding with tests so the test players never play, then complaining when the Shield matches don't coincide with the tests. It's absurd to think that if Shield matches did keep going all through the test series that somehow a player who's been in bad enough form to get dropped during the test series should really be able to find such good form, so quickly, in the Shield matches that he can get back into the test team before the end of that same test series. It's absurd that people can't get over themselves and realise that T20 cricket is here to stay and that it's not some great evil destroying the game.

Except it wasn't anything like that. Prior to WSC, the players were paid an absolute pittance. Apparently Packer initially approached CA about simply bringing cricket to commercial TV and trying to make it into a better commercial product, but the smug administrators showed him the door, so he decided to create his own league. And it was actually fairly easy to get players to come across, because they were basically being exploited by their respective boards at the time, playing in front of big crowds but with nothing to show for it financially themselves. WSC was simply the thing that brought cricket into the professional era where players were actually able to start earning some decent money out of playing the game. When the administrators finally realised they had completely misread the situation and stuffed up dramatically they went into negotiations with Packer and it all came back together. In this case, footballers are already fully professional and earning bucketloads, and these clubs are already the richest clubs in the world, but they just saw a way to change things such that more and more money got concentrated into fewer and fewer clubs. It's not even remotely the same. T20 cricket has actually been great for the game. Prior to T20 coming along, domestic cricketers could hope to make enough to just get by without needing a part time job if they were lucky. There were around 15 players in the country who were legitimately making good money out of cricket. Now, sure, things like the IPL Auction mean that a few players make ridiculous money compared to other team mates, but overall, you have a LOT more players able to make a really good living out of cricket now than ever before. Which can only be a positive for the game and encourage more kids to consider cricket as a serious pursuit.

Really, you can't see it. Cricket is the poster child for obscenely wealthy people taking over sports for TV revenue. Cricket has been driven by that model ever since. Cricket literally had a rebel league that was bought and controlled by one guy. Cricket is now suffering because of that intervention and model of operation. We now invent new versions of the game to arrest any slide in the viewership. We invent whole new teams just arrest a slide in viewership or to try for the ever important increased profit. The game sold out looong ago. CA is run like a corporation not a sports administration. The game is not is a better place long term after World series cricket. But I a sure you will see Parker as nothing but all good and great for the game.

Well that is an absurd black and white notion.

Wanting test players to play more shield doesn't mean test players have to play every shield game. Ideally, test players play the early pre first test shield games and then shield games are played through to the end of December, concurrently with subsequent tests.

I keep seeing people trying to make these arguments and they don't make any sense. Firstly, they are often scrambled by looking at this seasons dramatically COVID affected schedule as if it's normal, when it's not, and secondly, they constantly argue against themselves. Like wanting more test players to be playing in the Shield, while simultaneously wanting Shield played at the same time as the tests. With the normal, non-COVID scheduling, the Shield schedule means test players (and prospective test players) can get a few games at the start of the season to find form / push for a spot on the test team. There are generally then a couple of rounds coinciding with the first couple of tests. If a player does poorly during the first couple of tests and gets dropped, the idea that they would go back and play some Shield cricket, suddenly find great form and force their way back into the side before the end of the test series is a bit ridiculous. Having the second half of the Shield season start in February, however, does give them the chance to find some form and push for selection in any winter tours, or start building for next year if there aren't. And Shield cricket is never going to be a commercial TV success. And it's certainly not getting on there if it's played at the same time as test cricket. But BBL on the other hand, which means you can watch the test cricket during the day and then tune in for some BBL in the evening, does work. So the one change I would probably consider would be to go back to teams playing their 50-over game either just before or just after their Shield fixture, rather than this little tournament at the start of the season. But even that isn't the worst thing.

How are they in any way related? The "Super League" is basically some big clubs trying to take more of the money for themselves at the expense of a lot of smaller clubs. So instead of winning a chance to play in the Champions League being a winfall for a smaller team, instead it would just be these same big teams getting that windfall every year and stuff the smaller teams from smaller competitions. That has absolutely zero to do with the BBL.

Wait! One of the ways to fix the Shield is to have test players available? But isn't everyone crying out for playing more Shield matches at the same time as tests, which definutely rules the test players out!

Exactly. A single one-off final, getting almost 10k over 3 days, compared to the fact that most BBL games get that number, or more, and over 3 days you'd have 3 of them. It's a very different thing.

Given the outcry over the Super League in Football maybe cricket fans should use that super league proposal and who proposed it to put into perspective the Shield and the BBL and it's franchises. I question anyone is ok with what happened to the Shield and the creation of the BBL and is up in arms over the Euro Super League.

It’s something about a grass banked venue and suburban/village setting. The kiwis seem to have a similar idea, with tests at smaller venues with grass banks selling well (Christchurch tests sell well with the new cricket specific ground over the rugby stadium that was destroyed), but Auckland rarely getting a test as people don’t like watching it at the rugby stadium: Eden Park (that the kiwis pretend the playing field is big enough for cricket! :silly: ). Apparently they want to build a cricket specific facility in Auckland to host tests.

He's having an argument with himself! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Hey Jeff, how does that schedule work out? Australia was supposed to host the 2020 T20WC which has been delayed to this year...but now India are hosting it? How did that work out?!

A “struggling Starc & ineffective Lyon” are nevertheless current first choice Test bowlers. Starc was able to petulantly sledge a young player in the early stages of his career & Lyon took exception to Marnus padding away his harmless deliveries. The Queensland attack featured two relatively inexperienced bowlers, Bartlett & Doggett however they concentrated on line & length rather than childishly verballing their opponents. It wasn’t “game over” as you suggest, just an excuse from NSW who believe they have a God given right to win everything. The result was not only a victory for Queensland but a win for a team which plays the game in the right spirit.

The Shield final will never be a great success as the author suggests whenever the teams are devoid of their best players due to tournaments out of CA control, as in the IPL. This final was a case in point, QLD had a Test quality player make a huge score against a struggling Starc and ineffective Lyon, then all NSW recognised batsmen were in India. Game over