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The ECB wants to send players to compete in the Sheffield Shield and Cricket Australia should look at adding a seventh team to accommodate an influx of new talent.
When the idea was floated last week, the kneejerk reaction for a lot of Australian cricket followers was why should we help English cricket get back on its feet after knocking them to the canvas 4-0 in the Ashes?
But the benefits to both countries would be enormous and after decades of Australian players building experience and their bank balances on the English county scene, it would be rude not to reciprocate the same opportunity.
And the Big Bash League has successfully opened its doors to foreign players since its inception, with several English white-ball specialists like Alex Hales and Sam Billings starring in this summer’s version.
The next potential drama would be that English players would be taking the spot of a potential Australian Test prospect, stagnating their path to the international arena.
So why not add a seventh team to the Shield competition to not only accommodate a bunch of English players keen to get accustomed to Australian conditions in the northern summer and also avoid a situation where they would be denying a home-grown cricketer a crack at first-class cricket.
The obvious option would be the ACT like the late 1990s experiment when the Canberra Comets participated in the domestic one-day tournament for three seasons.
Australia’s domestic cricket scene is flooded with players who have opted to leave the most populous state of NSW to get game time elsewhere so a transition to Canberra, usually from Sydney, for many red-ball exponents would not be as much of a significant move.
The Shield ranks are mirroring the Australian Test team in the way that older players tend to stay in the side too long at the expense of younger talent – you can’t blame the veterans as they are going to keep lining up as long as they keep getting paid.
A seventh team based in Canberra could be a pseudo Cricket Australia XI, an idea which was also given a run in the 50-over arena for three summers up until four years ago.
If you had former Test cricketers such as Trent Copeland, Peter Siddle or Shaun Marsh providing the experience and veteran leadership, you could fill the rest of the roster with up-and-coming Australian talent who might not necessarily get a run with their home state. And then add in a few English players and you would have a competitive team.
It would be great for those who are in a specialist position like wicketkeeper or spinner who may be the second best at their craft in their state but are not going to get a game at first-class level any time soon because of an established incumbent.
Canberra’s NRL side, the Raiders, has enjoyed plenty of success in recent years after adding several Englishmen to their side – the chills of our national capital are not a turn-off when you come from the United Kingdom’s northern climes.
The ACT has a readymade venue in Manuka Oval which has hosted international cricket, including its first Test in 2019 when Australia thrashed Sri Lanka.
Canberra has helped produce several top-line cricketers over the years, most notably Michael Bevan and Brad Haddin, while current Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon also came through the ACT Comets ranks in his roundabout journey to the top from country NSW.
Adding a team in Canberra would be an added financial burden for CA but Shield cricket is not a profit-making exercise – it’s about providing a pathway to the top.
And opening up more roster spots at the domestic level will hopefully mean more talented young multi-sporting all-rounders choose a true international option like cricket instead of some of the popular yet globally limited pursuits that are also options Down Under.
Sam Billings of the Thunder. (Photo by Albert Perez – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
ECB chief executive Tom Harrison has sent a proposal to CA asking it to consider allowing young English players in the wake of the lopsided Ashes series.
Australia have not only completed a 4-0 series thumping this time around but England have not won a Test since their 2010-11 series triumph, losing by the same margin four years ago and suffering the indignity of a whitewash in 2013-14.
“The reality is we need to be spending a lot more time with players in Australian conditions,” Harrison said in an interview with the BBC’s Test Match Special.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with Cricket Australia and have written formally to Cricket Australia to ask if they would consider allowing us to put players into Sheffield Shield cricket, for example, as one significant change that we can bring to bear.
“We’ve had to cancel a lot of individual player preparation plans – which would have involved time in Australia – due to the pandemic, because effectively, Australia has been closed, and a number of other tours that were planned to enable us to get in better shape for this tour have had to be shelved.”
There are 18 teams – 10 in the top division – in the English county set-up which has traditionally relied on recruiting players from all over the cricketing globe to bolster its ranks.
Australian players Marcus Harris, Josh Inglis, Michael Neser, Peter Siddle and Aaron Finch were among the foreigners who took part last northern summer.
The Sheffield Shield began in 1892 with just three teams – NSW, Victoria and South Australia – before adding Queensland in 1926, Western Australia in 1947 and Tasmania in 1977.
The national population has almost doubled from 14 million when Tassie entered the competition to the 26 million of today.
It’s time to expand – there’s a fair chance adding the extra team won’t have a significant impact on average “crowd” numbers.