Why Sheffield Shield should add a team to include English cricketers

No, just no. The standard of Shield cricket is arguably the lowest it’s ever been and you want to add another team to essentially accomodate a dozen English players ? Our best players don’t play anywhere enough Shield cricket, that’s what needs to be fixed. No, just no.

Like the idea but Sheffield shield needs our stars playing as well or unfortunately no one cares. Get a real competition going, bring in some poms and put some decent prize money on the table

I don’t think we should have a specific team for English players however I think adopting a county style competition where teams can have 2 international players. But if Cricket Australia was to bring back a team I think the Canberra comets would be strong with the amount of talent nsw has

A 7th national team added would be nice. Then you could get touring sides to bring a development side that could verse side with a bye that been said I'd like to see a side from Canberra into the big bash

If there is going to be another Shield team, and I cannot ever see it happening the way red ball cricket is being run, then it'll be another team from Victoria. As Melbourne has the best club cricket competition in the world, then sure as hell it'll be out of Melbourne. There is just that must talent there, it is not funny. Unfortunately a lot get lost to football because of lack of opportunities.

Could a Combined Territories be an idea if they go ahead with a 7th team? Is there a limit as to how many foreign players a Shield team can sign up at the moment? Cheers.

With covid and the timing of the T20 global thing, there wasn't a lot of chance for acclimatisation and pre-series tour games. I agree that is a missing component in almost every tour these days, largely due to white ball calendar cramming. However, they were still out of their depth by the time they got to Hobart. Its not like two or three four day games - even if states put out near first XIs - would likely have made much difference. If we don't get a 7th Shield team (ideal use of a bye week for one or teams) I wouldn't mind seeing visiting teams getting at least two four day lead-in games. The first might be against a lower quality opponent, adjust to conditions, etc; maybe Combined Territories made up of ACT and NT based players, or the old school Australian Country XI, something with players outside the noses of Shield scouts and major metro comps; followed by an Australia A game. Touring sides will probably not want it though, because of other tours (red or white ball) often being close to their first test here. And CA won't want to fund it, especially if its not reciprocated in other countries (and its mostly not; even in England, which perhaps gives the best lead-in games, the counties often pick near third string teams).

Perhaps the ICC could be convinced to fund it , if you sell it as an ICC Academy or Scholarship team. Let all test playing nations send 2 youngish players out here for the summer to make up a squad of 20 and get some first class experience. I guess that helps everyone except us, so there would need to be some deal where we could send a couple of players to get some game time in the subcontinent, or in england as well.

You people should stop trying to reinvent the wheel. All England had to do was to play a bunch of Shield teams in the lead up to the first test, like they used to for 150 years before this new age, special bullshit generation arrived too clever to actually play the game. Fact is, this England team would not beat most district club teams in Melbourne's Premier Cricket. To be fair, it would be evens odds against Greenvale Kangaroos. In summary, just tour and play more matches. As a cricketer you would assume you would want to actually be playing cricket? It's like a pro golfer that only rocks up on the Thursday and expects to win the Majors. Good luck.

Cricket Australia barely tolerates the Shield competition as it stands, so why would they want to support an additional team? Remember there a re significant costs to any Shield squad, so who pays these and will the ECB tolerate these guys sitting around doing nothing while the BBL is on?

The concept is interesting, and worth discussing, but has serious limitations. Firstly, who is funding this? Australian Cricket barely has the funds to run a proper Australia A touring program to do First Class tours of India, England, South Africa etc and even then, this could be expanded on substantially. The only way we'd be able to afford another FC team is if England literally funded the team. Secondly, how does the calendar work? Six teams means there's always an even number of games when the Shield is on. If we have seven, then there needs to be a "bye". This wasn't such a big deal back when FC and LA cricket was done interspersed throughout the season, with games against touring sides also thrown in. But the seasons very structured now. You have the Shield, the entire LA comp in a window before Christmas at some point, the BBL and then back to the Shield. A seventh would not just mean more games, it would mean "byes", lengthening the season even further. Thirdly, it's very unfair to only assist the English and I can just imagine the humdrum around the world if we actually did this. The reality is, England can turn this around, but it would require them to prioritise FC/Test cricket, which they don't do (and to some degree neither does Australia). There are some easy fixes to their domestic structure that would result in long term improvement: 1. Timing of the competition. Take last year's County Comp, it started in early April, stops in early June, has a few random games in July and then restarted on the last day of August. So that means no games through most of June, parts of July and none of August. Yet the tests were played in August and the first week of September. In other words, no players get to experience FC cricket in weather and on pitches that resemble the test weather and pitches. This isn't as big of a deal in Australia, we have a big continent with a more varied climate, so our players get more variety, but in England, I'm lead to believe that this means County wickets are almost uniformly green/wet, as it's never played during the dry summer weeks (which in England only last for a very short period). Now of course this means they'd need to consider their current priorities, like the Hundred, but they do have the power to do this. 2. If they're not going to do the above, then they could at least consider 'drop in' wickets that are prepared to try and mimic what wickets in July and August look like. The end goal of the either of the above options is to lessen the impact of the English trundler and force Counties to unearth more fast bowlers and spinners, as the English trundler has been show to be mostly ineffective overseas, at test level. 3. Tour preparation. England played a lot of test cricket last year, meaning they had little time to get used to the conditions in the countries they were touring. 14 tests, it would have been 15 if India hadn't pulled out of the last one, is too many. 10 to 12 should be the goal. They should be aiming to arrive in a country weeks in advance to play FC games against quality opposition. This is something all test sides should do, but England actually has the (alleged) resources to fund this, so they should do it. 4. Preparation/professionalism. It's hard to believe one of the major powers in the game needs this drummed into them in 2022, but England aren't a very professional looking outfit at the moment. For example, they're very poor fielders. Australia's fielding had some mediocre moments in the back half of the series, but through the first half, they caught everything and their ground fielding was amazing. All of Warner, Smith, Lyon, Cummins and Starc are among the best fielders in the world, with Smith potentially the best fieldsman in the world. Even the new talent we've brought in are a step above England - Green's fielding has been amazing and Labuschagne is also an excellent fieldsman who'll probably end up one of the best fieldsman in the world over the next few years. In contrast, Stokes can be good, but honestly, the rest of them seem pretty average in the field and some of them are terrible (Burns, Hameed). Even though Carey doesn't seem to be anywhere near as good behind the stumps compared to our last few keepers (bar Wade), he's still far better than Buttler.

Harrison's plea for English players in the Shield was a Colonel Blimp statement. With only six states it would be counter-productive taking Australian-qualified prospects out of first class circulation but this is a much better solution. Dammit - bring two teams into the comp, an Under 23 side sprinkled with the Siddle/Marsh/Copeland mentors and a full English-qualified side (financed by the ECB).

If NSW was going to be split up then the only logical thing I think would be a Newcastle based Northern NSW Shield side, not having a second Shield side out of Sydney.

Canberra makes more sense than a second Sydney-based team - there are facilities, they don't have many professional teams so are more likely to attract a few spectators at least, and the place where a player grows up has no bearing on where they play anyway.

I do remember Micko. I disagree. I don't wonder why they lost in 2010/11 because like 2005, there was a battery that could get them. Because you and I know, fast medium swing is annoying but it's the pace will get ya. The Argus report was the greatest pile of rubbish because they blamed batsmen for falling to good pace. Clarkey is an enigma. Gifted and brave, he thought everyone would fall in to line. It's a funny thing about the English fms in aus, generally they pitch short for the bounce while their batman plunge forward to a bouncier ball.

If you can't remember, it was the nature of the defeat in 2010/11 that was the most concerning: all three defeats were by an innings! Aussie players couldn't cope with top level swing and seam anymore as the Shield declined due to flat pitches, and a poor red Kookaburra ball. Less aussies were playing County Cricket due to fulltime professionalism, meaning the national team was often busy with tours in our winter, or players wanted a break for 4-6 weeks from cricket with the busier schedules now present since the 2000's. Plus the arrogant mentality still present from the golden era, with guys like Clarke advocating to go out swinging rather than respect swing and seam conditions.

Oh no. No no. Those towns never regularly crack 43C+. It's all about player development for these County cricketers. :thumbup:

Agree on regions. Why not select 3 regional towns (say Canberra, Newcastle, Bendigo) and ask the next three summers tourists to send an u25 team (with up to 2 older players) to play in SS based in those regional towns. So 9 teams but each state only play the ‘invitees’ once and they can play each other twice. By the time a country tours Aust they will have players who can have spent up to 3 summers in Aus. Great for regional Aust. Potential improvement in regional facilities. Aust seen as supporting red ball cricket internationally. SS gets a real international flavour.

"When was the last time an English coach benefited an Aussie team?" Chris Silverwood, 2021/22.

Last time England took Australia to the cleaners in Australia, 10/11, there was a virtual royal commission by Australian Cricket, the completely insane Argus report, that mainly stymied the careers of natural talents like P J Hughes and U T Khawaja. Perhaps England should do that? With luck something will come of it. I digress. The previous English series win in Australia before 10/11, was a mere quarter of a century since the last English series win in AUS 86/87. Before that England won 78/79 against a novice Aussie batting side ( though still better than these Englishman soz ) because of the WSC split. Before that it was 70/71, before that it was 54/55, Before that it was 32/33 in a quiet little series. Apart from the admirable touring professionals who could knock over a few wickets after novel Australian schooners in 78/79 and 86/87, the others were won by consistent fast bowling terror. England do not actually win that often here, at the best of the times. It's a bit of battle. Bowling has come naturally to them but they are really stumped (soz) by this batting in Australia caper. If there was one thing that should inspire them it should be to offer them a Sheffield Shield team. I reckon New New South Wales?