I been saying this for years and completely agree with this.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...e/news-story/fbedf42c0dd3b889b1cd3f55de59d503
The problem with Australian cricket: former players predict major decline
AUSTRALIA
- November 1, 2017 1:06pm
- by JOE BARTON
- Source: FOX SPORTS
CRICKET Australia has come under fire from former players who claim the domestic game has been eroded - and a drastic impact is about to be felt across the country and on the international team.
Former Test spinner Gavin Robertson played four Tests four Australia during the glory days in the 1990s and enjoyed a successful 13-year first class career with NSW, taking 127 wickets.
Robertson and fellow former Australian international, and FoxSports.com.au columnist Brett Geeves, fear the game in Australia is facing a crisis that could hit within two years unless action is taken.
The process of selecting all teams - national, state and even at grade and junior cricket - and a perceived hit to the competitiveness of the Sheffield Shield are causing particular concern.
Speaking on Fox Sports’ Bill and Boz on Tuesday, Robertson said the issues filtered all the way down to grade and junior cricket and predicted a collapse along the lines of the fall of that which has nearly destroyed West Indian cricket.
From the highs of great teams in the 1970s and 80s — where star-studded teams dominated world cricket thanks to production line of mesmerising fast bowlers and destructive batsmen — the West Indies plummeted to the depths of ICC rankings with a struggling team and a dysfunctional board.
It seems far-fetched to envisage a scenario in which a similar fate could befall Australia, but the same was said of the West Indies.
“We’ve got problems that you would not believe — and no one is going to tell you,” Robertson said.
“The people sitting in the ivory tower at Cricket Australia — it will be your legacy when it falls. It sits on you, because you tell us you know everything and we know nothing.
“…All we ever hear about is how great we’re going financially and everything but I think we are waiting to fall in way that we could never imagine.
“We used to talk about the Windies and how (they) could never go to where they’re going, and talked about how weak — at times — England were in how their county cricket.
“But we lived off the back of how strong our Shield competition was — which was war.
“And it fostered us for 20 years of success, yet now — we’re a good team, but that’s it. We’re not a great team.”
Taking particular aim at Cricket Australia high performance manager Pat Howard, Robertson said there was “a truckload” of former players concerned with the direction of the game.
“And they are worried,” he said.
“It’s dangerous. We’re on a tightrope over the next two-to-four years.
“...My point to Pat Howard [is], could you be wrong? And if you’re wrong, it’ll be a legacy that you will not be able to wipe off your CV.”
As recently as August,
national coach Darren Lehmann called on all past and present players to chip in and help Australia return to the top of world cricket while also addressing some of the more prominent concerns — such as bowling loads.
Lehmann penned a letter to everyone who had represented Australia and urged those with ideas to come to him with advice on how to fix problems.
“We as support staff are always looking for ways to improve and welcome any advice from you, so if you have any ideas however ‘out there’ they might be, please reply below,” Lehmann wrote.
“Your advice is always helpful. After all, we as players both past and present don’t have all the answers and as support staff we are always looking for the best way to drive us forward in the game.”
Citing examples in grade cricket, Robertson said state programs had too much influence over the availability of rising young talents — a problem which was dictated by decisions on player workload higher up the food chain.
“Under 19 and under 17 cricketers, who were our stars, the guys coming up — they are your biggest weakness in a grade cricket club because right now you don’t even know if they can play next weekend,” Robertson said.
“You’re waiting for the state physio to say ‘nope, he’s out’ on Thursday night or Friday night (and) you’ve got to find five more cricketers within a night.
“(And) you know why? Because they’ve got to wait for another week before they can bowl another eight overs, or another six overs.”
Bowling workloads has been a key focus of managing Australia’s legion of fast bowlers under the reign of Howard, with the aim to reduce the number of long-term injuries which had previously cruelled the likes of young-talents-turned-Test-stars Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
“All I hear about bowling loads is that it fixes bowlers,” Robertson continued.
“And all I see is bowlers having operations and time off and hot spots. Seriously, it is way out of control and the public don’t know.”
Former Tasmanian quick Geeves has been an outspoken cricket of selection policies in state and national teams.
Geeves threw his support behind Robertson’s argument, arguing that the Shield competition was being diluted through the exclusion of veteran talents such as NSW’s former Test opener Ed Cowan and former Western Australian captain Michael Klinger.
Players are being “selected on a whim”, Geeves said, and it was being felt in the wins and losses columns.
“It starts to dilute Shield cricket to the point where we’ve got kids playing kids and then when they take the next step, the gap is too far,” Geeves told Bill and Boz.
“The gap between Shield cricket and international representation now is absolutely massive.
“Guys are going up, and they’re failing. They’re being selected on a whim, selected on a captain’s call. Across the board we’re just not picking our best teams and it’s disastrous for all forms stemming down to grade and junior cricket.”
