The NSW / Sydney Grade Cricket comp is far and away the best system left in Australia - Green Shield (U/16’s) & Poidevan Gray (U/21’s) provide plenty of opportunities - there is no surprise that NSW produce a high number of 1st Class players and Test players - the Blue / Green baggy bullshit is just that bullshit - their system is far superiorKids just simply don’t get the chance to bat for long periods of time unless they make it into a pathway system, and even then all those pathway systems are looking for big hitters and kids who can score quickly.
The ‘everyone gets a go’ approach means you get max 10 overs these days to bat as a junior, so why wouldn’t you have a crack and try to score as many as possible? Being there on 4* and being retired can’t be very fufilling.
Pathway programs have been sucked in by the t20 stuff as well, they aren’t interested in kids who can properly build and graft an innings, that’s not exciting, they’ll pick the big kid who can whack it every time.
Comps everywhere are seeing more one dayers and more t20s into the fixture, I don’t see it as an issue that’s going to fix itself anytime soon.
Long gone are the days where a 14 year old Ricky Ponting would go out and make 150 every weekend and just keep batting and batting and batting.