Art Vandelay_
TheBrownDog
- Oct 28, 2012
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South Australian Cricket, run by the SACA as most of us would know is one of the foundation states for what we know as the First Class system in Australia, The Sheffield Shield.
During the period with 3 competing colonies/states of 1892-1926 SA was dwarfed for success by NSW (17 titles) and Victoria (10) compared to the SACA's 3. No shame in that, it was an amateur competition where everyone had day jobs and both the other states were bigger and more populated.
Over the decades the other states have slowly entered the fray and made what we know now as our 6 state comp results have not really improved.
Since the introduction of the 6 team format in 1977-78 the redbacks have only saluted twice, 1981-82 and 1995-96. Dismal underachievement by anyone's measure.
More concerning is the sparsity of finals appearances as 3rd place finishes. In the 43 seasons with 6 competitors they have 2W, 5RU and 6x 3rd. 13 of 43 seasons in the top half of the table. Since their last success in 95-96 (25 seasons) there have been 13 last place finishes, including 8 in the last 13 seasons.
If we look at that same 6 team period and look for players who had some 'impact' on the test side, admittedly arbitrarily selected at 20 tests or more, we have:
David Hookes
Tim May
Ryan Harris (generous given he got in while at QLD)
Darren Lehmann
Greg Blewett
Wayne Phillips
Rodney Hogg
Ashley Mallett
Jason Gillespie
Travis Head does admittedly show some promise and hopefully joins that list, what sticks out is that while there is a) a very small list of notable contributors b) no generational talents which all other states have had in that time Tas: Ponting, Boon Vic: Warne WA: Gilchrist, Langer, Hussey, Martyn. QLD: Hayden, Border, Healy, Johnson. NSW: Far too many to list.
So my discussion piece is not intended as me knowing the answers, I don't. So for the regular SACA followers and guys like eth-dog corbies The Speaker etc etc is the problem within South Australian cricket fixable in the short to medium term? Has the broom been adequately swept through the system, including grassroots? Is talent ID and development up close to an acceptable standard. Or is SA Cricket systemically rooted for the foreseeable future??
During the period with 3 competing colonies/states of 1892-1926 SA was dwarfed for success by NSW (17 titles) and Victoria (10) compared to the SACA's 3. No shame in that, it was an amateur competition where everyone had day jobs and both the other states were bigger and more populated.
Over the decades the other states have slowly entered the fray and made what we know now as our 6 state comp results have not really improved.
Since the introduction of the 6 team format in 1977-78 the redbacks have only saluted twice, 1981-82 and 1995-96. Dismal underachievement by anyone's measure.
More concerning is the sparsity of finals appearances as 3rd place finishes. In the 43 seasons with 6 competitors they have 2W, 5RU and 6x 3rd. 13 of 43 seasons in the top half of the table. Since their last success in 95-96 (25 seasons) there have been 13 last place finishes, including 8 in the last 13 seasons.
If we look at that same 6 team period and look for players who had some 'impact' on the test side, admittedly arbitrarily selected at 20 tests or more, we have:
David Hookes
Tim May
Ryan Harris (generous given he got in while at QLD)
Darren Lehmann
Greg Blewett
Wayne Phillips
Rodney Hogg
Ashley Mallett
Jason Gillespie
Travis Head does admittedly show some promise and hopefully joins that list, what sticks out is that while there is a) a very small list of notable contributors b) no generational talents which all other states have had in that time Tas: Ponting, Boon Vic: Warne WA: Gilchrist, Langer, Hussey, Martyn. QLD: Hayden, Border, Healy, Johnson. NSW: Far too many to list.
So my discussion piece is not intended as me knowing the answers, I don't. So for the regular SACA followers and guys like eth-dog corbies The Speaker etc etc is the problem within South Australian cricket fixable in the short to medium term? Has the broom been adequately swept through the system, including grassroots? Is talent ID and development up close to an acceptable standard. Or is SA Cricket systemically rooted for the foreseeable future??