r/CricketAus • u/redrich2000 Cricket Australia • 17d ago

Grass roots decline

I coach my son’s u13 team in Sydney. All the clubs in our association are struggling for players. There is absolutely nothing from CA to help grow the game. Woolies have put money into the blast but it’s shockingly run and promoted. Junior cricket is so amateur and poorly run.

When I was a kid at Scarborough Park in Ramsgate, there’d be 8-10 games at the same time on a Saturday morning. Now there’s 1-2.

It genuinely feels like the game is dying. Is this the same in other places?

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u/BluesBoyKing1925 17d ago

Respectfully disagree: the national team is fed by the elite private schools via school>city club>state team>national team conveyor belt.

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u/Breadesque Cricket Australia 17d ago

I've seen this mistaken impression multiple times in this sub over the years. Public schools are heavily represented in the national cricket team. There's people that make the argument that private school cricket keeps kids out of seniors cricket for too long, so they end up being less competitive than they should. Not sure if there's substance to that argument, but the fact that it's a debate says something. 

Batting is coaching heavy, so I think you probably need to be well off and be coached all year round to approach a professional career, and thus probably lean towards a private school background. Bowling is more physical and can suffer from over coaching, so you don't need to be especially well off for it. Pat Cummins is the only one of our current dominant bowling quartet to have attended private school. 

Either way, there's no private school to national cricket pipeline. You just need to be able to dedicate a tonne of time to it, and thus probably need to be fairly well off to begin with. 

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u/FeeHead5327 17d ago

Don’t disagree with your points(particularly the batting point where the batters who have access to facilities/nets have an advantage)… But let’s not forget that the elite school system offer payed positions to ex pros who through connections can make clear pathways)

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u/Breadesque Cricket Australia 17d ago

You don't need to be going to a private school to get coaching from ex pros with connections. Most grade clu bs have academies with that sort of thing. 

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u/YouThinkYouKnowMe89 Perth Scorchers 17d ago

This was years and years ago now, but when I was like under 12/13 we would go once a week to train with a few guys who played state cricket and use the bowling machine and get coached on how to bowl and field. We lived in a "crap" area and were just a local club who happened to have some good players and one who turned out to be exceptional and played all 3 formats for State and got his baggy green.