More 20/20, less Sheffield Shield

[Bradman99]

Cricket Australia's board wil vote on a proposal to axe the Sheffield Shield final and reduce the states' one-day competition in a move designed to clear the calendar for two lucrative Twenty20 tournaments. The idea has upset senior players and comes at a time when the once world-class domestic four-day competition is struggling to produce Test-standard cricketers. National coach Tim Nielsen pointedly decided not to send Mitchell Johnson back to state cricket when he was dropped after the first Ashes Test, because he said the gulf between it and Tests was so large that any results achieved were distorted. The Sheffield Shield final, introduced in the 1982-3 season, is the only domestic five-day game on the calendar. The board will be told that because of commitments to the Twenty20 Champions League in October and the introduction next season of the new eight-franchise Big Bash, the only way to accommodate all the fixtures is to reduce the number of Ryobi Cup one-day games and drop the Shield final. Cricket Australia's general manager of public affairs, Peter Young, confirmed the proposal. "There is a discussion about domestic programming and as part of the discussion about how you create space for the new Big Bash league with the new eight teams, one of the suggestions is that there not be a Sheffield Shield final," Young said. "That would allow an extra week in the summer to allow the program of Sheffield Shield, Ryobi Cup and Big Bash league." Young explained that next season's Big Bash will feature eight city-based sides and Cricket Australia doesn't want the players to have to decide between state contracts and the partly privately-owned franchises of the new teams. The proposal to the board is that Shield finals have not always been competitive. Test players are still angry that Doug Bollinger was not released from the Twenty20 Champions League by Cricket Australia to prepare for the two-Test series against India in October. The bowler only had two days' practice before the Mohali Test and broke down on the last day of the match which Australia lost for the want of one wicket. Ricky Ponting said later that Bollinger's loss affected Australia's ability to win the Test, and physiotherapists said his lack of preparation contributed to the injury. The consequences of the decision not to release him from his contract with the privately-owned Indian franchise meant that Bollinger then missed the first Ashes Test because he was deemed to be underdone. The bowler then managed only 20 overs in a Shield innings before the second Test and his fitness let him down in the field during the searing heat. One senior player told The Australian that the standard of Shield cricket had fallen in recent years and would deteriorate further if the final was dropped. "If you do that states will start producing result-based wickets so they can pile up the points," he said. "That will mean bowlers get an easy run on greentops and the standard slips. The beauty of Shield cricket in the past was you had to grind out runs and wickets but there is no doubt in my mind the standard has slipped compared to what it was 10 years ago." The cricketer argued that you would only have to ask the NSW players how much they value their two recent away-from-home Shield final wins to know the value of the match. Cricket Australia has prioritised the domestic Twenty20 competitions because it sees them as a cash cow and a way to break its reliance on the single revenue stream which is generated by cricket against India. The decision to compel Bollinger and Michael Hussey to stay at the Champions League when they could have been freed up to be with the Test side exasperated many. Hussey complained bitterly at the time. Under the contracts the pair signed with their franchises, national duties come first, but only at their board's request. Both players wanted to be with the Test side but Cricket Australia is a shareholder in the lucrative Champions League and wants it to feature international players.

What a joke that would be. At a time where our test team has hitten a record low, they want to axe the SS?

[Desi Cartman]

I think its ok to cut down on the One dayers. Except few fox sports commentators no one watches it anyway

[Bradman99]

Oh wait read this wrong haha. Thought they were axing the SS altogether. If it's just the final then it's not really a big deal, but still I think the players would be dissapointed by that. My bad, take this thread down haha

[Sachinism]

Is SS still the best domestic league?

[Bradman99]

Is SS still the best domestic league?

:hmmm: Never seen the others to be honest... What's India's like?

[Chandan]

Is SS still the best domestic league?

:hmmm: Never seen the others to be honest... What's India's like?

I think SS is is still the best domestic FC comp. India's is extremely poor with 27 teams divided in two tiers. I've no idea about SA. They have just 6 teams too but I've not idea what the format is and how many FC matches they play every season before one team wins the championship. Ideally, I think a competition between 70 FC players is good. The moment you have more, the competition will get dilute like it has in India. Many teams have just 2-3 good FC players in their ranks here and some don't even have that. What kind of competition will you expect from such a team? Secondly, players must play at least 10-11 FC match every season. I don't think that happens in India either. Not sure if that happens elsewhere too. But any number less than that is too little in my opinion. And then comes pitch. Indian Ranji trophy have few terrible pitches where there would be no chance of a result in 10 days, forget about 4 days. Wonder how you'd prepare your batsmen for international cricket if they play on these tracks! And this explains why we are not getting seamers for test matches, as well.

[The Outsider]

I think SS is is still the best domestic FC comp. India's is extremely poor with 27 teams divided in two tiers. I've no idea about SA. They have just 6 teams too but I've not idea what the format is and how many FC matches they play every season before one team wins the championship.

Shield format is pretty straightforward - each team plays the other once at home and once away making a total of 10 matches. The top 2 teams after the round robin play the final, which it looks like they are doing away with.

Secondly, players must play at least 10-11 FC match every season. I don't think that happens in India either. Not sure if that happens elsewhere too. But any number less than that is too little in my opinion.

In India, some good players in good teams can play up to that number, but not all. The minimum is 6 matches, played in the league stage of Ranji. After which, if the team qualifies for the Quarter, Semi, or Final the number can go up to 9. Then good players will get 2-3 games in Duleep trophy and the really good ones another game in the Irani trophy. Then the Ranji champions play the Pakistan domestic team champions in another FC match - can't recall the name of the trophy (Nissar?) or whether they are still playing that.

[Chandan]

Shield format is pretty straightforward - each team plays the other once at home and once away making a total of 10 matches. The top 2 teams after the round robin play the final, which it looks like they are doing away with.

Do SA play Shield cricket as well? I thought that was exclusively Australia's domestic cricket (FC) term, not elsewhere!

[The Outsider]

Do SA play Shield cricket as well? I thought that was exclusively Australia's domestic cricket (FC) term' date=' not elsewhere![/quote'] South Africa? No, it's only Australia. There are 6 teams - South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Each team plays the other twice - once at home and away - for a total of 10 matches for each team before the final. So, Victoria will play NSW once at Melbourne (home) and then Sydney (away), play Tasmania once at Melbourne (home) and Hobart (away) and so on.... In that respect it's like the IPL in terms of each team playing every other team home and away. Here are the current standings for this year's season : http://www.espncricinfo.com/sshield-10/engine/series/474012.html?view=pointstable

[Chandan]

I know about Australia. That is why I said that Sheffield Shield (SS) is still the best FC comp. I was wondering about SA's FC competition. SA has 6 domestic teams too, but I'm not aware of the format they follow. County cricket is too long and has too many teams. So even if Australian test cricket is down in the dumps at the moment, their domestic system is, most probably, the strongtest and most competitive in the world. I said probably because I'm not too aware of SA's domestic domestic comp. What is your view?

[The Outsider]

Oh, I am sorry. I completely misread your post. I thought I was reading SS (Sheffield Shield) when you were asking about SA (South Africa). South Africa have a completely equivalent format to the Shield format. One match each against each team home and away. Yeah, I agree with you that the Australian domestic structure is the best out there. However, a lot of Australians are of the opinion that the juicier tracks generally provided for domestic matches as opposed to tests coupled with captains who have never had the experience of setting fields and strategies for spinners is a big reason that they are not producing good spin bowlers.

[kabira]

Our Ranji trophy system is fine. We need to change Duleep Trophy. Right now its joke. We have 6 zones iirc...so they play each other onces, thats only 13 games. The top two meet in finals. This will be our toughest competition.