Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Australian cricket coaches from around the country — including national head coach Andrew McDonald and Cricket Australia executives — have gathered in Brisbane to address some of the biggest issues facing the sport.
The two-day coaching summit focused on the future of the game and how to best prepare young batters to succeed across various formats, but also in a range of conditions at Test level.
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The summit, according to 7NEWS chief cricket reporter Tom Morris, revealed a stark reality: Shield games are being played on near-identical pitches with little variation between venues.
“I think the specific nature of what was discussed in this summit was how do batters go to different locations and succeed when, in reality, 26 of 30 Shield games or thereabouts all look the same,” Morris said.
“No reverse swing, not much spin, and the pitches are all the same. That is the challenge of Australian cricket at the moment, and that’s what they spoke about for about a day and a half.”
Former Test star Greg Blewett said the problem had existed for some time.
“Where are the spin-friendly pitches gone?” Blewett said on Channel 7.
“In my era, it was Adelaide Oval and the SCG (that would spin). That’s no longer the case.
“I think that is the real crux of the problem at the moment, it’s the pitches. They’re just little green seamers, not much pace to them, and we’d love to have a bit of variation from state to state.”
Morris said pitch variation was the goal but admitted it was a difficult challenge given the way the season was set up.
Developing players across formats, problem-solving skills, and foundational techniques were identified as crucial areas for improvement.
Bowling coaches, including former Aussie quick Ryan Harris (who retired due to knee issues), also addressed the challenge of keeping fast bowlers on the park and managing workloads effectively.
“That’s the overarching question for young cricketers around the country. The workloads, are they bowling too much? Are they not bowling enough? And that’s something they haven’t perfected that, and they acknowledged that in this meeting,” Morris said.
Blewett said sports science had come a long way and it was always improving.
“I think stress fractures for bowlers are always going to be an issue, but certainly the soft tissue injuries, there’s not as much an excuse for those,” Blewett said.
The collaborative approach marks a significant advantage for Australian cricket, with England’s county system and India’s domestic structure not offering similar nationwide coordination.
Cricket Australia and state coaches are pushing for the summit to become an annual event, recognising that solving these problems is imperative to the state of the game and the future of Australian cricket.
