Dang Mike - how familiar to our conversation does this article look?

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/the-damning-numbers-that-reveal-australia-s-bowling-struggles-20190101-p50p1n.html

It's like they've been reading these posts. Thanks Paddles for the link, I never read the Sydney garbage media, so I would have missed it. Good for a chuckle. I love reading the comments, majority would be from NSW, It's "how dare you criticise our NSW bowlers", sort of like Baggers, who is a true "blue" Aussie. Facts are facts.

from the vault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXX42Gu3VIk


Incredible the difference in skill compared to our current lot

There were some classy Ponting shots in the video, Grazor.

Yadav was bowling 145 - 150 kph in most of  the balls he delivered too.

some of them were played against a moving ball well away from the body

our golden gen actually did this a lot, they had technique but they also had impressive hand eye coordination

Shame to think we have a current generation of players with a lower level of talent.

grazor and DC we have Pucovski for the future.. perhaps Sangha. Another to watch out for is Oliver Davies,18. Take a look  at the composure and quality of this century for his club side at just 17 years.
https://manlycricket.com/ollie-davies-century/

You have heard me praising Josh Philippe. Have you seen this Warriors clip. His driving of the moving ball is simply all class.
https://www.cricket.com.au/video/josh-philippe-innings-74-tasmania-tigers-western-australia-warriors-shield-video-highlights/2018-02-17

Does CA have anything in train like what  Sth Africa is doing to build a formidable pace bowling unit?  Then perhaps our bowlers would not be falling into a false sense of security.. a "gilded bubble" as some call it where their performances have been on the decline over the past 12 months and little is being done to arrest the problem. .

The opposite is the fact in Sth Africa under new coach Otis Gibson with his Elite Pace Bowling Program.
"Since I've been here, over the last 12 months, we've set up what we call an elite fast-bowling group, Coming from the Caribbean, I believe that fast bowling is the bedrock. Most of the teams that dominated world cricket have always had strong fast-bowling stocks."

The EPBP was launched ahead of the  SA 2017-18 season with the aim to widen the pool of elite fast bowlers in the country, and it has worked.
"We've looked at how we can find out what we have with regards to fast bowling, nurture it, and then get it all together under one umbrella so we know what guys are doing.We manage workloads. We look at actions, if any actions need tweaking. We have a group of people looking after that, from sports scientists all the way down to trainers and stuff like that." 

I'd take a technically flawed player that averages over 50 any day

far too much emphasis on MCC text book compliance

josh phillipe's innings is impressive

ball swinging sideways there

wonder why his fc average is so dreadful. Early days though

I agree, batters need to do what makes them feel comfortable or they won't succeed. If it was all textbook the Smith wouldn't be as good as he is.

I am of the belief that in developing bowlers they can only be as good as their batting counterparts for the most part. The fact from the Shield and lower levels we struggle to bat, how will the bowlers learn to develop the necessary ability when lets face it, they can get wickets with absolute rubbish delivers. No consistency, not enough movement or spin will be introduced into their game.

So would I. The point I was making is one of our true greats who many now have up on a pedestal was human like the rest of us.  He had flaws which he was disciplined enuff to eradicate from his game. Mostly eradicate anyway. To average @50 his tech flaws had to have been swamped by his incredible hand/eye coordination.

Cricket NSW will build a $50M state of the art Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park as home to all formats of cricket in the state. The complex will include full size and junior size playing ovals, more than 50 outdoor training nets, a community indoor centre and high performance training facilities including gym and hot and cold recovery. Administration facilities to support local competitions, game development and Cricket NSW pathways will also be developed.

An artists impression of the new facility.

Seems there is a lot of noise being made on the subject of our one day kit (pyjamas) at the moment. I voted on my my favorite kit  in an article only last week. Today we have a story featuring kits going back 20 years. Is CA trying to nut out a replica kit for the WC or what? Interesting. I am happy with using a majority of the kits displayed.. as long a they dump the current one and this one being used in India series. These are my three choices. What is your choice? 
 

@Paddles.

No. They threaten to score 500. That's the reality. You're still in denial...
Australia is a joke in intl cricket right now... A huge joke...
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18021/scorecard/1119539/england-vs-australia-3rd-odi-aus-in-eng-2018
But but but its Smith and Warner not bowling... lol....
The BBL is killing CA standards cos its crap... you dont get it... that's Stanlake, Tye, RIchardson and Stoinis....
Your whole structure is a joke... Until you accept it and sort it out - these scorecards keep happening... tbh...
England will smash Australia all winter once Warner and Smith return.... and then the powers that be may wake up... Im betting on it....
In 2016 SL white washed Aus - that's when this started....

What do you see as a way out of this mess Paddles? 
I for one want only specialist red ball batsmen in our test sides. Blokes who score nothing less than @40 in FC cricket. 
As for limited overs I have no clue. CA wants to pack ODI sides with hitters but that does not always come off. You have to have a couple of decent time batters as your spine. CA finally is seeing that. I want predominately hitters in T20.  Must have one steadying influence with the others smashing around him.

DC we were talking about the over the top influence BBL has on our cricket calendar. Read this nonsense. Again red ball cricket takes a back seat to white ball. 
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25821851/ca-considers-changes-bbl-domestic-one-dayers-schedules.

Is there any way they can fit in all 10 Shield rounds if it starts at same time as JLT Cup.. September 16 with BBL starting as late as Boxing Day? That way players vying for test cricket will have been playing red ball cricket almost up til the Test season. This still does not help the situation whereby out fringe Test players are not playing red ball cricket during the Test season. Which most definitely should be the case.  

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Great read about our obsession with trying to find the once in a generation player over picking the best player:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25890493/why-do-australia-rate-player-potential-one-hand

I think FC cricket can be operated simultaneously with Mickey Mouse cricket. Instead of finishing in early December and starting again in late Feb, FC  can continue whilst BBL operates as well. 

I'd also like to see Northern Territory and  the ACT added to FC Shield cricket. 

All Cricket Aus worries about  is making money ATM, and, making the FC cricket milieu subservient to BBL.

A Former Tas Crick Assoc CEO told me it is only the tours by India and England that make money in Tests. In that case they can subsidise  more Tests, up to 8 in a summer, by including venues like  Hobart and the ACT on a regular basis, with all the BBL revenue they rake in.

Introducing the NT and the ACL to the Shield, would also increase FC games to 14 games a season, instead of 10. ATM we have the bizarre scenario where some regular  Shield cricketers, who don't land a BBL contract, play grade cricket for circa three months in the middle of the Aussie FC cricket season, because there is no FC cricket available!

Cricket Australia also did nothing to promote the tour game between Sri Lank and the CA 11 in Tas.

For mine, it was the highlight of the  season to watch live cricket and nobody knew about it, apart from Tas Crick Assoc members. We were emailed just before  the game that it was on.

Very true about about Smith.

I have a slightly different point of view in relation to white ball & red ball cricket.
Most of us on this forum. love our red ball cricket, however  white ball cricket is a fact of life
& the sooner we accept this & stop complaining about it the better.
Our focus should now be "how can we make this work for us in red ball cricket"?
For instance look at the range of shots batters now use - they just tend to use them at the wrong moment in red ball.
Bowlers now have a greater variety of deliveries than ever before - remember Merv Hughes first googly out the back of his hand - now common place.
Warner is a great example of white ball talent being converted into red ball cricket.
Smith, so unconventional, yet the shots he can play are remarkable.
As I have mentioned before, cricket is now a modern day sport & from top to bottom our whole thinking has to change to keep pace
with other codes to keep the game interesting enough to attract new talent & in most cases this will be through white ball cricket.

Introducing the NT and the ACL to the Shield, would also increase FC games to 14 games a season, instead of 10. ATM we have the bizarre scenario where some regular  Shield cricketers, who don't land a BBL contract, play grade cricket for circa three months in the middle of the Aussie FC cricket season, because there is no FC cricket available!

 DC I have maintained this same argument for some time . The main objection I am hearing is we do not have sufficient first class standard cricketers to fill another two extra teams. I believe we do.  Plenty of good players come from the Top End and the ACT.  Boost their stocks with interstaters that can not make their Shield teams. There is also second tier  Futures League. Some outstanding young talent that otherwise will never get to play top shelf domestic red ball cricket. Naturally these two rookie teams will be cannon fodder for the first few years. That is expected. 

Whilst I agree, what about the weather in NT, summer = wet season

I don't agree about not having enough quality players.

The locals will improve from  exposure  if we introduce the ACT and NT.

NSW and Vic often have ridiculous depth, and fringe players like Jackson Bird and Ed Cowan, who couldn't get a game for NSW, ended up playing Test cricket for Aus whilst playing for Tas. Greg Rowell played for Tas and Q'land after being unwanted for NSW. 

Initially, I was annoyed the ACT and Manuka had a Test instead of Hobart. After looking at what a good ground Manuka is and the  spectator support, I think we should have  more Tests in Aus year round.

We could have at least 7 Tests per summer and have a two/three Test winter series like we used to against the likes of Ireland and Afghanistan in Darwin and Cairns.

Fake cricket is making so much money, it can subsidise Test cricket and FC cricket, now that we have so many Test playing nations. Given there are England, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand,  West Indies, and now Ireland and Afghanistan, all playing Test cricket, we play most of our cricket against the strongest countries - India, England and South Africa.

We signed some sort of agreement to play India and England for a huge portion of Tests. We could also do with playing some other teams that are not quite so strong, particularly when we are in rebuilding phase like we  are now.

In a Tas Crick Assoc Members session run by Cricket Tas, I was vociferous about Hobart getting a game as part of a mini Test series in January. The arguments advanced against it by Cricket Tas/Aus were pathetic, claiming the players were too tired!

I countered that if they weren't playing fake cricket in the Indian  Premier League, BBL, One Day etc, they'd have the energy to play. I also contended that few players played for Oz in Tests, ODIs and 20/20s.

We could conceivably have two Test series in Aus per summer at seven different  venues - Sydney, Melb, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart  and Canberra.

In winter we could have another 3 Test home series in Darwin, Cairns and Coffs Harbour.

This could amount  to 10 home Tests in a calendar year, plus away series, but if these players play little cricket outside Test and FC, it isn't that arduous with 50 days of home cricket in Tests (minus bad weather) plus circa five to seven Tests in two away series, which would amount to another 35 days.

I sincerely believe that the bean counters who run cricket in Australia, plus soccer/football and AFL, are all killing their sports to various degrees in regions, grass roots and totally focus  on money.

Cricket has been the best of a bad bunch. There are too many administrators from corporate backgrounds, who are ruthless and have no passion  for developing the sports they administer and no interest in growing the sports.

Give Darwin a winter Test  in June/July and August, for a winter Test series played in the warmer parts of Oz, and maybe an October Test.

Make them play a huge number of Shield games early and late in the season October/November, and March.

Many good points, JJ.

At the same time  BBL ( Aussie Baseball, fake cricket, Mickey Mouse cricket) is destroying the heartland of FC and Test cricket and the epicentre of cricket supporters, with the leadership of  Crick Aus.

Headlines on the  back page of the local Murdoch tabloid today, is not the Test in Canberra, but a potential  recruit for the Hobart Hurricanes.

 Tassie Shield players are  virtually unknown to the public in Tasmania, whilst BBL players are superheroes.