Oz cricket - what is needed.

hmmn ..... bloody Pat Howard has had his contract extended. Not what was needed.

FMD.

Pat Howard saw the caption and offered this bloke a contract

I have been following the Pom domestic season fairly closely. Clearly there are differences in standard between Divs 1 and 2. Altho the Essesians are making a good fist of Div 1.

There are heaps of old local and international pros and a smattering of good young cricketers coming through. Though the standard may be be less than the Shield, cc offers greater opportunity for youngsters to come in and learn from old pros.

The demography of the Shield has changed in recent years with more vets hanging on for longer - the money is an obvious factor. The number of vets has an impact on the opportunities for youngsters coming through.

My State provides an example. Bobby Quiney, MYTYT, Fink, Dutchy will never play Tests for Australia but are all more than capable cricketers.

I think there is a case for the two more populous States to have two teams and maybe ACT and NT tohave teams or even to split the Billies into Chips (sth) and Banjos north.

Part of the success of the Babel (beyond short attention span) has been the recruitment of international players. If we increased the number of teams to ten there would be scope for each to field one or two decent international cricketers. This may help increase public interest and balance the risk of loss of quality.

There would be also more room for both emerging and veteran local players. Yes the quality would suffer, but realistically the dubbers and Vix and more latterly the Jellies are dominating the competition. I do not think is healthy.

In Vic I would have an east and a west team. The west team would use Geelong as a base but also play matches in Benders and the Rat. The east would be based at St Kilda but also play in Morwell, Sale and Bairnsdale.

Ten teams would provide 9 matches or two Divs could be used with teams in each Div playing each other 2ce.

Yes it would cost more - no question. But it provides more opportunity and ACA may support more players finding employment in 1st class cricket. CA are cashed up ruling class knobs and are looking for an impasse.