Sutherland: NO SIMPLE ANSWERS Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland says everyone involved in Australian cricket is impatient for success but warns there are no simple answers. “We’re developing a system where we can improve pitches. In the past there hasn’t been the chance to talk about that as openly,” Sutherland told News Limited. “There were steps taken last summer to do that and we’ll continue to work on that. “We want Shield cricket to be the best possible preparation for Test cricket so Shield pitches should be very similar to Test pitches. “That means they need to be drier at the start and be wearing later to bring spinners into play, as well as batsmen having a bit more of a chance, certainly on the first day of a game. I have a high level of expectation that we will see (Shield) pitches that are more developed. “I would expect curators to be preparing pitches that are the equivalent of a day one, one and a half, day two Test pitch for the start of a Shield game. “What we have seen is that people are preparing pitches to play against Australia that are dry, without a blade of grass and breaking up or taking spin. “I don’t think you have to be Einstein to see that people are preparing pitches to suit themselves. I’m not making excuses here, they’re entitled to. “ We need to get better at playing in these conditions. We’ve got to give spinners more opportunities to bowl in Shield cricket. At times they’re not getting selected let alone playing a significant part in the game. “When you have a successful team it papers over deficiencies in your pipeline. It’s easy for people to say we should have done something about that. To some extent people were trying to do things but there is always a resistance to change when people say if it’s not broken don’t fix it. “Perhaps in the past there has been too much of a focus on winning trophies (at state level). The focus now is not just getting more people to play the game but getting genuine cricketers, identifying that talent at 14, 15, 16, keeping it, and getting more sharply focused on that. “Some of our competitors have invested huge amounts of money in their high performance systems. “The reality is that the Performance Review (Argus report) made clear people shouldn’t have premature expectations about a rebuilding phase. There have been some great things that have happened with our fast-bowling stocks over the last couple of years. We’ve still got challenges with the batting but there’s a lot of work being done there. “There is a lot of work being done with the spinners and we’re starting to see some of them come through." On the topic of Pat Howard, Sutherland says his role his a lot broader than the national team. “Those who are critical of him don’t necessarily understand the depth and breadth of his role. A very significant part of that role is the men’s team, but he also overseas the women’s team, our elite under-age competitions, Australia A. “We have invested a lot in our under-19s and Pat has been organising Australia A tours to complement the men’s team. “Pat is on a contract. Most people in high performance are on contracts until after the 2015 World Cup. That’s the sort of time frame the Player Review (Argus report) talked about in terms of having expectations.”
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 04:26:03 +0000
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