Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

[ElwoodBlues1]

Heard Warne talking about this today, and I thought he made some good points. Once guys get to Test level you can't change their technique, very minor cosmetic changes only. It's all above the shoulders at that level. He was concerned about what is happening at academy level, with the teenagers and how they are being coached. Noted that when he went to the academy there was Ian and Greg Chappell doing the batting coaching, Rod Marsh for keeping, and Dennis Lillee for the fast bowlers. I'm not sure who is there now, but I doubt we have that type of quality

Jack...Ricky Ponting said the same thing on SEN, Rod Marsh ran the academy and got all old stars like the Chappell's, DK to give their time......they were all well schooled cricketers who had been taught out of the text book and as he said dominated Shield cricket, he pointed out that we now pick blokes who average 35 in Shield Cricket but back in the day you had a player like Jamie Siddons who couldnt get a game yet averaged 50 in Shield cricket. He said he cant believe some of the batting he is seeing but suggested the academy needs to pay good ex players more money to attract them to academy positions...
Its like Football...usually if you are rubbish off the field you will be the same on the field and we need to lift the coaching back to the elite level.
Shield cricket was the toughest domestic comp in the world, probably followed by the Currie Cup in South Africa.......now we dont seem to have the same interest or kids wanting to aspire to be Shield cricketers.
Much easier to be a cross bat slogger at T20 level and make more money or a medium pacer like Andrew Tye who bowls a different delivery every ball and get paid a mill in the IPL but is nowhere near test standard...why bother knocking yourself out learning the finer points of test cricket?