Matador Cup may be expanded

Australia's domestic limited overs competition may soon be expanded to include a team of the nation's most promising younger players, as part of a raft of proposals to ensure Cricket Australia and the states are doing their best to identify the best talent in the system.

The National Performance Squad (NPS) team performed creditably in a top end series earlier this year, defeating Australia A among other promising results. The allrounder Sean Abbott played a major role in that XI and soon found himself vaulting over Australia A to be chosen for making his Twenty20 and ODI debuts against Pakistan.

Now the CA board and the states will consider a plan to include that team in the Matador Cup limited overs tournament, currently reaching its pointy end in Sydney. There is also the possibility of the NPS team's inclusion in second XI competition, though the expansion of the Sheffield Shield beyond six teams is not on the agenda outlined by the team performance manager Pat Howard.

"The NPS team when they beat Australia A recently in Darwin showed that in giving people an opportunity, some people take it," Howard said. "We saw the National Performance Squad beat Australia A and as a consequence Sean Abbott eventually played for Australia in T20 and ODI cricket, and that's a wonderful example of how competition can lead somewhere.

"One of the things you want to be able to do is expose them at a higher level, see who reacts to that pressure well, and then it allows the states to look at these players who are probably [based] in their home cities and let them be exposed at the higher level. We can take that risk where sometimes a state coach may feel unable to do that, he'll want to win tomorrow and we'd like to stretch people.

"The first and most sensible place to look at that would be in the Matador Cup. The fact that it's played in a block actually helps, and that would be our starting point at the moment, but we could also look at Futures League or wherever else. There are other opportunities, but they're the ones we need to discuss and take further and that will be tested by our respective boards, both state and national."

Howard was speaking in the wake of a national talent identification forum held in Sydney last week, where an assembly of state talent managers, grade and under-age representatives and senior CA figures met to put together a list of proposals. They were informed by the dual aims of better articulating the opportunities available to young prospective cricketers, and also ensuring those opportunities are as layered and equitable as those offered by other sports such as Australian football, rugby and soccer.

"We know there is sometimes a perception there are only 11 spots in cricket, only 11 baggy greens on offer," Howard said. "But there's 156 contracted players, they get to play all over the world, we want to make sure cricket's story is appealing to 16, 17, 18-year-olds. The pathway's well-worn but it's not necessarily well understood outside cricket, one of the things we need to be able to do is make sure it is better understood so it is a really clear, attractive pathway."

One of the principle concerns raised at the forum was the fact that while the best players in each state invariably find their way through the system and onto contract lists, often the rank just beneath can be lost at junior levels, particularly in the more populous environments of New South Wales and Victoria. Though hesitating to use the word "draft", Howard clarified that in future years, rookies not chosen at the first time of asking by their home states may be opened up to others.

"We know there's the Father-Son rule in the AFL, there are priority picks and that sort of thing, so absolutely the states will look at that, and that will put pressure on the state talent managers to get their talent right and make them accountable for the selections they make," Howard said. "If as a consequence they don't get it right then that's them under pressure. If another state picks them up then so be it.

"We see that at the top level, occasionally players go to other states and then get picked for Australia and that highlights this. We already have an Under-19 talent camp so we've already got the infrastructure to test all players. We also want to put pressure on the states saying you can choose who you want to choose and you already do this but if you don't get it right there'll be pressure on you to get it right over a period of time.

"We want to make sure the fourth or fifth best player from that state who probably could be in a state system in another state, we want to make sure that talent's getting to the next level. And we want to make sure that offer's on the table, and if you're an aspiring player, does WA or SA or Tasmania get to help facilitate those opportunities."

The 2009 attempt to push more young talent into the system via the Futures League was scaled back in 2011 due to numerous problems, most notably the effect that age quotas had on the amount of experience in the grade, second XI and Shield competitions. Howard emphasised that the best players often developed quickly by playing as teenagers against adults, using the example of the Southern Stars' Holly Ferling in Queensland.

"She was playing with her father in a first grade team in Kingaroy and that development we see as a real positive, where she's being extended in that environment," Howard said. "We want a young player's talent being stretched - we know most of the guys playing in a Test match for Australia in the next couple of days played club cricket at a very young age in their teens, and often even played state cricket in their teens. Making sure we get the young talent stretched around some good, older hardened players in regional cricket that happens often.

"We continually went back to what would a 15, 16 or 17-year-old be thinking about this and making sure they get to play club cricket, also playing school cricket where they get to be in that environment, they get stretched in club cricket, dominate in their under-age stuff as well, making sure they get that multi-faceted approach of playing against men but also being very dominant in their age group. We want to make sure it's well understood by the kids."