CA introduces seventh Matador Cup team

Australia’s brightest young talent will get an early taste of domestic cricket after Cricket Australia today announced a new team will compete in the Matador One-Day Cup this summer.

For the first time since the ACT Comets played their final game 15 years ago, Australia’s domestic limited-overs competition will feature seven teams in a move aimed to provide an extra level of exposure and opportunity to the country’s next generation of cricketers.

The introduction of a new team, called the CA XI, is a two-year trial, with the squad comprised of players from around the country who narrowly missed out on selection by their respective states.

The squad will be chosen by State Talent Managers and guided by the National Selection Panel, with an eye to fast-tracking the development of promising players.

Former England bowling coach and Bupa National Cricket Centre Head Coach Troy Cooley will coach the team and be assisted by High Performance Coach Graeme Hick, who recently led the successful Australia U19 men’s team over their English counterparts in Western Australia last month.

With the dust yet to settle on Australia’s World Cup triumph in March, CA General Manager of Team Performance Pat Howard says Australian cricket won’t be caught resting on its laurels.

“We’re not being complacent,” Howard said. “We want to keep rejuvenating our players and create the competition for places to improve performance.

“We’re really excited about it. It is a trial, two years, but we very much hope these players progress in to state teams and in to Sheffield Shield.” 

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The 15-player squad will likely be comprised of state rookies and members of the National Performance Squad.

Over the last three seasons, on average one state contracted player and three rookies failed to play a single game of domestic cricket, providing a hole in the pathway the new Matador Cup team hopes to fill.

And the CA XI are not there just to make up the numbers. Coach Cooley insists while this is a learning curve for his young players, he expects to see improvement throughout the campaign under the pressures of domestic cricket.

“You’ve got to make mistakes, but you’ve got to be in the right environment to make mistakes and then you’ve got to be smart enough to learn from your mistakes,” said Cooley.

“We’re really happy that the match opportunities that we first of all give them here (at the National Cricket Centre) during the winter are then extended in to the next step in to the real competition.

“We’re looking for mistakes to be made but we’re looking for kids to step up and be ready to go in to that professional life they’re searching for and become great Australian players.”

The addition of the CA XI is the latest initiative in the National Player Pathway, which will also see two extra matches played by each team in the four-day second XI competition the Toyota Futures League.

The best players from the School Sports Australia U16 Championships will combine to form a CA XI to play in the National U17 Championships to be coached by former Australia batsman Stuart Law, while the players chosen as the best of the Under-17 Championships will represent a CA XI at the National Under-19 Championships.

While the CA XI will be new to the Matador Cup, the concept has been running for more than a year, playing against touring sides with some big scalps already in their pocket.

“They played twice against Bangladesh and won, played against India twice and lost and beat South Africa earlier this year,” Howard said.

“We know we’ve got the talent and we want to be able to expose these players to help the states and the overall national cause.”

HOW IT WORKS

- Six states choose their 15-player Matador One-Day Cup squads

- The State Talent Managers and NSP then pick the CA XI squad from the remaining unselected players

- Troy Cooley to coach, Graeme Hick to assist

- Matador Cup to run in its tournament format as it has done in the previous two seasons