Michael Hussey has been called in for a wide-ranging review of the Redbacks operation after three successive Sheffield Shield wooden spoons
Hussey lifts lid on review into South Australian cricket
Former Test cricketer Mike Hussey has revealed the full scope of the wide-ranging review into South Australian cricket he has been asked to undertake in a bid to turn around fortunes of the ailing state.
The Redbacks have finished last in the Sheffield Shield for the past three seasons having featured in consecutive finals in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 summers.
The state has parted ways with head coach Jamie Siddons, who had spent five seasons at the helm, after what turned out to be the final round of Shield cricket for the season as the coronavirus pandemic put the game into lockdown.
Siddons was captain during South Australia's most recent Shield title in the 1995-96 summer.
The state had endured an 18-match winless streak in Shield cricket that ended last December with a victory against Tasmania, another state that Hussey has helped after he was tasked with a similar review after the 2016-17 season.
Hussey told The Unplayable Podcast he was invited to review the organisation by the SACA board, which had given him wide-ranging scope to probe the underperformance.
"It's been really interesting, delving deep into the way South Australia go about their cricket from a range of perspectives," Hussey said on the podcast.
"It's quite broad … their Board has sent me a long list of questions of areas they want explored from culture, to the systems through to the high performance.
"Then they also sent through a big long list of people they'd like to be interviewed. I added on a few other people that I think would be relevant.
"And just try and build a bit of a picture of what best practice looks like, and then have a good look into how South Australia are doing it.
"If there's any gaps or holes or areas that perhaps could be improved, then make some recommendations along those lines."
The inquiry was welcomed by South Australia quick Kane Richardson, who said it had been "quite a tough 10 years" in terms of results.
"We (the players) were on a phone hook-up last week to find out about it. I think it's really good from the SACA to be proactive in this time where nobody can really do much else," Richardson told The Unplayable Podcast.
"It's great to be utilising someone like Huss, and with what he did in Tasmania; they've obviously turned around their performances on the field.
"I hope for us it does lead to better performances on field because it has been quite a tough 10 years in how we've gone on-field."
Richardson, a key component of Australia's limited overs set-up, is currently out of the picture for South Australia's Shield cricket, having played just one of the nine games last summer.
Hussey said he had been impressed by the standard in Shield cricket in recent years.
"First-class cricket is a very important level in the scheme of Australian cricket, and it needs to be as tough and as hard and as competitive as possible to try and make that jump, when players move up to Australian level, as small as it possibly can be," the veteran of 79 Tests for Australia said.
The search for a replacement for Siddons has been put on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, with the SACA forced to make almost two dozen redundancies and a 20 per cent cut in salaries among remaining employees.
Redbacks assistant coach Greg Blewett was set to take over from Siddons for the final game of last summer's competition before the pandemic put paid to that.
Adelaide Strikers coach Jason Gillespie has been mooted as a leading contender, while former Test cricketers and Cricket Australia high performance staff Chris Rogers and Ryan Harris, and Tasmania coach Jeff Vaughan have also been linked with the post.
Gillespie said he was at a loss to explain the lack of results over the past seasons with a squad of "very good cricketers".
"They've probably been a bit disappointed with how things have gone in the past couple of years but from what I've seen, the personnel hasn't changed too much," he told ABC Grandstand recently.
"Things just haven't clicked for one reason or another. The only thing I have noticed is a couple of influential players, Travis Head and Alex Carey, are playing a little bit more for Australia.
"Couple that with injuries to key bowlers and all of a sudden it tests your depth.
"I suppose South Australia is not quite like New South Wales, where they've got a lot of strength in depth and a big population base, that could be one of any number of reasons.
"At the end of the day players just have to go out and get the job done and for one reason or another that hasn't quite clicked but there are some very good cricketers in SA in the first-class and one-day sides. I fully expect them to perform well going forward."