Top End programs tipped to hand Aussies an edge

In becoming the first Test-playing nation to schedule high-level cricket competitions across the entire year, Australia is hoping to narrow the gap between the game's fast-developing nations that was so brutally exposed in the recent Vodafone Series against India. 

Northern Territory Cricket this week launched its innovative Cricket 365 program that will see 30 of the nation's best emerging players take part in 50-over and T20 competitions in Darwin from June to August. 

Selection of the players involved will be made in conjunction with Cricket Australia and State and Territory talent and high-performance programs, to ensure the next level of national playing ranks is exposed to regular match play during the traditional 'off season'. 

Australia's 2-1 Test series loss to an injury-ravaged India, which routinely lost key players and was forced to blood five debutants but still outclassed a virtually full-strength rival outfit, raised questions about the depth of Australia's playing stocks. 

The capacity to introduce up-and-coming players to competitive cricket during winter without the additional cost and logistical issues of overseas travel is seen as both a benefit for development of local playing stocks as well as a fillip for the game in the nation's north. 

Cricket 365 is the culmination of several years' planning by NT Cricket to maximise Australia's unique climatic advantage whereby optimal cricket conditions are available across the continent year-round.

"It comes at a very good time given some of the recent difficulties faced by the types of players that would be attracted to this Cricket 365 opportunity," CA's National Talent and Pathways Manager Graham Manou told cricket.com.au. 

"To get to the UK and play matches there is near-on impossible, even prior to COVID, and we're looking for alternate avenues to get as many games into as many of our players as we can. 

"Darwin's always provided that opportunity, but now having it as a focal point for players to go and have that level of competition will be really important for our player development system. 

"There was a lot of discussion after the India Test series about India's depth, and we've got to continue to find ways to keep pace with those countries that are developing at a pretty quick rate." 

The Cricket 365 schedule for 2021 includes the TIO Men's One Day Series (20 June-July 25) and the TIO T20 tournament (August 15-27) featuring the NT's four Strike League teams along with up to two additional teams taking part in the T20 competition (likely to be existing KFC BBL clubs). 

Each of the 15-player Strike League squads - City Cyclones, Desert Blaze, Northern Tide and Southern Storm – will be supplemented by emerging players who successfully nominate and whose participation is endorsed and facilitated by State and Territory talent managers. 

Between the two Strike League competitions, a combined team of NT-based players will meet a CA XI selected from the visiting players in Darwin in a three-match Top End One-Day Series from August 1-8. 

And in addition to the men's program, Cricket 365 also incorporates the NT's existing TIO Women's Strike League (July 25-30) and the TIO Junior Strike League (July 5-9). 

"The biggest opportunity for Australian cricket when it comes to meeting the challenges of scheduling currently being compressed into six months is to successfully leverage the north to play cricket all year round," NT Cricket Chief Executive Officer Joel Morrison told cricket.com.au. 

"And the biggest advantage Darwin offers is that we have a winter cricket ecosystem with our dry season. 

"We've been doing a lot of work with Cricket Australia over the last couple of years to look at building a program whereby, in addition to the existing club cricket opportunities here, we can support a higher level of player development. 

"Playing cricket delivers better development outcomes than training, and we wanted to find a way to help players in all Australian states and territories by giving them an opportunity to play at that higher level rather than just training indoors while it's raining and cold during the winter months." 

While the program is ostensibly designed to accelerate the development of emerging 'second-tier' players, it is also expected to attract established cricketers resuming from injury-interrupted seasons and aspiring Premier Cricket players looking to push for inclusion in the BBL and other T20 leagues. 

All Cricket 365 games will be live streamed, with the men's matches aired through Cricket Australia's Facebook channels thereby ensuring State and Territory coaches can monitor players' progress and allowing talent scouts to spot potential signings. 

"We're very clear this is a development tournament, in that we're looking to assist young developing players to work on their games and transition from amateur status to professional," Morrison said. 

"But it also provides an opportunity for Australia or state-contracted players to come up and play during winter at a time when COVID means they are going to be very limited in terms of travelling overseas, probably for the next 12 to 18 months at least. 

"With the proliferation of domestic T20 tournaments around the world, this may prove to be a great breeding ground for both Australian players and other international players within our region to develop their T20 game as they look to get contracted in the BBL, the IPL or the Caribbean Premier League. 

"That's why we have, in the last two weeks of August, a Big Bash-style tournament where matches are played at night over a two-week period to replicate Big Bash conditions at a time when we're coming towards the end of the BBL contracting window. 

"Big Bash clubs and talent scouts can then identify, for those final contract positions, whether or not some players in the Strike League tournament have what it takes to take the next step to earn a professional contract." 

Nominations for Cricket 365 involvement are currently open, and NT Cricket is looking to have names of the interstate players finalised within a week and squads for each of the four Strike League teams locked in by the end of next month. 

Players such as budding South Australia all-rounder Corey Kelly and ex-Hobart Hurricanes fast bowler Aaron Summers who have been part of Premier Cricket and Strike League in Darwin in recent years are classified 'local players' and therefore not required to nominate for one of the 30 interstate spots.

Morrison also confirmed he is in discussions with a "a couple of Big Bash teams" about filling the Strike League T20 invitational slot as Hobart Hurricanes did in 2019. 

But he added that once Cricket 365 had proved its credentials, NT Cricket (with CA's support) might look to attract overseas players and teams to compete alongside the local outfits to further boost its international appeal and enhance development outcomes for Australian players. 

"Our preferred option is to fill those invitational spots with Big Bash League teams, but there might also be an opportunity in the future where we have a team from New Zealand, or a team from India or Sri Lanka that may be able to fill those spots as well," Morrison said. 

"We're flexible in our approach, but the opportunity is very much there for BBL teams to utilise this as a great pre-season development opportunity as they look towards the next season." 

The Cricket 365 program tacitly acknowledges that Darwin's hopes of adding to the two men's Tests and four ODIs it hosted earlier this century (the most recent being a one-dayer against Bangladesh in 2008) remains at the whim of the ICC's Future Tours Program. 

The NT has also not seen first-class cricket since hosting the Sheffield Shield final at Traeger Park in Alice Springs four years ago, where the most recent BBL fixture was held between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Sixers in December 2019. 

In the absence of those big-ticket events, and with Darwin unable to host cricket during the southern summer due to its wet season, Cricket 365 offers an opportunity to lift both the profile and the professionalism of the sport in the Top End. 

"This provides us with our own unique localised version of the BBL and international cricket, where you have high-profile competition with high-profile players promoting cricket at a time when we're playing our cricket in the north," Morrison said. 

Cricket 365 will also the complement work being undertaken at the Bupa National Cricket Centre and National Cricket Campus in Brisbane, as well as individual programs run by State and Territory high-performance and talent management departments. 

And while NT Cricket has been actively pursuing greater Top End opportunities for several years, the marked changes brought by the global pandemic which saw cancellation of national under-age championships and the National Premier T20 tournament last year has helped bring it to fruition. 

"I think what COVID has done is it's forced a lot of people to look at things differently, and to possibly find traditional opportunities and then offer them in an alternate environment," Manou said. 

"The restrictions imposed have allowed us to get a little more creative, and perhaps be a bit more open-minded to ideas that, in previous years, we might have preferred to go with what was comfortable and 'the norm'. 

"We've had 12 months of essentially no cricket, in terms of putting some of our pathway players into situations and environments and programs that provide a real focus on the future. 

"Match opportunities are therefore very rare, and there's probably going to be a few names that people will recognise who pop up in Darwin as States aim to get some game time into them. 

"It also provides opportunities for some of our younger players to rub shoulders with more senior players, some of whom might be coming out of injury-riddled seasons and are looking to hit the ground running for next year. 

Image Id: 33D686768A2240E4B45F9BA21B912800 Image Caption: Australia's men's side the last time they played in Darwin // Getty

"I think that's the beauty of Cricket 365. 

"Cricket Australia can receive benefits from a pathways perspective, and the State and Territory high-performance programs can be very targeted in the way it helps meets their needs as well. 

"And then there's Premier Cricket players who have this unique opportunity to further enhance their prospects and careers. 

"The capacity to play competitive cricket year-round provides a huge advantage for Australia, and it's a really exciting time for our game."