SA show faith in Pope with contract extension

South Australia coach Jason Gillespie believes spin bowler Lloyd Pope produced the best season of his brief career to date in 2022-23 even though the highly-touted leggie didn't play a single senior game in any format. 

It was announced this week that Pope had earned a two-year extension to his Redbacks contract despite not gaining selection at Marsh Sheffield Shield or Marsh One Day Cup level as ex-Tasmania allrounder Ben Manenti claimed the specialist spinner's role with the Redbacks. 

Pope was also not involved in the KFC BBL having been part of the Sydney Sixers squad in previous years. 

But the 23-year-old was a stand-out performer for SA in the Toyota Second XI competition during the past summer where he captured 37 wickets at 21.03 from six games, and was also integral in his Premier Cricket club Kensington's premiership win. 

On the strength of those campaigns, Gillespie claimed the former junior star – who gained international renown when he bowled Australia to victory over England at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, claiming 8-35 – had enjoyed the best summer of the Redbacks coach's three-year tenure. 

And he raised the prospect of Pope playing alongside Manenti in the same SA starting XI next season should pitch conditions and team balance allow. 

"I said to Lloyd at the end of the season, having just finished my third season coaching here, that I felt this past season was his best," Gillespie said this week in announcing SA's men's squad for 2023-24. 

"I know people go 'that's a bit weird, he hasn't played a game' but he's continually developing his bowling and he got (almost) 40 wickets in second XI, he took a mountain of wickets in club cricket and he's got those precious overs that a young spinner needs. 

"Lloyd absolutely did nothing wrong, he was bowling beautifully in the second XI and for Kensington and he just has to be patient. 

"He's continually learning and developing his game, and he's building that bank of evidence and making the improvements that he and the coaches have identified for him to work on. 

"I thought he had a great year although he didn't feature in the first-class or one-day side - obviously Ben Manenti performed extremely well, not just with the ball but with the bat this year, so that opportunity wasn't there. 

"But there's no reason why Lloyd can't play in the same side as Ben Manenti depending on circumstances and conditions." 

Gillespie's enthusiasm is partly founded on the workload Pope undertook for SA's second XI last season, where he bowled more than 180 overs across his six appearances during which he completed four five-wicket hauls and best figures of his senior career with 8-101 against Queensland. 

Furthermore, the leg spinner conceded just above four runs per over throughout the summer, which represented an encouraging return given a criticism levelled at Pope – and a common problem for many aspiring leg spinners – has been his propensity to bowl 'boundary balls' on a regular basis. 

The other reason Gillespie remains bullish about Pope's long-term value to the Redbacks is his comparative junior status. 

Given his age, there is a belief within the SA hierarchy that even if it takes Pope another two or three years to cement a senior berth, he might still have a decade or more of first-class cricket ahead of him. 

In his 13 Shield games to date, Pope has collected 29 wickets (at 63.38) noting that Shane Warne – regarded as the greatest leg spinner of all time – was aged 24 when he reached that Shield wickets tally, while fellow Test-capped leggies Trevor Hohns and Stuart MacGill were 25 and 26 respectively. 

"We've got to remember with Lloyd Pope he's 23 years old," Gillespie said. 

"He's a young man, and he's in a craft that is notoriously one of the most challenging in our sport. 

"I think he's progressing wonderfully well and that's why he's part of our list. 

"He's signed a contract extension because we have a lot of faith and belief in Lloyd Pope and what he can bring to the table, not just in the next year but long term for South Australia." 

The young leg spinner's cause could also be aided by greater productivity from SA's top-order batters, who have struggled to consistently post the sort of hefty scores that would bring a leg-spinner into the reckoning at the back-end of matches. 

Only once last summer did the Redbacks pass 350 during their Shield campaign, but Gillespie believes there is sufficient talent in his batting line-up to address that shortfall from next season. 

"There will be some opportunities for positions in the order," Gillespie said. 

"We've got a number of players who can fulfil roles in the top order, our middle-order performed relatively strongly last year so we feel our batting group is very sound. 

"We have a belief they can put some really big scores, and consistent scores on the board." 

The only additions to SA's squad for the coming season are promising Victoria youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk (who averaged 94 in Second XI competition in 2020-21) and former SA junior prodigy Kelvin Smith who most recently held a Redbacks contract in 2018-19. 

Fraser-McGurk could find himself vying with Manenti, seam-bowling allrounder Liam Scott or even keeper-batter Harry Nielsen for a place in the Redbacks' top six, although he's likely to be deployed higher in the order in Marsh Cup matches. 

With opener Jake Weatherald's decision to seek new opportunities with Tasmania, Smith is expected to compete for the role as Henry Hunt's first-wicket Shield partner along with Jake Carder who crossed from Western Australia three years ago. 

Having debuted for SA as a teenager in 2013, Smith admits he's gained fresh perspective on the game since spending two years playing Premier Cricket in Perth before returning to Adelaide where he's undertaking an electrician's apprenticeship and was recently wed to wife Stacey. 

The 28-year-old concedes cricket was an all-consuming preoccupation earlier in his career, having progressed from Australia's under-19 team around the same time as fellow free-scoring left-hander (and SA teammate) Travis Head. 

But the soul-searching that came in the wake of losing his state contract in 2019 means he brings a vastly different outlook to his second stint as a Redbacks player. 

"I don't take cricket as seriously now," Smith said. 

"I know it's not the end of the world if I nick off - I know it's probably going to happen again, so I just get to play the way I play and don't try to do anything else. 

"I probably did that when I was a bit younger (but) I know who I am, and I know there's a life after cricket. 

"The initial period of being uncontracted hurt, but I went over to WA and learned a lot about myself and got to enjoy a different part of the world. 

"I challenged myself when I was over there, enjoyed that and probably believed I could do it (return to first-class cricket). 

"It's what I've always wanted to do, and what I want to continue to do."