bays09 wrote:Okay, you have just received a phone call saying that the reins of south Australian cricket have been handed to you, what would you do? Change the board? Restructure grade cricket? Clean out the coaching staff? Send the team to a psychologist?
Some of the best cricket brains in the country are South Australians. Darren Lehmann and Ian Chappell. Lehmann has just won the Shield coaching Qld. Do everything you can to get him back to SA to coach the team and get support around him that he needs. Get successful South Australian cricketers to have input. If they have run ins with the board, then the board needs to go.
Perhaps a solution to Grade Cricket that doesn't force clubs to merge or abandon is to only have 8 A Grade teams (say the top 8 from the prior season) and the other 5 play B Grade as the highest level. Grand Finalists in B Grade get promoted if their club isn't already in A Grade.
i.e. based on last years ladder position you'd have the competition structured:
A Grade (8 clubs)
Woodville, West Torrens, Kensington, Sturt, Tea Tree Gully, Adelaide, Prospect, Northern Districts
B Grade (13 clubs consisting of 5 1st XI teams + 8 2nd XI teams)
Port Adelaide (A's), Glenelg (A's), Southern District (A's), East Torrens (A's), University (A's), Woodville (B's), West Torrens (B's), Kensington (B's), Sturt (B's), Tea Tree Gully (B's), Adelaide (B's), Prospect (B's), Northern Districts (B's)
C Grade (13 clubs as per B Grade)
D Grade (Optional - nominations at start of season based on club needs)
If the B Grade Grand Finalists in the example above were Port and Glenelg they would both go up and replace the bottom two A Grade sides for next season.
If the B Grade Grand Finalists in the example above were Port and Sturt, Port would go up and only the bottom A Grade team would be relegated.
If the B Grade Grand Finalists both already had teams in A Grade there would be no change.
This should make the A Grade stronger as the good players would want to be playing A Grade so may see more inter-club transfers. The B Grade would definitely be stronger and have more meaning as this is where clubs have an opportunity to be promoted. The D Grade would be used only if clubs wanted it. I'd imagine the stronger clubs would want a D Grade to have depth through the club, but those clubs that are struggling each week to fill the numbers aren't forced to have a D Grade side.
