The Sheffield Shield's playing conditions could be altered after almost a third of games in '25-26 finished inside three days
CA wants more runs, spin to address 'fast-forward' Shield games
Cricket Australia is considering rule changes it hopes can rein in the dominance of nibbling Sheffield Shield seamers and provide better batting conditions that encourage captains to bowl more spin.
Peter Roach, CA's operations and scheduling guru, wants more runs scored and spinners getting a greater share of overs in 2026-27 in a bid to address suggestions that lively pitches and early-finishing matches are compromising Australia’s production line of Test cricketers.
The root causes of the issues are a matter of opinion. Some point to a bonus-point system that encourages states to produce green wickets in search of banking easier bowling bonus points, while others believe T20s are ruining long-form batting techniques.
As Australia coach Andrew McDonald has suggested: "It's probably a combination of everything".
There is also a sense the status quo is having an equal negative effect on fast bowlers with a proliferation of thriving seamers who, many believe, do not possess the ball speed or control to challenge Test batters. "When the wickets are a bit flatter, you're definitely finding out who the best bowlers are," Victoria captain Will Sutherland said after the Sheffield Shield final in March.
It is now hoped the playing field can be levelled for spinners, whose share of total Shield overs bowled has fluctuated between a quarter and a fifth over the past decade, and batters, who have recently endured two of their worst seasons in the past 50 years.
Almost a third of the Shield’s 2025-26 regular season games finished inside three days (nine out of 30 matches), well up from a more fruitful 2024-25 summer for batters when there were only five three-day finishes and batters collectively averaged over 30.
Roach revealed that delaying the introduction of the second new ball to 90 overs (up from 80 currently) and even increasing the total number of overs required to be bowled in a day to 120 (up from 96) were among the more radical changes that were thrown up – and ultimately rejected.
He also said the bonus points system, which has been in place since 2014-15, would not be tinkered with for now. But the concept of putting seam bowlers under added fatigue through extended session times or less conducive pitches are among the levers that could potentially be pulled to redress the current imbalance.
Full 2026-27 domestic schedule
"This year we've really focused on, 'Is there a way that we can – through our playing conditions – encourage more runs, more spin overs without really distorting the cricket?'" Roach said ahead of a rules meeting with state representatives this week.
"The view was that looking at the points system was not going to assist or tilt the balance in that, so it was thought that we would just leave it for another year.
"Sometimes changing things can have unintended consequences, and it didn't feel like any minor change was going to have a significant upside – and it could potentially have a downside.
"So the thought was just to leave as is, and (instead) just work with our states and our curators about the way we play, the way we coach, (question whether) the pitches are exactly where we want them to be, match in, match out.
"Our challenge at the moment is we want to see more runs and we want to see more overs of spin because they're the two things that have stood out in the past couple of years.
"(But) we think that currently our Shield cricket is preparing players well for Test cricket."
Roach denied the fixturing of additional Shield matches at the MCG and Perth Stadium in 2026-27 was a reaction to those venues' costly two-day Ashes Tests, which saw a national spotlight shone on the topic of seam-friendly surfaces.
Melbourne’s premier sporting venue will host three Shield matches next summer (up from two in '25-26, with a pink-ball Shield game to be played ahead of the day-night 150th celebration Test against England in March), while Perth's colossal Burswood arena will host Shield cricket for the first time since 2018.
With Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg last summer suggesting the organisation could exercise greater control over Test pitches in future, Roach said they were also working with ground staff around the country to produce fairer Shield wickets.
"We don't manage curators, we don't employ them but clearly we have an interest in the outcomes they provide," he said.
"We've got very similar goals to our curators; we all want to see a good balance between bat and ball, and we want games to go a reasonable distance in the time allocated.
"When you see games finish in two days and two-and-a-half days in Shield matches, and across the board in a season where we're seeing (fewer) runs and (fewer) overs of spin being bowled, they are things that we try and discuss with our stakeholders around the country."
As Roach suggested, the outcomes for batters and bowlers have varied considerably by venue despite an overall trend that has seen conditions generally become harder to bat in.
At one end of the spectrum, wickets have tumbled at a rapid rate at the country’s two showpiece cricket grounds, the MCG and the SCG. In fact, seam bowlers have hardly had it better there than at any other point in Sheffield Shield history.
Since the start of the 2022-23 summer, the MCG has seen four of its five lowest overall Shield season pace strike-rates ever. Likewise, the last three summers at the SCG have seen fast bowlers' strike-rates at their lowest points since the 1950s.
Spinners at an SCG that used to heavily favour them have averaged 39.89 over the past two Shield seasons, the highest mark of any of the Test venues. It's well up from its all-time spin average of 33.71 – which is the lowest of any venue that's hosted at least 20 games in Shield history.
A different story has been told at some of the other major venues however.
Batting averages at the Gabba have remained steady at a tick under 30 runs per wicket for the past four seasons – higher than at several other stretches earlier this century – while runs at Adelaide Oval have gone on a sharp upwards trajectory over the past two seasons.
"We do think the challenge has got a lot harder as time goes on – the grounds have got more stuff on and more congested schedules and not just cricket, which means less preparation that could mean less deterioration," said Roach.
"Teams still want results, so the alternative there is to speed the game up at the front, and that causes a few more challenges. If they get it a little bit wrong, the games can go in real fast forward, as we've seen in the last couple of years in both domestic and international cricket.
"Curators will adjust. The stats show whilst across the board last (season) runs were down and spin overs were down (but) that wasn't at every venue, so we did see some improvements in some venues, especially some of our major venues, if you look a bit deeper in the stats.
"We'll talk generally to them, but a little bit more specific in some venues, just to highlight a few trends that we're seeing, and we're really confident they'll respond and get back … to the balance we want to see."