Pandemic hits pause on CA's elite player pathways

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt cricket, Cricket Australia's brains trust is taking steps to try and minimise the long-term impacts on its next generation. 

As Australia's elite cricketers prepare for the potential of cricket hubs amid the biosecurity and border restrictions brought on by the pandemic, the best up-and-coming talent face missing an entire season of tutelage under CA's pathways program. 

The National Championships tournaments for the under-15 boys and girls and under-17 boys have already been cancelled, and the under-19 tournaments for both face an uncertain future.

The National Performance Squad (NPS) program has also been heavily curtailed after CA slashed $40m out of its budget in June in response to the pandemic.

Chris Rogers and Ryan Harris left their posts as high-performance coaches for the males after the U19 World Cup this year while female coach Leah Poulton also moved on, taking up a role with Cricket NSW.

There will be no development tours abroad this year, with trips to India's MRF Pace Academy and Sri Lanka a regular part of the winter schedule in previous years, robbing players of exposure to subcontinent conditions. 

"The only way we will truly know the impact COVID-19 has had – if any – will be in five or 10 years' time," said CA's National Talent & Pathways Manager Graham Manou, the former Test gloveman.

"This highlights the need for us to always be thinking about the current and future needs of the game and to be agile in how we do this."

But the coronavirus has also presented CA the opportunity to re-examine its pathways system, moving to streamline it to tie in closer with World Cup cycles. 

That includes a realignment of the female underage programs, although the inaugural women's U19 T20 World Cup that had been scheduled to be played in Bangladesh in January is likely to also be postponed due to the pandemic. 

"We're already working with other boards such as India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England for mutual benefit," Manou said.

"There's a will to try finding ways to play matches in different conditions. 

"In past we've run tours that have had all the bells and whistles – it might now be more a case of 'let's just get games on'."

The U19 National Championships may yet find a home at the back end of the summer, and CA remains hopeful the annual Lanning XI v Perry XI games that pit the best under-19 female talent against each other can be played. 

While individual state high-performance programs do the bulk of the work to get young players on the pathway, the very best would typically find themselves in Brisbane during the winter. 

The Bupa National Cricket Centre, CA's high-performance crown jewel, would routinely be a hive of activity with under-age squad training camps, affording the future stars the chance to rub shoulders with the elite players who also front up to use the facilities. 

Specialist camps for spin and pace bowlers, wicketkeepers, as well as the age-group squads and NPS program have all been cancelled.

"These are critical years that can really cement the fundamentals skills for players in the underage system," Manou said.

"With the growth of sports science, sports medicine and information gathered through research, we are able to make more informed decisions and implement change if it's needed."

A winter's education for the underage players in the CA pathway is designed to help set them up for life as elite cricketers: as well as skills sessions with elite coaches, players have sessions with sports psychologists, undergo education around integrity issues, and even partake in cooking classes with a focus on nutrition and dietary education. 

How to minimise the long-term effects and keep the nation's brightest prospects engaged and continue their education has sharpened minds at CA, with the current national stars also called in to help. 

Zoom chats and webinars have become a part of life for many of us, and that will be extended to cricketers, with those education sessions moving online.

But the opportunity to rub shoulders with the elite senior players that is so often part and parcel of winters at the NCC is much tougher to replace. 

So Australia's leading senior players will instead hold online catch-ups with the teenage stars of tomorrow, as they prepare for an uncertain future.