Rival states caught in spin cycle

Victoria knew their decision to sign an untested 17-year-old from Adelaide on a multi-year deal would be viewed as "a little controversial", but they say it's a continuation of a growing trend towards youth in Australian cricket.

And the Vics say their recruitment of high-school student Tom O'Connell came after lengthy consultation with both Cricket Australia and South Australian cricket.

Leg-spinner O'Connell became an unwilling centrepiece in the battle for talented young cricketers last week when Victoria signed him to a full three-year contract after the Redbacks had offered him only a rookie deal to stay in his home state. 

The length of the deal and the fact O'Connell has essentially replaced dumped veteran Fawad Ahmed as the leading wrist-spinner at Victoria, while he would have been vying with fellow leggies Adam Zampa and Lloyd Pope at the Redbacks, made a move east an attractive proposition.

It is understood SA were unimpressed that the Vics overlooked the relatively deep talent pool in their own state to make an irresistible offer to a young player who, while highly-rated, is yet to even play second XI cricket at state level.

Victoria selection chairman Andrew Lynch concedes there had been an unofficial agreement between states that players as young as O'Connell were off limits, but that "it wasn't a set rule in place and it hadn't really been adhered to strongly in any way over the last few years".

Lynch points to Tasmania's recruitment of 18-year-olds Jake Doran and Mac Wright from NSW - Wright was still in school when he was signed on a rookie deal in 2016 - as part of a trend of luring young players across state lines.

"It's not unprecedented, but it's probably unprecedented for someone that young," Lynch told cricket.com.au of their decision to sign O'Connell.

"It's not the first and it's not going to be the last, I can assure you.

"There was certainly dialogue and communication with CA and South Australia because we weren't going in bullish and saying 'this is what we're going to do'. We were conscious of the fact that it could be a little controversial and continuing to break new ground.

"We were prepared to back off if it was going to create any problems in South Australia, or if Cricket Australia wanted to make a stand and say 'no'. We would have backed off.

"We were toeing the party line and wanted to do the right thing by the boy and the system. But in the end, everyone seemed to agree that if he really wanted to go, it was the best thing."

In announcing the Redbacks squad for the upcoming season, high performance manager Tim Nielsen said the state has "a policy of waiting for young players to finish their schooling before offering full contracts" and were therefore unwilling to match Victoria's offer to O'Connell.

Both Victoria and O'Connell wanted the player to stay in Adelaide to finish Year 12 before moving to Melbourne.

"The schooling is very important, the states know that," Lynch said. "I don't think you're going to get to a stage where you're going to pull a kid out of school for cricket.

"Cricket Australia want to get young talent onto contracts and into playing Shield cricket and one-day cricket.

"We've gone on record in the last few days that squads are going to get younger and younger. Whether that's going to be school kids and whether that's going to be addressed at some stage, I don't know."

O'Connell won the Jason Gillespie Medal as SA's Premier Cricket rising star last season and has been labelled "the best young (spinner) I have seen from here (SA)" by former Test tweaker Ashley Mallett.

He is one of three teenagers on a full deal at the Vics this season, alongside allrounder Will Sutherland and star batsman Mackenzie Harvey. Harvey is also in his final year of high school.

Twenty-eight of the 150 state contracted players across the country (almost 20 per cent) were eligible for either Under-19 and Under-17 selection last year, which National Talent Manager Greg Chappell says is a strong endorsement of CA's Pathways program.

"This has been a big year for Victoria and NSW," Chappell told Fairfax after the Vics and Blues signed a combined 15 teenagers for the 2018-19 season.

"They have, obviously, had a look at their lists and realised that they probably needed some regeneration. That’s a really good thing because we have got some good, young players coming through."