Young list brings fresh hopes for Redbacks

For half a century, the most striking memento within the South Australia men's cricket team's trophy cabinet has quite likely been its visitors' book.

From the early 1960s when the game's then greatest allrounder Sir Garfield Sobers chose Adelaide to escape the tail-end of the Caribbean's hurricane season (as well as spending its early months on England's county circuit), the SA Cricket Association welcomed a firmament of visiting stars.

Sobers' West Indies teammate Lance Gibbs (at one stage, Test cricket's leading wicket-taker), South Africa batting genius Barry Richards, ex-New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe, towering Bajan quick Joel Garner, England seamer Gladstone Small, Zimbabwe's pre-eminent batter Andy Flower and celebrated Pakistan captain Younis Khan all donned the red hat at various times until a decade ago.

Even then, the Redbacks looked to established talent from elsewhere to try and stock a mementoes shelf that has housed the Sheffield Shield just seven times in as many decades since their most famous émigré – Bowral-bred Don Bradman – sat out his final Shield innings in 1949 with a damaged ankle.

Test-capped imports Damien Fleming, Matthew Elliott, Johan Botha, Phillip Hughes and Andrew McDonald all relocated to Adelaide for stints of varying length and productivity, but in recent years that incoming traffic has slowed noticeably.

And since McDonald, now back at Victoria as coach, ended his playing days early in the summer of 2014-15, the team that sports its distinctive scarlet livery has taken on a decidedly green tinge.

The 12 players to have earned their baggy red caps over the past four summers boast an average age on Shield debut of 21 years and 10 months, with recently contracted seamer Elliott Opie the most senior of that cohort being barely a month shy of 25 when he first played.

Not only is that the lowest of all six teams in the Shield competition since the start of 2014-15, with New South Wales the next-youngest average on debut for the state at almost 23 years, SA also ranks alongside the Blues for the fewest debutants during that period – 12.

Which indicates that not only are the Redbacks investing more assuredly in young talent, they are sticking with them and in doing so have reached a couple of (albeit fruitless) Shield finals along the way.

The fact that all but two of that dozen players – Alex Ross and Nick Winter, who both played their developmental cricket in the ACT – have emerged largely from within the SACA system is heartening for the Redbacks' High Performance Manager (and ex-Australia coach) Tim Nielsen.

Having just finalised SA's contract list for next season – a group in which only Callum Ferguson (33), Tom Cooper (31) and Chadd Sayers (30) are aged 30 or more – Nielsen pays credit to the coaching and development teams who have identified and nurtured many of those who now underpin SA's playing stocks.

In addition to those involved in pathways programs and squads including the Emerging Redbacks, Toyota Futures League and junior representative outfits, the appointment of former Test batter Greg Blewett as coach with the under-19 program is yielding results.

"I think the group that we've contracted for next summer speaks really highly of our system, the coaches that we've got – and we've invested in some people like Blewett to work with our young players – plus our Futures League program is going really well," Nielsen told cricket.com.au.

"The kids who are making their way through the system are getting opportunities which is great, and more often than not they're performing when chances arise which shows that we're on the right path.

"It's a good result for the individual players obviously, but it's also really positive for the system overall."

The preparedness to allow young players a chance to find their feet and learn their game at developmental level most bountifully bore fruit last summer with left-arm swing bowler Nick Winter.

Having relocated from Canberra to Adelaide five years ago, Winter earned a series of rookie contracts before being delisted in 2016 only to forge a path back through weight of wickets at Premier Cricket and Futures League levels.

After making his Shield debut against Victoria last February, Winter finished his maiden first-class summer with 34 wickets at 19.71 from five matches.

The best return by a bowler in their first five Shield matches for SA since Garner claimed 40 at 16.52 in his sole Adelaide season of 1982-83.

Opie, Northern Territory-born allrounder Luke Robins and opener Conor McInerney who earned his baggy red cap in the final Shield rounds last summer, have all earned full contracts for next summer.

While leg spinner Lloyd Pope – a star of Australia's under-19 World Cup campaign earlier this year – is one of five contracted rookies.

The elevation of SA skipper Travis Head, keeper Alex Carey and quick Kane Richardson to national contracts also signals a positive trend given that the late Phillip Hughes, Darren Lehmann, Jason Gillespie and Blewett are SA's only regular Test representatives (five or more caps) in the past 25 years.

What's more, the depth of SA's stocks has led to Victoria – despite its huge population differential and fielding two teams at the most recent national male under-19 championships – signing Adelaide's uncapped teenage leg spinner Tom O'Connell to a three-year deal from next season.

"If we can produce players from SA who go on to play interstate because we can't fit them all in to our respective squads, then we see that as being a positive," Nielsen said.

"We would love to see 25 or 28 South Australian guys playing first-class cricket in coming years rather than having 15 locally developed players and 10 or so top-ups coming from interstate.

"Obviously we're always going to have a smaller population to draw from than some other states, but we're getting closer to being able to achieve that and that's another exciting prospect."