SA Footy

David Brent wrote:

heater31 wrote:Botha to retire from First Class cricket at season's end is my guess. Rumblings that the board were preparing to meet after this next shield match in Perth to discuss the future of Coach & Captain.

You would think in their orginal succession plan the big C would have been handed on to Phil Hughes, just another thing this tragic accident has effected IMO.

Hughes would have been playing for Australia before too long, which doesn't give much time to play State cricket. Would've thought Ferguson was the obvious choice, but clearly they see something special in Travis Head. A lot of pressure on a young player who is yet to really stamp his mark at first class level. Good luck to him.

Hopefully they can get Dizzy back to coach.

Aerie wrote:

David Brent wrote:

heater31 wrote:Botha to retire from First Class cricket at season's end is my guess. Rumblings that the board were preparing to meet after this next shield match in Perth to discuss the future of Coach & Captain.

You would think in their orginal succession plan the big C would have been handed on to Phil Hughes, just another thing this tragic accident has effected IMO.

Hughes would have been playing for Australia before too long, which doesn't give much time to play State cricket. Would've thought Ferguson was the obvious choice, but clearly they see something special in Travis Head. A lot of pressure on a young player who is yet to really stamp his mark at first class level. Good luck to him.

Hopefully they can get Dizzy back to coach.

Don't think Ferguson wants the job. Dizzy won't return to the SACA much like Boof won't either.

Dutchy wrote:Throw everything at Justin Langer IMO

Aren't WA just as big of a basket case at Shield level as we are?

"Preferred to now Australian boss Darren Lehmann"

Great decision......

RustyCage wrote:"Preferred to now Australian boss Darren Lehmann"

Great decision......

In hindsight, it was. Of course there's no guarantee that Lehmann would have done as well with SA but appointing a bloke who only is in the job for 6 months doesn't help us too much.

Sounds like the movement of Head becoming captain started months ago with Chuck involved as well.

interesting article on news.com


AN ENGLISH county cricket deal involving SA batsman Mark Cosgrove has emerged as an ingredient in the downfall of former Redbacks skipper Johan Botha.

The Advertiser understands Cosgrove has signed to play with Leicestershire under the county’s new coach and SA teammate Andrew McDonald for the 2015 England season in a move first mooted in October.

But the 30-year-old was forced to sign as a “local” England player by using his British passport because Leicestershire had already filled its overseas quota with Aussie and Victoria bowler Clint McKay.

Any deal has not yet been announced by Leicester.

The move means Cosgrove must forfeit his “local” status in Australian domestic cricket and instead play here as an “overseas” player for the length of his Leicester contract.

It is understood Cosgrove’s local status in Australian cricket would only change when he begins his stint at Leicester. The county season begins in early April.

Botha was signed as Redbacks and Strikers captain in July, 2012 and the South African has filled SA’s “overseas” spot since then.

A Cricket Australia spokesman last night confirmed CA regulations would prohibit Cosgrove and Botha playing in the same team once Cosgrove becomes a “local” for Leicester.

In effect, the South Australian Cricket Association was forced to choose between Botha and Cosgrove beyond this summer.

It is also believed SACA was under pressure from Cricket Australia, who believed Botha was clogging spin bowling and batting spots for young Australian talent.

The South Australian Cricket Assocation was approached for comment yesterday but did not respond.

Botha revealed on Tuesday that he was told during South Australia’s clash with Tasmania in December, before the break for Big Bash League, that he did not have a future with the Redbacks beyond this summer. He has relinquished the captaincy to Travis Head.

Botha, recently granted Australian residency, has stated his intent to continue living in Australia to raise his young family.

He would not qualify for citizenship — which would allow him to play Australian domestic cricket as a local — until midway through 2016.

Cosgrove’s situation only became a possibility in August, 2013, when Cricket Australia loosened its player eligibility rules.

The change allowed Australian-born players to use their dual citizenship to qualify as locals in England and overseas players in Australia. Previous rules excluded Australian-born players from holding overseas status in Australia.

The loosening of the regulation was dubbed the “Robson rule” — named after former Australian under-19 player Sam Robson who held dual citizenship — was designed allow players to feature in both first-class systems.

Interesting.

It kinda makes sense, the bit about Botha holding back talent, he is basically keeping both zampa and kelvin smith out of the side.

Reckon Botha will just play Big bash from now on.

Give me Botha over Cossie anyday....not sure about holding back talent, 1 overseas player per shield squad isn't excessive IMO and can add to the comp.

Dutchy wrote:Give me Botha over Cossie anyday....not sure about holding back talent, 1 overseas player per shield squad isn't excessive IMO and can add to the comp.

Think in SA's case it does when we have Zampa on the list, forces Botha to bat 6 which then limits us getting game time into Kelvin Smith or Alex Ross and Adam Zampa.

I wonder about that too, Dutchy.
Although, spinners are so precious a commodity that keeping them out of FC cricket is not a good thing, so I can see the argument from that side.

Zampa and Smith should be good enough to force their way into the side regardless of whether Botha is in or not. I don't see any reason we can't play 2 spinners and there are plenty of batting spots.

Question for me is whether Cosgrove is good enough to be the sole overseas player. I don't like Botha and his bowling action is dodgy as f#@! but he was a really astute recruit IMHO. Clever bowler, handy batsman and most importantly a strong leader. If he passes on an iota of his toughness to SA cricket then we'll have a far better side for his involvement. I'm just not sure losing that influence to retain an ill disciplined bloke who costs runs in the field and between wickets with an average of 42 is worth it. We ended up picking Cosgrove over Klinger, now we're picking Cosgrove over Klinger AND Botha.

Grahaml wrote:Zampa and Smith should be good enough to force their way into the side regardless of whether Botha is in or not. I don't see any reason we can't play 2 spinners and there are plenty of batting spots.

Question for me is whether Cosgrove is good enough to be the sole overseas player. I don't like Botha and his bowling action is dodgy as f#@! but he was a really astute recruit IMHO. Clever bowler, handy batsman and most importantly a strong leader. If he passes on an iota of his toughness to SA cricket then we'll have a far better side for his involvement. I'm just not sure losing that influence to retain an ill disciplined bloke who costs runs in the field and between wickets with an average of 42 is worth it. We ended up picking Cosgrove over Klinger, now we're picking Cosgrove over Klinger AND Botha.

all good points.

Rarely will two spinners be in the one side. Especially on the AO deck.So yes, he is probably keeping a young spinner out the side.

Is he good enough to be picked just as a batsman at 5/6? Probably is, but are we better served picking a kid ahead of him? Again, probably, with the young talent we seem to be fostering here in SA making a case for inclusion at FC level.

Has he proven to be a good recruit for SA? I think the jury will never reach a verdict on this one. Our culture still seems to manifest itself into embarrassing capitulations in all forms of the game. So his impact, whilst positive in the main, hasn't been enough to drag us off the canvas.

Would I make all of these changes to accommodate Cosgrove in the side? No ******* way! He was dropped from Shield cricket earlier this year and has hardly been the main stay of our top order since his return, while claims that upon his return he was fitter than ever were clearly just a matter of a typo.

Seems a strange move. Won't be the last one up there....sadly.

If you have to choose between Botha and Cosgrove as our 'overseas player' I'd take Botha over Cossie any day. If Cossie was good enough he would've already been a first choice selection and if Zampa is good enough he would've been picked as the #1 spinner and Botha could play exclusively as an all-rounder.

I wasn't a fan of bringing in an import to captain our side when we first signed Botha but I think in his 2.5 years with us he's played some pretty good cricket, shown good leadership, is a competitor (the biggest thing the Jellys lack) and has handled himself with absolute class. I've done a complete 180 on the decision to first sign him and IMO he's been screwed over a bit here too in true SACA fashion.

I hope he's able to stay here in Adelaide and either continue to play for the Strikers or when he becomes naturalised play for the Redbacks as a local player.

The only slight "flaw" there Gozu, all-rounders are best when they bowl medium-fast and play as the 4th seamer.

Bar that, I agree with all of your thoughts there.

Booney wrote:The only slight "flaw" there Gozu, all-rounders are best when they bowl medium-fast and play as the 4th seamer.

Bar that, I agree with all of your thoughts there.

I thought he was a medium pacer?

The way I look it is could he be picked in our side off his batting, to that I would say yes throw in his bowling for the fun of it and you could play he and Zampa together every time.

That makes no sense on green tops though where you might want one spinner and have an extra pace bowler. Even if zampa was a better spinner you would still pick Botha in that case. So I do think he was keeping zampa out of he side a lot

With Botha dropped for this game I cant see him getting back in the side

bennymacca wrote:That makes no sense on green tops though where you might want one spinner and have an extra pace bowler. Even if zampa was a better spinner you would still pick Botha in that case. So I do think he was keeping zampa out of he side a lot

I never understood the 'Shane Warne kept Stuart MacGill out of the Test side' stuff. If Zampa was deemed good enough he would be in there.