Harry49 wrote:Cricket Watcher wrote:Thoughts on the proposed Premier Cricket Junior structure?
I like the decision to remove red/white and the age groups look good and will free up some grounds on a Saturday which is an added bonus. However, the decision to play U17s on Sunday will have an impact on community clubs if Premier Clubs aren't organised. SACA seemed to have placed more importance on not clashing with college cricket as opposed to the impacts on community cricket.
It now places clubs like ours (Para Hills) in a bit of limbo with planning. We know we will lose at least 3 of our U16's to Premier Cricket and potentially a further 3-4 pending selection. We push all of our players to play the highest level possible so we aren't concerned that they will only play Premier Cricket at this age as we tend to lose them come time for them to move up to Seniors. But we need assurance that we will have enough time to plan. To help community clubs it would be ideal if Premier Clubs select their squads by mid-September so it gives Community Clubs enough time to understand what age groups they will be fielding for the upcoming season and whether or not they need to do last minute recruiting to make up the numbers potentially lost to the new SACA structure. We also don't know is if a Squad of 15 will be chosen for each age group and will the players not selected be encouraged to play for their community club? This will have a ripple effect as it will mean that players in the community club will need to make way for the non-selected premier players. Would be ideal to have some clarity on how this will be rolled out. We do appreciate the move of the U13's competition (Ray-Sutton Shield) to Saturdays as this will be less stressful for our U14's age groups having to squeeze in a match in the morning and then making their way to their Ray-Sutton game. Overall, a re-structure of the SACA Juniors is required and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
One thing I have provided feedback on to SACA is that at the very least these U17s selected to play Premier Cricket are able to nominate their grassroots club and be eligible to play in the SACA 150 Cup for their grassroots club. This keeps their community club connection which is extremely important for both the club and the individual.
Some excellent, very well made points here.