Cricket finally heads North
THANK goodness for the Mike Hussey review.
Because without him, and his fee, no one in Tasmanian cricket would have recognised the fact that the kids based in the North of the state were being denied development opportunities in the game without need for life relocation or outrageous travel.
As reported today, a Greater North team will be represented in the CTPL.
Tip your cap to Nick Cummins for riding in on his trusty steed to save the northern kingdom from remaining an irrelevant parcel of the Tasmanian cricketing landscape.
This is a true “hallelujah” moment. Finally, we will see a flurry of CT-branded Klugers making their way to the North regularly instead of sitting in perfect formation, full of fuel, laid out like fighter jets in the Bellerive Oval staff car park.
For some reason, previous administrations — we are going back 15 years and beyond here — opted to sit in their offices and wait for the talent to find its way down the highway without any life support.
By life support, I mean employment, finances, coaching, mentoring, guidance and the types of activities that provide balance to a young person’s life. You know, having mates and being a boy.
Sure, there were a few who were transitioned successfully down the highway — George Bailey, Xavier Doherty and Alex Doolan — through the level of support offered by Tim Coyle and Michael Farrell as they battled the conflicting interests of being SHSB club folk and paid members of the CT junior pathways team.
Just imagine if that deluxe treatment had been afforded to the rest of the talent wanting to make it to the next level.
The responsibility of supporting the North has been placed too heavily on the southern clubs. Put simply, clubs don’t have the resources to lure young talent down the road and provide them the environment required to be comfortable enough in life for them to perform at their optimum. Balance is everything. Now, there are no excuses for the pathway-chasing talent of the North not to fulfil their potential. They get to play with all the comfort and support denied them in the past.
I can tell you right now, if this level of pathway was af- forded to a young Chris Bassano, that man may well have gone on to play for Australia.
Never have I seen a more naturally gifted and stylish player. Better yet, his performance as a human being was off the charts; loved that guy!
His job — fly fishing guide, now an online guru of fly fishing technique — and his family were all based in Launceston. And at the time, the money offered in cricket was woeful.
He should never have been put in that position of choosing life or cricket.
“He’s just bloody lazy,” cried the administrators of the day. “He just doesn’t want it enough,” they sang in unison. Bollocks. The bloke wanted it more than anyone, but sometimes the choice to leave your family and your job for no pay is seen internally as a greedy one. Chris Bassano would not be that selfish or greedy guy in the eyes of those who mattered most to him.
My message to those in the North with the dream of representation: take this chance with both hands. The opportunities to make a living from cricket in the modern day are unbelievable and now that pathway sits on your doorstep. This has you all placed to reach your true potential.
Do it for guys like Chris Bassano who, ironically, were unfairly labelled with the exact terms that produced the very lack of foresight to make Tasmanian cricket “whole”.