CRICKET FUTURE’S TASSIE TOUCH
GINN, OLIVER SCORE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ROLES
MUCH of the future of Australian cricket will be steered by two men cultivated by Cricket Tasmania.
Former Tiger’s all-rounder Ben Oliver, who has spent seven years at the Western Australia Cricket Association, will work with both men’s and women’s national teams and selectors after already establishing a close relationship with men’s coach Justin Langer.
CT will be on the hunt for a new high performance manager after its punt on former “Oarsome Foursome” rower and three-time Olympic gold medallist Drew Ginn was appointed to the Cricket Australia role.
Ginn, 44, will be tasked with overseeing domestic cricket, premier (club) cricket, coaching, youth pathways, talent identification, umpires and sports science.
He has made a huge impact in turning the toothless Tigers back into a fearsome opponent in his two years in Tasmania and would have a more collaborate approach on restoring domestic cricket to its previous highs.
“My job initially is to get in, understand the people who are leading our programs nationally and understand what the states are doing as well and really ensure we are listening to all the stakeholders — and the key stakeholders are players, coaches and umpires in the system,” Ginn said.
“I don’t think there will be any argument from anyone that we want to have the best and most healthy competitions domestically. So how do we have world class competitions where the Australian players are developed through good, healthy competition to produce a better outcome that way?
“I think there are areas of competing which is where the teams fight it out but also areas of collaboration.
“For me, everyone describes they want to have improvements, they want to make sure premier cricket is honoured and rewarded and Sheffield Shield is honoured and rewarded and WNCL as well and Big Bash is obviously going from strength to strength.
“If we get those right they are the events and then the key part for me is the underlying development of players, coaches and umpires and if we do that if we have got great events we’ll produce great outcomes for Australian cricket.”
Ginn said he was indebted to CT, in particular chief executive officer Nick Cummins, which took a chance on someone from outside cricketing circles.
“The courage and vision Nick had for the organisation here has shown the difference that can be made when you have really good people who know the sport of cricket and people that don’t know the sport but understand the high performance and work closely can achieve some really good outcomes,” he said.
Cummins said it was a mixture of great pride and sadness to lose Ginn to CA, but it showed how strong the Tigers program was and his promotion would only help attract a high calibre replacement.
“Our focus is on the most important thing in that role and it is a system leader rather than a cricket coach,” Cummins said.
“In doing that he has empowered the subject matter experts in the high performance department to be the best they can be and that has worked out really well.”