Public schools the nursery for Test players
PUBLIC schools continue to produce the majority of Test cricketers to have played for Australia since the turn of the century but some of the nation’s biggest private schools are emerging as nurseries for the nation’s favourite summer sport.
Of the 102 cricketers to have played a Test for Australia since 2000, 54 completed their schooling at public institutions, with 48 coming through the private school system.
And our cricketing captains this century are even more likely to have come through the public system, with six of the eight Test leaders in the 2000s – Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Steve Smith and Tim Paine – attending public schools.
Only Shane Watson – who captained a single Test in India in 2013 when Clarke was injured – and current captain and St Paul’s Grammar, Penrith, student Pat Cummins attended private schools.
Unlike the rugby codes and AFL though, which rely heavily on the school system to help develop players, the schools our cricketers attend are less likely to point to their higherlevel success.
Eighty-six separate institutions have contributed to the tally, from all states and territories except the Northern Territory, with players schooled in city and country areas.
Seventy of those have produced a single Test cricketer, while 10 have two students that have gone on to play a men’s cricket Test for Australia. But four schools stand above the rest for players this century.
Western Australia’s Wesley College has produced four players – brothers Shaun and Mitchell Marsh, batsman Chris Rogers and middle-order batter Hilton Cartwright – while wrist spinner Brad Hogg, opener Cameron Bancroft and former Test stalwart and coach Justin Langer went to fellow WA Public Schools Association (PSA) member Aquinas College.
Queensland’s rugby nursery Nudgee College also schooled three players that turned out this century, offspinner Nathan Hauritz, opener Joe Burns and leg spinner Mitchell Swepson.