Softly-softly style winning fight for talent Down Under
IT’S the quintessential quandary for talented Australian sportspeople: footy or cricket?
Many have balanced both.The late Max Walker was an Aussie Rules player before finding his way in professional cricket, the great Keith Miller another. Even Shane Warne turned out for St Kilda’s reserves before zero-ing in on a life of tweak.
In the second part of The Cricket Paper’s discussion with Australia’s U19s coach, former Test opener Matthew Elliott, he acknowledges this predicament remains just as it ever was. Not least for his bigger-bodied bowlers, athletes well suited to the native football code.
But there is a difference now in approach. Instead of getting players to pick and stick while still in junior squads, Cricket Australia now turns the pressure down, encouraging their young guns to flourish as sportspeople elsewhere rather than forcing hurried decisions.
The hope is that the latitude and respect they provide now ultimately earns them long-term commitment.
“This is where cricket has a tremendous approach,” Elliott says. “There is no pressure on any of these guys. If they want to do other things in the winter they’re encouraged. More cricket is not necessarily better.”
After last week looking at batsmen, Elliott provides insight into this batch of talented bowlers who successfully defeated Sri Lanka 4-1 in a recently completed Youth ODI series in Hobart.
With 11 wickets at 13, South Australian leg-spinner Lloyd Pope left the series with a reputation as enhanced as any. Elliott believes he could already “come in and hold his own” at first-class level at 17 years of age. Better still, he believes Pope has a fast bowler’s attitude to his craft.
“He has a Shane Warne mentality to bowling,” says Elliott. “An aggressive leg-spinner who loves getting wickets. When he gets a sniff you can feel him lift his intensity. He’s fierce, and that’s going to take him a long way.”
Leading Australia’s attack was another 17-year-old, Victorian Zak Evans, who claimed eight wickets against Sri Lanka at the ridiculous average of 8.5.
“He tended to bring the ball into right handers, but over the last six months he’s been able to develop a ball that swings away as well,” Elliott says of his talisman’s tricks. “He’s probably going to be more James Pattinson type height and he’s showing signs of getting speeds up into the top bracket.”
A spinner reminiscent of Warne and a seamer like Pattinson. Handy. Next? An all-rounder with plenty of Simon O’Donnell about him – Will Sutherland.
Son of Cricket Australia CEO James, he joined Austin Waugh in the famous dads’ club on tour. But, just as it is with Waugh, Sutherland is successfully carving his own path, evidenced by his appointment as co-captain despite also being 17.
Extracting seven wickets from his tall frame, Sutherland also hit a run-a-ball half-century with the bat, highlighting his all-round matchwinning skills.
“Will is someone we’ve seen marked improvement from,” Elliott says. “He was able to bring our innings home a couple of times. Then with his bowling, he already thinks about how he structures overs. He’s a very good reader of batsmen.”
As for whether Sutherland Jnr ends up skippering the side to the U19 World Cup in January, Elliott says he is on track with a “good chance” of a formal leadership role in that campaign.
Speaking of Austin Waugh: he bowls, too, the ball routinely thrown to him for the death overs, handled calmly. Defined by stump-to-stump accuracy and changes of pace, the comparisons already there again with his Dad, who picked up 195 ODI wickets with similar tools.
Elliott says it’s lack of raw pace that will define the all-rounder's bowling in short form cricket.
“Pace off the ball, particularly if you can move it around, is a very handy skill to have,” he says. “Austin is young and small of stature at the moment, he’s going to keep developing his strength. But it is his cleverness with the ball that’s going to be holding him in good stead.”
Then there’s West Australia prodigy Cameron Green, 17. Rested against Sri Lanka, he has made three first-class appearances. In the first, he took 5-24 against Tasmania. By season’s end he had also dismissed internationals Ed Cowan, Cameron White and Dan Christian.
Elliott’s simple assessment: “A lot would have to go wrong for him not to push into this group for the World Cup.”
It’s a pathway in impressive shape. With ample opportunity for players to bridge the gap between talent and top flight, there’s every reason to believe cricket is doing everything it can to win the race for Australia’s most gifted sportspeople.