SCA needs to make changes to create elite players

OPINION: The Southland Cricket Association, in my view, is in desperate need of some sort of overhaul to its head office, writes Logan Savory in this week's Sav's Say.

Just how the finances can be juggled to allow this I'm not sure, but the situation the SCA finds itself in I believe is a little concerning.

This isn't a dig at those people running the Southland cricket ship, but changes do need to be made.

Southland cricket is in a dreadful situation with its director of coaching Kevin Cooper not actually doing any coaching.

What has happened in the past five years since he arrived from England is the Queens Park ground has been upgraded to the point it is now a regular first-class venue.

That increased level of first-class cricket has meant Kevin Cooper has now basically become a fulltime groundsman despite his title remaining as director of coaching.

Cricket officials need to be commended for attracting more high-profile cricket to Invercargill, but I just hope isn't coming at the expense of trying to develop the next batch of Otago or New Zealand players.

Southland has a poor recent record of progressing promising youngsters into first-class cricketers, and having its director of coaching tied up as a groundsman I would suggest is not going to help change that.

Ultimately, it all comes down to dollars and cents, but there needs to be way to have a director of coaching that does just that – coach. The province can't afford to continue to slip behind on one of the key tasks, which is developing elite cricketers.

On a completely unrelated front, a mate and I sat down on Sunday morning to watch the Highlanders take on the Cheetahs in the Super 14 game played in South Africa.

Both of us can take or leave rugby at this time of the year, probably more swaying to leaving it to be frank. But obviously, there is an interest in the Highlanders with such a big Southland representation.

With 4am a better hour to be doing other things than watching rugby, this is where the My Sky technology can come into play.

Recording the game didn't just mean we could view it at a more leisurely hour, but on Sunday morning it hammered home to me and my mate just how much dead air there is in the sport of rugby.

We managed to cut out the constant reset scrums, the waiting for lineouts, the lining up of the goal kicks and just the general nothing moments in a game of rugby.

Take all that away and we could view the game in 30 to 40 minutes.

That is more appealing for me than grinding through 80 minutes at a time of the year that other sports should be in the limelight.

» Logan Savory is a former Southland cricket representative who was named New Zealand junior sportswriter of the year at the 2007 TP McLean journalism awards. His main rounds are cricket and rugby.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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