Cricket administrators need to provide more funding to support the sport in regional areas, according to former Australian swing bowler Terry Alderman.
Alderman, who played 41 tests and 65 one-day internationals, was at Ewing Park in Bendigo yesterday coaching budding junior cricketers in the art of swing bowling.
He said the health of country cricket was important to the state of the game.
“The money that’s being made at the top isn’t being filtered through to regional areas as much as I think it should be,” Alderman said.
“Cricket clubs in each region have got to be able to survive. If there’s big money on the top and it’s not filtering down there’s something wrong.
“We’re paying the players so much money at the top of the tree – which is fine, they’re the entertainers, they’re the ones providing the TV income – but I think the administrators in all the states have got to be looking after the regional areas a bit more.”
Alderman built his cricket career around bowling outswing into the breeze at Perth’s WACA ground.
He is best remembered for running through England’s batting line-up on two Ashes tours in 1981 and 1989, when he took more than 40 wickets on both occasions – and for tackling a spectator who invaded the WACA in 1982, when he dislocated his shoulder and had a lengthy rehabilitation.
The Western Australian still plays cricket for the Australian Cricketers’ Association Masters team and will take the field at Moon Oval in Rochester on February 19 for a Twenty20 match against a Campaspe Cricket Association combined side.
“It’ll be good to get to Rochester and give something back to that area which obviously has been devastated,” Alderman said.
“I think that’s something about sport and the country. It’s part of the community in a big way and that’s why I enjoy doing this regional coaching, because the regional kids are a little bit more responsive. They’re a bit like a sponge absorbing the information that we give them.”
In his role as an ABC cricket commentator Alderman has seen some of the Australian team’s recent matches and has been pleased by the revival of fast swing bowling after the team’s dismal Ashes campaign last year.
Led by the rejuvenated Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, plus the young brigade of James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, Australia has ripped apart a disappointing Indian team.
“For Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle to move that ball like they have been this summer, it’s a thrill for an ageing swing bowler like me,” Alderman said.
“We had our foot on the Poms for some years and then all of a sudden they’ve come through and to falter like we did last summer was embarrassing.
“To see the swing bowlers of England and our blokes not to move the ball, you just thought ‘what’s going on here?’”
Alderman said the Ashes series next winter must be Australia’s focus and he believes the present squad of bowlers will lift the team’s performances in England.
“If you’ve got a fit young (Patrick) Cummins and Pattinson, then the older fellas really in Hilfenhaus and Siddle and then you’ve got Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson coming back it really is going to be very, very good for Australian cricket.” Alderman said.
But he acknowledged the question marks surrounding Australia’s batting order need to be addressed for the team to win back the Ashes.
Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey have endured many calls for them to be dropped this summer before they scored centuries in the Sydney Test, while wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is also under the microscope.
“The selectors have got to make the call now, after this Test (in Adelaide) we don’t play too much Test cricket between now and next summer,” Alderman said.
“You’ve either got to make the call that they are going to be playing or you’re thinking of them for England 2013, or you drop them.”
Email a friend