Suspended during COVID,the induction of national performance squads at theNational Cricket Centre in Brisbane is expected to be phased out. This will leave the facility and a wider National Cricket Campus to be used mainly as a training base for senior and junior men’s and women’s international and A team squads.
It will also be open for use by the state associations and their own development or academy squads,ending more than 30 years of assembling the nation’s best 20-odd young cricketers for focused schooling to prepare for international cricket.
The list of graduates reads like a veritable who’s who of Australian cricket’s golden era,many of them mentored by the great Rod Marsh:Michael Clarke,Adam Gilchrist,Jason Gillespie,Mike Hussey,Justin Langer,Brett Lee,Stuart MacGill,Damien Martyn,McGrath,Ponting,Michael Slater and Andrew Symonds.
But in truth the academy,later the Centre of Excellence and finally the national performance squad at the NCC,has been subject to squabbling between CA and the states for more than two decades – ever since the domestic system was professionalised in the late 1990s.
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Numerous NCC staff,including the former head coach Troy Cooley,have left CA over the past two years without being replaced.
Since 2013,CA has overseen the expansion of its digital footprint,primarily through the provision of the website cricket.com.au as a source of live scores,articles,videos and streaming.