Shoalhaven District Cricket Association prepares for the future

He was appointed area manager Southern NSW/ACT by Cricket NSW 12 months ago and has found the role an interesting one.

The appointment was timely with local cricket facing many issues.

"Community cricket is going through a bit of a change at the moment," he said.

"With the staffing uplift that was put in place just 12 months ago, we are starting to see some of the benefits.

"There has been growth in junior cricket across the area, which is great."

Getting volunteers more help is something the cricket administration is keen to work on.

He added the use of online registration was a good move, as it eased the burden on the local volunteers, while the use of electronic scoring continued to grow.

"A key focus for us is how we can work with volunteers to make administration easier and simpler," he said.

"Each game that is scored electronically, saves around somewhere between 30 to 50 minutes of volunteer time.

"So there's a few initiatives already in place and something that will continue to work towards.

"We are seeing some growth in school participation as well.

"There has been a lot of things that are working but there are still a lot of things that we need to continue to get better at."

Last season was a testing one for Shoalhaven cricket, with aspects like no under 16s competition and senior teams on a week to week basis struggling to get their full teams on deck.

One year on and Gleeson said he was hearing both negative and positive things about local cricket.

He says the recently released future directions project, draft strategy for the Shoalhaven District Cricket Association, is a great way to work on both the negatives and positives.

All clubs were part of the draft strategy process.

"We now have a draft strategy out for people to provide feedback on," he said.

"We are not just asking clubs to provide commentary.

"It's open and available for anyone as a community consultation piece.

"So anyone who has an interest in local cricket, its success and where people think it needs to go, then please tell us - it's all part of this process.

"As well as reaching guys who may be playing first grade or volunteers running clubs, we want to connect with parents of kids playing in the stage one competition, who have opinions and thoughts we would like to hear."

He went onto to expand upon some of the matters he raised.

The area manager says every association has its own nuances as well as its own commonalities.

"Aspects like volunteer burnout, the demands of local sport, how that community competition interacts with the representative cricket, club sustainability and how to support volunteers is universal," he said.

"Whether you are sitting in Nowra, Dubbo, up in Far North Queensland or metropolitan Melbourne, the conversations are pretty similar."

The future of Shoalhaven cricket depends on players coming up the ranks and not having an under 16s competition last season stumped the association.

Gleeson said the stages, not ages approach, which replaced the under 12 to 16s grading, was a winner.

The new approach resulted in an increase in the number of junior teams.

"There are seven more junior teams than there was last season - that's a really significant piece of growth," he said.

"Full credit goes to the clubs for embracing stages, not ages."

The success of the stages not ages system is helping the association bounce back from not having an under 16s competition, according to Gleeson.

"The stage three competition has brought that [the under 16s] back," he said.

"So that already is a success in that really important 14 to 18 years age group, where we know that kids find other things to do and often move away from community sport.

"Building that base is really important because it provides some players through the pipeline."

The cricket administrator said it was important to remember that cricket was not the only sport facing some challenges.

"Community sport is undergoing a number of challenges and some of the challenges in cricket are universal," he said.

"You could probably replace the word cricket with rugby league, football, hockey or whatever.

"They are all pretty similar because we all will run on the same model."

He said a shortage of volunteers, the struggle to get facilities that are both available and suitable are all universal community sports issues.

Gleeson, when it comes to senior land, said they had work to do.

"Clearly a desire of the local clubs is a sustainable and viable first-grade competition," he said.

He said the view that every club should play first grade versus the belief that clubs should get to nominate which grade they play in was a point of conjecture.

"So there's probably a little bit of work to do in an area."

Related: The association president expresses his views

He added at one point the clubs were leaning towards the eight-team first-grade draw but then went back to the model they have now where there are only five teams in first grade.

"Clearly pretty rigorous debate is needed in that area as to what's the best structure," he said.

In the lower grades, a division is loving the one-day format.

"The feedback we've been getting is the fourth graders love the fact that they can play one-day cricket," he said.

"We know that people are a little bit more transitory these days and so they'll play one week, but not the next week.

"Therefore, one-day cricket suits that and they enjoy the fact you get to bat and bowl every week.

"I think what we might see in the future is that third grade goes the same way."

Players and clubs are always an important part of the conversation, according to the administrator.

"Typically, we consult with current clubs and current players and then make decisions accordingly - that's a logical way to do things," he said.

He added getting former players back on deck was another key ingredient with it came to growth.

"To grow, the conversations and discussions need to be had with people who currently aren't involved in the game," he said.

The draft strategy was looked upon as a vehicle to get former players back to the game.

"We want to know what their thoughts are," he said.

Gleeson is the type of administrator who takes the good with the bad.

"There's a lot of positivity with community cricket. Yeah, we have challenges and we don't shy away from that," he said.

He listed the growth in junior cricket, how the entry-level cricket program was getting better, improved engagement with schools compared to this time last year, the online registration process and the electronic scoring program as the successes.

"So there's a lot of things that are working but we still have lots of work to do," he said.

The area manager also mentioned the improvements came during one of the toughest seasons on record.

"This season has been one of enormous challenges due to factors that really aren't related to the sport at all, such as the weather," he said.

"The bushfires crisis created a whole level of angst, anxiety and concern which impacted on all the community.

"Of course there have been impacts on community cricket.

"The impact has been on people involved in community cricket, whether they be volunteers, players or supporters.

"We have had as much as nature can throw at the sport, which takes its toll on people over time."

The weather situation meant the association had to look at its weather policy guidelines, including heat and air quality

"We just need to keep evolving as the environment evolves,'' he said.

He looks forward to watching Shoalhaven cricket grow and be successful.

Most of the on-ground work is done by Sean Barrett as the local cricket manager but Gleeson tries to get up to the Shoalhaven as much as he can.

"We work very closely on strategies and on discussions about school relationships and programs and how they're travelling," Gleeson said.

"I then come down for face to face meetings when needed but otherwise things are done on the phone or electronically."