Central North captain Tom Groth has described the decline in interest in playing representative cricket in the region as a “huge concern”.
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Speaking ahead of Tamworth’s fourth round War Veterans Cup clash against Gunnedah at Wolseley Park on Sunday, the Tamworth and Bolters skipper – a selector for a number of rep sides – said he could not explain why the drop-off in interest had been so severe.
Consequently, he does not know what can be done to arrest it.
He said: “I feel that the commitment towards rep cricket in Northern Inland the last four or five years has really declined and it’s a bit of a concern.
“As far as the Northern Inland Bolters go, I think we had seven or eight guys pull out [of the last Bash round this month] – and that’s a huge concern. “Blokes don’t want to play. I don’t know what the answer is.”
What Groth does know is this: players should push themselves to play the highest level they can.
He said it was a “soft attitude” to pull out of a higher-level rep team to play War Veterans Cup.
“I’m involved in selecting some of these teams along with Chris Patterson,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a nightmare to get a team out. It’s hard work chasing blokes during the week.”
On the plus side, Groth said a number of younger players, such as Joey Mead and Lachie Barton, had been given higher rep cricket opportunities, and it was “good to see them do well”.
Tamworth will be without three frontline quicks against Gunnedah – Tom O’Neill, who has rep coaching duties, Brad Redshaw and Tait Jordan.
Explosive batsman Simon Norvill and allrounder Michael Rixon (broken finger) will also be absent.
Tamworth are coming off a last-start loss to Armidale, which Groth thinks might have been Tamworth’s second loss in all matches in more than a decade. He expects Gunnedah to be tough to beat. “Gunnedah have been one of the few teams that has stuck it to us over the last 10 years,” he said.
