Cricket Scotland, the governing body of Scottish cricket, believe that the standard of club cricket in their country is declining at a time when the national side is enjoying unprecednted success. They have produced what is, for a governing body, a remarkable candid analysis of the problems - identifying, in particular, the negative impact of professional players on domestic cricket and the lack of youth cricket in many clubs.

They have produced a discussion paper outlining the problems and suggesting a number of options for the restructuring of club cricket. Among their proposals is one that professionals musthave a Level 2 coaching qualification and be available to work for Cricket Scotland for 25 days each summer under the direction of Cricket Scotland's three Development Managers.

Four open forums will be held around Scotland during November to debate the proposals around the country over the next few weeks. Cricket Scotland will draw up a detailed scheme wfor presentation at their AGM in Perth on 4 December 4.

We reproduce the proposla paper below as we feel its analysis and proposals will be of interest beyond the borders of Scotland.

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There has been much discussion over the last 12 months by club cricketers in Scotland, and the professional staff and Board of Cricket Scotland, about the current structure of domestic cricket, questioning whether it is appropriate to the long-term development of the game as a whole. Whatever structure is in place has to meet the needs of the recreational cricketer, the developing young player and future internationalists.

This discussion paper summarises current league structures, the historical reasons for their existence and their recent record of mixed success and continued failings. It details a rationale for change and suggests a draft new domestic structure for further debate.

Cricket in Scotland owes everything to the clubs and their members who play the game across the length and breadth of the country. It will be these clubs and these players who decide if our structure is to be changed or not. This paper is simply a stimulus for discussion and should be read as such. The staff of Cricket Scotland do not pretend to have all the answers but we are sure that, if these initial thoughts are debated amongst the clubs, then a consensus for the way forward can be reached, whether this involves change or not.

Following dissemination of this paper, we will arrange for local forums around the country to discuss its content. These will allow clubs every opportunity to convey their feedback and to suggest how cricket�s structure in Scotland may evolve. The dates and venues for these forums will be advertised on the Cricket Scotland website and communicated directly to all clubs.

There will then be an opportunity for a full debate on the issues immediately prior to the AGM on Sunday 4th December. This will be staged at St Johnstone FC, McDiarmiad Park, Perth, and the debate on domestic structure will be from 1pm to 3pm, with the formal AGM following on.

The SNCL was started in 1996, with teams from the former Counties and East League, and developed to a full national league with the addition of the Western Union in 1999, following a year of categorisation matches in 1998.

The SNCL was set up with the following rationale:

• First, to get the best players in Scotland playing against each other on a regular basis to improve standards of play and the performance of the national side;
• Secondly, to improve standards of playing facilities;
• And lastly, to improve standards and increase numbers of juniors playing cricket.

The SNCL has been run by Cricket Scotland in recent years and at present has a Premier Division and a North and South division, all of ten sides. From season 2006, this will revert to a Premier and 1st and 2nd Division containing a total of 34 clubs.

The quality of competitiveness has proved to be strong in each division. And every year, there is an opportunity for promotion from three feeder leagues, to ensure there is a pathway for any ambitious club to make its way through the leagues to the top of the tree.

When the SNCL was set up all these aims were appropriate to the then state of Scottish cricket. In the last nine years, however, there have been considerable changes. The national side now plays in a professional league, it has a markedly increased fixture list, plays a three-day first class competition and has qualified for the 2007 World Cup. And the national age-group programme has developed to the extent that there are now upwards of 15 days� representative cricket each summer for each side.

Members of the national squads now play less club cricket and this will become more evident as the national fixture list continues to expand. It could well be that some of the national players will play no more than five of the 18 league games next season.

Furthermore, to conform to the developmental requirements of the ICC, Cricket Scotland has to look seriously at introducing a new tier of cricket, to bridge the increasing gulf between club and national levels of the game.

We have also to consider changes in the social fabric of our society, as less time is now available for sport due to work and family pressures. This leads to a general unwillingness to travel long distances to play recreational games, especially when that means a whole day away from families.

And we need to ensure that young players are afforded proper opportunities to participate in national league games, to develop their skills. This is, however, often difficult to achieve in a competitive two-up, two-down league structure.

As part of the constitution of the SNCL, all clubs are required to run age-group teams at three levels. But there are a number of clubs which have repeatedly not reached this standard, and the Competitions Committee of the SNCL is rightly concerned about this failure. The Committee intends to address it by sanctioning teams from the league structure if necessary.

Clubs throughout Scotland currently spend a conservative total of �300,000 in employing professional cricketers to spend four months in Scotland playing and coaching. This figure is in excess of what Cricket Scotland spends on its national development programme. But there is good evidence to suggest that a number of professionals do little or no coaching in schools/clubs, and merely play. It is also clear that a number of clubs rely very heavily on these professionals to win leagues or to avoid relegation.

In general, clubs exist on a year-to-year basis depending on their level of performance in the SNCL. This is unfortunately the main focus, rather than sustainable development and long-term survival. There are a few notable exceptions to this rule, but a two-up, two-down system in a ten-team league has made this inevitably unstable.

Through the Top Club programme and the work of Cricket Scotland�s expanding development team, we propose to help clubs to prioritise their development, based on good junior structures and an improved standard of coaching. We cannot do this in isolation. We must support and empower the clubs to deliver; we cannot do it for them. For this to happen, there has to be a commitment to development issues and a moving of the club focus away from �win at all costs�.

Cricket Scotland would never wish to remove the excitement of hard competition from club cricket. But the essential competitiveness has to be at an appropriate level for all teams and players in a club and should not drain resources that could be used elsewhere for the long-term health of the club. There has to be a happy medium.

There is very strong evidence that the general standard of club cricket has deteriorated in recent seasons. This can be subjective, of course, and there is always a danger of falling into the �It was better in my day� trap. But the following points underpin this worrying conclusion:

• At the end of season 2005, 18 of the 25 leading batsmen in the SNCL were overseas professionals or amateurs. The top 17 run scorers are all overseas players. As bowlers can now only bowl 10 overs, professional batters are dominating, with few specialist bowling pros.
• The average age of teams is going up and up. A number of teams this year had players well over 40 contributing significantly to team success, with the average age of many sides being well over 30. Although there are exceptions, the older players are still performing - which either demonstrates a lack of junior talent or an unwillingness to allow youngsters to participate in an ultimately futile endeavour to win trophies or avoid relegation.
• Now that a minimum of five bowlers must be used in games, total scores have increased hugely. Totals of 250+ are now common, whereas until recently they were the exception.
• Most teams rely very heavily on fewer players. Every week, teams have players who bat 7, 8 or 9 and don�t bowl.

This may be perceived as a subjective analysis, but the weight of evidence suggests that our national league sides are not improving as team units, nor do they have balanced teams. They do not have a range of ages in their sides, or generate an environment in which our top home-based players can perform. Standards of Play

Playing in a national league is expensive in terms of umpire and travelling costs, and takes valuable money away from development purposes.

A number of clubs spend virtually all their income on hiring professionals and meeting these associated costs, which leaves little financial resource for development.

Conclusions

From the foregoing arguments, it can be concluded that there is a rationale for change, for six main reasons:

• There is clear evidence that the SNCL does not now meet one of the main criteria it was set up to do, which is to have the best players playing each other and improving standards of play.
• Club cricket is now dominated by overseas players who preclude our best youngsters from playing prominent parts in the game.
• A new tier of cricket must be put in place to bridge the gap between club and national sides. This will take national and squad players away from club games on Sundays and meet our ICC commitments to have a third tier structure in place.
• As the Scotland fixture list develops, the top 15-20 players will play less and less club cricket on Saturdays.
• Clubs must address the lack of youth development now or pay serious consequences in the years to come. Already a number of clubs pay lip service to youth development. Cricket Scotland must support and empower the clubs to put in place youth structures, but the clubs must take the responsibility and deliver.
• Money (lack of) is a major issue for clubs. Most clubs barely survive on an annual basis as money is spent on travelling and employing professionals. If resources were harnessed properly, it would bring a huge long-term benefit to the game.

Clubs should first and foremost be about development of cricket and their own club�s long-term interests.

A concerted effort needs to be made to spend resources on coaches and development officers, not hired professionals.

Clubs should not enter league competitions every year either desperate for success and promotion or to avoid relegation. Competitiveness is essential, but not as important as long-term survival.

Cricket Scotland and the clubs need to agree a way forward that promotes and fosters competitive cricket at an appropriate level, maximising the use of resources in the game, and putting in place a structure that both develops players to play at representative levels, as well as the recreational cricketer.

For discussion, we have outlined on the following pages Cricket Scotland�s thoughts on the options which might achieve these aims.

Although not perfect, they will hopefully be seen as ways to progress the best interests of the game, above any issues that individual clubs may have.

There are four options for clubs to consider

• Option 1: One national league supported by three regional leagues
• Option 2: Two national leagues (east and west); all other cricket regional
• Option 3: Three regional leagues
• Option 4: The status quo

Option 1

The SNCL format would be changed to create a smaller and more elite national league, with strong regional top-tier leagues underneath. One national league of 10 clubs would be supported by three regional leagues of 10, each controlled and managed by the appropriate District. There would be a clear promotional link from the District to the National League.

At the end of the year, the three regional winners would play off to determine which side goes up into the national league. If the clubs wished a two-up, two-down structure, then two from three would be promoted.

A new two-day competition would be introduced on Sundays/Mondays for three District sides. This would make use of bank holidays and other appropriate dates to find six suitable and available Mondays.

The Scottish Cup and Trophy competitions would remain, although revision of their formats would be considered, to give more meaningful cup competition.

The management of the three leagues would fall back to the Districts and be part of an overall structure. This would happen easily in the East and West, but would need additional thought in the Central/North areas. Cricket Scotland would supply administrative assistance to the three Districts, but would still run the National League and all the national cup competitions. This would need a financial resource from CS.

The three District sides would be representative of the three District leagues, with Cricket Scotland allowed to �draft� two players in each squad from outwith that area. For example, if the West had the top three spinners in Scotland, one of them could be drafted to play for different District side.

Cricket Scotland would work with the Districts in appointing coaches to each squads and would provide administrative and financial resource to run the new District competition.

All clubs in the National and three regional leagues would be required to attain the Top Club silver award by 2007. If a club is not adhering to the youth development criteria, it will automatically be relegated, though some thought is needed on how far down the league structure this sanction would go.

In the three regional competitions there would be a one-up, one-down system, but the structure would theoretically enable a new team from East league Division 8 to be the National champions in eight years.

Each club would continue to be allowed two overseas players. The �professional� would be required to have a Level 2 coaching qualification and be available to work for Cricket Scotland for 25 days each summer. These days would be directed by the three Development Managers and be used to develop cricket in the locale of each club. Apart from this stipulation, the game would become �open� in terms of payments to players.

Cricket Scotland would commit to run a Level 1 and Level 2 course in each District area every year, and one Level 3 course nationally. Cricket Scotland would organize two coaching sessions per season in each of the top 40 clubs, using Level 3+ coaches.

The three Development Managers would report to the District committees on their work programme and delivery in those areas, although they will be managed centrally.

An annual award of an overall Top Club will be made, which will reflect competitive play in a club, youth development success, coaching numbers, and so on. A club would need an agreed minimum number of junior and senior sides to qualify for this award.

Assuming a 20-week season, the game would be structured to include:

• 18 League Saturdays
• 6 Cup Sundays
• 6 Sunday/Monday District Games (which would not clash with Scotland games)
• 2 Play-off Saturdays and 1 Sunday for the three regional league winners
• A full schedule of age-group cricket in June/July, prior to European Championships.

As three leagues will be regionalised, games not played due to weather could be replayed midweek (at 25 overs per side) or on free Sundays. This would encourage games to be played, whereas sometimes now it is an advantage not to!

Each player�s schedule should be determined by his highest-level coach. Therefore a national squad player would be managed by the National Coach, with age-group players under the direction of the Technical Director.

Option 2

There would be two National Leagues, split on an east-west axis. At the end of the year, there would be play-offs to decide the champion side. All other clubs would go back to the regional feeder leagues and, at the end of each year, there would be play-offs amongst top feeder league sides to decide which two teams are promoted to the East and West leagues. Other criteria would be the same as in Option 1.

Option 3

There would be no national league at all, but three regional leagues - not dissimilar to the set-up pre 1996, but with end-of-season play-offs to decide the national champion side. This would enable all cricket in an area to be controlled by one District body.

Option 4

The format for next year is currently planned to be a premier division with a first and second division below that. The final format will be decided by the Competitions Committee later this month, but there will be a total of 34 clubs in the leagues.

Local forums will be arranged during November to discuss this paper and the options contained within it.

If the reaction of clubs is that there is merit in looking further into one of these options, then there will be time to put a detailed proposal before the AGM in December.

It is planned to have a special meeting before the AGM to discuss the detailed proposals with the clubs, and to have an open discussion with all other interested parties.

But the next step will be totally dependent on the clubs� reaction to the ideas presented in this discussion paper and the timescales available.