WHILE the world cricketing nations are scurrying to copy the Australian Cricket Academy, back home in Australia, the Australian Cricket Board has set up an enquiry committee to investigate the future of the Australian Cricket Academy.
Surprising, well not really for those who know that the Australian Academy was not responsible for the success of Australian cricket over the past decade, but rather it is a very short term finishing school, which through self publicity and a old mates system has promoted itself beyond what it really has achieved.
Perhaps the most damaging revelation of the efficiency of the Academy has come from Rod Marsh, the former head coach for a decade who has recently defected to the proposed English Academy.
Marsh's controversial claims, in an interview recently, that Australian cricket was lean on talent to replace ageing batsmen (with Ricky Ponting the only batsman under 30) and that wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was too big for a 'keeper and has flaws in his glovework has raised a few eyebrows in Australia.
While I do not disagree with Rod's assessment on the batting, but was surprised when he raised the role of the Academy to develop replacements for out of form or ageing players.
Over the last decade, the Academy has trumpeted its success at every opportunity and claimed credit for every youngster who has entered the Academy and gone on to represent their States.
Even though they have only been at the Academy for about five months, they have been stamped as products of the Academy, when more correctly they should have been labelled, if a label is necessary. I doubt it is, products of the Australian coaching system.
Even Shane Warne, who was sacked from the Academy after only a few months because of a youthful lark and sent home to Melbourne from Darwin, a distance of some 2000 miles, by bus, a journey of 44 hours, has been labelled. As has Michael Slater who was involved in a car accident after only three weeks, in the Academy, and didn't take any further part in the camp is also an Academy product!
Each year, the Academy takes in a crop of the best and brightest young cricketers in Australia to fine tune them for further honours.
Most of them are very experienced young cricketers and almost all have represented Australia in youth cricket.
Some of them have also played for their States' senior teams in 2nd XI's or Sheffield Shield.
Little wonder then that these talented youngsters go on to do better things. They did it before joining the Academy and it is no surprise they still do it.
There is a role for the Academy in Australian cricket and I support it whole heartedly.
If the Academy hasn't succeeded and this is what Rod Marsh appears to be saying, the Australian Cricket Board is fully entitled to hold an investigation and come up with recommendation to make up for any shortcoming.
Running the Academy is a costly affair and well over one million Australian dollars are spent on it annually. Much of it is met by the Australian Government and sponsors but the ACB still contributes a sizeable amount.
The Academy for some years has been losing support from many of the State Cricket Associations and many of them are now running academies of their own and are questioning the value of the National Academy and see it as an unnecessary duplication.
Some of them did not want to send their players to the Academy, particularly the spinners who they claim are not being coached along the right lines and fast bowlers seem to develop back injuries.
Many coaches are also resentful at what they perceive as a high-handed attitude by the leaders of the Academy and the lack of acknowledgement for sending talented youngsters to the Academy.
I have sympathy for the coaches for they have done a brilliant job in delivering such talents and are given little accolades for their good work.
It is very galling for these coaches - who have worked with some of the youngsters for ten years to groom them for higher honours - to suddenly find their contribution ignored and the Academy taking all the credits.
Rod Marsh has been concerned for some years about what he claimed was a decline in the talent being given to him.
This may be so, but he still had the responsibility to get the best out of the available talent.
It is not easy being a coach for there are many ups and downs and disappointments. You have to go through many ups and downs and accept the disappointments that go with it. You also have to accept the responsibility that this role demands.
In many ways the coach of the Academy is shielded from this as his charges do not play in any competition in which the Academy's talents can be judged.
The coach still has a big responsibility and has to put his reputation on the line.
That is why I was surprised and disappointed to hear Marsh's views on wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist. Rod Marsh was a fine wicket-keeper with an enviable record. If he feels that Adam Gilchrist has some technical flaws then why weren't they rectified when Gilchrist was at the Academy? And Marsh was in charge then.
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