Veteran blasts state of Bay cricket

Veteran Bay of Plenty cricketer Campbell Wilson, in an open email to Bay of Plenty Cricket and the region's players and supporters, asks how the province has fallen so far in the past 12 months, and what is being done to arrest the decline.

"I write this on the eve of what is traditionally the toughest game of the representative season for the Bay of Plenty senior men's team - v Hamilton [subsequently washed out], as competitive a team as it gets. They are due to play in a Hawke Cup Challenge and nothing short of victory is satisfactory for Hamilton in any game.
Rewind the clock less than 12 months and it was Bay of Plenty in the position of challenging for the Hawke Cup (against Manawatu) by way of topping the Northern Districts region.
We were also defending Fergus Hickey Rosebowl champions and had won the Brian Dunning one-day trophy for the 2009-10 season - the first time Bay had won the one-day title dominated by Hamilton and Northland since its inception in 1999.
I was lucky to have been a part of the side during this time, to play in a team whose only concern was winning - the rest was just a by-product of being successful. We were focused and had clear goals, and had the help of James Pamment as coach giving us fantastic direction.
As it stands this season, Bay of Plenty have had three wins (all in one-day games), have been beaten in one-dayers by Hamilton and Counties and have also lost on first innings all of the two-day games played so far against Counties, Northland and Poverty Bay, with that loss a new low for the region.
Over the past couple of seasons we have been very successful as a team. We have enjoyed the results of working hard off the park, but also enjoyed each others' company in the limited times the team have been together.
There seems to be an underlying mission to remove all players who have anything to do with alcohol from the team. The team is full of young men, and young men enjoy the experiences of life. Part of life is bonding together and the best way to do that is a few beers after a hard day of playing cricket with your mates. This is a great way to get to know what the guys from the other clubs do with their lives outside of cricket, and also understand how your teammates think. It is also a great way to create team culture.
Great friendships are borne out of these times, and these last for a lifetime in many cases. At times, young men will make decisions that are wrong and may drink to excess. It should be up to the individual to make that decision.
The reality is for most guys who have ever played for Bay of Plenty it is the highest level of cricket they will play. I am one such player, but I made sure I enjoyed every single moment of representing my province and contributing to the team performance to the best of my ability. In a match v Northland a couple of years ago, the boys "bonded" the night before and came out the next day as one and beat a team seen as better than us. We ended up winning the Fergus Hickey after that kick-start in Taupo.
I am not endorsing a binge drinking or excess culture here, merely stating that young men should be given the choice and freedom to decide for themselves.
But I raise the following questions.

• Are the best 12 cricketers in the region being selected each and every time to play for Bay of Plenty?
• Why is it that guys who have played in the last two winning Fergus Hickey Rosebowl seasons are suddenly no longer required?
• How have we gone from being the best side in the Northern Districts region to being the worst in less than 12 months?
• Where has the passion of playing for your province gone?
• Why has there been eight players make their debut this season while there are former players in club cricket performing week-in, week-out but not being recalled to the side due to the poor results?
• Who is accountable for the results of the side?
• Are the selections of players reflective of form, ability and genuine desire to represent the province?
• Why are players being overlooked to play for the senior men's side who have better club records than some being picked?
• How are guys like Daniel Hill, Shane Wineti, Scott Steward and Julian Danby not given opportunities after scoring runs in club cricket?
• Why have former players such as Matthew Drake, Richard Rice, Tai Bridgman-Raison, James Mitchell and Alex Yates not been recalled after being consistent performers in club cricket, and for a number of years?
• If these players are being asked to play, what are the reasons they do not want to play?
• Why are players picked from a club who has not won anything for over five years when there are much better players available?

I ask these questions as a concerned former representative player, not too far removed from being involved in the set up, wondering what has happened in such a short space of time.

The decline has been swift, and the real worry is what is being done to ensure that the pinnacle of playing cricket in this region is resurrected and maintained for the generations to come.

The vision of Bay of Plenty Cricket in its strategic plan (2009 through to 2014) is "to establish and maintain Bay Cricket as the leading cricket association in Northern Districts". Goal one of this plan is to "hold and retain all association titles and become the primary source of Northern Districts players".

Further, one the performance measures to 2014 is to "develop and maintain a squad of 20 players capable of representing Bay of Plenty at senior level".

Do we really have a current squad of 20 players who are good enough to not only play for Bay of Plenty but be competitive in the three years until that 2014 deadline? Not if we keep getting rid of the players who have bought us success in the past.

This isn't a personal attack - I care about Bay cricket and want the region to do well. But who's responsible, who's accountable and why has this been allowed to happen? Are the right people and the right structures in place to get Bay back to the top, or does there need to be change?

This is the wake up call that is needed, as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is called one thing ... insanity."

(A knee injury kept Campbell Wilson out of Bay's early games before he made himself unavailable for the rest of this season, although he still plays for Otumoetai Cadets).

Bay Cricket chairman Chris Rapson:

There's no hiding from the fact our (senior side's) results this season haven't been up to scratch. David (Johnston, Bay Cricket general manager) said at the start of the season we were going to be tidying up some of the situations that have been hanging on, because we haven't been performing for some time. Last season and that woeful performance in the Hawke Cup challenge against Manawatu is one example.

We've actually got some robust selection criteria, and some of the younger guys have been putting their hand up and asking to be picked. On the flip side, some guys have had their day for the Bay and are in the twilight of their playing days.

It's often a Catch 22 in the dual role we've got - we're trying to win competitions and it's also a stated ambition to produce first-class cricketers. Any comparison with Hamilton is a bit unfair - because they're a university city and because Northern Districts is based there they have a concentration of talent that doesn't necessarily originate from Hamilton.

Responding to Campbell's thoughts around alcohol consumption, I enjoyed a beer after a game as much as the next guy and it's an important aspect of any sport that society seems to have lost touch with. But the players made the protocols and agreed to them.

We had a difficult time last year, with the manager having to deal with one incident in particular, and there had to be some sort of reaction from Bay Cricket to what happened that meant something. We set out beers for the players after every game but it's a balancing act and if players want to perform at a higher level they need to abide by protocols.

It's no secret Northern Districts is currently reviewing Bay Cricket. It's been on the table for a couple of years but other associations have more pressing needs. It's not driven by anything sinister, it's a normal process, although I'm not saying there won't be some changes come out of it.

Our policies are robust but it's good to be questioned from within to be sure we're doing everything as well as we can. Campbell has offered to be a selector and I'd like to think he'll get the opportunity.