NSW play reigning champions Victoria in their first Sheffield Shield home match of the summer at the SCG starting November 10 - and administrators are already trying to invent ways to attract a crowd.
It is a match steeped in a century's worth of tradition, more so than league's highly marketable State of Origin, and the rivalry between the two states is intense.
There have been blow-ups that have rocked the genteel world of domestic cricket, including the 2007 stand-off at the MCG between NSW captain Simon Katich and Victorian bowler Shane Harwood that observers said threatened to turn violent. Harwood took exception at being given out when Katich claimed a catch the Bushranger maintained didn't carry. An eyewitness said the language would've ''made a nun blush'' and the pair's body language was likened to a weigh-in for a world title boxing bout, not the usual, polite line-up for scones and tea at lunch.
It might not quite rival the boots and all adrenaline of Origin but the passion is there, and Cricket NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert wants it to resonate with cricket fans.
''The hardest part is the availability of the international players,'' he said. ''It doesn't seem all that long ago, maybe 15 years ago, you could count on your best players to play at least half the season. I can't remember the last time, for instance, that Michael Clarke played a Shield match for NSW and that makes it very difficult to market the games. And when you do get them, the public are so used to them not being there they don't support it.''
Adding weight to Gilbert's complaint is eight highly marketable NSW players - Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz, Josh Hazlewood, Phillip Hughes, Katich, Steven Smith and Shane Watson - will be in India on national service as their state mates play Victoria. Gilbert says the absence of the crowd-pullers is an issue that must be addressed by Cricket Australia, because he says there is more at stake than gate-takings.
''It's a big issue because that [the Sheffield Shield] is where you produce your Australian players,'' he said. ''You need to have a competitive environment and have as good a player as possible available so the young players learn and develop, and it helps Australian cricket to remain strong. Unfortunately the demands of the international program don't permit it, it's a catch-22 and it's disappointing.''
Apart from the highly popular interstate Twenty20 competition, Gilbert hoped playing the December 18 to 21 Shield match against Queensland at Blacktown would help excite fans and reinvigorate interest in one of the game's great competitions.
