The lure of the baggy green cap and that fame and prestige that comes with it is as enticing as ever for young cricketers.
But the odds of joining that elite club have never been longer.
The lure of making a small or not so small fortune from T20 cricket is getting bigger by the day.
And the chances of making a career out of being a short-form specialist are much higher for talented players coming through the ranks, whether that’s in the BBL, overseas leagues or the most lucrative destination of all, the IPL.
It’s easy for players, commentators and fans of previous generations to espouse the notion that making the Test team is the pinnacle for any cricketer and it should always be the ultimate dream for young prospects as they make their way into the elite ranks of senior cricket.
But for the current generation, they are the first who have truly known no other world than one dominated by T20 cricket.
One-day cricket barely registers on the radar – the domestic competition is out of sight, out of mind – and making the Test side will be nothing but a dream for the vast majority of first-class players in the country.
Granted there have been some extenuating circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic but there have only been 11 men’s players who have made their Test debut in the past five years, with three of them very recent additions in Nathan McSweeney, Sam Konstas and Beau Webster.
Webster has been toiling away in state cricket for more than a decade, as did Scott Boland and Michael Neser before they were given a chance at Test level.
In the 2010s there were 46 baggy greens handed out over the course of that decade while the previous 10 years only yielded 28 newbies.
With the refresh of the ageing Australian Test team finally getting underway with the recent trio getting a run in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy win over India, there will surely be several more new faces this decade.
Konstas, at 19, selected after a dozen first-class matches is very much the exception to the rule and any young cricketer who wants to achieve the “dream come true” of making the Test team is facing insurmountable odds, not just of getting a shot but staying in the line-up.
Beau Webster celebrates hitting the winning runs. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
It’s tough sledding being one of the 60 Sheffield Shield players busting your guts in four-day cricket before miniscule “crowds” in the hope that you can string enough performances together to catch the eye of a national selection panel known for its tunnel vision.
Or do you see a more prosperous path, and one with more opportunity, by devoting time to the shortest format? There are more roster slots in BBL franchises available and even if you are not a regular for your state at first-class level, you can make decent coin and a name for yourself each summer with the competition’s growing reach via big crowds and healthy TV ratings.
From there, a player has the opportunity to get noticed by scouts for overseas franchises and potentially strike it rich in the IPL.
For teenage players of this generation, they are being raised on the IPL being the NBA or English Premier League of the sport – the competition where players can earn astronomical figures even if they are not one of the chosen few to represent their country on a regular basis.
This generation, unlike the ones that went before them, are growing up practising ramps, reverse-sweeps and T20 bowling techniques, not just how to play conventional shots or hit a good line and length.
For a player like Konstas, the best-case scenario is that he develops into a three-format player for Australia.
He’s had a few teething problems in his opening two Tests while also showing he has the talent to take on any bowling attack.
Even if he fails to adapt his batting tempo to live up to his potential in the Test arena, the T20 leagues are a more than handy fallback option.
Jake Fraser-McGurk. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Most players will start with the goal of getting into the Test team but the likelihood is that if their skill set is not suited to red-ball cricket, many will follow the Tim David example at a younger age by devoting themselves to becoming globetrotting T20 guns for hire.
Jake Fraser-McGurk is pretty much a household name on the back of his BBL and occasional Australian exploits even though he can’t get a start in first-class cricket.
Compare his career trajectory to that of someone like Henry Hunt, a red-ball equivalent, who plugs away in the second tier of the Shield for South Australia as an occupying the crease kind of opener.
If you’re a chance of making it in the big time in cricket, do you see more of a pathway down the Fraser-McGurk T20 highway or via Hunt’s long and winding road to one day maybe getting a shot at Test level?
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