SACA Cricket Department

Last year SACA engaged the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), as an independent expert in the sporting field, to review the operations of the SACA Cricket Department.  The aim of this review was to determine the effectiveness of the cricket department’s structure, systems, policies and practices in achieving the association’s strategic objectives.

The review identified that whilst the SACA cricket department oversees strong participation numbers and a healthy interest in the game, there is potential for even greater success at all levels. The report emphasised the need for SACA to realign the cricket department staffing structure to support a clearly defined participation pathway model that provides the best tailored opportunity for cricketers of all ages to continue in the sport. It was also identified that SACA needs to better fulfill peak body responsibilities across all levels of cricket in South Australia.

This realignment of positions within the SACA Cricket Department has now occurred. The cricket department structure is now inclusive of high performance, competitions, game development and training and education business units and it has also united 12 former servicing regions into three larger regions, each operating under a newly promoted regional manager. These regions are now titled North Eastern (encompassing the former Kensington, East Torrens, Tea Tree Gully and Prospect metropolitan and country zones), North Western (Northern Districts, Port Adelaide, Woodville and West Torrens) and South Central (Adelaide, Glenelg, Southern Districts and Sturt).

As a result of this realignment, metropolitan associations will see some changes as the competitions, game development and training and education business units increase their focus across all levels of school, community and grade cricket throughout South Australia. For country associations, your alignment with grade cricket clubs will not change and in many instances, your relationship with individual SACA cricket officers will remain unaffected. The promotion of some staff to new roles may however, result in a change to the individual who is currently servicing your area. We are mindful that strong relationships have been created in many regions and we have attempted to limit staff changes where possible.

We will communicate further structural and operational changes with stakeholders, through ongoing correspondence and announcements on the SACA website, however a brief overview of our new management team is as follows:-

SACA’s Regional Cricket Managers will introduce their new teams to respective clubs and associations over coming weeks and to complement this process, appropriate senior staff will also meet with association delegates at South Australian Metropolitan Cricket Association (SAMCA) and senior and junior country delegates meetings during June and July.   Further meetings with associations and regional zone councils will continue in the lead up to the new season.

SACA will continue supporting the excellent work in participation growth, particularly through the in2CRICKET program, however it is equally important that we also focus on participant retention and advancement. 

Similarly, we are committed to continually improving the way that we service and engage with cricket right across South Australia and we look forward to opening up communication so that we can better understand what key services South Australian cricket expect from its peak-body. 

Jamie Cox
Director of Cricket
1 June 2010