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Fears grade cricket forgotten in Ashes review

Joining a host of former players in calling for a return to traditional values, Berry says grade cricket has been neglected for too long by the authorities and first-class players.

And his push to breathe life into South Australia's grade scene has received the strong backing of his boss, the state's cricket director and national selector Jamie Cox, who has welcomed Berry's application of "modern day principles with old-fashioned values".

Berry will force his South Australian players to train with their clubs whenever possible. "We've ploughed a lot of money and energy into the top end, which I'm not necessarily saying is the wrong thing to do," Berry said. "However, it's been at the detriment to the foundations of Australian cricket.

"Grade cricket has been diminished -- not just in Adelaide, across the country. A culture has developed of players that don't care enough about their clubs."

The champion Victorian keeper said fewer first-class players played out their careers at their clubs, weakening competitions and starving youngsters of role models.

"The standard has dropped and grade cricket has become less meaningful," he said. Many first-class players, Berry said, were content to all but abandon their clubs as soon as they secured spots in their state sides.

"I can tell you that will not happening in my time in Adelaide," he said. "That's something I'll be driving strongly. Thursday nights you'll be off to your club. Don't forget where you've come from."

Cricket Australia's review panel, headed by businessman Don Argus, is picking through the rubble of the Ashes fiasco to report on the overall health of the game.

However, CA will not release the inquiry's terms of reference. Nor will it say if the panel is looking at the state of club cricket.

"I'll be staggered and disappointed if they're not," Berry said. "If you build a house the most important part is the foundations, not the curtains or the trimmings."

Berry, with 603 dismissals to his name, was appointed Redbacks coach in March and immediately declared he would shake up a state system that last delivered a Sheffield Shield in 1995-96. He has also joined a host of former players -- including Geoff Lawson, Steve Rixon and John Benaud -- to call for state players to play more club matches. Ashley Mallett, Jeff Thomson and Mike Whitney have joined the chorus in calling for bowlers to get out of the gyms and weight rooms and into the nets.

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