Matador Cup carnival heads west

Slowly but surely, the Matador Cup's national footprint is expanding again. Its New South Wales-centric schedule has been a source of considerable angst among other teams since the tournament was moved to an early season carnival format three years ago, but a smattering of matches in Perth and Brisbane this year mean the Blues will not be the only team playing at home.

Last season's competition was affected by the cancellation of Australia's Bangladesh tour for security reasons, meaning it was contested by full strength teams across all six states. This time around the scenario is rather different: not only is the Australian ODI team on tour in South Africa, but numerous bowlers, notably Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, are absent injured or resting.

This means a knock-on effect for numerous states, most notably South Australia. The reward for emergent displays in both the Matador Cup and the Sheffield Shield last year mean than no fewer than four first-choice Redbacks - Travis Head, Adam Zampa, Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie - are in South Africa. The coach Jamie Siddons has acknowledged the challenge ahead.

"We feel ready despite missing bowlers from last year's attack and it's going to be difficult without them," Siddons said. "But we have a couple of young guys that have some tricks in their repertoire. It's not going to be easy or the same, we have to find another way of doing it with different types of players and we're ready and aiming for similar success.

"I think it's really exciting watching the young guys play and the next step is to promote a few more of them like Jake Lehmann, Jake Weatherald, Alex Ross and Alex Carey - who are all really good chances of pushing their names forward now. Our aim is to be successful again and win games and if those guys step up like I think they will we should match last year - maybe we're looking at batsmen to step up instead of the bowlers this time."

Victoria are another state needing to reach deeper into their squad for bowlers in particular, with John Hastings, Scott Boland and Chris Tremain in South Africa and Peter Siddle and James Pattinson still working their way back from injury. The new coach Andrew McDonald, only recently returned from Leicestershire to replace David Saker, must also work with Glenn Maxwell in the aftermath of the enigmatic allrounder's ill-timed bid to move to NSW for the summer.

McDonald's old Bushrangers team-mate Brad Hodge has s still more vexing task as the mentor of the Cricket Australia XI, a youthful hodgepodge (no pun intended) of players from across the states who did not make it into the first-choice squads. This is the second of a two-year experiment with the XI, designed to provide additional opportunities for young players against the best of domestic players.

The concept has not been universally loved, even if the CA XI recovered last season from a horrid start to win a game over Tasmania and produce a handful of players - Hilton Cartwright, Mitch Swepson, Jimmy Peirson - able to progress further over the course of the season that followed. Many among the states feel the team is emblematic of CA's desire for central developmental control, rather than simply building the most competitive tournament possible. A lack of any senior players to leaven out the youth, even with the likes of Ben Rohrer, Chris Hartley and Chadd Sayers available, has only heightened that impression.

Justin Langer, coach of Western Australia, spoke for many of the tension between development and competition. The Sheffield Shield too has been subject to numerous stratagems designed to help the Australian team overall, but experiments like pink ball matches and the use of Dukes balls for a portion of the shield this season has left Langer and others questioning their wisdom.

"We make Cricket Australia very aware that we have to keep the integrity of the game," he said. "We have the best domestic competition in the world, but it is frustrating at times. This season we will play two pink-ball games, three with red Kookaburras and five with Dukes balls and hopefully six with the Dukes. I like consistency."

Consistent or not, the Matador will afford many players the chance to either secure their state spots at the outset of the season, or put their names in lights for Australian selection into the future. Whether in Perth, Brisbane or Sydney, many a selection question will get closer to being answered.