Re-open NZ Cricket Academy

New Zealand Cricket is now paying the price for its decision to take the emphasis from its world-leading Academy based at Lincoln University and devolving its objectives to the six Major Associations.

A seventh or eighth placing among competing nations at the ICC Under-19 World Cup is not where New Zealand wants to be in the development of its game.

This is a lamentable result and one deserving of the utmost attention of the game's administrators and it will be interesting if there is a reaction from the powers who be on the board of New Zealand Cricket.

Or are these people, who presumably have cricket's best interests at heart just going to roll over and take this clear demonstration that all is not working in New Zealand's development plan?

The way New Zealand was rolled by Australia, in the quarter-final and then shut out of the fifth and sixth play-off, is serious cause for concern. What does it tell New Zealanders about the attitude of young players coming through?

Where is the hardness that once personified New Zealand's cricket?

Or, even more importantly, what does this performance say about the future of the New Zealand game?

It is clear, as it has long been felt, that the decision by supposed Australian wunderkind Rick Charlesworth to leave coaching of up and comers in New Zealand to association coaches was disastrous.

It might have worked in Australia, but New Zealand has nothing like the resource base in facilities or coaching, or even example, that Australia enjoys. And in country like New Zealand devolution never works.

Consider some examples: rowing is centred on Lake Karapiro, track cycling on Invercargill and yachting in Auckland.

Once you divide these organisations in New Zealand they start competing for dollars, and the bottom falls out of them.

The same has happened in cricket, and the results are obvious.

When the Academy was set up it was the envy of the rest of the cricketing world. Why would you want to do away with it?

Clearly, when New Zealand Cricket underwent its administrative revolution in 1995-96, the goal was to lift the game.

That goal lasted about five years, and has gone downhill ever since as attention has been diverted elsewhere.

There is no good reason why, with the right leadership, thinking and application, the Lincoln Academy could not be upgraded to play the role in developing the small crop of cricket talent that deserves to be nurtured.

Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Craig McMillan et al reads like a pretty impressive alumnae. Surely they represent something that was done right.

They were products of the Academy and have served New Zealand well.

Who will replace them?

That has to be the challenge for cricket's leaders, and they can't afford to waste any time.