The talk is on two central focal points and both are legitimate.
Cricket is losing its pull on Australia's primary school aged children and the early teens. The slide was incremental and therefore difficult to identify until it dawned upon cricket people across the nation that the kids had walked away.
A cursory glance at electronic games of one sort or another, the insidious and habitual nature of cyberspace entertainment and the communication explosion with this-and-that mobile all encompassing gismo (with money earning capacities) has left junior cricket a significant headache.
Once, come Spring and the Summer, cricket bats would emerge, and moreover the Christmas stocking would invariably have one form or another of cricket items. Today, it's far more likely that it's an electronic 'this or that'.
And who wants to take up a whole morning or an entire day out on the paddock in today's hustle and bustle world.
That is one issue that has hurt cricket at junior level and the Big Bash with all its publicity and glitter is a serious attempt to redress this situation. But one wonders whether the horse has bolted. Certainly the city situation is much worse that in the country where "sport" retains much sway.
The higher level of the game
The second issue that is revealed in media and cricket circles is addressed at the higher level of the game where the longer form, the five day Test Cricket, requires considerably more patience than Twenty/20. The skills and finer techniques are quite different.
Herein lies the debate. Between today's first Big Bash fixture and the start of the Boxing Day Test Match there is not one preparatory Sheffield Shield cricket match where the cricketers might get their eye-in on the 'patience and technique' front.
To counter this there will be a 'Batting Camp" in Melbourne leading up to the Boxing Day Camp. It reminds me of 1984 when Bob Simpson took over as coach of the Australian team and the cry became "Back to Basics" - straight bat for the batsmen along line and length for the bowlers.
Certainly the loss to New Zealand when all was won on that fourth day in Hobart has jolted the collective consciousness of the nation's cricket fraternity.
There must be room for both
We'll sit back and enjoy the Big Bash as we should. It will be flashy, colourful, entertaining, enthralling and moreover we might even see kids once again playing cricket on suburban streets. Then the Boxing Day Test will come and we'll be able to check the scores from time to time over the following five days. Hey, it's Christmas-New Year week where we take life a little easier.
There needs to be room for both. And the cricket follower wants room for both.
Our lives too, are a matter of 'this and that'. For any Christian it is not all praying and singing of psalms. Christian men and women are designed for many things in life including 'work and play' and all the way through the spectrum of life's experiences. Christians need to have room for both. Being a following Jesus we soon discover we want room for both, it is in the original design.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html