Tasmania's supercoach Tim Coyle believes there may be positives to cricket's enforced financial belt-tightening.
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Despite being free of any coaching involvement for the first time in nearly three decades, the man who oversaw the Tigers' golden era of domestic domination believes there are plenty of grounds for optimism about the game's future.
And with significant question marks hanging over second XI cricket and national junior championships, Coyle believes grade cricket could lead the post-coronavirus revival.
"It's a very concerning time for the game and its people but hopefully it will come out with a new look," said the 59-year-old who became one of the casualties of the cutbacks this week when he was dismissed as head coach of the Melbourne Renegades' WBBL side.
"There's obviously some real concern, particularly with the amount of programs that will get cut. Cricket programs around the country now will be very different. We've been used to some very good programs and a lot of that now will be gone.
"But it does place a real importance now on grade cricket and I think that's a positive.
"In this situation, that will be the foundation of what we do in the near future."
Coyle played the majority of his cricket at grade level as a wicket-keeper with Launceston, building a hugely-successful coaching career on the back of just seven first-class appearances.
But the three-time Sheffield Shield-winning coach said if players are returning to club sides in the absence of alternative competitions, they will need to be supported.
We're going back to the future
- Tim Coyle
"That still requires a lot of resources, people and facilities and I'm not sure that is there at the moment.
"It's easy to say that grade cricket will be our saviour but you've got to resource it."
Echoing recent comments from another successful Tasmanian coach in AFL, Rodney Eade, Coyle felt a reduction in the size of coaching teams may also prove to be beneficial.
Speaking the day after Cricket Tasmania chief executive Dominic Baker announced 20 redundancies and a budget shortfall of up to $7 million, Coyle said: "As Dominic said, less people will be doing more and that might not be a bad thing, as long as it's the right people.
"Really we're going back to the future. In the early days when I came into coaching in the early '90s, it was very much about two or three people doing a lot of work and it's going to go back to that.
"We've had a lot of people employed in the game and a lot of them have been made redundant."
Twenty-nine years after embarking on his coaching career, Coyle finds himself without any cricket involvement for the first time in his adult life and has also been stood down from his role as community engagement manager with Country Club Tasmania due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But he isn't planning on pulling up stumps yet.
"Hopefully I will have an opportunity to do more work in cricket.
"I might do a bit of private coaching and might have something to offer there because I want to see Tasmanian cricket stay strong."