Darren Talbot’s Journey into Inclusive Cricket Part 2

In 2007, Twenty20 Community Cricket’s Founder Darren Talbot reached a turning point in his life. After working in the City for 13 years, running investment portfolio risk analysis, he realised he was fundamentally unhappy and not on the correct lifepath. Within a few months he had left his financial services career, put on his tracksuit and set up what is now Twenty20 Community Cricket. Here he reflects on his cricket journey - the turning points that led him to make this decision and his experiences as a child and teen cricketer that have formed his coaching ideas and made him passionate about ensuring cricket is an inclusive, affordable cricket for all young people.

With my friends we used to mimic the actions and deliveries of the great fast bowlers of the time - Bob Willis, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev - but after a while I realised that I loved the bewitchment of spin bowling - the variations, the mental battle with the batter: the ‘artistry’ of spinning that reached its peak with Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Being a spin bowler became a key part of who I was and still am. I think this ‘thinking cricket’ carries into my cricket coaching. I love coaching young cricketers about tactics in real match situations. It’s so important, and in normal club cricket ‘net’ sessions it’s often missed out. Ben Stokes, for example, is often a brilliant tactician as well as being a superb bowler and batter.

I didn’t have influential coaches when I started playing - my dad was the biggest inspiration. He didn’t really give me technical coaching, but he encouraged me all the time and knew the mechanics of spin bowling.  There were no YouTube tutorials back then, so it was just trial and error in the backyard. I wish I had had more opportunities - there wasn’t much club cricket for juniors in Surrey at that point. When I was 11, I played in the odd under 15 club game for Weybridge, because that’s all there was. At 14 I joined East Molesey CC and was playing for the senior team - around that time they just started a fledgling junior section and that was great - now they are one of the strongest junior & senior clubs in Surrey.

What we’re trying to give boys & girls at Twenty 20 Community Cricket - especially those from state schools - is something they can’t get at schools where cricket is either not played or prioritised, or where equipment and coaching resources are low. We’re trying to give them the same amount of match time that independent school kids get. If private school kids are also playing for a club, they could play 25 school & club games a season and have extra training, including winter nets, compared to 7 or 8 club only games for a state school child, with no off-season practice. Through our after school & weekend community cricket programmes, we can fill that gap and create an environment where they can compete on a level that they could be missing through no fault of their own.

We also offer focused small group coaching to all our cricket Academy members. I never received anything like this until I was 16 when I went to a school whose groundsman - Reg Dare - had played a few games for Hampshire and bowled left arm spin like me. He took a real interest in my cricket development. Lindsay Moody then took over from Reg having shadowed him, and then for a year I was very lucky to be coached by ex-Australia test player John Inverarity - who was also a left arm spinner! So that was my coaching-break really, and at 16 I was playing in the school first XI with 18-year-olds. Everything clicked for me that year - and that was partly because of the time and energy these coaches put into me.

I wasn’t that academically minded, and I found cricket played a hugely important part in giving me confidence and a sense of mental wellbeing. These days you can do university degrees in cricket! I enjoyed doing my Business & Marketing degree, and it’s been very useful, but there weren’t the sports-industry opportunities and career paths there are now. There was certainly no guidance as such. If I had been guided towards cricket coaching at 18 then all of this might well have happened sooner! Qualified cricket coaches back then were always ex-players; it was much more of an informal ‘old boys’ network’.

Our Academy coaching and matches are designed to be fun. It’s the main thing - the obsession in some clubs to win leagues and trophies disturbs me enormously. Everyone at our sessions will play for the same amount of time - there’s no room for captains’ or coaches’ favourites. The focus is on giving kids a lifelong love of cricket. My vision of success is wandering around cricket grounds in 10 or 15 years time and seeing kids we’ve coached playing for the 3rd XI or Sunday Socials XI because what I think you can get out of cricket is much bigger than being the best player in the 1st XI or winning trophies. We try to avoid traditional nets week in week out, where there’s so much waiting around time when kids are unoccupied. If we do use nets, we create themes so that all the batters and bowlers are involved at all times. And by making our matches inclusive and structured - so kids know when they will bat and bowl, and that they’ll all have equal time, boredom in the field is reduced.

Since 2007 I’ve been trying to make Twenty20 Community Cricket the best junior cricket option in Surrey for state school kids. By constantly referencing my own experiences as a young cricketer I hope I have achieved this.”