Be Prepared

I was never in the Scouts, but I think there is much for a young cricketer in their motto ‘be prepared’. In that how good you are as a cricketer, how much you enjoy it, your attitude to the game and your fellow players is a summation of your experiences - your ‘preparation’.

Whilst I was playing for Surrey under 19s, I was lucky enough to be asked to captain my school team to play in a tournament in Barbados - I even met Sir Garfield Sobers who was the host of the event. This trip had a huge effect on me as a cricketer and more generally as a person. It was the first time I’d been away from my parents for a length a time, and as captain I felt very responsible for everyone’s wellbeing on and off the field. After three weeks in the Caribbean, I was far more mature - and incredibly tanned.

The cricket was very tough - one of the local bowlers we faced was playing for Barbados against England the following year. Remarkably this was the first time I ever batted in a helmet rather than a soft cap. There were huge cracks on all the pitches meaning a pace ball could jag up at you dangerously from sudden unexpected angles. There were also unexpected violent tropical storms, when the pitch would become soaked. We would assume that a match was to be abandoned, but the ground staff just told us to wait a few minutes after the downpour, then they would douse the pitch with petrol and set fire to it. Not only did the square rapidly dry but even greater cracks instantly appeared.

I think that it’s this experience that inspired me to make overseas trips part of our Twenty20 Community Cricket initiatives. It’s about meeting players from other countries, having new cultural experiences and seeing how the style of indoor cricket in, say, Vienna differs from the UK. You also find some quirky improvised scenarios - in La Rochelle our Academy team played on an astroturf pitch in the middle of a disused golf driving range, with golf balls buried in the outfield. I also feel it’s important to support young cricketers across Europe. As part of our European cricket development work we have supported cricket development in Brussels, Rome, Warsaw, Chisinau, Skopje, Berlin, Hamburg, Geneva, Basel, and Zurich. I am currently working with an incredible coach in Kyiv who wants to bring a group of young Ukrainian cricketers to our Vienna tournament in March.

I spent four years with Surrey and its associated teams. My biggest wicket was legendary Pakistan batter Mushtaq Mohammed at Arundel for the Duchess of Norfolk’s XI. We won the game with a 6 off the last ball. It was always such a thrill to play at The Oval. My first match there was against ‘The Gentlemen of the Emirates’ - a last over thriller which we won after a run out off my bowling. You had to work hard to make The Oval pitch turn back then, but there was lots of bounce which I could use. It was great to bat on so, as a spin bowler, my strategy was to toil away and create pressure rather than hoping for a wonder ball because it was very unlikely you’d get one!

Suspecting it was unlikely I would get a county call up, I decided to head to university to study Business Studies & Marketing. Fielding was not one of my strengths, so I was being passed over when it came to senior team 12th man duties. A good note here for young cricketers: being good at fielding matters and is often the deciding factor in a team selection. It definitely stopped me from making any sort of next step up.

Not being part of the immediate Surrey set up hit me quite hard at first. However realising my university didn’t really have a cricket team, I set one up - my first taste of team coaching and management! I did find out latterly that Surrey were still keeping an eye on me - perhaps because as a slow left arm bowler I stood out, but the moment had passed. Looking back, it’s a shame that no one suggested that coaching or cricket admin could be a career pathway for me - it just wasn’t an option then. So armed with a business degree, I put on a smart suit rather than a tracksuit and headed into the City of London.

All these experiences have shaped my cricket coaching philosophy - developing player-centred techniques - we are talking to the players all the time, asking them what they’re doing, what they want to improve. It’s very hands on. My young cricket life also led me to be passionate about developing cricket opportunities for state-educated children.

The work we’re doing is not just about giving the current generation of state school kids access to cricket, it’s about installing a life-long love for the game so that when they themselves are parents or teachers even they too can pass this on, and the whole thing mushrooms - creating a long-term cricket legacy. What can we do so we don’t have a missed generation of people for whom cricket is something that just goes on elsewhere and they don’t get involved in? And the more kids that are into cricket could well put pressure on the schools themselves to provide good cricket coaching and facilities which would be the real game changer - pushing cricket up the hierarchy of summer sports. We want to produce a generation of kids who are absolute cricket nuts and then the demand could push the change needed.

‘Over-prepared’?

When asked if England had prepared enough before the recent 2nd Ashes Test in Brisbane, after being destroyed in 2 days in Perth, England coach Brendon McCullum controversially said that his team were, if anything, ‘over-prepared’. They lost the 2nd Test and the 3rd, and the criticism continued that England hadn’t played enough warm up matches, and that training routines were far too lax.

For me it’s all about what an individual needs to prepare, especially mentally. Before matches I used to go to bed with a cricket ball on my bedside table. I call it ‘Prepare to Perform’. Creating routines - what do you need to be the best you in the match? You might have a pair of lucky socks or prefer to put one pad on first. You might need throw downs or bowl a few balls.

Team fielding practice is so important - Alex Carey practiced a lot before the start of each day each match, seemingly more than Jamie Smith. Who was the better wicket keeper in the series? Similarly the Aussies’ fielding drills were far more organised and rigorous than England’s. Making fielding practice interesting for a group of young cricketers is a challenge for a coach but we make it fun, high energy, relatively short and with explanations of why they’re doing it. There’s only one thing you can guarantee that you’ll be doing in a game and that’s fielding.

I don’t believe you can be ‘over-prepared’, but I do believe you need to Prepare to Perform.