Our Team
DARREN TALBOT
Managing Director
Darren is High Performance Manager for the Sierra Leone national teams and former Iceland National Team Head Coach. He is also former CEO of the England National Cricket for the Deaf (ECAD) Charity.
Darren is under 10s-12s & Inclusion competition lead for the Surrey Junior Cricket Championship - the largest junior league in the UK.
Through his talent ID skills, over the past decade Darren has increased the number of Deaf cricketers by over 500% as well as discovering many hundreds of mainstream cricketers in Surrey, particularly from the state school system.
He has been coaching since 2004 and his knowledge of grassroots cricket, participation and cricket in Europe is renowned.
ROBIN MASLIN
Head Coach / Director
Robin is part of the Sierra Leone High Performance team and a level 3 coach.
He joined the team in 2010 and has overseen many coaching programmes in Europe including being lead talent coach for Switzerland under 11s and under 13s since 2013, which has seen him make around 50 trips to Europe over that period.
Robin also works closely with other players and administrators around the world to develop cricket in Associate & Affiliate nations including the native Polish team, the Warsaw Hussars.
In the UK Robin has a programme development lead on our Academies programmes from Surrey Slam Schools state school Academy up to our elite regional Academies.
DAVE WALTER
Operations Manager
After a successful career in IT, Dave joined the team in Summer 2018 as Operations Manager with a primary focus on back office activities but as a Level 2 Qualified Coach and a stage 3 Qualified Umpire he will provide a useful additional pair of hands when the need arises. Dave's passion for cricket has led him to fulfil a wide range of roles within the game over many years so be brings with him a broad range of skills and knowledge.
Dave's main cricketing association has been with Normandy Cricket Club since 1985 where he has been 1st XI Captain, Cricket Manager and Club Chair. He started coaching when his son started playing at the age of 10 and in addition to coaching his son's age group all the way through to senior cricket, he has coached Normandy's Academy squad and Normandy's Ladies.
Dave spent many hours umpiring during his playing days and since he stopped playing has umpired a wide variety of cricket including for Normandy, Surrey Performance Cricket, Women and Girls Cricket and has completed two seasons on the Surrey Championship Umpires panel.
Off the field Dave has been Chair of the Surrey Trust League for the last six years and is an active member of both the Junior and Senior League Working Groups.
JOHN MATTHEWS
Head of Player & Coach Development
John brings a wealth of expertise, understanding and knowledge to the Twenty20 Community Cricket team.
He is an ECB Club Coach and a qualified Physical Education teacher with over 40 years' experience of teaching and over 20 years' cricket coaching experience.
John is also a Level One umpire, a Level Two British Sign Language signer, and Assistant Principal Moderator for AQA's GCSE Physical Education course.
He has been part of the Surrey pan disability coaching team, supporting the Deaf players, and has been one of the lead coaches for the England Cricket Association for the Deaf's (ECAD) Junior Academy.
John oversees our state school programmes and leads on player & coach development.
He currently plays his cricket for Englefield Green CC