Big Bash Lessons: Rebalance Your Coaching in Twenty20 Cricket | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Big Bash Lessons: Rebalance Your Coaching in Twenty20 Cricket

Sam Lavery has been talking about changes in the modern game, and how to apply them at club, school and academy level.

Lately, I've spent some time talking to first-class coaches about T20 cricket. I'm aware that what we see at the pinnacle of our sport will filter down. I find it gives me a direction of my own, as to how my cricketers at Portsmouth Grammar School can develop skills that are current in our ever-evolving game.

One of the main points I picked up on was the ever-increasing emphasis put on bowlers to be Twenty20 match winners.

 

We all know bowlers win Tests, but in a world where Chris Gayle, Brendan McCullum and David Warner appear to be the prize assets of any franchise, is the real value in the guys at the other end, who restrict these players to good innings rather than great ones? And if T20 is as much about the bowlers as the batters, do we attribute our coaching in the right manner or proportion?

I wonder, are we investing the same amount of time in differentiating between leg stump yorkers and 5th stump yorkers, and then developing an association to appropriate field placings and scenarios. Or do we focus more on swinging hard, setting a base and driving the hips to clear the ropes, or adjusting the head and feet position, to perfect that ramp over short fine leg?

After all those things are more fun aren't they?

If you look at the stats from the 2015 Big Bash, the value of an effective bowling unit is clear. Six of the top 10 Big Bash bowlers made the final.

Where once individual bowlers would make significant impacts on a game - with Murali single handedly winning game after game in the early days of T20 - now the ability of a group of bowlers to collectively work together and squeeze a batting line up holds more value. Having an ability to repetitively execute one or 2 skills to an extremely high standard is harder than facing a bowler who delivers the ball at 90mph. Perhaps we may be seeing another victory for nurture over nature.

Andrew Tye's ability to execute an off stump yorker, with the support of Brad Hogg's mystery and Yasir Arafat's craft and skill, are a perfect example of how quality skills, combined with good decision making and an understanding of roles, are mighty effective.

So how does this transfer into what we do as coaches?

Address the balance of your time and focus, and ask ourselves a few questions.

  • Are we spending adequate time preparing your bowlers for T20 success?
  • Are we building a team of bowlers, or are we just working with individuals?
  • Do all the bowler's know their roles and how they can be applied?
  • Is the captain able to associate a specific situation or scenario, with the skills they have at their disposal?

Not a week full of facts I’m afraid. What do you think are the answers in your situation?

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