“Cricketing excellence lies beyond physical talent. Sporting success emanates from the whole person within – his temperament, emotional make-up, thinking ability and even prejudices.” Frank Tyson once wrote.

Sometimes we use shorthand and call this ‘character’ or ‘attitude’.  I like to think of it as the way you see the world, at least in cricketing terms.

And success depends totally upon this view because everything starts there.

If you think working on technique is a waste of time you are not going to practice hard enough and you will never get in the 10,000 hours required to master your skill.

If you give up when you make a mistake instead of steeling yourself you are going to make more errors. This approach is bad enough for fielding and bowling but it’s fatal for the batsman who never gets a second chance.

But because everyone is different you can’t create a copybook for personality.

And anyway, why would you? Cricket is as much about individuality as it is runs and wickets. That’s why it’s such a fun sport to play.

Play up to your personality

What you can do is play the way your personality lets you.

Maybe you are the extrovert who loves to be the centre of attention. What better way than doing that to become the star of the side and gain the adoration of your team-mates?

You just need to put in the hours of practice to make sure you are the best.

Maybe you are a batsman who loves to put bat on ball and can dispatch bowling to all parts with big hits. How much more fun would it be doing that if you also had a solid defence and judgement of length that allowed you to stay in longer?

In these examples, players are using their basic personalities to help them get better at playing cricket. This is different from the usual idea that talent in sport leads to better character.

It’s the other way around: If you draw deeply from the well of character then talent follows on automatically.

What’s your cricketing personality and are you making the most of your unique combination of traits?

Leave a comment and let us know.

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