|
In my first ever article I wrote about my early coaching influences which started at Ventnor Cricket Club on the Isle of Wight.
On Christmas Day I heard the news that one of those mentors from VCC had sadly passed away earlier that morning.
Malcolm Sketchley was one of my heroes.
His extensive knowledge of seam bowling, slower balls, different ways of holding the ball to get different responses from the seam and surface was legendary and 'Sketch' was always happy to pass on that knowledge to young cricketers.
I'm not sure if he ever knew how far his influence spread.
In 2006, a young man called Stuart Broad started to play ODI Cricket for England. Instantly, the two of us got along pretty well and we started to discuss tactics and different deliveries that would keep Broady in the game on flat wickets around the world.
One of those deliveries was a cross-seam ball that would either hit the seam and stand up on the batter, or hit the smooth leather and skid-on bringing LBW and bowled into play. This delivery became particularly useful in sub-continent conditions as the batters would be making contact with the ball at different points thus reducing their control and creating wicket taking opportunities.
Broady became our best exponent of that particular delivery and he learnt to mix it in with his other options brilliantly. He used this ball alongside his slower ball bouncer to great effect as England won their first ever World Event in 2010
'Sketch' taught me the cross-seam delivery when I was 11.
'Sketch' talked about consistency in length being the more important than line a long time before analysts started to present the numbers to support that view and the 'wobble ball' was a variation which 'Sketch' demonstrated to young bowlers way before Stuart Clark bamboozled England with it in the 2006/7 Ashes.
'Sketch' wasn't a tracksuit coach.
In-fact, he didn't consider himself to be a coach at all. He did all his mentoring in the pavilion, or down the local pub.
He taught me that you can learn as much, if not more, about this awesome game outside of coaching sessions and matches.
Those times with 'Sketch' led me to seek out opportunities to learn from knowledgable people in less formal environments.
As a result, I have been fortunate enough to share significant time with thinkers like Botham, Marshall, Ponting, Warne, Smith, Vaughan, Fletcher and Woolmer. Each informal conversation adding new understanding and strategy that I could then use within my coaching sessions with talented cricketers.
Rest in Peace 'Big Sketch' and thankyou for being a great team-mate and advisor to the young 'Garas'. You will be sorely missed.
Discuss this article with other subscribers
|
.jpg)
Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. 
