Goodbye, it is, to most of that – most of that cricket, in any event. Age, infirmity and *life choices* have pointed me towards part-time work, but “my god” (as Sean Kelly might s…

The curse of expertise? Or absence of coaching smarts?

The curse of expertise? Or absence of coaching smarts?

It's the most common cancer in men, but most men with early prostate cancer don't have symptoms. Find out about your risk now.

When the coach becomes the scoreboard, players learn to perform corrections instead of solve the game.

In reply to the recent Cricket Research Network webinar on “Building Leadership for Cricket’s Ecosystem”

Home of 60s/70s Cricket in England and Wales

Coaches worry that constraints-led practice skips the fundamentals. But maybe the real issue is that we’ve been defining fundamentals wrong.

In a society obsessed with reform, change and progress, we often overlook the essential work of maintenance.

Comprehensive schedules, live scores, live streams, video highlights and match statistics from ECB Play-Cricket | powered by NV Play

Has the post-apocalyptic Impact Sub era world made all bowling death?

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are abusive legal threats and lawsuits  filed to silence critical speech. They are used by oligarchs, public officials, sexual abusers, warlords and opaque business leaders, to target journalists, whistleblowers, campaigners, academics, social media users and community groups. Anyone who speaks out is at risk.  Defending threats and court actions in the UK can be enormously expensive, and SLAPP claimants often try to delay every step...

An odd confluence of articles and posts in my social and news feeds, back in March. All interesting, in their own right, but with a linking thread of alcohol. And that’s without mentioning Noosa, nor the Kiwi bouncer. Does cricket in England have a problem with alcohol?

The slogan sounds smart. The learning it creates often isn’t.

I am a great believer in games- and scenario-based learning. Games engage games players when drills don’t. Well designed games retain important elements of the real activity to help players develop “skills in context”, not just drilled technique. Using the terminology of the constraints-led approach (CLA), games need to be representative of the playing environment, and retain important specifying information…

Late-age cricket leagues are growing fast and the national Over-70s thrived on their winter southern hemisphere tour

Start Building Better Problems

I don't think it would be unfair to suggest that ECB Coach Development (the group within the England & Wales Cricket Board with responsibility for developing coaches, at all levels of the game, from grassroots to the professional game) has lacked a little direction recently. An interim Head for two years, then a vacant post for another year, and most recently an appointment who, 12 months in, has yet to be introduced to the coaches he is tasked with developing.

BBC Sport running another story about Emma Raducanu, the British tennis player US Open Champion in 2021, once again looking for a new coach. Raducanu to 'tap into a few people' over coaching — BBC Sport, March 5, 2026 Raducanu parted company with coach Francisco Roig after January's Australian Open — the Spaniard was the seventh full-time coach Raducanu had worked with since her US Open win.

Sir Ian Botham created a stir with his thoughts on the IPL, as delivered in his MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture. But it was another comment, from Matt Prior in the post-lecture Q&A, that really caught my attention. Speaking on the County Game, Prior observed "I find that a lot of young players coming through are over coached". He went on: "...almost need the coach next to them...they are not able to make decisions for themselves."

A couple of weeks ago the Guardian ran an article on their website about HiTZ cricket. HiTZ is the “performance” implementation of Batfast’s bowling simulation technology, as used in the “Sixes” entertainment venues (now, sadly, in administration). In the article, the emphasis was firmly on “getting back into the game” and “building confidence” rather than suggesting it could be a really serious training tool.

On the ontological difference between activities that contain their meaning and those that borrow it

Sharma hits 5K runs, MI’s overload of all-rounders, & RCB threaten to leave BLR.

How youth sports was promised immortality—and quietly gave up its pulse

I have very much enjoyed reading Dynamic Coaching — A Playbook for Cricket Coaches by Ian Renshaw assisted by Stephen Rollnick. Ian Renshaw’s presentations to the ECB Coaches Association Conference in 2017 were one of my earliest practical introductions to the constraints-led approach, and provided a justification of my own preference for games-based learning. I have been waiting for this book since then!

For the All Blacks, the next coaching era may hinge less on tactics than on trust, culture and leadership style.

Three contexts, one pattern: youth sport, coach education, and organizations learning to trust players earlier.

The report provides an update on progress happening across cricket to make it more accessible and inclusive.

GH wonders what the game can do

Westminster Hall