Adi's Club Cricket Blog

[Alviro Patterson]

Less than £70 for decent pads, bats and elbow guards, nice little of shopping there Sport

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Yes Alviro, I will need to buy a new thigh pad next as the belt of the old one i was using has lost elasticity and keeps loosening after every few deliveries. Will use from the club gear until then.

Got to bat last week as well. Some good batting practice and i am now very confident about the sweep shot. it's coming right off the sweet spot of the bat every time i attempted it in the nets. Some good batting practice against variety of bowlers especially that a lot of deliveries were being bowled in the good length. The defense is good and none of the balls hit the batting pads. It really helps to remember what skills the bowler has. It makes life at the crease very easy. The ones who can cut it / spin both ways are the troublesome bowlers as they are less predictable. Against bowlers who are in form, every inch of batting crease becomes so very useful as it gives more time to judge the ball if need be.


Also, got to bowl the offies. Two wides down the leg side. Played on batsmen's mind by modifying the length, flight, delivery point, a seconds pause and the pace.

No fielding practice.

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At my last session at club It was nice to jog early morning and do three sprints. Went to bowl spin at one of the nets. The coach pointed a mistake about my bowling but it was difficult to get over it. Got a leftie batsmans wicket who is opener for our club. The ball was flighted well and it pitched in good length, turned about .5-1 feet and knocked the middle. However, the other deliveries were crap, as about 5 deliveries were on leg side + very hittable. There was lot of dew and the ball was wet throughout the bowling spell. Rubbed it on the trousers but still that was not of much help. It's really a big loss for international spinners who have to bowl with the dew. Experienced it today.

Got to bat as well. My first session with the new bat. It was nice to realize that the bat flow etc was good. It is very easy to handle in all aspects. As it was only the first time i used my new bat, the grains have not expanded and the stroke is not gathered fully by the English willow. Hit a lot of balls on the sweet spot of the bat as seen in the pic below. Seems that it will take another couple of nets with bat so that it gathers stroke everywhere. I edged two from medium pacers but no chips fallen yet, as if often the risk of edges for new bat. Played about 3 cover drives with full flow. Very satisfied with the timing at those and my first cover drives of the season. So there is improvement from the previous nets. Followed by along chat with clubmates as we had tea and then welcomed the young team from Rajkot who are touring over here.

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Jogging, sprints were followed with warmup. Then batted in the nets. Nice knock. Most impressive was the pace bowler. He bowled with lots of intensity and he bounced one and it hit me on forearm. So i took stance a feet further from the batting crease and that's when he started to lose his line bowling three deliveries on the leg side. Nice contest with him. The spinners were not that good during this session. It was easy to play them apart from the odd delivery.

Then took the return trainer to do catch practice alone with the synthetic balls. The seam on these synthetic cricket balls is synthetic as well and is more pronounced and very sharp. Practiced return catches for about 15 minutes and it was nice too flex the body both ways at various ranges to take catches.

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Very hot in Mumbai as it is peak summer time.Now the wickets at club ground will be getting dry as moisture will evaporate and the live grass is likely to turn dead.So teams will need to have different strategies for 20,40 and 50 over matches.Haven't been at club for three weeks.

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A nice session at the club over weekend. The number of cricketers at nets is maximum on weekend. A couple of clubmates got a chance to click pictures with Sachin Tendulkar when they went to Wankhede for practice match.

I have noticed that the coach no more interferes with my batting technique, but gives more advise on the strategies while batting etc. Lots of tournaments happening at the moment and everyone is busy at the net to continue improving their game. This looks like a more competitive summer. Hope our club wins few tournaments this year as well.

[DeltaAlpha]

Why do you think the coach is no longer interfering with your batting technique, adi? Is it because he's got it as good as he thinks he can, or is it because he now thinks it best for each individual to play his own way? Or somewhere in between?

I've always been sceptical of coaches interfering with technique - as Troy Cooley did with Jimmy Anderson, and set him back two years - but then I've never been a serious player, so I really don't know. I can see the point of advising on strategies, though.

[meninblue]

Why do you think the coach is no longer interfering with your batting technique, adi? Is it because he's got it as good as he thinks he can, or is it because he now thinks it best for each individual to play his own way? Or somewhere in between?

I've always been sceptical of coaches interfering with technique - as Troy Cooley did with Jimmy Anderson, and set him back two years - but then I've never been a serious player, so I really don't know. I can see the point of advising on strategies, though.

(1)I have always given importance on basics (footwork and techniques) at club cricket. So i prefer innovating shots on the correct line than the wrong line if the situation demands. My personal belief is that there are enough basic strokes like straight bat, cover drive, square cut, late cut and innovative ones like reverse sweep for off stump line. So no point to try and hit across the lines until and unless the opposition has kept no fielder between DMW or Long on and the ball allows to get power over the in field.

The secretary of our club is the head coach. He was the one who coached us a decade back. However, he has gradually became the secretary. He now does most of the administrative tasks , like sponsorship deals, maintaining contacts with relevant people at MCA etc etc. There are about 5 assistant coaches who do the actual coaching.We used to play together for the same club about 15 years back. These assistant coaches are playing for our club continuously for 20 years and did not take a break as cricket is their career unlike me. They gradually progress from club cricketers to coaches. One of those clubmate who is now the assistant coach was observing me bat like they watch others as well, and he actually appreciated after the first nets session when i went to him and asked how was the nets.He said that you have done well for the first nets session. Then he watched me at nets for another few batting sessions and did not point me anything. Apart from him, i am also confident that i am sticking to the basics and playing innovating strokes on merits of the ball.

However, they often points other mistakes, but those are mostly all rounders or specialist bowlers or first timers at proper cricket who do not have average footwork and try to hit it across the line or a lack of batting technique as they use to play with the soft ball. Some new comers cannot even withstand the force of the hard ball at higher pace on the bat because they are used to soft ball striking the cricket bat at unprofessional cricket. Their problems start with that. Some on their first attempt at proper cricket waste 5 minutes and end up wearing the left pad on the right one. So their coaching approach varies. Even if we assemble thousand of cricket fans who have never played professional cricket, i reckon more than half of them will wear the right pad on the left one and vice versa. They have to be told how to identify the left one and the right one, else they will keep looking if there are "L" or "R" markings. Then the coaches have to build stamina in these new comers to last for 20 overs at least if not 40 or 50.So the coaches have a different approach for some.

As for the established players, for example, we have a wicket keeper in our club, who is U 14 now. One assistant coach tried to coach him batting for about 3 months. But that young boy never followed in nets what the coach told him in previous session. It has probably cost him a career as he missed out on getting selected for Mumbai U-14 probables this year. It's a major setback to him considering what his and his parents goals were.


(2) Coaching first timers is very different and most difficult. It needs a lot of patience.Some of my clubmates prefer to coach established players whereas some prefer to coach youngsters.Some coaches have a different approach in their mind as to what category of cricketers they will be coaching.

My personal opinion is that a cricketer can be coached properly up to the age of 14 as far as basics/footwork/technique is concerned. After that, it is difficult to change their style of play. Also, my advise to those parents who come and ask how to coach their son is, don't wait for kid to become 14 years and then send to nets. If cricket has to be made a career, my opinion is that the coaching should start at age of 7 at least. We do not give the kids of that age to play directly with the hard ball. They are given a synthetic ball first which is not as harder. They are made to play under arm bowling, and established club players overlook their technique sometimes. IMO the stamina has to be built as well rather than just teaching them professional cricket. So i feel running is what the youngsters have to do a lot and coaches should stress on stamina buildup right from early age. Otherwise they will find it difficult to play 20,40 and 50 overs when they grow up.

I do not know what exactly about Jimmy's bowling technique did Troy tried to do, so i cannot comment on it. But as i said before major changes especially the basic ones should happen before age of 14 where a cricketer has better changes and long time in future to grasp it, then implement it, adjust to it and be successful at lower level with that technique and carry the changes well to further levels with minimum or no interference of the change thereon.Having said that coaching plays an important role even at the age of 25 or 30+. International cricketers majorly benefit from it.In nets and matches there are somethings that a specialist batsman will do wrong but does not realizes whats wrong as he is not bowled or caught in nets or escapes with a bad stroke in real matches. Observation is a very important aspect for a successful coach. If coach observes the crucial flaws which gets unnoticed by others due to being directly involved in game, then coach can give the feedback. IMO a good coach plays important part in cricket whatever the success level one has achieved.A good coach will also know what to do and what not to do at a specific age group on a case to case basis.


But i agree with you that wrong coaching can be dangerous. I will take a example of cricketer which you know. My clubmate who was one time coach of Rohit Sharma, used to coach him in nets. During the same days, Rohit was part of Mumbai young age squad. So there he had a different coach. This was his problem and that has had some say in Rohit's technical flaws.The clubmate told me that Rohit had a problem of falling balance on the leg stump a bit and hence prone to LBW's early in innings.He used to coach him in morning.The Rohit used to go to MCA coach later as he was part of MCA squad.There the coach never found out the flaw and technical deficiences in Rohit as a complete cricketer.Probably Rohit's mindset was that why listen to other coach when the MCA coach is not pointing it out to him.The patience and technique is still hurting Rohit at international stage.From those of my clubmates who have watched Rohit closely in nets,they often say if there was any Indian cricketer who they could see a next Sachin in, it was Rohit.But alas , not all cricketers are as committed and as humble as Sachin is. Sachin respects everyone, even to the club bowlers who bowl to him in nets today. Whereas i recall an incident about Rohit. He was at the MCA club at BKC, Mumbai.The ball missed Rohit's bat and hit his pads.Rohit had ego and he started abusing the bowler why he bowled one on middle-leg.He could not see the flaw was in him not to cash in on a boundary.His approach is very different as a person, so coaches can hardly do those with have higher egos.Back to the point, multiple coaches at same point of time or after every few years is not good for those who have cricket as a career.The board has to find out the right coach and make longer contracts than changing one after every two year.If you know that a coach suita a particular team well then give him continuity so that cricketers as well as coach can work out wonders.

Strategy is another important aspect in cricket.The thoughtful observants of the game of cricket will end up with better sustainable strategies.Although how a cricketer has to bat, bowl or field will differ as per the conditions and opposition, having proper heads to devise strategies off the ground will improve the knowledge and level of cricket thinking.Without experience of talking about strategy, a cricketer will not become a good captain.Even strategy is useful at the player level.But for all that other things like gathering inputs from coaches, analysing mistakes, improving game etc are important consideration.I have personally seen how thinking cpatains can have an impact even on the specialist batsman.The strategy is important to keep the opponent thinking and make your opponent force to come out with a better strategy while the match is actually being played. Having prepared strategies off the ground, and ability to devise strategy as per the sitaution is very important.I discuss it a lot with clubmates of my age (who are assistant coaches now) as well as the secreatary + head coach.
When i talk with them their inputs are just fabulous.some of the strategies they come up with are worth more often than not.We had a clubmate who captained in some matches.He used to take wickets by his field placements.offcourse the bowlers supported his strategy well , but he went to bowlers with a plan.He knew what exactly his role was as a captain.

[DeltaAlpha]

Many thanks for that, adi. It must have taken you quite some time to think out and write all that, and I appreciate it, but it will take me even longer to take it all in! One thing is clear though, and that is that I have far too simple (and maybe cynical) a view of the role of coaches and what they can do to help and develop players.

I'll read your post again, bit by bit over the next day or two and see what I can learn from it. Nothing beats first-hand experience...

I'm going to have a cup of coffee now!

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Welcome Delta. It did take long time to type, delete ,correct etc.

[DeltaAlpha]

I have always given importance on basics (footwork and techniques) at club cricket. So i prefer innovating shots on the correct line than the wrong line if the situation demands. My personal belief is that there are enough basic strokes like straight bat, cover drive, square cut, late cut and innovative ones like reverse sweep for off stump line. So no point to try and hit across the lines until and unless the opposition has kept no fielder between DMW or Long on and the ball allows to get power over the in field.

The secretary of our club is the head coach. He was the one who coached us a decade back. However, he has gradually became the secretary. He now does most of the administrative tasks , like sponsorship deals, maintaining contacts with relevant people at MCA etc etc. There are about 5 assistant coaches who do the actual coaching.We used to play together for the same club about 15 years back. These assistant coaches are playing for our club continuously for 20 years and did not take a break as cricket is their career unlike me. They gradually progress from club cricketers to coaches. One of those clubmate who is now the assistant coach was observing me bat like they watch others as well, and he actually appreciated after the first nets session when i went to him and asked how was the nets.He said that you have done well for the first nets session. Then he watched me at nets for another few batting sessions and did not point me anything. Apart from him, i am also confident that i am sticking to the basics and playing innovating strokes on merits of the ball.

OK, first part first... I think what you're saying there, adi, is that you stick to the basics, and only play more adventurous shots when the ball is in the right place for you to do so. If the coach makes no comments, then presumably, in his eyes, you are getting it right, and all credit to you for that. But the thing is, when did you start to take this approach, how did you learn what "the basics" are and how did you learn when to play the more adventurous shots? Did you get a lot of help from the coaches when you were younger, or did it just come naturally? I seem to remember that you had taken quite a long break from playing, yet here you are doing fine again; that would imply the latter (i.e. it comes naturally) to me. What I'm trying to get at is just how important a role is fulfilled by coaches.

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I have always given importance on basics (footwork and techniques) at club cricket. So i prefer innovating shots on the correct line than the wrong line if the situation demands. My personal belief is that there are enough basic strokes like straight bat, cover drive, square cut, late cut and innovative ones like reverse sweep for off stump line. So no point to try and hit across the lines until and unless the opposition has kept no fielder between DMW or Long on and the ball allows to get power over the in field.

The secretary of our club is the head coach. He was the one who coached us a decade back. However, he has gradually became the secretary. He now does most of the administrative tasks , like sponsorship deals, maintaining contacts with relevant people at MCA etc etc. There are about 5 assistant coaches who do the actual coaching.We used to play together for the same club about 15 years back. These assistant coaches are playing for our club continuously for 20 years and did not take a break as cricket is their career unlike me. They gradually progress from club cricketers to coaches. One of those clubmate who is now the assistant coach was observing me bat like they watch others as well, and he actually appreciated after the first nets session when i went to him and asked how was the nets.He said that you have done well for the first nets session. Then he watched me at nets for another few batting sessions and did not point me anything. Apart from him, i am also confident that i am sticking to the basics and playing innovating strokes on merits of the ball.

OK, first part first... I think what you're saying there, adi, is that you stick to the basics, and only play more adventurous shots when the ball is in the right place for you to do so. If the coach makes no comments, then presumably, in his eyes, you are getting it right, and all credit to you for that. But the thing is, when did you start to take this approach, how did you learn what "the basics" are and how did you learn when to play the more adventurous shots? Did you get a lot of help from the coaches when you were younger, or did it just come naturally? I seem to remember that you had taken quite a long break from playing, yet here you are doing fine again; that would imply the latter (i.e. it comes naturally) to me. What I'm trying to get at is just how important a role is fulfilled by coaches.

Yes, being a specialist batsman i have to stick to basics. I cannot get out cheaply like all rounders and specialist bowlers. Else, i would have lost my place in squad. So that pressure helped. But in 40 overs matches, the opponents score anywhere between 220 - 240 . Chasing that during winter is tough as the opening specialist bowlers get enough assistance. So the adventurous shorts are sometimes required in some chases. Sometimes not even a single unwanted short is required.

I started playing street cricket since about 5 years. There i used to play adventurous shorts. The i was introduce into club cricket by a club mate who is senior to me by age. I had three coaches in all because i played for three clubs when i was young. But most of my cricket coaching has happened at the club i am currently playing , which is also one of the 3 i played plenty years back.I don't remember the exact year but maybe i joined the first club about 17 years or so.In the nets at clubs, I practice adventurous strokes more during the last couple of round of my batting session. I do not try it early unlike at street cricket, because then i was worried that i get into habit of being impatient and trying too many things too quickly and playing into the hands of opposition. So when i bat in nets about first 40 balls are played normally. Then when the last two rounds come i say to myself it's ok to get out now but it's time to practice adventurous strokes. That is when i try to place the full ball on the stumps purposely to the third man, the reverse sweep against spinners, moving out of crease with full intent and trying to smack it over the infielders (nets stop the balls which are hit in arc of midwicket to covers). The idea is very aggressive batting 4 runs every ball in the last couple of rounds.

In short the adventurous shorts were learned in street cricket to start with, but when to play it and hot to play them effectively was learned at club cricket because the basics improved a lot there.


Abotu the basics, I learned basics by following ways:
(1)I used to do shadow batting. The shadow batting at the nets was done sometimes or few minutes.Similarly shadow batting was done before going on to bat in every match.
(2)The coaches used to tell to put the hard ball in the socks and suspend it and do controlled hitting with full face of bat. They used to tell to follow Sachin or Rahul when they show matches on TV. I used to do that by suspending it with help of rope and socks from the curtain rod which runs across the door.This practice was done for 10 - 20 minutes.
(3)The coaches used to tell to keep minimum gap between the bat and pad and other basics which you know about the head position, elbow position, bat flow, stance etc.

The basics were learned at club cricket. When i went to the club i realized that there are so many things regarding stance and understood the reason behind all that.By basics i mean stance, the head and elbow position, the footwork, analyzing whether the ball is to be hit, defended or well left, knowing the technique how to do a proper well left, using the back leg to cover the stumps while playing square cut etc where the LBW is taken out of equation to that type of delivery while playing stroke.

I was an all rounder at street cricket, but my coach gave me bowling in nets and never gave me to bowl in 20,40 or 50 overs matches. Maybe he thought my bowling was good only for street cricket standards. I mean i was taking wickets at street level fairly easily than some other bowlers but at club coaches treated me fit as purely specialist batsman at 4. I have not bowled even a single over in all the matches i have played at proper cricket.So right from the first club i just bowled in nets at every club but being treated as specialist batsman i also didn't give much attention to bowling basics. In fact my bowling action, regarding the jump was weird and now i feel i could not have sustained it over 40 and 50 overs. One coach told me but i could not change it even though i tried. Maybe the coaches kept on spotting it in nets that i could not change it and they thought it was not wise to use someone with that action as a bowler. So i never concentrated on bowling basics because i knew i was playing role of specialist batsmen. However, i used to try setting up batsmen in nets.

Therefore, i would say my batting skills improved due to good coaching. Without the inputs from coaches i might have been a good batsman only for street cricket but would have failed against specialist bowlers at club levels.So the coaches had a huge impact on my batting and i can attribute my runs to their coaching.Today when i think about it with more maturity, i feel i am lucky to have been their student and thankful to my coaches for whatever they have taught me.

In fielding probably i coached myself more in technical aspects.


The coaches did not had much say in fielding basics apart from slip fielding. I learned the long barrier by watching cricket on TV. I followed Jonty, Ponting and Gibbs and learned fielding basics and diving by watching them on TV and practicing diving at home. Then i used to read interviews of Jonty Rhodes and extract as much information from that. It was his interview where i learned how to use the toe positions and the importance of toe positions in fielding.

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What I'm trying to get at is just how important a role is fulfilled by coaches.
First i will take my example:
Yes, cricket skills came naturally to me because i did well in street cricket itself as a top order batsman, opening bowler and fielder. But copybook basics were definitely learnt at club cricket. Without copybook coaching i would not have been same specialist batsman and i would have been more inconsistent. Apart from the basics the mindset etc was changed by coach. At one club the coach used to do the job of umpiring when we played the 20 and 40 overs matches. He used to tell me whether i am approaching the innings/pacing innings properly or not. He liked the way i paced innings even though specialist batsman wicket used to fall at less average at other end.So those instance i guess he considered me as outright specialist batsmen and fit me as strategy for developing the team.So in short for me, they played a huge role for my development as a cricketer.

Now talking about how important coaches are to other cricketers:
I think for those who want to make cricket as a career, they have to be coached right from early age. There are so many mistakes that the young boys (aged 7 and above) do.It's obvious they do not know the right and wrong, they do not have the maturity to pace innings, they do not have the ability to think what the opponent aged 12 is thinking. Coaches have to impart these 7 year young kids and tell them more tricks and experience which they would otherwise learn slowly by aeging. So the young boys if coached get to know more at lesser age and do not have to wait and learn everything by experience. The other things can only come by experience but many things can be taught early.Without coaching the young boys at our club they will not survive in Mumbai U14 level cricket.They will not even make the probables selection or the second selection round that is taken by MCA.They will get rejected then and there and selectors can identify who has got coaching and is ready for the next level. From my observations of the kids at our club, without coaching some would never have been the batsmen they are now.There are two U14 boys who bat so well, i see them and i think the coaches are probably preparing them for three day and five day cricket.Such is their brilliance due to their own efforts motivated by coaches and their inputs.No way they can bat like that without coaching.The competition in Mumbai cricketing system is fierce than what it was in our younger days. I never planned for cricket as career so it was okay if i was not coached. However, i feel if one is thinking of making a career in cricket, coaches are a must, otherwise they cannot survive the opponents who are well trained and hardened by inputs of the astute coaches.

If cricket is not seen as career option coaching can be skipped, but if cricket is a career option coaching should start at the age of 7 or 8 at least. Otherwise from the Mumbai cricket system perspective they will not make the U-14 teams.


BTW, what exactly happened to Jimmy about his coach Would like to know if Jimmy was taught wrong bowling and what wrong.

[DeltaAlpha]

Thanks for taking the time to post that, adi. I understand what you're saying and can see the reasoning behind it, but it'll take me a day or two to absorb it all!

Regarding Jimmy, it was the England coaches who did the damage; they apparently thought his action was 'wrong' and should be 'corrected', whatever that may mean. His action is unusual of course, in that he's looking at the ground at the time of release, but it worked for him, and they should have left him alone. However, they pressed ahead and tried to get him to bowl from a more upright position and looking at the stumps; the result was a bad back injury that kept him out of the game for about a year. After a change of coaches, Jimmy was allowed to return to what was normal for him, and it took him another year to get back to where he was. Two years lost, and for what?

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Thanks for taking the time to post that, adi. I understand what you're saying and can see the reasoning behind it, but it'll take me a day or two to absorb it all!

Regarding Jimmy, it was the England coaches who did the damage; they apparently thought his action was 'wrong' and should be 'corrected', whatever that may mean. His action is unusual of course, in that he's looking at the ground at the time of release, but it worked for him, and they should have left him alone. However, they pressed ahead and tried to get him to bowl from a more upright position and looking at the stumps; the result was a bad back injury that kept him out of the game for about a year. After a change of coaches, Jimmy was allowed to return to what was normal for him, and it took him another year to get back to where he was. Two years lost, and for what?

My pleasure too. I know it's a jumbled post so it needs a few readings.

Thanks for that info regarding Jimmy's coaching. I didn't knew this. Yes, in such instances where change required is drastic coaching can be dangerous. To make a bowler who has habit of looking on ground when releasing ball (even though it is wrong) make look to stumps is a major change. Something similar like Paul Adams as he too didn't look at stumps i think ? And as i mentioned before, a most major changes should be done before age of 14 and that is my observation at what happens in nets.

[DeltaAlpha]

Yes, I get all that now, adi, and see how - and how early - coaching is needed for developing players, so many thanks for that.

However, what's your take on coaching professional players, say test players, where the players may be better players than the coaches have ever been? I don't really see how that works. I'm reminded of one of my grand-daughters who, while at junior school, pointed out to her teacher that she'd spelt something wrongly on the whiteboard; the teacher blew her top and told her she was being disruptive, but the fact is that she knew better than her teacher. That's the sort of thing that I don't get about coaches and professional cricketers.