I was appointed to my role in 2017 and one of my fist meetings was with Mohammed Arif at the ECB who explained that he would like me to meet the Chair of the NACC at the indoor school café at Lord’s.
Little did I know that Gulfraz Riaz was not only the chair but also somebody I had played against 20 years earlier. As all cricket people do, we talked about the game, wickets, runs, catches and how good we used to be! It was a great start to a strong relationship not only with Gulfraz but also with his colleagues and members of the NACC.
Gulfraz was able to tell me about the challenges faced by coaches and members of the South Asian community, the diversity within the community, the passion for the game and most importantly for me, how he and NACC had a huge desire to make changes and look forward to what we could achieve together.
One of my first steps was to carry out an in-depth review of coach development provision speaking to more people like Gulfraz representing all areas of the game.
One area which was highlighted was the lack of diversity in the coaching workforce both coaches out on the filed and in the nets and coaches delivering ECB courses.
It was identified that there were a number of causes for this including availability of places on courses, accessibility, cost, delivery methods, duration, perceptions, player participation levels, marketing and delivery structures.
It is critical that, in order to grow the game, deliver the Inspiring Generations strategy and ensure that more people feel that “Cricket is game for me” we support and develop a more diverse coaching workforce.
We are very keen to provide greater opportunity for female coaches, coaches from a BAME background and coaches with a disability.
The diagram below outlines the new strategy to achieve greater diversity which has three phases and is designed to make it easier and faster to become a coach and to keep developing and progress.
Our mission is to “Support everyone to become great coaches who will develop & inspire every player.”
There are three entry points to becoming and ECB qualified coach at the Foundation level and each programme has a blended approach meaning that you can use your phone or tablet to start your learning and then have the chance to attend a face-to-face course locally to apply your skills. The course costs are low, the sessions are short and there is even a bursary programme in place. Last year the NACC bursary was able to support coaches at Foundation, Advanced and Specialist level.
Another important change in the strategy is to make the pathway available to every coach regardless of where they coach. This means that if you want to develop your skills as a coach right the way from Foundation to Advanced and onto Specialist level then, with hard work and application, there is nothing and nobody who can stop you. It does not matter where or who you coach what really matters is how you coach and that is what the coach development pathway is all about.
This change means you decide where you want to use your skills. It may be at your local club, a school, with young players or adults or within the more formal pathway and onwards to professional coaching. You can now apply to take part on a course directly at https://www.ecb.co.uk/be-involved/coaching/coaching-courses. Once you have achieved your Foundation qualification and you have applied your learning with players then you can consider applying for the next stage (Advanced) of your coaching journey.
The Coach Development strategy has been in place for 2 years and is starting to show results. We have seen significant growth in numbers, a fivefold increase in courses and most importantly more people from more diverse backgrounds attending and qualifying as ECB coaches.
We still have more we want to do including qualifying more coach developers from more diverse back grounds who we can train to deliver our growing number of courses. We also want to increase the reach and coaching support offered through the ECB Coaches Association (CA). The CA provides our coaches with the latest thinking in coach development, exercises, and drill to use, 5 interesting coaching magazines, access to events and conferences, great advice from top players and international coaches and finally insurance for your peace of mind when coaching. All this wonderful support is available through our ICoachCricket APP which you can download for free and membership starts from only £10 per year.
We are currently working with NACC on a pilot project to enable new coaches to chose if they would like to be supported geographically by their local county Coaches Association or centrally via a NACC Coaches Association.
Let’s hope for a summer full of safe cricket and sunshine and with a diverse coaching family supporting and nurturing our most precious asset – the players!
That first meeting with Gulfraz at the indoor school was the start of a journey and we have much more we want to do. If you would like to chat with me or any of my colleagues in the team please feel free to email us or come and have a chat – I can’t always guarantee that it will be in the lovely café at Lords but I can promise we will listen to your experiences, the challenges you face and any ideas about that you have about how we can work together to improve coaching and cricket for everybody.
If you would like to talk to us or find out how you can qualify as a coach, please contact us at coachdevelopment@ecb.co.uk or speak to Yusuf Karolia at NACC – info@nacc.co.uk
Let’s hope for a summer of sunshine and cricket in 2021
Stay positive and test negative!
