I'm sure you have been there: Lots of work done in the cricket halls, nets and middles practices, yet we see the same old mistakes over and over again on the field from the players.

This was certainly the case for me at a recent cricket festival. After 20 overs of game one, the over rate was incredibly slow. This was largely because the captain was waving his arms around, moving fielders here and there and the field settings rarely reflected the type of bowler or the situation of the game.

It was carnage.

We have used whiteboards, markers, and cricket specific apps to set fields. We make our practices more specific and educational. But still, when it came to game time, the bowlers had no idea how to set a field.

Coach and captain were both going insane.

Blame the players?

No.

Take a different approach, try a different strategy to get the desired behaviour.

Instead of blaming the players, the coaching staff tried to develop an applied understanding of field placing in a different way. I asked the captain to speak of his own experience of the game that the side had just won.

Brutal honesty is the trigger to greater things

Tom told his team,

"All I did for the whole of the bowling innings was do your thinking for you. I had to tell you where to bowl and what field to have every ball. By the time I got to bowl, I was mentally shot. As a result, I bowled like a plank! When I went into bat I had not had enough time to get my concentration levels back to my normal levels and I couldn’t perform as I wanted. This cannot go on guys; I need to be able to perform as a player well as captaining this side."

Tom and I set the bowlers the tasks of setting their own fields for the following day's game. Overnight homework. Captain Tom was not allowed to move fielders in the next 2 days. That way, each bowler was totally accountable for their own results.

Steve Wilson (Assistant Coach) and I were not allowed to advise on field sets at all until we reviewed after the game.

The only thing that we were allowed to do was put our hands in the air if we felt that the field was totally wrong. This may trigger the bowler to then think differently. We couldn’t say what the change should be, just that a change was required.

The outcomes

• We only put our hands up once in the next two days.
• The fields that were set were fantastic
• The captain merely managed his bowlers spells, encouraged and led from the front with the ball (4-11 in the last match)
• The team bowled their oppositions out in the next 3 games
• Two of the bowlers recently played for their regional representative side. The Regional Coach called me the other day and informed me that “Both bowlers were incredibly aware of their plans, their fields and how they could control the outcomes of their spells”.

This was music to my ears.

The lesson for me was simple: Don’t get angry, try a different strategy. Just get better.