2016 was one of my fondest coaching years to date.

I have travelled the world with my job, seen some of teams and individuals who I’m lucky enough to work with achieve some great things and have learnt a lot from listening and watching some great coaches in action.

Here is my number 10 to number 6 highlights from 2016:

10. The Millfield Cricket Bubble being flattened.

This might not sound like a highlight. But I took the attitude that not having the Bubble could create more opportunities for the coaching staff to come up with some innovative drills and methods to help players to develop at an accelerated rate.

The coaching staff really came up trumps with innovations on the pool shelf, the outdoor tennis centres and any space that we could find to work on. Training attitudes in the players became more robust, there was no moaning when we were fielding in –1c(!) conditions or batting on frozen Astro pitches. I was so impressed with the players just getting on with it.

I’m convinced that the toughened attitudes and innovative practice methods led to an outstanding summer of results on the field.

9. Carlos Braithwaite

England left the West Indies 19 to win off the last over of the World T20 Final. Most people’s money was on England to come out on top. Carols Braithwaite had other ideas!

4 balls later, West Indies had won, Ben Stokes had his head in his hands and I was surrounded by jubilant St Lucians at my resort in the West Indies. It was a painful day on the beach! What incredible critical moment controlfrom Braithwaite. When I spoke with his long time coach only a few weeks later, he confirmed to me that when Carlos was young, he relished the opportunity to be the man to change the course of a match in a single handed fashion.

Apparently, he had done similar things on a number of occasions in his cricketing life from youth player to T20 legend. Critical moment control is a skill that few have. It comes down to your attitude towards challenge. Do you want to take that challenge on and back your skills. What ball striking under pressure…quite incredible.

8. Leadership in spades

I was sitting with Andrew Strauss, the Managing Director of England Cricket as Braithwaite hit that final 6 to secure victory. We were on a coaching holiday together in St Lucia at the time and watching the match on a big screen at the bar. Strauss out his head in his hands but after a couple of sips on a beer he started to write an email to Coach, Trevor Bayliss, his support staff and England T20 captain, Eion Morgan.

I won’t tell you what he wrote specifically but the class of the man came through in what he wrote. His email was very calm, congratulated the team on their performance in the World Event and most crucially projected the importance of learning from playing in a World Final as England are aiming to be in the next 2 ICC Finals on home soil with the 2017 ICC Champions trophy and the 2019 World Cup.

Strauss is an exceptional leader. He just understands what to say and when to say it. When England win one or maybe both of the ICC Finals in the years to come as much as he won’t be taking any credit, the vision for England’s surge up the white ball rankings hails from one mans head.

7. Sam Young’s Bunbury Brilliance

Sam Young was Millfield’s only participant at the 2016 ECB Bunbury U15 Regional Festival. It’s a fantastic talent ID week and most of England’s Test and white ball cricketers have performed at their own Bunbury Festival. Sam certainly didn’t disappoint scoring a fantastic 42 on the opening day and then hitting the top score of the week (123) on Day 2 against the South East Region.

Sam’s Ball striking was out of this world and his ability to play spin has separated him from his peers. It’s been great to see him develop over the last 4 years and he thoroughly deserved to win the Batter of the Week award. Sam topped this with selection for the ECB/Bunbury U16 Squad to tour Sri Lanka at Easter.

6. Fin Trenouth breaks the ECB batting record.

Fin Trenouth joined Millfield in September 2015. A precocious talent who somehow found himself outside of the conventional ECB Academy pathway. Fin worked incredibly hard through the year on his technique and fitness and looked like a quality player as the school year ended at the start of July.

His performances in the ECB U17 County Championships in 2016 smashed all previous records. His 862 runs at 86.2 put him over 100 runs ahead of the next best batter. Fin scored 332* for Somerset vs Hampshire which is an incredible effort. Fin was 140* overnight when he emailed me. I told him to make it a proper ‘Daddy Hundred’ the next day so was chuffed to bits when the Hampshire, yes Hampshire coach, called me to tell me that Fin had just past 300 and was still going!

Fin ended up with an Academy contract and played a number of County 2nd XI games last summer. A great year for Fin.