This is part two of Mark Garaway's cricket coaching year.

May - IPL Fever

Whilst all of the Millfield Squads were performing admirably on the fields of England, progressing through their respective rounds of the national competitions it was also great to keep an eye on the IPL.

Australians led the way in the individual stat markets with David Warner taking the “Orange Cap” for scoring 641 runs in the tournament as well as sharing the “Most 6’s” award with countryman, Glenn Maxwell. The impressive Chris Lynn playing for KKR had the highest strike rate (180).

In the bowling stakes Andrew Tye walked away with 2 awards picking up Best figures (5/17) and best bowling average (11.75) and Bhuvi Kumar took a magnificent 26 wickets in 14 matches to take the Purple Cap.

Lesson: The IPL project and market their competition wonderfully which attracts interest from people across the world.

The way that they incentivise players to perform better, making the game an even better spectacle, can be easily transferred into our club and school cricket environments.

Having a way of tracking and promoting who has scored the most runs, taken the most wickets, hit the most 6’s and caught the most catches creates interest, rewards performance and gives us something to project out to the masses on Social Media.

Cricket competes with so many different sports and activities nowadays so it’s vitally important that we all learn to keep Cricket at the forefront of people’s consciousness.

At School, Matt Thompson does a great job of keeping the Millfield Twitter updated and produces incredible Newsletters once a term. We also award stunning caps for every 5-wicket haul and 100 scored in the season and have honours boards placed throughout the pavilion to commemorate service and performance of the pupils. We are always striving to learn from the IPL and other excellent promotional sporting events (NBA, Tour de France, Big Bash) about the best and most appropriate ways to project our sport and its players. What innovative ways do you do this in your clubs and schools? Let me know.

June - so near, yet so far!

It was said by some that our season at Millfield ended being a disappointment as we failed to win a National Trophy finishing as runners up in one Final and losing semi-finalists in 3 other competitions.

In fact, one senior teacher at the school told me that Millfield should win every National Cup in every year which I thought was equally as ignorant as it was disrespectful to every other school in the country who play the game. I told him so too!

We all play in leagues and Cup competitions and over the years I have been involved as a player and coach in 54 champion teams in the non-professional game and 15 winning teams in professional cricket so I have an understanding of what it takes to win any competition.

Every team should aim or dream of winning each tournament that they enter and for all those wins I mentioned previously, I have had a number of surprise losses and some near misses too which have not helped me keep my hair over the years!

Winning tournaments takes huge levels of effort, focus, skill, reflection and a fair bit of luck along the way as well. No-one has the right to believe that they only need to turn up to pick up the spoils and to taste the champagne.

Lesson: The incredible Peter Moores, coach of white ball champs Nottinghamshire CCC once said to me “Champions prepare like the number 2 seeded team and play like the number 1”

I love this quote as it keeps you striving and pushing to become better. The most difficult thing to do is to win after winning but if you take on the Moores mantra then you give yourself a good chance!

Could this quote help your team to maintain their success or to knock the dominant rivals from their pedestal?

July - Bunbury Festival fun and friendship

The Bunbury Regional Festival is one of the best Talent ID weeks out there. This year's festival, held at the gorgeous Stowe School was the 32nd edition of Dr David English's brainchild. I played in the 2nd version of the event in 1988. Now that makes me feel old!

Millfield had 2 representatives at the festival who both performed well played major roles in their respective T20 and 50 over trophy wins for their teams. It was lovely to see them competing confidently with the best players in the country.

The best part of the Festival has always been the camaraderie and friendships which develop during the week.

I met one of my best friends at the Bunbury Festival in 1988 and so many of the present England team met whilst competing with or against each other in their specific Bunbury year.

Ben Stokes and Joe Root built their relationship on the foundation of Bunbury as did Freddie Flintoff and Steve Harmison way back in 1992.

Lesson: Cricket has an amazing way of building life long relationships which stand up to all sorts of pressures and challenges over the years.

80% of my guests at our recent wedding were from cricket and most of them have been lifelong friends from my days at Ventnor Cricket Club. So cherish your team mates, learn as much about them as you can as if your anything like me, those guys and girls who you share the cricket field with over the next few years will be the same people who you want around you at the key times in your life.

August - The Only Way is Essex!

Newly promoted Essex upset then apple cart by dominating the County Championship from start to finish after only being promoted into 1st Division the previous September.

Initially aided by Alistair Cook's early season availability and form, a number of unknown Essex players put in some incredible performances to drive their county to their first Championship since the famous Graham Gooch days in 1992.

Jamie Porter (graduate of the Tom Maynard Academy) topped the bowling rankings with 75 wickets closely followed by South African off-spinner Simon Harmer with 72. Their wicket taking exploits were the thrust behind Essex’s domination with Dan Lawrence and Nick Browne scoring consistent runs throughout the summer.

I was so pleased to see Essex’s success. The club had changed direction at the end of 2015 appointing Chris Silverwood as Head Coach with Anthony McGrath as Assistant coach. Both fellas are good cricketing men who have experienced a lot of County cricket with a smattering of International exposure. They have also been quietly impressive as they have gone through the ECB Level III and Level IV programmes. Chris has now gone on to join the England ranks as Bowling coach and “Mags” has been promoted to become the new Essex Head Coach.

Lesson: County Cricket generally promotes from within and often rewards local legends with coaching positions. This works well is some cases but can also be restrictive in others, I benefited from Somerset investing in me after playing my cricket at Hampshire so it’s great to see a County like Essex looks outside of its boundaries when appointing coaches.

It’s often easier to select a safe appointment and promote from within, but are you always getting the best candidate for the role? Are their other coaches who can bring different perspectives and fresher ideas into your cricket environment? It’s a question worth asking when making any coaching appointment? That’s where PV Jobs comes in to help us all scour the coaches market. Click here to find out more.