Cricket Fundamentals
with Cecil Parsons.
When I took over the coaching of the Methodist Under 14 C cricket team at
St Albans, Melbourne, in 1936, they hadn’t won a game for many weeks.
I’d watched them play the previous Saturday and saw their problem straight
away. It was obvious. They were lacking one important element in their batting.
It’s true they had a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye when
they were at bat. And a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye are very
important. Without a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye you may as
well not go out to bat at all. You may as well stay in the pavilion because
you’re going to end up back in the pavilion fairly quickly. But a fine
repertoire of strokes and a keen eye are not enough. You need much more
than that and I knew what it was. I decided to tell the 14Cs about it at
our first training session the following Wednesday.
At the training session the following Wednesday I told the14Cs how I had
watched their game the previous Saturday. I told them how I had identified
a deficiency in their batting. That there was something lacking. I told
them they had a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye in batting. And
that a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye were very important. That
without a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen eye you may as well not
go out at all. That you may as well stay in the pavilion because you’re
going to end up back in the pavilion fairly quickly. But a fine repertoire
of strokes and a keen eye were not enough. You needed much more and I knew
what it was. I told them I had decided to tell them about it, at this our
first training session.
When I told them this they were puzzled. They were completely baffled. What
more do you need? they said. If a fine repertoire of strokes and a keen
eye are insufficient, what’s missing? What else is there? That was
the question they posed to me. That was what they wanted to know. I told
them the answer was very simple. I told them that I had the answer and that
I would tell them the answer. Then I told them the answer. The answer was
they had no idea of the concept of planning an innings.
The planning of an innings was essential, I said. Tactical sense, imagination
judiciously applied, a knowledge of your opponents, some know-how about
wickets, and for many of us, the all-important feeling of mental peace go
into compiling a big score. I told them they didn’t have tactical sense,
nor any imagination judiciously applied. They had no knowledge of their
opponents, nor any know-how about wickets. And lastly, they didn’t
have the all-important feeling of mental peace that goes into compiling
a big score.
I could see they were thinking about that. They were thinking very deeply,
very earnestly. A tactical sense. Hmm, yes. Imagination judiciously applied.
Hmm. A knowledge of your opponents. Yes. Some know-how about wickets and
for many of us the all- important feeling of mental peace that go into the
compiling of a big score.
I told them that when we went into training we would work on these skills.
When we started training we would concentrate on those elements in particular.
They would be our main focus. And when we started training we did work on
these elements. These elements were the prime focus of the training sessions.
We concentrated on them above all else. We worked on tactical sense. We
worked on imagination judiciously applied. We worked on knowledge of your
opponents. We worked on some know-how about wickets, and for many of us,
the all-important feeling of mental peace that go into a big score. When
they went into their next game I wanted to be sure that they employed these
things. I wanted to be sure they would have a tactical sense. That there
would be a judicious application of imagination, a knowledge of their opponents,
some know-how about wickets, and, for many of us, the all-important feeling
of mental peace that go into the compiling of a good score.
And that’s exactly what happened the following Saturday morning when
we played the St Aloyisius 14Cs. It was clear that my charges had listened
in training. They had been paying attention to what I’d said. When
they went into their next game they applied what I taught them to great
effect. There was a tactical sense, imagination judiciously applied, a knowledge
of your opponents, some know-how about wickets, and for many of us, the
all-important feeling of mental peace that go into a good score. They won
the game. They trumped the opposition. It was a very satisfying result.
The team members seemed bewildered at the feeling of victory. What’s
going on? they said out on the field after they won. I don’t understand.
You mean we won? I can’t fathom this. I’m scared.
The team played so well that some of the team members were promoted to the
Bs. The selectors had been impressed by the performance of the team and
by some players in particular.They said they had noticed their employment
of tactical sense, imagination judiciously applied, a knowledge of their
opponents, some know-how about wickets, and for many of us, the all-important
feeling of mental peace that go into a good score. As a result they were
promoting several players to the Bs. These players would be playing in the
Bs the following week. They were too good for the Cs, in the selectors’
opinions. They deserved to be promoted and they could certainly use them
in the Bs.
The players were sorry to go, however. They told me they were sorry to go.
They valued the lessons they had learnt from me. They valued the lessons
about tactical sense, imagination judiciously applied, a knowledge of your
opponents, some know-how about wickets, and for many of us, the all-important
feeling of mental peace that go into a good score. Nevertheless they went
on to play for the Bs. They had been selected and that’s all there
was to it. You had to accept the decision of the selectors whether you were
going up or down a grade. I’d never seen anyone complain about being
promoted before, though. That was a new one for me. People grumbled about
getting dropped or demoted all the time. But to complain about going up
a grade, about being selected. That was something out of the ordinary in
my experience.
But then an interesting thing happened. When the players who were promoted
from the Cs to the Bs played for the Bs the following week they seemed to
forget everything I taught them. They employed no tactical sense, there
was no imagination judiciously applied, nor was there a knowledge of your
opponents, some know-how about wickets, and for many of us, the all-important
feeling of mental peace that go into a good score. They were all bowled
out for very small innings. One was out for two and the rest were out for
ducks. Very small innings. You can’t get any smaller than a duck as
far as innings go.
I wondered what happened. Why hadn’t they employed any tactical sense?
And why wasn’t there any imagination judiciously applied? There seemed
to be no knowledge of their opponents, nor any know-how about wickets, and
for many of us the all-important feeling of mental peace that go into a
good score. As a result they were dropped from the Bs. They were demoted
to the Cs and they came to training on the following Wednesday.
When they came to training on the following Wednesday after being dropped
from the Bs to the Cs, I asked them what had happened. Why didn’t you
employ the lessons I taught you? Why was there no tactical sense, no imagination
judiciously employed? What happened to the knowledge of your opponents,
the know-how about wickets? Where was the for many of us all-important feeling
of mental peace that goes into a good score?
They said they had remembered everything I’d taught them. They had
remembered about the tactical sense, the imagination judiciously employed.
About the knowledge of opponents, the knowledge about wickets, and for many
of us, the all-important feeling of mental peace that go into a good score.
But they deliberately hadn’t employed the lessons they’d learned.
They deliberately forgot about the tactical sense, the imagination judiciously
applied, the knowledge of opponents, the know-how about wickets, and for
many of us, the all-important feeling of mental peace that go into a good
score. They scrupulously avoided implementing any of these tactics. They
were assiduous in their neglect. They wanted to be dropped from the Bs.
They wanted to make the Cs. And they told me why.
I was touched to hear why they had demotional ambitions. I had a lump in
my throat when they filled me in on their retrograde motivations. There
was a tear in my eye as they recounted their counter-promotional rationale.
They said they had liked what I had taught them. They had valued the lessons
about tactical sense, imagination judiciously applied, knowledge of your
opponents, some know-how about wickets, and for many of us the all-important
feeling of mental peace that go into a good score. And so they had decided
to play badly, and ignore the fundamentals, the lessons about tactical sense,
imagination judiciously applied, knowledge of your opponents, some know-how
about wickets, and for many of us the all-important feeling of mental peace
that go into a good score. For they reasoned that if they could get a lesson
like that from me, lessons about things like tactical sense, imagination
judiciously applied, knowledge of your opponents, some know-how about wickets,
and for many of us the all-important feeling of mental peace that go into
a good score, then there were probably many more lessons to be learned.
Copyright Simon Sandall April 2000
