The Teesra

Blog

  • Does anyone speak up for the coaches?

    Does anyone speak up for the coaches?

    I don’t think it would be unfair to suggest that ECB Coach Development (the group within the England & Wales Cricket Board with responsibility for developing coaches, at all levels of the game, from grassroots to the professional game) has lacked a little direction recently. An interim Head for two years, then a vacant post for another year, and most recently an appointment who, 12 months in, has yet to be introduced to the coaches he is tasked with developing.

    There have been a couple of revealing “coach development” news snippets, recently, revealing in that neither said anything at all about developing cricket coaching (or coaches) beyond the professional game or the private schools in England & Wales.

    Nor about addressing the genuine issues of inclusion raised by ICEC, nor the ongoing (apparent) failures of coaching (at all levels of the development pathway) in England (& Wales) to develop players ready for the international stage.

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  • Emma Raducanu is looking for a new coach…again

    Emma Raducanu is looking for a new coach…again

    BBC Sport running another story about Emma Raducanu, the British tennis player US Open Champion in 2021, once again looking for a new coach.

    Emma Raducanu is ranked 24 in the world (March 2026), her highest ranking since 2022.
    Raducanu to ‘tap into a few people’ over coaching — BBC Sport, March 5, 2026

    Raducanu parted company with coach Francisco Roig after January’s Australian Open — the Spaniard was the seventh full-time coach Raducanu had worked with since her US Open win.

    There is an unpleasant undercurrent to a lot of the comments BTL, and not a lot of understanding of how player-coach relationships can go wrong. I do wonder how many of them have ever coached, at any level, let alone a Grand Slam winner?

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  • Having a hit with HiTZ

    Having a hit with HiTZ

    A couple of weeks ago the Guardian ran an article on their website about HiTZ cricket.

    HiTZ is the “performance” implementation of Batfast’s bowling simulation technology, as used in the “Sixes” entertainment venues (now, sadly, in administration).

    In the article, the emphasis was firmly on “getting back into the game” and “building confidence” rather than suggesting it could be a really serious training tool. But it looked interesting.

    I paid a couple of visits to HiTZ @ HPC Chigwell to find out for myself.

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