The Teesra

Category: cricket

  • On deadly ground, fight

    “On deadly ground, fight…Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape…and there is nothing they may not achieve.”  So wrote Sun Tzu, in his Art of War.

    That sounds like fighting talk…but what does a Chinese general, strategist and philosopher, writing some 2,500 years ago, have to say about cricket?

    I watched the second innings of an indoor game yesterday morning.  With little chance of defending a very low first innings total, the bowling side took the only approach open to them – to try to bowl the opposition out.  And they succeeded.

    OK.  Division 3 of a local indoor cricket competition is hardly Sun Tzu’s “deadly ground”, but with nothing to lose, they produced a performance as convincing as any I have seen.

    So perhaps there is something in this, for the future of “good cricket”.

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  • Follow the leader

    As the England cricket team prepares for the test series against India, the spotlight falls inevitably on their new captain, Alastair Cook.  Largely untried as a leader at the highest level, general opinion seems to be in favour of Cook’s appointment.  Top batsman, good team player, resolute under pressure.

    Cook’s predecessor, Andrew Strauss, alongside coach Andy Flower, saw England take the no. 1  position in the ICC Test rankings  (a position subsequently lost to South Africa), so Cook has a tough act to follow.

    But what makes a leader?  In sport, or in business?

    There is a clue in the title – a leader needs to lead.  Sometimes from the front (opening the batting in a Test match; first into the office and last out); sometimes by offering advice and support; sometimes simply by providing the space for others to flourish.

    But a leader also needs to be followed.  And that can be the tricky part.

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  • Indoor cricket – what can we learn? What should we coach?

    No sooner had we finished our last games of the summer season than we started into the indoor cricket season.  Two senior teams and 6 Colts’ teams have been entered into various competitions over the winter.

    With so much indoor cricket in prospect, it seems sensible for the coaches to run a few sessions around the specifics of the indoor game, at least until we start to work on pre-season drills for the new summer season. (more…)