Finding the winning formula

As the cricket season enters its final throws, my attention has already started to drift a little on to the difficult task of preparing my Beeston hockey squad for the new season. With a new season always comes the challenge of building a new team. Very few teams have exactly the same personnel each season and once again, we will have a small amount of player turnover for the new season. It is always important to have renewal. This does not necessarily have to be new players, but renewal can be as simple as new challenges for experienced players, new tactical considerations or different approaches to previously turgid tasks. Of course, new renewal does not mean that you should not continue to build on previous achievements and successful aspects, and both at Beeston this season, and Kimberley in 2013, that will be the challenge we face.

Building successful teams though, is as much about creating the right team environment as it is about having the best players. There is no doubt having top players is helpful! However, as we have seen with England during the past two weeks, the best players at times can often be the most disruptive!

So how can you deal with awkward players as a Captain or Coach? Can you ever fully integrate players into a successful team whose goals or targets are not aligned with those of the group or who values their own success above that of the team?

For an answer to this question I have looked to the words of Ric Charlesworth, a renowned cricket player and Olympic hockey player and coach. He states “Complex integrated team activities require co-operative, co-ordinated actions, both continuous and spontaneous. An athlete whose primary goal is not the success of the team will usually not improve the team’s performance. Athletes are occasionally self-centred to the detriment of the team, but rarely is it a consistent pattern of behaviour. What is common, however, is that the athlete is distracted by outside influences such as the media, family, friends, personal issues and lifestyle issues which can absorb and overwhelm them. These influences can cause athletes to lose awareness of the team dynamic that contributes to performance. Being able to co-operate and work together is critical to team sport.”

Kevin Pietersen's desire to play in the IPL has been the real cause of disharmony in the changing room

As much as you can guess, I think this assessment pretty much sums up the situation that had led to Kevin Pietersen being jettisoned from the England team. While there is no doubt that he still takes pride in playing for England, and wants to continue, as demonstrated by the hastily put together video interview prior to the last squad announcement, the lure of the big bucks of the IPL and no doubt poor advice, has forced him into negotiations with his employers which have clearly ruffled the feathers of Captain, Coach and teammates. The inevitable consequences in any dressing room are then disharmony as the perception takes place that this man would rather be somewhere else.

Yet is it all KP’s fault? Of course not. This particular problem surrounding the IPL has been brewing ever since its conception. Other countries have had issues already, Chris Gayle of course a clear example. If the IPL continues to fill the window it takes in the calendar and the ECB insist on playing Test cricket in April and May then it will not go away. The ICC seriously need to take a look at the cricket calendar and decide in which direction they want the game to go. I fear that they can’t continue to have their cake and eat it for much longer.

What though, as club cricketers, Captains and Coaches can we learn from this saga? Well primarily it is that you need to have everyone working towards a collective goal. If you as Captain want to win the league, but others in the team do not share this vision, it will be hard to carry people with you. Everyone must strive for the same goal, and in doing so appreciate that personal sacrifices may have to be taken in reaching it. They also have to trust and believe in their own ability, but perhaps more importantly in the ability of their teammates. Sharing this trust, and also enjoying the success of others as much as your own is the only way to become a successful team.