Hitting the Seam Issue 38 | Page 3

Coach Development Head in Position Welcome to Hitting the Seam 38! July saw the announcement of John Neal as the new Head of Coach Development. At the start of the season our welcome to issue 37 laid out the optimism and expectation around the summer and it certainly has delivered. John’s role is a new one and will involve the planning and implementation of coaching strategies from the grass-roots to the elite level. Director of Cricket Andrew Strauss took the opportunity of John’s appointment to reinforce his desire to grow coaching in our sport and keep it at the centre of the game’s development. ‘We see coaching as an absolutely central pillar in helping us to deliver Cricket Unleashed,’ Andrew announced. ‘As our Head of Coach Development, John will be responsible for creating a game-wide strategy to ensure that coaches have an impact from the moment someone picks up a bat for the first time, right up to the pinnacle in our England team. ‘John will be well known to some of you, having worked previously with Middlesex, Gloucestershire and Somerset, as well as being an adviser to the ECB, including in the assessment of our coach development programmes.’ John’s career path has taken him away from cricket and it’s this outside experience that makes him such a valuable asset to the sport. ‘The breadth of experience both inside and outside sport that he has gained, working as director of the sports business programme at Ashridge Executive Education since 2001, will allow him to challenge, develop and move our coaches and coach education forward. ‘As part of that position he has worked with the RFU, the Welsh Rugby Union, Sport Northern Ireland and the Premier League to help to shape their coaching systems, as well as numerous blue chip businesses to aid their people development. ‘I hope that you will all join me in wishing John all the best in a critically important role for the game of cricket.’ Our new mobile home Heather Knight and her team lifted the Women’s World Cup, Chris Edwards led England Learning Disability to One Day and T20 INAS series wins and 38000 children have experienced our game at All Stars Cricket centres nationwide. Recently you may have noticed that icoachcricket is now available in the App Store and Google Play. This should add an extra level of accessability a host of tools available at your fingertips. As the season draws to a close our preparations for the National Conference move into their next phase, places are limited so book on today. Our feature building up to the conference on page 10 fleshes out the reasons why we are expecting this to be our busiest ever conference. Listening to our ECB Coach Awards winners at the Oval in July reminded me just what a crucial role coaches play in the growing success of our sport. So thank you for everything that you do, enjoy your end-of-season break and I’ll see you at St George’s Park in October. Early August saw the release of icoachcricket’s app, on both Apple and Android platforms. Download today for free! Hitting the Seam is the Official Magazine of the ECB Coaches Association. © ECB Coaches Association, 2017 Photography © Getty Images / ECB unless otherwise stated Martyn Kiel, ECB Coach Development Manager ECB Coaches Association Support Centre County Cricket Ground Edgbaston Birmingham Warwickshire B5 7QX Telephone: [phone] Email: [email protected] Designed and produced by Coachwise Creative 92693