Andy Flower’s guide to managing young talent

Batting – Joe Root

Make him bat as many different positions as possible

When a young player makes his first steps in international cricket, often they are relatively inexperienced in batting any position bar the one they bat for in their county side. Experience in many positions is vital to scoring international runs, so bat the young player in as many different positions as possible, regardless of form. In fact, if he shows good form in a position, move him quickly – he’s mastered that one. If possible, bat him a different position in ODI cricket as well. This all helps. South Africa have ignored this advice throughout the careers of Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers and they’ve barely scored a run between them.

Never, ever, under any circumstances, rest him

It is important to remember that going from playing for six months of year in front of one man and his dog in county cricket, to playing in front of packed crowds all year round against the best cricketers in the world, will have no mental effect on young men whatsoever. At the age of 22 a cricketer should suffer from no mental fatigue at all, so make sure they play every game of every tour in front of the glare of a particularly aggressive media angered by the coach’s refusal to talk to them.

Remove all attacking instinct from his game

It is important to remind cricketers who break into the side in good form that these attacking shots may get them runs now, but when they are out of form, these shots will get them out -  they only need to look at that South African knob Pietersen to see that. All of the great players, Don Bradman, Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting etc have scored at a well below average run rate during their careers, wearing bowlers down by letting them bowl maiden after maiden before attempting an occasional check drive. Once a bowler is not conceding any runs, his confidence will virtually be at zero, and then you can strike with a quickly run two.

Bowling – Steven Finn

Tamper with his technique

The technique that has allowed young bowler to consistently dismiss the best players he’s come up against throughout his career, allowing him early selection to his national side, is almost certainly wrong. Technique refined over years of practice needs to be changed immediately to help bowlers face their biggest challenge in international cricket – the constant input of biomechanical coaches, each trying to justify their own position with a new theory, can all help develop a young pace bowler – after all, the more cooks, the better the broth.

Make him much slower

What is the most overrated skill a bowler can have? Aggression? A good physique? An ability to blindly follow bowling plans devised by an off-field bowling coach whatever the outcome on the field? No, pace. Since the West Indies dominated international cricket in the 70s and 80s with two 75mph seam bowlers and two spinners, pace bowling has been dead. The quicker it is, the faster it goes. Not only that, but several truly fast bowlers have their career ruined by injury, like Shane Bond and Ryan Harris, who spent several years injured in between consistently taking wickets regardless of the quality of the opposition. Imagine how many wickets they might have taken had they played it safe and become 75mph trundlers and tried to hit the top of off stump.

Keep picking him in the squad, but never play him

Young fast bowlers can get into bad habits, so it is vital you keep a close eye on them. By picking them in every squad, it gives you maximum opportunity to tamper with their techniques, a particularly good thing to do when they are short of confidence already. It’s a myth that taking wickets and playing competitive cricket makes a bowler better – what really improves them is being a glorified net bowler. Keeping them in the squad also will although them to appreciate how their betters to do it – it must fill Steven Finn with confidence every day to see Tim Bresnan and Chris Woakes in the nets and dream that if only he was as good as them he too could get back in the Test side.

Wicketkeeping – Jonny Bairstow

Don’t let him actually keep wicket

It’s a frankly outrageous lie that keeping wicket in the County Championship for 108 overs a day in the hardest country to keep wicket in will prepare a wicketkeeper for international cricket. The perfect preparation for a young keeper is to give them occasional 30 minute keeping sets, maybe twice a week, after the wicketkeeping coach has finished preparing the main wicketkeeper. What better way to give the keeper the concentration for a full day’s cricket or the ability to judge what to go for and what to leave for first slip than an isolated session when the rest of the team is back at the hotel?

Play him as a specialist batsman

Modern cricket has seen the rise of the wicketkeeper-batsman, which means that all wicketkeepers should be batsmen first, and then keepers – after all, Adam Gilchrist was not a once in a generation freak to whom the normal rules did not apply, but an easily copied cricketer. To establish whether a wicketkeeper is good enough, he should first be bought into the side as a pure batsman, forcing him to play less cricket and focus on his batting, which will no doubt let him flourish behind the stumps. By the time he’s ready to keep wicket, it’s extremely unlikely that international bowlers will have found his weaknesses with the bat so that he’s suddenly fighting fires on both aspects of his game.

Drop him as many times as possible

Many players say they learn the most not for their successes, but from their failures. Therefore, coaches need to help young players fail as much as possible, as they need to learn the most. Consistently picking then dropping a young wicketkeeper batsman, whilst not letting him play for his county side, will no doubt make him a world beater in two years. If possible, naming a young wicketkeeper as your Test keeper for the future, but not letting him keep wicket in the ODI or t20 sides, will create even greater results.

General Tips

Remove all fun

Who is the true enemy on the cricket field? The opposition, the fans, the media, your own player’s fear of failure? No, it’s fun. A happy player is a lazy player. Mitchell Johnson was clearly in complete inner turmoil during the recent Ashes, barely able to even crack a grin as he romped through yet another English middle order, and look how well he bowled. Sport is not an entertainment industry where the fans love the emotional story of the individuals playing as much, if not more, than the sport itself, but a science that can be solved on a spreadsheet.

Try and micromanage every aspect of their lives

With these players spending up to ten months of the year away with the England squad, it’s only natural that they should want their down time to be managed by the coach as well. Players thrive on being told exactly what to do, what to eat, and what they can say, for every day of the year. The truly professional player has no problem with every aspect of his life being invaded by a coach who ultimately has the only qualification of being slightly more experienced than themselves. A coach lecturing the players’ wives and partners before the tour on how to behave when they are granted access to their husband or boyfriend is in no way an invasion of privacy, in the same way that no professional cricketer, who has trained for a decade or more to reach this level, being told by a recently qualified dietician that they are slightly overweight should find that annoying or insulting.

Antagonize the media

The cricket media in England is made up of journalists of a diverse group of people with different backgrounds and qualities to their reporting. The best way to deal with this diverse group of people is to treat them all the same to the standards of the worst of them. Ian Botham’s ill thought out opinions should be given exactly the same treatment as the erudite and clever criticism from Nasser Hussain, in both cases one of complete distaste. It is not only important to ignore the media, but to rub their noses in the fact you are doing so. This in no way shape or form will lead to criticism of the team by vengeful journalists, particularly at the young players who now have no links to the media whatsoever.

6 Cricketers to Watch in 2014

After last year's mixed bag here are another six

George Dockrell

In 2013, Ireland had quite the year. The associate nations have a red ball tournament. Ireland won that. They had an ODI tournament. Ireland won that. There was the T20 qualifier. Ireland won that. Irish cricket is in a very good place at the minute, where they completely dominate the other associate nations, particularly in white ball cricket, where they can compete with the lesser nations. At the world T20 this year, they face Zimbabwe, UAE and the Netherlands. They should win that group at a canter, and when they do, they can give South Africa, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka a hugely tough match.

Ireland’s main problem is their talent drain to England. Their current side is very good, but would be hugely improved by Boyd Rankin, and in particular, both the middle order batting and potential captaincy of Eoin Morgan (William Porterfield is a very good captain whose batting has suffered greatly because of it). The latest player they could lose could be Dockrell, a highly talented left-arm spinner with huge experience in the white ball formats. Still only 21, and likely to bowl his full quota in every game of the world t20 (for Ireland that should be eight games); Dockrell has a chance to put himself in the shop window, either for England, or for the IPL. England need a spinner, and they may be tempted to head to the Emerald Isle again.

Nic Maddinson

Following a similar path to David Warner, and with a similar style, Nic Maddinson is the latest hard hitting left hander to come from Australia. Now 22, Maddinson has impressed since his debut at 18 for New South Wales with his power hitting. Whilst the aggressive and often aerial style are reminiscent of Warner, his stature is more that of Chris Gayle, if much less solidly built. Maddinson forte was T20 cricket, but many in Australia are impressed with his willingness to learn, shown by some excellent performances in the last Australian summer.

Maddinson was touted as a talent for the future, and made a strong impression on the Australian A tour before the Ashes series, where he was the highest run scorer. A T20 debut in India followed, but with Chris Rogers now 36, and Alex Doolan not in the white ball sides and therefore only able to make his case for a short period each year, if Maddinson can find a way into the white ball teams again, with a world T20 in April, it could be a very impressive and important year for him.

Tymal Mills

In a world of bigger bats, shorter boundaries, and greater freedom for batsman to play shots, the role of the true fast bowler has been threatened. The quicker they are, the faster they go. With Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar retiring, and Shaun Tait playing T20 only, it appeared true fast bowling might die. Fortunately, the performances of Mitchell Johnson this year, not just in his headline catching Ashes series, but also in his excellent performances in the IPL, have shown that fast bowling is not dead.

Tymal Mills bowls fast. He does not bowl accurately; he doesn’t swing it and doesn’t possess the canny nuances of a seasoned paceman. He simply runs in, and fires the ball at the batsman as quickly as possible. Bought onto the Ashes tour to give England practice against left-arm pace, Mills impressed all onlookers, particularly the Australian media set, with his natural pace. Tim Bresnan can master both swing and reverse swing, and he may get on top of a particular batsman. But medium and slow medium bowlers will never scare an entire side, as Johnson has done in this Ashes, and there is no terror in a batsman’s mind like knowing the bowler is simply too quick. England face Sri Lanka (destroyed by Johnson last winter) and India this summer, two nations not renowned for their ability to play hostile, short pitched bowling. In ODI’s England may well advised to unleash Mills.

Sam Robson

Nick Compton, Joe Root and now Michael Carberry have all opened for England in 2013. Compton failed as he became completely introverted (not to mention the growing concerns about his role within the dressing room). Root was moved down the order after himself and Alistair Cook were unable to form a working opening partnership, one of them continually falling early, and now Carberry and Cook have suffered exactly the same problem. All three struggled to rotate the strike and score, and all failed to form a relationship with Cook.

The next opening bat off the rank appears to be Sam Robson. Born and raised in Australia, Robson possesses an iron clad technique and has shown an ability to bat for long period of time. He’s England qualified through his parents, and throughout his early professional career was the subject of the affections of both the ECB and CA to declare for them. Robson chose not to declare for either country until he had qualified for both, before choosing to tour Australia with England Lions this winter. Technically sound, hugely mentally rated by all who have worked with him, it may be Robson’s turn this summer.

Natalie Sciver

The one bright spark in this men’s Ashes series has been the emergence of Ben Stokes, a hugely promising all-rounder with match winning potential with both bat and ball. England women found their version in the summer in the shape of Tokyo-born Surrey all-rounder Natalie Sciver, who looks the best prospect in English women’s cricket since Sarah Taylor.

Sciver has been highly rated from a young age, but concerns over her fitness left her on the outside looking in during 2012. Going through the England Academy eased those concerns, and Sciver’s rise in 2013 has been meteoric. In February 2013 she was England’s standby player for the World Cup. Come June she made her debut against Pakistan, winning player of the match in her second game. Selected in the Ashes squad, she wasn’t selected for either the Test or the first ODI, which England drew, then lost. She played the next five games, all of which England won. In October she took England’s first ever T20 hat-trick, impressing with both bat and ball in a tri-series in West Indies. She fulfils the role of batting six and bowling sixth that England need, combining with Jenny Gunn to give England two genuine all-rounders.

The careers of Sciver and Stokes can well be compared. Both 21, both hugely talented and appreciated as such from a young age, both held back by non-cricket problems (although being a bit chubby is probably a lesser crime than Stokes’ drink driving) and both now heavily involved in England cricket, they both have the potential to win a number of games for England in the next decade.

Mohammed Shami

I have been watching cricket long enough to remember the last really good Indian quick bowler. Not Zaheer Khan, who despite being a very accomplished swing/seam bowler, was never a quick bowler with the skills they bring, such as bouncers and aggression. The last Indian quick bowler was Javagal Srinath, a highly skilled operator who took 236 Test wickets and 315 ODI wickets, often using methods alien to the current crop of Indian fast bowlers – pace, bounce and aggression.

Watching Mohammed Shami in his Test career so far has reminded me of Srinath. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav are talented bowlers, but they often give the impression that they don’t know how to use the fast bowling skills they possess. Bouncers are bowled not with intent, but as a ball to be used to change lengths and get a dot ball. Shami bowls his bouncer with intent. He’s not as quick as Srinath was, but there is time to add muscle, to refine technique. India really struggled in England on their last tour due to the lack of anything approaching even an adequate seam bowler. Shami may surprise a few people this time around.

Six others worth a look – Corey J Anderson, Jamie Overton, Unmukt Chand, Monimul Haque, Chadd Sayers and Holly Ferling.