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.