Bob Gitsham, Somerset
I would just like to pick up on the issue in the spring edition
about new ideas concerning on-field discipline. I personally
am against red and yellow cards for the same reason as Chris
Heard of Surrey, and I am totally in agreement with the
comments made by David Burns of Oxon about
communication. I believe the two go hand in hand and that
diffusion is the demonstrator of good common sense. Having
said that, I have noticed over the years, not necessarily a
declining path, but one which may develop within different
clubs, areas and players at times, which could be attributed
directly back to certain coaching methods and ‘directives’.
I have officiated at age-level divisional games for many years
and noted that certain players from a particular club who are
vying for a county spot may be far more aggressive and
vociferous than others they are playing alongside of. A year
later, a different coach can be seen on the boundary
encouraging players from the same club and the attitude is
completely different and much better. Unfortunately in this
context, a coach can often follow ‘his lads’ up the age groups
so bad attitudes go with the players as they get older. Right
now, if a group of age-level players make a nuisance of
themselves it’s the responsibility of some lad who has been
made captain for the day and doesn’t know half the team that
carries the can on the field and receives the ire of the umpire.
Whereas the coach who encouraged such behaviour stands
on the sidelines and later shakes your hand and makes some
sort of an apology with a smile on their face as if to say ‘kids
hey, what do you do with ‘em?’
The idea that, ‘well, that’s what they do in Oz and why they
win’ is a false notion and only breeds a bad behaviour pattern
which runs on into senior cricket with those affected players.
If you look at the poor behaviour patterns in international
cricket of late, I think you will find England men right up there
(or should that be down there?) and that has come as a result
of poor misdirected coaching from when these lads first
started playing, going back about 20 years. This is the same
time frame that I had in mind earlier.
We don’t need to put umpires under any more pressure than
they already are by issuing cards, but more importantly make
more use of David Burns’ (and mine might I add) tactics to
communicate. Use the captains to ‘steer their ship’ and hold
them accountable for hitting the rocks, but also up in front of
the committee should stand the coaches as it is their
Answered by Mark Williams, MCC:
I agree entirely that the behaviour of coaches is critical to
the way in which their teams behave on the field. As a
schoolmaster with over 35 years’ experience, I can say with
some authority that young players are pretty malleable, and
will be heavily influenced to behave either well or poorly by
their coach. They are usually desperate to please the adult in
charge of them who selects the team, and will ‘run into brick
walls’ if told to do so. Coaches and Masters-in-Charge at
schools therefore have a huge responsibility to ensure that
their pupils play competitively but fairly, and in the right
spirit. In my experience, both as schoolmaster and umpire,
there is a significant minority of coaches and/or Masters-inCharge at school, club and county youth level who fail to do
so. This urgently needs to be tackled, and recently the ECB
ACO issued a directive to all of its umpires that if they have
any concerns about the behaviour of an adult associated
with a team in this regard, they should rep