The icoachcricket Podcast

Coach Development @ England and Wales Cricket Board

The official coaching and coach development podcast from the England and Wales Cricket Board sharing coaching stories from recreational to international cricket.

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24 episodes
Updated Today

Episodes24

Newest first

Today · 25 min
Richard O’Sullivan: Game-based learning provides greater impact...
Introducing young players to cricket in a positive and engaging way is key to long-term participation and enjoyment. Richard O’Sullivan brings more than 30 years of grassroots coaching experience, and is the creator of Box Cricket, a format now widely used in schools. His approach focuses on making the game accessible, active, and enjoyable for beginners. He joins The icoachcricket Podcast to share his coaching philosophy, explain how Box Cricket works in practice, and outline how coaches can create meaningful first experiences for players starting out in the game.
July 20 · 33 min
Martin Fairn: Mindset is a skill to develop, not a problem to fix...
The mental side of cricket is an increasingly important area of development, particularly for young players navigating the demands of the game. Martin Fairn has worked extensively on the mental skills of players across the pathway and brings experience from a range of different sports. Currently working with Worcestershire and with footballers in the Lionesses setup, he has a broad perspective on athlete development. He joins the podcast to discuss how young players can build a strong mindset, and what coaches can do to support and develop players’ mental skills from an early age.
July 6 · 26 min
Paul Shaw: You’ve got to coach the individual in front of you...
Coaching in cricket has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. From the informal, experience-led approaches of the 1990s and early 2000s to today’s more structured, player-centred environments, the role of the coach continues to shift. But where might it go next? Paul Shaw has spent time reflecting on this journey, examining how coaching has developed, what has driven that change, and what the future might hold for the game. In the final episode of series three, he joins Tim Dellor to explore the evolution of cricket coaching, from past practices to modern methods, and considers how coaches can continue to adapt in an ever-changing landscape.
June 22 · 23 min
Sajid Mahmood: Some of the best batting coaches in the world are bowlers...
Sajid Mahmood enjoyed a successful career, representing England across all formats before moving into coaching. Now based at a West London school, he works closely with academy bowlers. He discusses what he looks for in young fast bowlers, how he uses competition to drive development, and his enjoyment of coaching areas of the game he didn’t focus on as a player.
June 8 · 29 min
John Abrahams: Every decision you make either comes off, or teaches you...
John Abrahams scored 13,560 runs for Lancashire between 1973 and 1988. After captaining Lancashire to List A success, John went on to spend more than 30 years in a range of coaching roles with the ECB. Widely respected across the game, he shares his approach to developing the art of captaincy, highlighting the importance of investing time and energy into nurturing the next generation of on-field leaders.
May 25 · 24 min
Sara Begg: How do you make cricket more appealing than a gang?...
Sara Begg has coached across the globe, from community cricket in inner London to leading projects in emerging cricket nations, and is currently working in Brazil. She has extended this work into her PhD, collaborating with teenagers in Nepal to design a cricket-based programme aimed at challenging gender norms and expanding opportunities for girls in both sport and everyday life. In this conversation, recorded before her departure, she reflects on cricket’s power to bring communities together and its role in challenging harmful gender norms, enriching the lives of women and girls both on and off the field.
May 11 · 27 min
Pete Alway: To reach peak performance, we have to fly close to the sun...
Pete Alway is leading the research focusing on reducing injury risk, with specialist expertise in the biomechanics and physiology of pace bowling. As the ECB’s Research and Operations Manager he based at the ECB Performance Centre in Loughborough monitoring players and reducing injury risk. In this episode, he shares insights into how fast bowlers can be best prepared and managed to maximise performance while staying fit.
April 27 · 23 min
Deep Dasgupta: Our job is to simplify a difficult game...
24 years ago, Deep Dasgupta was playing his final game behind the stumps for India. He is now balancing coaching in the UK with commentary in India. Deep takes time out from his busy World Cup commentary schedule to join Tim Dellor to share his coaching philosophy and approach to developing the modern wicketkeeper.
January 6 · 26 min
Andrew Griffiths: Skilful, adaptable, problem solvers...
Andrew Griffiths is Head of Pathway Coaching at Somerset CCC. The club has a rich history developing youngsters into top level first class cricketers. How do they do it? Tim Dellor visited Taunton, where there's lots of work going on during the off season, to try and find out....
Dec 23, 2025 · 25 min
Caroline Foster: Connecting with players...
20 years ago Caroline Foster was opening the batting for England. 10 years ago she was doing the ECB level 4 coaching qualification.. Now she's one of the most respected coaches in the south west and working at a school in Taunton, with women's Hundred teams and in the boy's and girl's pathway. She's taken time out to talk to The icoachcricket Podcast about her work, her beliefs and how coaching is moving forwards....
Dec 9, 2025 · 25 min
Richard Johnson: It's very easy to coach people how you did it...
Richard Johnson has been coaching for the last 18 years. After a very successful time playing for England, Somerset and Middlesex, he's been coaching bowlers at Surrey and Middlesex. He finished his role as Head Coach at Middlesex during last season. He's been telling Tim Dellor about what he looks for when coaching young seam bowlers, what he thinks will happen in the Ashes, and what it's like to be sacked from a high profile coaching role.
Nov 25, 2025 · 28 min
Ian Renshaw: Designing the environments...
Ian Renshaw is widely regarded as one of the leading authorities in skill adaptability and coaching. Based in Brisbane and dad of Australian batter Matt Renshaw, he's honed his skills coaching his son, researching at universities, and working around the world over 40 years. Ian has just released a book summarising his coaching beliefs. He's been sharing his thoughts on communication, constraints-led coaching and a whole range of other key issues.
Nov 11, 2025 · 24 min
Mark Garaway: The power of story telling...
Mark Garaway was part of Duncan Fletcher's coaching team exactly 20 years ago, when England Men's historic Ashes victory took place. He's since been working in county and school set ups, and he's been a busy contributor to the ECB Coach Development programmes. He met Tim Dellor at Millfield School, where he's Director of Cricket, to tell some stories about coaching over the years.
Oct 28, 2025 · 24 min
Kyle Hogg: I saw myself in some of those kids...
Kyle Hogg was a seam bowler for Lancashire, before retirement in 2014. Since then he's worked in the entertainment industry, and is now back in cricket. He had a spell coaching on the Lancashire Women's pathway, and now looks after the England Young Lions seamers. He's back in the spotlight as the lead coach on the hit TV show "Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams". He's been talking about that series, and what he's learned on his journey back into cricket and coaching.
Jul 29, 2025 · 27 min
Martin Dighton: We need to redefine what coaching is...
Martin Dighton, Senior Coach Developer at UK Coaching, talks to The icoachcricket Podcast about communication skills, and the importance of listening. Martin explores noticing, observing players, and how building relationships and problem solving is central to good coaching. Amongst other ground covered, how coaches react to their players winning and losing, and the importance of mentors for coaches at all levels of experience, is attention grabbing.
Jul 3, 2025 · 31 min
Peter Sturgess: The power of play is disregarded at your peril...
Peter Sturgess is a foundation stage coaching guru in football having spent 17 years working at the FA. Based in Wigan, supports Walsall, set up the Derby County FC Centre of Excellence, and has worked in lots of other football environments. He has studied how best to accelerate the learning and development of young footballers, by modifying practices, and encouraging learning free from structure and organisation so often imposed by coaching systems.
Jun 19, 2025 · 28 min
Iain Brunnschweiler: Connect before you correct...
Coach and coach developer, Iain Brunnschweiler has there are no shortage of stories From overseeing Shane Warne's strength and conditioning at Hampshire, Brunchy spent several years heading up the England u17 programme before moving on helping Olympic fencing coaches win medals, and leading the academy at Southampton FC. He continues to work for a variety of clients in sport and business and in this episode he discusses communication, getting to know players really well as people, and coach clarity of thought are the hot topics at Chievely Services.
Jun 2, 2025 · 20 min
Carl Crowe: You have to stay fresh...
Carl Crowe spoke to the podcast from India, where he's currently working with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. He explained what it's like working on the franchise circuit, how he deals with the dilemmas and issues of working in global tournaments and what the demands are on him as a specialist spin bowling coach working with some of the best players in world cricket.
May 22, 2025 · 25 min
Charlotte Edwards: You're just learning constantly...
England Women Head Coach, Charlotte Edwards talks about her key learning experiences, her character as a player and coach, what she thinks is important for coaches working at the top level, and how she sees the game developing over the next few years.
May 8, 2025 · 32 min
Jennifer Jackson-Tullett: It's always the person first...
Surrey's Head of Talent Pathway, Jennifer Jackson-Tullett, tells us about her coaching philosophy, the importance of working alongside a good team of coaches, and how a degree in criminal psychology and time working in prisons helps her work effectively with young players.