Craig Wright joins top rank of coaches

Picture: Donald MacLeod

Former national cricket captain Craig Wright, now the Performance Development Manager for Cricket Scotland, has become the second person in Scotland to reach the highest possible level of qualification as a coach.

After an intensive study and assessment course lasting over two years, he has joined Andy Tennant, Cricket Scotland’s Head of Performance, in the exclusive Level 4 bracket.

Peter Steindl, head coach to the Scotland senior squad, is also nearing the completion of his Level 4 coaching qualification.

Chief executive Roddy Smith said: "This is great news, and another step in ensuring that we have the best available coaches for all our age group and national squads.

"It is vital that we continue to encourage as many former players as possible to become coaches, and to achieve the highest qualifications that they wish to. In this way, we can meet the needs of our clubs and our regional academies as well.

“We also need to support coaches at Level 1 and 2 as much as we need to support our elite coaches.  It is fantastic news that Craig has achieved his Level 4 and he is using his experience and skills to develop our best young cricketers to play for Scotland."

Craig Wright agreed, but modestly suggested that the Level 4 certificate was principally a demonstration that you have completed the course and all its modules to the required standard.

“A qualification in itself doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good at something, I know lots of drivers who have passed their test but probably shouldn’t be on the road! Cricket is such a diverse sport, and coaching requires a broad range of skills from technical knowledge to understanding what makes players tick. Like playing, it is something you continue to learn about and never completely master. It is certainly not an exact science and that is what makes it so enjoyable.”

For the coming season, Wright is stepping up the level at which his charges will be competing and participating. The successful experiment with Scotland’s U19s playing competitively against all the clubs in the premier division of the national league will now be centred on the Scottish Academy players rather than simply any specific age group.

“We are trying to bridge the gap between our age-group programme and the senior national teams,” said Wright. “And the introduction of the Academy programme will allow me to continue to work with players for an additional couple more years than would have been the case under the old system.

“With the World Cup qualification process at U19 level also having changed, we were left with a situation where players would potentially be leaving the national programme at 18 unless they were good enough to go straight into the senior squads. I felt that was too early.”

And, next month, Wright will be leading a team of 14 young players from Scotland to Pune, India, for a 12-day warm-weather training course and a series of matches against strong local opposition.

“The players will be working with specialist coaches on developing their batting skills, particularly against quality spin bowling. For the bowlers, they will be learning to bowl on different surfaces and in vastly different conditions than they are used to.”

"I was fortunate when I was their age to go on the pioneering West District U19 tour of India, which helped to shape my cricketing ambitions," said Wright. "I know that this new generation will get as much out of the experience as I did, both from a cricketing and life experience point of view."