As a cricket captain, you need to know how to get the best out of each of your players. This requires motivating them at all times, and ensuring that they maintain their enthusiasm for the game. At a level any lower than professional, players are likely to have other commitments - here's how to ensure your side don't slip into apathy.
Know Your Players
Much of cricket captaincy revolves around knowing your players. In this respect, in order to work out how to motivate each of your players individually, it is important to know what they expect to gain from playing cricket, and why it is that they choose to play for your team. Once you have established each of your players' motivation for playing the game, you will be more able to accommodate each of their needs, and assure that this motivation does not diminish.
For example, if you have players in your team who are not looking to progress to any sort of high level with their game, and play purely for the enjoyment, ensure that they continue to enjoy it. Many a team full of enthusiastic individuals has suffered at the hands of a strict and regimental captain. Similarly, if your players are high-potential and take the game seriously, they will expect a degree of professionalism from you - don't allow such players to lose focus on winning matches and developing their own game.
Encourage Team Bonding
Any successful team is able to bond well and work together to achieve results. It is important that you encourage your team to think of each other not just as a collection of individuals, but as a team in the truest sense of the word. That means encouraging everyone to co-operate, and to make sacrifices for one another in the knowledge that other members of the team would do the same.
Such an attitude off the field is likely to be replicated on it - organise team outings and social activities away from cricket, and team spirit will benefit. If players' relationships off the field improve, they will be far more likely to work together on the field - a batsman who doesn't know half his team-mates' names is unlikely to risk his wicket for the benefit of the nondescript 'team' as he approaches a century, but a batsman who recognises that the team comes first will always do so.
Practice Hard
If team motivation is to be maintained, practice is an integral part of the process. If team members show up for training sessions and half their team-mates aren't there, it projects the idea that the team is unimportant and not worth dedicating time to. Team members who enjoy practices will be willing to sacrifice other commitments to attend - make practices fun and worthwhile, and attendance will remain high.
Similarly, it is important to remember that cricketers, just like any other sportsmen, practice with the aim of improvement. If, like many casual teams, your team has no designated 'coach', that does not mean that as a captain you are unable to help your team in improving their individual games. There are many instructional videos on YouTube, such as Bob Woolmer's series on batting, that can aid you and your team to see practices and training sessions as a genuine platform for individual improvement, rather than an obligation to be fulfilled.
Set Team And Individual Goals
It is important as a captain that you manage your team's expectations throughout each part of a season. Setting realistic targets in both the short- and long-terms helps team members to maintain motivation, and will encourage team spirit in pursuit of a common goal. Such targets must be realistic - if unrealistic goals are set and not achieved, this will have a negative effect on morale and confidence among your players, which is why knowing your players' attitudes is crucial.
Individual targets are also extremely useful - if a particular team member is looking to develop one aspect of their game, then set them a realistic target for the coming season in terms of that particular discipline, to show faith in their ability and to encourage ambition. Team members must also set themselves targets on a game-by-game basis - even in games you expect to lose, setting expectations beforehand can avoid embarrassing defeats and ensure your team leave the field with their heads held high.
Improve As A Team And Win Games
The most important aspect of leading a team is ensuring that everything the team accomplishes is accomplished as a unit. A team succeeds and fails as one; while individual success within the team is to be celebrated, a successful team will always cherish shared glory more than singular individual successes. Keep this in mind, and your team will be well on the way to future success.
For information about Setting A Field, click here. For tips on Picking Your Bowlers, click here.
 |
