G E N E R AT I O N G A M E New Leicestershire CCC head coach Paul Nixon talks to Chris Meadows about building a new generation of cricketers at the club and plans for the season Photography: Neville Chadwick
Chris Meadows: How’s the job going so far? Are you enjoying it? Paul Nixon: I’m loving it! I was really surprised as to what it has involved. We don’t have a director of cricket, so in a way I’m almost doing two jobs. It’s a great honour and responsibility. Taking the job at Leicestershire is like going home, but it’s refreshing how much the club has changed off-field since I’ve been away. Financially, the club is in a brilliant place and I think we’re the only club that has made a profit for four years on the trot. The new floodlights are in and there are more ground developments planned. It’s exciting off the field, which is wonderful. It’s time now that we reflected that on the pitch. One of the mantras at the club is to be the hardest working in a caring cricket environment. Everything we throw at the lads they love, embrace and take on board. We’ve been working with psychologists to explore character insights in order to understand how players communicate, looking at areas of strength or where possible development is required. CM: Player development is very important to you. How is that going? PN: People from Leicestershire want to see Leicestershire players coming through the system. I get 10 emails a day from people who want to come and have trials. Getting the academy pathway programme right is key. We want to bring our own youth players through a lot more, so it’s an area we’re really focusing on. There are 250 kids in our age group programme. It’s exciting, the talent is amazing. The lads have had a tough time over the last few years, but it’s really made them stronger as a group. It blew me away how together they all are, which is really amazing. Now we’ve just been tweaking things and have been looking to get some high-class coaches in too. Matt Mason had been a pro at Worcester for 17 years, he’s a high-class bowling coach and has been been working with the
England fast bowling program this winter with the likes of Zak Chappell, which is exciting. He’s a professor of his industry now. To have him, along with Tom Smith, a new up and coming coach, adds great value to the coaching group. CM: I hear you’ve been pushing the players hard in pre-season. What does that involve? PN: Tuesdays we have a fatigue session, it’s a hard day for the players – heavy lifting in the morning for an hour, where they might do five sets of three weights, the heaviest they can lift, five sets across the whole body. Then we come in and they do a 30-minute batting session split into 10-minute chunks. In one net I’ve got Matt Mason bowling with a flicker, at up to 94mph. We use indoor balls, the yellow ones, which are not quite as hard as a cricket ball, so if it hits you it hopefully doesn’t break anything. In another net there’s a prowler, a big sled type contraption with weights on it. In the middle net we’ve got a spin net. Bowlers aim for shower mats, which help exaggerate the turn and then in the final net we’ve got a left arm over bowling at up to 85mph, swinging the ball in to the batsman. When they’ve come out they’ve got a skipping rope or a medicine ball against the wall. Ten minutes in each net all with the heart rate monitors on. Every time any batsman is out they all have to run a six. Every couple of minutes we shout ‘prowler’ and the guy in the spin net has to push it, whilst the other batters are boxing or running on to a crash mat. CM: That sounds horrible! What’s the thinking behind it? PN: I know. It’s to highlight decision-making skills when players are under pressure and fatigued. As coaches, we go into a character to build the pressure on them too. It’s normal to see heart rates anywhere between 188 and 210 for 30 minutes, so it’s hard work. We’ve all felt the benefits.
CM: How do you see the 2018 season panning out then? PN: It’s a squad I’ve inherited, and quite a big squad, but I’m quietly confident for the 2018 season. We need to win cricket matches though. Leicestershire has always been a good side in one-day cricket so if we could get close to T20 finals day and a one-day competition finals place that would be a good achievement. CM: You know what’s required on the pitch as a player, does that help you get the most out of the players? PN: Yeah, absolutely. I speak to Stuart Lancaster, the ex-England Rugby coach who I’m very close with, quite a bit too, and we’ve talked about breaking the coaching role into thirds; leadership, management and coaching. Having played I know what it’s like, and takes, to be in the mix and compete at the highest level. As a player I know where they are in their journeys, the biggest challenge I have is being able to step back and set my boundaries and those of the team. CM: You’ve already named a couple of players; who do you see standing out this year? PN: Michael Carberry, the captain – I believe he’s in a good space, he’s going to have a good year. As long as he starts well, he’ll fly. I believe Dieter Klein’s going to have a top-class year. We’ve really worked on his mind-set, his routines and just tightened his batting up a little bit. He’s very exciting, swings the ball back in at 90mph, he’s got a good bouncer too. He ticks every box, I promise you he is an amazing guy. He’s gone through a lot mentally the last few years but he’s in a really good space now, mentally and physically, so that’s good. I think he’s going to have a good year. I think Callum Parkinson is going to have a good year as well, and the same with Richard Jones, we’re going to see the best of him. Gavin Griffiths is a young lad coming through, he and Matt Mason have just clicked. He’s grabbed everything that Matt’s offered him, and he’s seeing great results.
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