The merits of a top coach

The encouraging noises coming from both Graeme Welch and the senior personnel at Derbyshire County Cricket Club seem to confirm what the vast majority of supporters believe.

That we can really start to move forward from here.

As I have written before, John Morris started the ball rolling by bringing a better quality of player to the club than we had latterly become used to. Karl Krikken stabilised a rocking ship and brought silverware and the club's highest position in the county championship for a number of seasons. The job of Welch and whoever he chooses to work with him is to take us back into the top tier and this time keep us there for the long term.

Welch will be well aware that he has considerable talent at his disposal. In skipper Wayne Madsen and Shivnarine Chanderpaul he has two of the best batsmen in division two. In Palladino, Groenewald, Footitt and Clare, probably the most imposing pace attack. He has a choice of two good wicket-keepers, options with spin and an array of younger batsmen and seam bowlers who are there to benefit from his coaching talents.

Coaching is in many ways like teaching. There will always be those who respond to your efforts and progress at a sometimes remarkable rate, either through the acquisition of the requisite skills and/or confidence. There will be others who don't, either because they don't have those skills or cannot develop them to the right standard.

If you look around the county circuit, most of the coaches were good players, without being exceptional. While there are exceptions, the really outstanding players seem to go into the media and talk or write about the game, rather than pass on their skills and talents to the next generation. Is this because the ones who have become very good professionals had to work at their own games and learn the skills concerned, rather than just being naturally talented and not having to think too hard about how they do it?

I'll give you a personal example. When I first came up north, I was primarily a back foot player and had some very good coaching from a former county player who was the club professional. He had less than twenty first-class games under his belt, but was a superb coach and a number of us flourished under his guidance. I started to play front foot shots properly and regularly, with the ball going where I wanted far more than had previously been the case. The coach had the knack of breaking down strokes into their constituent parts and we largely felt confident when we got into the middle that we would score runs.

After a couple of seasons, he was replaced by an up and coming Australian for who great things were predicted. Indeed, the player came close to a national call-up and finished his career with an average of around forty. He made it look absurdly easy in our club matches, yet he was a distinctly average coach who had no idea how to help a player struggling for form, either with a few kind words or assistance in the nets. Our side was one to be reckoned with under the former; very ordinary, albeit with one outstanding batsman, with his replacement.

I think that 'Pop' Welch will be outstanding at Derbyshire and look forward to being proved correct in that assertion. He will need time to get things as he wants them, but he has a three-year deal which affords him that time. He has the opportunity to assess and develop some of the youngsters who are emerging from the Academy, hone their skills and boost their confidence. Based on his track record, he could well galvanise the careers of some of the older players too, the introduction of innovative coaching ideas giving them a new lease of life.

What is refreshing is to see him talk about competing in all three competitions, as we have seemed for too long to take the one-day games only as a means of giving young players exposure to the first-class game. We have been competitive for only the first few games of a competition and have then looked a somewhat anaemic outfit, playing a low-calorie version of our four-day game. While preferring the longer format myself, the others bring in the money and improvement in them would enhance our growing credibility on the county circuit.

Graeme Welch is 'itching to get started'. I think I speak for all supporters in saying that we can't wait for April to see the brand of cricket his side produces.

And especially to see who, among his players, really responds to that magical coaching elixir that he brings with him...