KARACHI: The head of high performance coaching, Pakistan Cricket Board, Grant Bradburn has made his methodology clear by saying that coaching is about developing quality relationships, quality environments of learning with two things — winning and developing players.

Talking in an interview to a private TV channel, the former Kiwi Test cricketer further said that they were guiding and challenging coaches in the Pakistan cricket set-up to take the game and players to a new level.

“With our coaching it’s about our players, players first is our mantra and all of our coaches have had a strong message that we need to put players at the top and our job is just to help them to be as good as they can be, not as good as we were as players,” said Bradburn.

“Our players now a days don’t want old coaches sitting down telling them how good they were in their playing days. Our young players now need inspiration, they need clarity, they need roles, they need an environment where they are involved in a team and they have a special value job to do in their team. They need to get inspired to go to new levels to be able to compete on the world stage now not when we were playing,” the former Test cricketer opined.

Recalling the process of interviewing about 95 coaches after the last first-class season, Bradburn said that he along with Saqain Mushtaq and Shahid Aslam, evaluated those coaches with a “360-evaluation process” to gauge their metal. He dismissed the impression that some of the coaches were displaced after that evaluation but added that those coaches were actually repositioned.

“We are about to launch some exciting new directions for Pakistan Cricket and that will be coming in the next couple of weeks. We challenge our coaches with dual things, they need to put their team into contention to win, so winning is incredibly important to us and planning and preparing to win of course is one of the demands for our coaches, but the second and equally important role is to develop our players,” Bradburn said.

“Coaches must provide a learning environment and an environment where players are challenged and an environment where players are tracked and developed,” the head of high performance coaching said.

Bradburn said there is also going to be tweaks and solid reviews at the end of each season to see what worked and what perhaps need adjustments to enhance the standard of domestic cricket to make it a stepping stone to international cricket. He expressed some concern over the non availability of lower tiers however hoped that the pedestals below the first class level would be formed in a few months.

“There is no city cricket as yet, there is no club structure as yet, but I would fully expect in the coming months to see a strong system that is leading in to the current system of second XI cricket and on to our associations’ first teams,” said the New Zealander.

“I personally believe that the beginning is evident by the way the first class season started this year and we see some dynamic cricket, we see some competitive cricket and also see a marketable brand of cricket been played,” said Bradburn who has also held the position of Pakistan fielding coach.

About the National High Performance Centre, Bradburn was of the opinion that it is very much about aligning to national ambitions of where Pakistan cricket is heading over the next five years.

“What we want you to see when you walk into the gate (of the NHPC), it is about players first, very much about players first and it is very much about aligning to national ambitions of where Pakistan is heading over the next five years,” he said.

“Over the coming months, we fully accept that you would see a whole different environment at the NHPC in Lahore and eventually in all of our High Performance Centres around the country. You will see a strong sense of unity and drive towards creating a stronger more dominant more consistent game in Pakistan,” Bradburn concluded.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2020