CRICKET: Jon Swift
LIKE many other eight year olds in this country, young Wynand is a cricket- mad kid. It drives his mother — proud as she obviously is of his abilities — to distraction.
So, when the new set of four coaching videos entitled The Woolmer Way were released featuring the national coach and Test stars of the calibre of Jonty Rhodes, Dave Richardson and Craig Matthews, Wynand seemed the ideal test pilot.
The initial, surface analysis, was that they are superb for a budding player of Wynand’s age and abilities. This gives rise to the thought that the Sovereign Videos production is one of the most sensible development tools yet to be used in the complex mix of sport in this country.
The project rightly has the full backing of the United Cricket Board. It can be, properly distributed, the most valuable tool the future of cricket has. For, in plain, simple and understandable terms, the series spells out the proper way to play the game in a visual format.
It is, as Woolmer explains it, “a dream come true” and one which was engendered during his coaching spells in the less privileged outreaches of the game.
Woolmer believes that the time he had to spend among the cricket-hungry kids was never really enough to both get the ideas on the game across and then enforce these ideas through the endless repetition of drills which eventually leads to the honed skills required at higher levels.
In the context of the series, this ceases to be a factor provided video equipment can be made available and, more importantly, it’s all there for less experienced coaches than the former England Test batsmen to use and pass on.
In this production, Woolmer will probably prove to have a longer-term effect for the good of cricket in this country than has already been evidenced in his influence on the national and age group sides representing South Africa. Wynand and all the other kids about have a head start.
* Also new on the shelves is the totally revamped Protea Cricket Annual edited by Colin Bryden. The veteran cricket writer has done a fine job in refocusing this country’s cricket bible.
It is a must for all lovers and students of the game and an ideal way, as convenor of national selectors, Peter Pollock noted in introducing the first of what one hopes will be many volumes under the Bryden hand, to “keep the players honest”.