Sky Cricket Podcast: Bumble, Jason Gillespie, Paul Farbrace on coaching

What are the dos and don'ts when it comes to coaching cricketers?

That topic was discussed by David Lloyd, Paul Farbrace and Jason Gillespie on the Sky Cricket Podcast as Michael Atherton hosted a show looking at how to get the best out of players.

Listen in the player below or by downloading on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and read below for some top tips from Farbrace, who was Trevor Bayliss' second-in command with England and also led Sri Lanka to the T20 World Cup title in 2014.

UNDERSTAND YOUR PLAYERS

"I have made some horrendous mistakes along the line, got it wrong so many times with so many players - things have been over-pressurised, I didn't cope with defeat particularly well at times. Understanding the person and the enthusiasm you have as a coach and the enjoyment you share with your players are the most important things. Some of my best coaching sessions have been over a cup of coffee, on a bus seat travelling between a hotel and an airport, or on a flight, not always at nets. With some players who stew over things, the worst thing you can say is 'don't worry about it.' You have to find a way to take that off them. I didn't play international cricket but I can remind them about good innings they have played, a session or a bowling spell they have batted through. It's about using the right language but you can only do that when you know them and what they need from you as a coach."

GIVE PLAYERS FREEDOM

"One of the worst things a coach can do is make players too reliant on them as coaches. The sooner you can get a player off your hands and they become their best coach - talking to people, deciding what's good information and what's not - that is the best stage. You don't want players to keep coming back to to you every minute of every day and you have to tell them how to behave. Cricket is a massive decision-making game and if you make every decision for them, don't be surprised if they can't decide whether to bowl a slower ball, whether to attack the ball on the boundary, whether to hit the ball over the top or on the floor. You have got to let them go, let them fall over and scuff their knees at times. That is the essence of coaching."

ACCEPT INFLUENCES FROM OTHERS

"I'd been with Sri Lanka about 10 months and we went to Kandy to play England. I travelled with Kumar Sangakkara and he said he needed to pop into his dad's for a cup of tea. We did that and then went to this local little park, where they got an old bat out and his dad threw a few balls at him. When we got back in the car, Kumar said 'every so often I check with my dad that my game is in order'. It was fantastic. So many players have someone they check their basics with and as a coach you have to be open to that. Jos Buttler came to me in South Africa once and said, 'I've seen the way AB de Villiers dives, can we do a session on that? I want to see if I can get it into my keeping.' We spent ages, both of us diving around, and it was one of the best 45 minutes, influenced by a player watching and learning from someone else."

PICK YOUR MOMENT TO SPEAK

"I got the biggest spray from Muttiah Muralitharan. We played a one-day game in Dambulla and he bowled 10 overs around the wicket to Pakistan, got 1-24, and every ball he pretty much pitched around middle and leg. After the game, I went into his corner and 'well bowled, good win but I just thought you could have bowled a bit more outside off stump and attacked'. He swore at me and told me he had bowled for 15 years and what did I know about bowling? I went away with my tail between my legs!

"He rang me the next morning and said 'I'll meet you at the ground'. He then bowled for half an hour before asking me what I had said the day before. I said I thought he was a bit straight and he could have brought slip into the game a bit more, encouraged the batsmen to play through the off-side a bit more and then maybe he could have got three or four wickets. He said 'okay', put a ball down outside off and kept trying to hit that ball for 45 minutes. It was a brilliant lesson learned that you don't try and tell a great player he could have done better in front of his team-mates. He wanted to learn but I had to pick the right time to say something."

Also on the Sky Cricket Podcast...

BUMBLE explains whether he struggled with the media scrutiny as England coach and reveals some of his unsuccessful jobs outside of cricket

Sussex head coach GILLESPIE discusses the influence coach John Buchanan had on Australia's success in the 1990s and 2000s