At Cricket Mentoring, it’s all about the athletes! As mentors and coaches, our focus is on helping aspiring cricketers become the best they can be. We are desperate to see the people that we mentor reach their full potential, on and off the field. Over the last few years, we’ve started working with some highly skilled young cricketers, who are doing great things on the field and have potential to go a very long way in the game.

Last month, The West Australian newspaper published an article that featured some of the best young male cricketers in Western Australia, titled,The 10 rising West Australian cricket stars to watch. This week, they’ve published another article titled,The 10 rising West Australian women cricket stars to watch‘, which features some of the brightest up and coming young female cricketers in the state.

Of the 20 ‘rising stars to watch’, we are incredibly proud to call 7 of them (3 boys and 4 girls) Cricket Mentoring athletes. Teague Wyllie, Douwtjie Hoogenboezem, Jake Egan, Molly Healy, Georgia Wyllie, Sienna Ryan and Chloe Ainsworth are exceptional young players that we’ve been coaching and mentoring over the past few years, as we help them develop and progress towards their goals. While we think that they can all achieve incredible heights in the game, they are all still very early in their journeys, and have a long way to go. However, this sort of recognition will help support their belief that their dedication and hard work isn’t going unrecognised. 

[CM ambassador and Australian under 19 squad member, Cooper Connolly was also named in the list of boys.]

Let’s get to know each of our 7 future stars in more detail…

(Screenshot of article on thewest.com.au)

(Screenshot of article on thewest.com.au)

TEAGUE WYLLIE

When we first came across Teague as a 13-year old, he was already dominating junior cricket for Rockingham-Mandurah. Fast-forward 3 years (and a huge growth spurt), and Teague has represented Cricket Australia at underage levels and also made his first-grade debut, finishing the season with a top-score of 91 not out.

“Teague has always been highly-skilled and had a sound technique, but over the past year, he has really started to believe how good he can be, which has shown in his results in both grade cricket and at national carnivals.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

DOUWTJIE HOOGENBOEZEM

Douwtjie has always been a very elegant left-handed batsman. He represented Western Australia at under 12 level, but missed out on selection at under 15’s and since then, has been working incredibly hard at his game to bridge the gap on his competition.

“For Douwtjie to be recognised as one of the top 10 rising stars and one of only 6 batters (the other 4 mentioned were bowlers), shows how far he has come. His improvement is certainly no fluke nor by luck. He’s worked incredible hard to get to where he is, and making his first-grade debut last season at the age of 15 shows how good he has become.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

JAKE EGAN

Like Douwtjie, Jake was overlooked for the Western Australian under 15’s, despite being one of the best batters in the state for his age. As all good players do, Jake has worked incredibly hard at his game and is letting his bat do the talking. He was rewarded with selection in the Western Australian under 17’s, who went on to win the national title.

“Jake has been one of the youngest batters playing 1st grade for the past two seasons, and has shown glimpses of what he’s capable of. Jake’s incredibly strong and can hit the ball hard, but also has a decent technique and thinks deeply about the game. With all these assets combined, we think he can be a 3 format player at the highest-level if he continues to work hard and develop.” – Scolls

(Screenshot of article on thewest.com.au)

MOLLY HEALY

Not many cricketers make their first-class debut at the age of 16, which shows Molly’s quality! While a lot of people in WA cricket see Molly as a bowling all-rounder, it’s her batting that has us excited!

“Molly has a combination of a ‘good eye’, decent technique and raw power, which makes her so exciting and dynamic. Sometimes when I watch her bat, I forget how old she is, as her stroke-play and power certainly outweighs her age. If she can stay fit and continue to develop, she could be one of the world’s best all-rounders.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

GEORGIA WYLLIE

Georgia Wyllie has developed on and off the field enormously in the past couple of years and has an incredibly exciting future ahead of her. As a left-arm seamer, Georgia could be a genuine top-order batter or front-line bowler, and will probably go on to be both.

“I don’t think Georgia fully realises how good she is and can be, just yet. Her attitude has always been brilliant, her skill is improving every week, and as soon as she starts to believe in herself even more and fully trust herself, she will be unstoppable. She’s a competitor who will get the best out of herself and I’m sure will forge a long career in the game.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

SIENNA RYAN

Sienna is a quiet achiever. She has been in the Cricket Mentoring program for about 12 months, and her batting and belief in herself has come on a lot in that time. While she’s known for her fast-bowling right now, we believe that she will surprise a lot of people with her batting in the future.

“Sienna is a gun who listens and learns well, and has improved so much in a short space of time. She may not be considered a batter right now, but it won’t be long until people recognise how good she is with the bat. While her technique and strength are a work in progress, she has a great eye and hits the ball cleanly when she commits to her shots.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

CHLOE AINSWORTH

As the youngest selected, Chloe could potentially be the best out of the whole lot if she continues to develop and progress her skills and understanding of the game. She still has a lot to learn about the game and what it takes to consistently perform at her best, but she’s certainly performing above most of her peers around the country.

“If you told me Chloe was 21 when I was watching her bat, I would believe you. If you dropped her into a state set up right now, I reckon she wouldn’t look too far out of place. Her technique is still quite raw and something we’re constantly developing and working on, but her ball striking is elite. She hits the ball harder than most kids (boys or girls) her age.” – Scolls

(Screenshots of article on thewest.com.au)

About the writer: I founded Cricket Mentoring in August 2016 with the goal of helping cricketers all over the world become the best they can be – on and off the field. As a former professional cricketer with Middlesex CCC (2010-2012) I’ve played with and against some of the world’s best players and worked with some elite coaches. I’m a Cricket Australia Level 2 coach and through my own personal experiences, practice and a hunger to always learn, I’ve developed and continue to refine my principles and philosophies on coaching and cricket. I believe there’s 6 pillars to peak performance (Technical, Tactical, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Lifestyle) and most athletes only focus on one or a few things. All of our content (articles, videos, podcast) covers the 6 pillars and has been created to assist cricketers understand what it takes to achieve great things in the game.

CHECK OUT MY VLOG

When I quit my job and went full time with Cricket Mentoring in July 2017 I decided to do a vlog (video blog) detailing my life as a player, coach, small business owner, entrepreneur and someone who is constantly trying to learn and become better. Fast forward almost 3 years and we’ve published just under 300 episodes of a daily vlog Scolls Stories and this year transitioned into a weekly vlog, Scolls Weekly. Click here to check it out plus the other hundreds of awesome free coaching videos we share on our YouTube channel. They are created to inspire people to chase their dreams and live their best life and are designed to help aspiring cricketers and coaches around the world learn and improve themselves. Please say ‘G’day’ in the comments on here, YouTube or any of our social media channels and make sure you subscribe or follow so that you get our daily tips and advice!

FOLLOW US…

About the author : Tom Scollay

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Chris 'Bucky' Rogers batting for Somerset in one of his 554 First-class innings

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I once spoke to a former professional player who became a coach in the professional ranks and asked him whether he would change his technique during the season during his playing career. He responded in the negative.

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About the writer: Chris 'Bucky' Rogers isn't your typical cricketer. Having toiled away in First-class cricket for over 15 years, he was finally rewarded for years of dominance opening the batting in both Australia & England with selection in the Australian Test team for the 2013 Ashes in England. He went on to play 25 Test matches for Australia where he scored 2,015 runs @ 42.87 including 5 x 100s. With the amazing First-class record of 25,470 runs & 76 centuries, he has now retired from playing and transitioned into coaching, where he currently is the batting coach for Somerset CCC. 

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He said working on technique is for preseason and once he started playing, all that mattered was watching the ball.

That, I’ve discovered, is a very traditional response, handed down from father to son.

I had to stop myself from groaning out loud. “How short-sighted” I wanted to reply. I’m sure he’s not alone and these days, coaches are reluctant to challenge technical issues in young players, preferring the students to figure it out themselves. Perhaps they fear intervention will only create more problems.

NO PRE-SEASON?

What if a player never has a pre-season as, like me, he plays continuously on both sides of the world, where the seasons overlap?

Just once did I have a pre-season in Australia – and that I remember mostly for the agony of running the sand-hills at City Beach in Perth, rather than any working on technique.

Instead I was chasing an endless summer by playing 12 months of the year in England as well as home. “What is a pre-season?” was my standard jibe at teammates.

That meant technical experimentation had to be done on the job – so the standard answer to not work on your game for six months of the year seems like a waste of time and opportunity to me.

Often as a young batsman, you’ll have days when you pick up a bat and it feels like it is a natural extension of your body and other days when it feels like you’re hefting around a railway sleeper.

DAYS WHEN THINGS WEREN'T WORKING

Numerous days in grade cricket and even opening the batting for Western Australia, my swing would feel so awkward I would be trying to adjust almost every ball. I might try picking the bat up higher in my swing, other times move my hands forward in my stance and even change the width of my stance. These were just a very few of many.

In fact what would really confuse me is, somehow I’d last until the lunch break feeling like I couldn’t hit one off the square and then come out after a 40 minute sit down and feel like I was Brian Lara … well not quite but you get the drift.

What it taught me though was to keep trying to get better. I would often think to myself, and now sprout this to every kid possible, one step back to go two steps forward. Working with my dad who was my coach, I’d try all sorts of technical changes and usually, after a while, something would click and it would all fall into place. It would be like hitting at a brick wall and then all of a sudden one thing works and the rest fall over like dominoes.

PROBLEM SOLVING - DON'T GET OUT THE SAME WAY

One of the great advantages of playing in four innings matches is the chance to problem solve as a batsman between the first and second innings. I disliked … no, I hated getting out the same way or to the same bowler in the second innings as I did in the first.

After getting out I would sit down and figure out a way to combat the bowler who dismissed me first time around. It might not have just been a mental change but quite possibly a technical one.

Stuart Clark once dismissed me for a duck with a perfect ball that pitched on off stump line and nipped away but instead of just accepting he’d bowled me a jaffa, I checked out the footage and saw my hands were not coming down straight in my swing pattern and caused everything - my hands and bat - to go towards mid on. So my bat actually was inside the line, hence the ball found my outside edge.

Second innings, my focus was trying to get my hands to go towards mid-off while playing with the inside half of my bat to counter the away movement. Yes I know this is a bit more than ‘Batting 101’ but I only started to understand my own batting by constantly tinkering – even to the extent of working out what doesn’t work, to find out what does.

PLAYING TO COACHING

As I moved from player to become a coach, a surprise first-up piece of advice from other coaches was to be careful about the level of input you try to pass on. Yes, that makes sense and it would be ignorant to not listen to advice from people who have spent a long time coaching. However, it will need to be balanced against my long-held belief that the best players in the world never stop seeking improvement.

My first club-coaching role came via former Australian player and teammate Bob Quiney to help out at his beloved St Kilda Cricket Club, where the players have an average age younger than ever and a thirst for learning.

I was wary of saying too much early, but when one player said, “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do Buck”, my tinkering instincts took over.

“One step back to go two steps forward”, I reasoned.

The first player asked me how to play slow medium pace bowlers as he had nicked off to one the previous Saturday. I told him to be positive and proactive. Walk at the bowler or walk into his line … a la Steve Smith … and whip him through the leg side if the bowler went for the stumps. The next Saturday he was in the same position and ended up, he said, with too much going through his mind and being neither proactive nor defensive. He nicked off again. But he had learnt from his mistake and knew what he’d do the next time and since has had some success.

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 Bucky passing on some knowledge during a batting masterclass for Cricket Mentoring in Perth

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INDOOR NETS SYNDROME

Another had what I call ‘indoor nets syndrome’ and had developed a swing where he just jabbed at balls that would race off his bat on the true synthetic surface, but had difficulty with the natural variation of turf wickets. His hands would go towards the leg side in his swing but the ball would slice to cover or more likely the slips. I was wary of trying to reshape his whole swing but then thought “Why not?” I’ll show him what I think works and he can figure the end result out for himself”. He was quite difficult to adjust and we even experimented with grip changes, not something I’d usually recommend.

After an hour’s work he was starting to get the basic principles and enjoying it. He had a far better understanding of a swing after trying something new and that can only benefit him. He can always go back to what he was doing but at least he’d tinkered and thought about it. Afterwards he seemed genuinely excited at the change and the understanding.

Yet there have been plenty of times where my coaching hasn’t worked. I tried to help Peter Siddle with his batting but made it worse. Eventually he figured a few things out himself and is still getting better – so maybe my “one-step-backwards” theory helped!

CHANGE TAKES TIME

With most things, change takes time to feel natural and this principle needs to be stressed and I’m wary of trying to change players into playing like me but sometimes certain things need to be tried.  I’m amazed when I see any tall player stand with his feet close together in his stance when Kevin Pietersen is ‘Example A’ of how to succeed as a tall batsman.

I firmly believe all the best players in the world are tinkerers and never stop trying to improve. Just ask Marcus Trescothick, who at age 41 was still telling everyone how he’s trying to fix things. That and his saying that ‘form hides in mysterious places’ were my two favourite things I got from him.

At the moment the county season has just started and he’s still working on his game plan against different kind of bowling. You’d think he’d have it all sorted by now but no, he’s using every opportunity to improve as we all should.

SUCCEEDING AT THE AGE OF 38

When asking me to write this article, Scolls (Tom Scollay) asked that I write a little about my own journey and how I managed to play well in the 2015 Ashes at age 38.

Like Trescothick, I had a thirst for perfection. Grit and determination was only a part of it. So many years of 12-months-playing of four-day cricket meant I had a very good understanding of my own game, with all its strengths and weaknesses, and to have some success against James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and Steve Finn in bowler-friendly conditions was only possible with an in depth, intimate knowledge of my swing and my game.

For different bowlers and conditions, I would have different triggers. On the wickets that provided more bounce and seam I would have a back and across trigger while at other times, particularly against Anderson’s swing, I would push forward to try and cover the movement.

This skill only comes from trial and error and experimentation and willingness to learn. If every time I tried something, had initial failure and not persevered, my game would have been very one dimensional and limited.

Growing up I often watched in awe some of the bigger kids who seemed to make batting look easy but then fell away when they had to play against adults who matched them in size and strength. I believe it was because these kids had got it so easy early on, that they hadn’t learned to work at their game to try to understand it better.

ALL THE BEST ARE ALWAYS CHASING IMPROVEMENT

Of course, there are plenty of examples to disprove the mould but of all the best batsmen I have seen, the one consistent attribute they possess is a desire to never be satisfied and to chase improvement.

They tinker to learn … and then comes improvement.

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