In the indoor school at Hove a young Zimbabwean called Tawanda Muyeye is batting against three of Sussex’s best young spinners, Jack Carson, Will Collard and Abdullah Nazir. Their coach, Richard Halsall, is at the bowler’s end with a tablet in one hand. It is linked to a camera above his head, and a couple of big TV screens on one wall. Halsall is tagging every delivery, noting whether Muyeye middled each shot or not. The clips are immediately uploaded to an app Halsall has designed, which means that seconds later Sussex’s batting coach, Muyeye’s school coach, and his parents will all be able to watch the footage on their phones, and see for themselves how well he is playing today.
Halsall took over as Sussex’s academy director last summer. He has spent most of the past decade working in international cricket, first as England’s fielding coach, then as Bangladesh’s assistant coach, but before that he was a schoolteacher. “I did 10 years of teaching and 10 years of international cricket,” he says, “and this is a merger of the two.”
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/apr/15/sussex-cricket-coaching-app under the title “A cricket coaching revolution is under way in Sussex – just press play | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
