We all know how much cricketers like to talk, about the same stuff, week after week, month after month, year after year …… and it seems decades after decades!
This last couple of months I have been talking to a number of clubs about their structures and in general a number of observations stand out:
- they rarely refcet the current nature, objectives and challenges facing the club,
- like many of the officers in charge they have become large, inflexible and no longer fit for purpose,
- they accommodate rather than achieve.
My summary usually includes:
- The club is no longer only a cricket club so why is the structure? Introduce a small control group that look at the overall picture of on field and off field: A Group Board for want of a comparison with business that will focus on monitoring and control – Finance, Facilities.
- Have a ‘subsidiary’ board for Cricket and Non Cricket
- With the Cricket side of things streamline and work through committees.
On the Cricket Side I would have:
Chair: who would be Vice Chair on the main board
Director of Cricket: responsible for the development and performance on the field
Chair of Selectors: made up of Chair, Team Captains, Director of Cricket, and I would have the Head Coach attend to provide information.
Head Coach: responsible for implementing development plans and developing players with input from the Captains.
Personally I would do away with Vice Captains and have a number of senior players who can step in as required, but be honest: if a captain isn’t available pretty much every game and at every night they shouldn’t be captain!
Off the field more focus on Commercial and Community – yes my Structure has three subsidiaries: Cricket, Commercial, Community with a top level looking after Finance and Facilities.
Lots of C’s and F’s, but not a lot of duplication with the majority of the work being done through small sub committees looking at very specific areas.