Lives in Cricket No 52 - Schooled in Cricket (2nd edition)

200 a continual barrage of fast short pitched deliveries where the batsman is more concerned about personal safety than the art of batting. “Other ideas, such as uncovered wickets, more overs per day and anything that encourages more wickets and runs per over rather than containment. “When I was young it was every boy’s ambition to be a county cricketer. Now seeing players wearing ugly protectors playing the game to the point of cheating no- one wonders if any father would like his son to be in this firing line. However critical of our first class game, I think that cricket is the best game in the world. Our aim should be to have the same spirit in the first class game that exists on the village green. Yours etc. JOHN LAWRENCE Lord’s Wood Cricket School Toulston, Tadcaster Johnny was expressing a similar view to the Y orkshire Post writer, the late Robert Mills, in another unsourced article published sometime in the 1980s, “Johnny marches on … for love of cricket”. In the same article he speaks of coaching and other aspects of the game. “To be honest, there’s far too much coaching – of the wrong sort at least. I’m mainly talking about some school-teachers I’ve come across, who can pick up enough from a coaching book to pass an exam but who then think they know more than they do. And a little knowledge can be dangerous. “Some of the stuff they come out with is frightening, it really is. They’re teaching kids to cut and pull before they have got the first idea of the basics of batsmanship. “I don’t want to run down my own trade, and good coaching is a great thing, but it’s also possible to spoil natural talent. I’ve seen it happen when county clubs get hold of good youngsters. “It seems to happen a lot with bowlers. Once you’ve taught “Make pitch 22 metres”