It has been an incredible trip and this is my last tour diary after a sensational three weeks down under. This week I was in Adelaide & Sydney for the last leg before my return back home to the USA.
In Adelaide, I was at the Cricket Australia U-15 girls national championship. It was amazing experience to get an insight into the girls pathway system for the players as well as the coaches for girls/Women’s cricket in Australia. The coaches for all the state teams were being mentored by Cricket Australia (CA) coach mentors (Ross Chapman & Patrick Hunt) during the tournament and the coaches were given a feedback during a 1 hour debrief session after a few days of observations.
I was given the opportunity to make a presentation during this debrief about my findings during this trip & also share my coaching philosophy with the CA coaches. I got to meet & share views with Former Australian International & now a broadcaster, Damien Fleming. I also went to the Adelaide Strikers vs Hobart Hurricanes Big Bash League (BBL) game at the beautiful Adelaide oval. I could not believe the fact that I got to go to the famous Kensington Oval where the greatest ever cricketer Sir Donald Bradman played club cricket during the later part of his career 1935-1948.
I came back to Sydney for the last couple of days. I was privileged to be at the CA interview with Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain & the first full time coach in Australian cricket. It was great to speak with him and like many other Australian legends and coaches, he welcomed USA cricket with open arms. It was privilege to speak with him about his coaching philosophy & to understand how his coaching philosophy & principles were relevant during mid 80s through till mid 90s when he was the coach for Australian Men’s Team and how they continue to be so important today.
During his tenure as the head coach, Australia won their first cricket World Cup in 1987, regained The Ashes & won the Sir Frank Worrall trophy defeating the mighty West Indies. Bob reinforced the importance of keeping the game simple, enjoyable & make sure the training is beneficial to players. He was very keen to know my coaching philosophy & coaching methods & genuinely requested to pass on his best regards to USA Cricket fraternity! A great human being!
I was then at the Sydney cricket ground for the Australia v England 3rd One Day International. I was privileged & honored to be hosted by Cricket Australia in their corporate box & got to meet the Chairman of Cricket Australia, David Peever and other executives. Even at the executive level, there was a genuine interest and support for USA Cricket. I also met Australian Women’s cricket legend Belinda Clark. Apart from discussing her views on Women’s cricket & pathway system in general, & her asking questions on USA Women’s cricket, she wished USA Women’s cricket all the very best & said she will be looking forward to seeing team USA in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 which will be held in Australia in 2020.
It was an incredible end to what has been a quite simply epic tour down under!
I will be putting a report together of my learnings & experiences in Australia and share with USA Cricket & work towards putting these learnings in place in context of USA Cricket.
A strong partnership between @ICC @CAComms and @usacricket means we can all share and learn from each other! It was great to have Women’s #TeamUSA Head Coach Anand Tummala in Australia for the past few weeks! pic.twitter.com/5W0augTI8U
— CricketAusCoaching (@cricketaus_cca) January 23, 2018
Below are the high level takeaways from my Australian tour:
– I look forward to sharing the learnings with coaches across USA
– work with cricket coaches in USA at various levels and drive towards an integrated pathway system where merit & putting country ahead of All shall prevail.
– better the youth pathway system starting from U13 through till U17 cricketers in the country.
Thank you once again to USA Cricket, Cricket Australia, all the states cricket boards within Australia, BBL team Perth Scorchers, Sydney Thunders Women’s BBL team for all being incredibly generous with their time and knowledge sharing. It’s also important that I pay a very special thank you to Matt Betsey & Darren Holder for putting together a comprehensive program on behalf of CA…. and of course last but not the least, thank you to my family!!
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our Men’s team all the very best for their upcoming tour to the Caribbean!! I’m eagerly looking forward to exciting times in USA Cricket ahead of us for everyone in the cricketing community.
Thank you!
Anand
