No great cricketer has ever made it to the top without a good cricket coach by his side. No matter how good a person is or how much natural ability he has, he will never fulfill his potential if he doesn’t have the cricket training to bring that ability to the forefront.

Over the last 7 years, as a member of a cricketing club and watching players in other clubs as well, I cannot help but notice the lack of proper qualified coaches. I have seen dads joining coaching programs and becoming coaches to the young players. These dads have never played at a high level before or have the technical know-how gained from experience to pass on to these youngsters. Even in the older age groups up to the Under-16s, most of the coaches are at the most, Level 2.

In the older age groups, these boys need proper cricket coaching from proper coaches, preferably those with experience of playing at the highest level possible – county or even country. But sadly, this does not happen and I have watched talented teams languish because the coaches cannot spot the talent within the team and/or give them the training and guidance they need.

The result of the failings is that a number of boys are paying for personal coaching from ex-country and ex-county players. What this has done is created a two-tier system – those who can afford to pay and those who can’t. Talented players who cannot afford to pay are now finding themselves being pushed down the batting and bowling order with more time being given to the not so talented players but who are shining because of the extra coaching they are getting.

Is this unfair? Of course, it is. We are losing good quality players who will quit the game because they are being shunted aside. It will be a loss for the country in the long term.

There needs to be a cost effective coaching program to help these talented players who cannot afford to pay for private cricket training. Of course, there are YouTube videos allegedly teaching players how to bat and bowl. There are also many DVDs that have come on the market to cash in on this growing need for cricket coaching.

So, are any of theses DVDs any good? Do they help the budding batsman or bowler? I have not seen many for bowling but the there is one for batting which I have found to be incredible. I’ll talk about this later. Many of the players at my club have used it and the difference in their batting really shows. One actually got a double century in a county 30 over match!

Unless clubs bring in better quality coaches, the above problems will persist and we stand the chance of losing talented cricketers. Alternative coaching methods have to be looked at or we have to introduce cricket training systems in addition to the coaching the cricket players receive at their clubs.