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In pre-game team talks, Australians in our team explained how to bowl to or bat against fellow Australian team mates playing in opposing IPL teams. South Africans would compare some of their countries strategies and tactics with Indians, New Zealanders, Poms and Bangladeshis. Players freely shared their secrets, sometimes teaching an IPL team mate how to add a switch hit or slower ball leg-break to their game. Compatriots today, they will be fierce competitors on the international stage tomorrow.

My current work in professional sport was kick-started when the results of my 2004 Masters Thesis* showed that the coaching methods employed by South African provincial and national cricket coaches between 1991-2004 did not measure up to players ideal, and that they remained behind more up-to-date leadership and performance approaches being employed in business. Evidence suggested the same applied throughout the cricket world. It presented a wonderful opportunity!

Defending the old school, it does have a place in sport (and business), but significantly less place than it currently occupies. Using telling as the dominant approach works best, a) at the beginning stages of a new team, b) when a new task or skill is being introduced, c) when there is lasting confusion, and d) in other specific situations that I can’t think of as I sit on this flight from Pune to Delhi.