The Other Six Months by Jane Cable

The nature of working in professional cricket means that very often contracts cover only six months of the year, which begs the question as to what to do for the other six. Hampshire’s Second XI coach, Giles White, has found the answer by travelling to the other side of the world.

Keen to stay working in cricket, but realising that year round opportunities in the UK are limited, Giles was delighted to be approached by the renowned Hale School in Western Australia to take on the role of director of cricket. The job combines teaching and coaching, with an emphasis on building a sustainable cricketing culture within the school. It is different to his job in Hampshire because in Australia Giles will be overseeing the other coaches in the school to improve their skills, instead of working directly with the players.

For a school in the UK to even have more than one cricket coach would be quite something, and it has to be said that Hale is one of the best private sporting schools in Australia. The head is former Test player and Warwickshire coach John Inverarity, who is most renowned for his captaincy, which took Western Australia to four Sheffield Shield wins in five years.

But it does underline the emphasis placed on the sport by our Antipodean cousins and Giles is impressed by the maturity of the children in terms of their sporting make up. “They are very competitive, but to be fair the facilities and weather encourage this. Most of them are also playing club cricket outside school and they are exposed to more competitive cricket earlier.”

As well as his teaching role, Giles is also keeping an eye on the younger Hampshire players spending the winter playing and training in Western Australia. Liam Dawson, Ben Howell, Kevin Latouf, James Vince and David Balcombe are all out there playing for various clubs. Giles believes it is important for them to experience different conditions at an early stage in their careers. Certainly Hampshire stalwart Dimi Mascarenhas benefited from winters spent in Australia, as has fast bowler James Tomlinson.

But what are the advantages for a coach? “The experience exposes you to different ideas and ways of thinking about the game. It can only broaden your knowledge of cricket and how the game is run,” says Giles. I am sure that Hampshire’s Second XI will benefit from Giles’ winter in Australia – and I suspect he will come back next spring with a few ideas on how to improve our youth cricket as well!

 Hale School website

 Aerial Photograph of Hale School campus in Perth

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