Here's An Idea: Maybe It's Time National Teams Went For Specialist T20 Coaches?

Professional sports are about gaining a competitive advantage over competitors, and competitive advantage is gained by inches, not earth-shattering leaps.

In 2016, Tim Wigmore asked a question: cricket players are specialising more than ever, so why aren't the coaches? At the time when Tim wrote his article, there were a few T20 specialist players. Since then, there has been a huge explosion in the numbers of players who specialize in the format.

Understandably, a sizeable number of T20 specialists are players looking to reduce their workload, with Faf du Plessis being the latest international player to go down the path pioneered by players like Dwaine Bravo. However, with the proliferation of T20 leagues all over the world, it is no longer just players seeking to reduce workloads who are focusing on that single format, many young cricketers are also specializing quite early.

This is why, five years after Tim's article, I am wondering why national teams still have not yet adopted the idea of getting specialist T20 coaches onboard.

A Format For The Innovators

Without a doubt, T20 is a much more specialist format, than Test and ODI cricket. This is where it differs from its siblings. It is more about innovation and less about tradition. Of course, this is not to suggest that there are no players that can play all three formats with ease, and successfully too. No. However, it has certain stark differences when compared with other formats.

For instance, how one assesses risk in T20 is different from how they assess risk in other formats. Batters are constantly questioning why they never considered scoring through certain areas or creating certain shots. Bowlers come up with all sorts of deliveries that are not common stock in ODIs and Tests: loopy bouncers, wide yorkers and an insane variety of slower balls.

In T20 cricket, a player who has a strike rate of 190 and lasts for 10 deliveries or less can be an asset with the bat. In any other format, they are not so much of an asset.

T20 not only demands a unique set of skills from its participants, it demands a unique mindset. Now, the development of this unique mindset is best under the leadership of a coach who specializes in this area. Of course, this is not to say that all-format coaches cannot effectively coach T20 sides. They certainly can. Just not as effective as a specialist coach, that is because a specialist T20 coach doesn't just know that the margins that determine victory are smaller in T20 cricket, but one who knows how to gain those little extras.

Confirmation And Desirability Biases

Behavioural science tells us that when it comes to making decisions, we're much less rational than we think. There are a host of cognitive and emotional biases that influence our behavior, which can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes, especially when it comes to our evaluation of others and their abilities.

Even though we all tend to think of ourselves as being without biases, we carry certain biases or blind spots that influence our decision-making.

In his book, Think Again, Adam Grant points out two biases that distort our judgement. One of them is confirmation bias: seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias: seeing what we want to see. According to Grant, these biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth.

In the case of all-format coaches, they are quite susceptible to these biases when evaluating players for selection. More often than not, they will find themselves selecting players with whom they have the best working relationships in other formats for T20. It is not that they intentionally discriminate against other players, it happens subconsciously. As they compare players for selection, all-format coaches are prone to finding reasons to push for the selection of certain players, even with little evidence to support their decisions.

This is often at the expense of more talented T20 players, or players with better future projections in the format, based on their history and present performances. However, the fact that the coaches might have never worked with them is much more likely to put them on the back foot, especially when being compared with a player the coach is more familiar with. Even if that player only shows modest upside projections.

This is not to imply that specialist T20 coaches do not carry with them their own biases. They do. However, they are more likely to be in line with their preferred style of play.

The Best Time Could Be Now

“Life’s a game of inches, and so’s football.  In either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small: I mean, a half a step too late, or too early, and you don’t quite make it; one step too slow or too fast, you don’t quite catch it…" This is part of a speech attributed to legendary NFL Vince Lombardi. The speech was later brought into popular culture by Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday.

Professional sports are all about very small margins, and it is these tiny margins that lend a team a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is rarely seen in huge earth-shattering disparities, but in little inches that one team gains on another. This is what a specialist T20 coach brings, little inches of competitive advantage compared to all format coaches.

To paraphrase from Tim Wigmore's article, specialists are most valuable because of the targeted, specific, support and guidance they provide around decision-making and game awareness. Not only that, but they also provide different training options that optimize and enhances consistently good performances.

In the past, a plausible reason for hesitation in employing a T20 specialist coach might have been tied to experience and competence. However, because of the numerous leagues around the world, there are many excellent specialists available. The fact that many of them have coached in different leagues is an added advantage.

Now, what better opportunity to test run this than a period where there are two T20 World Cups in two years?

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