PART TWO

So how can a Cricket Psychologist help coaches and teams handle batting collapses more successfully?

Adrian: I was sort of surprised a couple of months ago when you first said that you wanted to write an article about batting collapses because, from a psychology perspective, it is almost like there is no need to talk about them. The reason for this is that a batting collapse should not change most of a batter’s mental processes. The only mental thing that could, or perhaps more accurately should change, is something along the lines of the batter’s shot selection. For instance, you may choose to become a bit more conservative and eliminate some riskier shots until you have scored sufficient runs. In other words, as the risk-reward ratio of shot selection and winning the match changes, so could your shot selection. That is not something a sport psychologist should decide. That is something the coach and squad should have discussed in the past and everyone should know what is expected of them in terms of shot selection if a batting collapse does happen.

However, none of the emotions that you want to have, nor the degree of intensity of the emotions you want to have, or the kind of thoughts you want to have should change. One of the most important things that I can do for a player—it does not matter who the person is—is to help them understand how much their thinking affects their whole life, including their batting, bowling, and fielding. I constantly hear cricketers and coaches say cricket is a mental game. However, the degree to which their thinking affects everything is something that they don’t give as much attention to as they should. It usually takes quite a few mental skills training sessions, over quite a few months, for cricketers, staff, and coaches to fully comprehend just how powerful their thinking is because they usually have little understanding of psychology. But eventually, after I’ve shown them research study, after research study, after research study, they will all come to this realization, as the evidence is overwhelming.

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