The Middlesex Coaches Association (MCoA) can today announce some exciting new changes for 2021, with the appointment of a volunteer Coaching Ambassador for each of the Middlesex Cricket Areas (North, South, Central, East, West) and the formation of a restructured MCoA.
The impact of these changes are far reaching and will bring great benefit to the coaching community in Middlesex, and through this, to the county’s clubs and cricketers at all levels, and then, in time, to a wider social group.
In late 2019, the ECB changed the governance arrangements for the county Coaches Associations, which made up the national ECB CA, and introduced central control of both coach education and coach development. In Middlesex, Katie Berry (Director of Participation & Safeguarding) was appointed as County Coach Development Manager to lead this change and to restructure coaching in the county.
Middlesex Cricket now sees the MCoA as an organisation that embraces individual coaches, coaches in clubs, the coach education tutors, the Middlesex Cricket Participation Area Managers, and a new body – the Volunteer Leadership Group – comprising the Coaching Ambassadors for each Area, chaired by Rod Croucher (former Chair of the MCoA).
The Area Coaching Ambassadors will work closely with Katie’s team, the Participation Area Managers, to promote coaching in the county, to train new coaches, to continue the development of our band of fantastic ECB CA qualified coaches, and to support all active coaches in the county in whatever environment they are coaching cricket.
A particular feature of the new arrangement is the opportunity to listen to, understand, and then satisfy the needs of that community working in clubs, in leagues, in junior cricket, and in women’s and girls’ cricket, and then to incorporate those either in our coach development programme or in the formal coach education courses.
The Ambassadors’ priority is to establish contact firstly with the clubs in their areas and then the coaches within those clubs - and that process has started. We will also look to establish contact with individual ECB CA members, so please check that your ECB membership details, such as your email address, are correct.
We are starting to develop a programme of coach development activities with the first event being held on the afternoon of Saturday 27 March (details to follow, but please note the date in your diaries now), when Rory Coutts (Head of Youth Cricket), will take us through (virtually) the Middlesex skills frameworks. In the overall programme, we will place particular emphasis on increasing numbers and developing the skills and confidence of the group of female coaches in the county, in support of the growing interest in women’s and girls’ cricket.
The formation of the new MCoA is a real step forward for coaching in Middlesex, and with your support we can increase the number of coaches in the county, develop further the skills of our fantastic qualified coaches in clubs, which will ultimately benefit all cricket in Middlesex.
If you have any questions, please email coachesassociation@middlesexccc.com.
The following Area Coaching Ambassadors have been appointed
