India’s 2011 win didn’t just come from mere talent or good coaching skills nor did Australia’s dominance come from good captaincy, accurate bowling and massive batting abilities. This comes from a higher power, a power that allows a bunch of eleven men to dominate the other equally talented group.
Here I am talking about mental toughness, the ability to tune one’s mind into perceiving the impossible as otherwise. The human mind can be easily manipulated. Taking that in relation to how Zimbabwe is performing on the field of play, this is certainly a grey area for the team. We have the talent but we are not brave enough to change our thinking when it comes to international cricket. We need to think with a winning cap on, it is important to be on top of the situation ‘mentally’ at all times when playing.
Alan Butcher must seek advice from the world’s most celebrated coaches; like the recent World Cup winning mentor Gary Kirsten or Duncan Fletcher better still former Zimbabwe and former world number one Andy Flower.
Kirsten responded to questions by journalist on how he prepared India to win the World Cup by saying the following: “We started speaking the language that we wanted to introduce in the WC a year ago. Everything we did leading up to the WC was about finding ourselves in that situation in the tournament. We spoke a lot about managing expectations, handling the pressure moments and how we needed to set up our game plans and our strategies around what we wanted to achieve in those moments. We reflected on every single match that we played-the stuff we did really well, the stuff we didn’t do well, what we learnt from it-and spoke that language day in, day out”.
He also said that what he had learnt from coaching India was understanding how to get the best out of people. And that the world understanding of the elements of coaching is different from reality. “ I found that I learnt a lot more about myself in this job-who I was as a person and how I could lead other people better” he said.
It’s not to say that Butcher is not the man for the job, he is good; he however needs to put a little more effort into panel beating the minds of his charges and certainly getting the best out of Brendon Taylor and his cronies.
Maybe it’s time Ozias Bvute and his executive team considered adding a permanent psychologist to the technical team to realize the full potential of the current crop of players who are otherwise slowly losing respect from their followers. The strategy of getting occasional motivational speakers to bluff about for an hour or so is not quite the way to achieving a total mindset revamp.
These are players who are only starting to realize that cricket is a profession not just a means to an end hence they need a constant reminder about what they need to focus their minds on. In all fairness, if Sachin Tendulkar needs constant mind training at his level, what of Hamilton Masakadza? Food for thought.
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