Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for tuning in. Please make sure to subscribe and review when you have a chance. We really appreciate it. With me as always is my co host, James Breeze. And on today's show, we have a returning guest. Despite his complete inability to, uh, work his calendar, he's managed to turn up for us.
It's Kent coach, Toby Radford. Toby, welcome back.
Toby Radford: Nice to be here, boys. Hope you're well.
Josh Kennedy: Hey mate, it took you so long to get on that I finished my cup of tea. Toby is terrible.
Toby Radford: That's actually quite good for me then.
Josh Kennedy: No, thank you for coming back on mate. It's really, uh, really good to have you here. And we're here, we've got you back to talk about a recent article you wrote in, uh, Wisden magazine, is that correct?
Is that how you pronounce it? So last time we had you on, you were talking all about coaching philosophy, but it's a bit different this time. So the article you've written for Wisdom Magazine is all about left handed batsmen and why they're doing much better in the county cricket game today. So let's dive straight [00:01:00] in.
What was it that prompted you to start looking into sports? performance of left handers versus right handers. Was there a specific moment, anything in matches that happened to sort of trigger the investigation?
Toby Radford: Yeah, a little bit. It's, um, so as you mentioned, I work with Kent to sort of go in and do consultancy with their batting.
Um, And halfway through the season, uh, we had a couple of two or three games back to back county championship matches. Um, Oliver Hannan Dalby at Warwickshire, right armour, angling into the wicket, um, was angling in, either hitting on the, on the front pad LBW, or with the angle then getting a bit of swing away.
and challenging the outside edge and getting the edge caught behind caught, you know, caught and slipped. So the right handers were really struggling and each of the wickets won the game for Warwickshire. Uh, the following week we turn up at Worcester, Joe Litch does exactly the same, angles in, bit of angle, nips back in, either LBW or the swing away, nicks the slips, right handers having a problem.
Well this happened three weeks in a row because we then [00:02:00] had Kyle Abbott who's a top bowler, South African bowler for Hampshire did the same at Canterbury. So I'm sitting watching this I'm And there's all top board, you know, top players, bell drum and leaning, you know, top guys who've had big hundreds and average well in county championship cricket.
And I'm looking at the challenge that they're having game after game down. The other end is Ben Compton, solid, sturdy left hander and the same bowling. Is sort of being clipped off the pads or they're pushing it across the offside and he's leaving them. So he's sort of building and chalking his runs while all the mayhem is happening at the other end with the right handers.
I'm even thinking, should he be farming the strike of these very dangerous guys, which I'm taking as much of that new ball and making it difficult. It was a conversation I had with the head coach. And, you know, should we be trying to get the left hander down there? But, but what it really got me thinking is, is that the right hands are, are they having a more difficult time than the left?
So I then went to this, our, um, analyst, a guy called James Thompson, and I said, look, James, can you get me, I, I think the lefts are having a bit [00:03:00] easier. Can you get all the stats across the country? You know, what's happening in the other counties, et cetera, et cetera. So I had a load of questions lined up for him.
So a couple of weeks later, he came back and he could access all the ECB stats from every county, every map. And I mean, it was unbelievable. He said, he said, have a look at this. He said, Durham, they take 60 odd balls to get a, um, to get a right hander out, but over 106 to get a left hander out. I said, what, double the amount?
He said double the amount of balls. So then he started to run through it and it was the same at Leicester, it was the same at Warwickshire. 13 of the 18 counties take longer to get a left hander out than a right hander. I, he then, he then said, of the highest 20 opening partnerships in county cricket in the last three or four years, 18 of them have had a left hander in those partnerships.
Seven of the top 10 batters in county championship cricket this year were left handers. Seven out of 10. Now, given that there are fewer left handers than right, I mean, that's [00:04:00] ridiculous. Again, it's a ridiculous percentage. So all of the stats were backing up what I was seeing and what I was believing, watching the cricket that these poor right handers having it tough and the left handers are having a bit of an easier ride.
All the stats were backing up. I could go on. There's more in the article and this runs right the way through. So, um, So it then got me thinking in terms of putting the article together, you know, why, um, and then I, I spoke to Stuart Barnes, bowling coach at Warwickshire, I spoke to Darren Stevens, who was a fine bowler at Kent, talking to them as bowlers and bowling coaches, why they think bowlers are bowling better at right handers than lefts, and left handers generally, and the stats are backing it up, are having an easier ride in county cricket and doing better in county cricket.
And that, and that was the, that's the premise of the article. So. And it's had quite a bit of traction and people are saying, cool, I was interested in knowing that. I think it's, it's sparked a bit of conversation. Um, you know, I'd always felt it, but I didn't realize how strong the statistics were really backing it up.
Josh Kennedy: James before you jump in, 'cause I can see you're desperate for asking questions. [00:05:00] Yeah, just a quick one from me. The bowlers, were they majority right-handed bowling, left-handed batsman? Or were they left? Were they a mix of left and right-handers And does that make a difference?
Toby Radford: It's mainly right-handers, and this was the point.
So Stuart Barnes was saying, look, most bowlers are right-handed, most baters are right-handed. So when a young bowl is learning the, the ropes of bowling at an early age is generally you're putting the target on the top of a right-handers off stump. And he's learning the action to do that. The other thing that's come about is this wobble seam.
So a lot of the top bowlers now, they don't bowl and look to swing too much. They generally hold the seam to wobble it. So they know which way it's going to go when it pitches. Right. It might be in and hit you on the front pad. It might nip away and nick to slip all the time. Your channel, you're challenging both edges of the bat and the free bowl.
As I mentioned, the wall did this game of the game, right? Hannon, Dalby, Leach, um, Abbott, they all have this slight angle into the stump. So if you're facing, if you can imagine, you've got [00:06:00] the angle into off stump, you can't leave the ball. If it doesn't swing, you lose your off stump. If it does swing, you have to play it.
It swings, you nick it behind. So the, the challenge of your judgment of what to play, what not to play is, is huge, uh, and these are top quality bowlers, you know, with the Dukes swinging on pitches that do appear, it's, it's a real, real challenge for, for, for these right handers. So. That was it. And it's, it's been fascinating, actually.
And unearthing all the stats to see, I think, God, this is, we're onto something here. And then how can that be used? That was the next bit. There's the why, and then how as a coach, um, you know, you can improve your players. Um, how you, you know, the left handers, how you can work with them. Because the other point I was making is when the left handers are challenged in a similar way, and I talk about Warner.
In the article where I think he was averaging in the mid 40s around the world, but he's averaging 19 in England against Stuart Broad, right? Well, Stuart Broad goes around the wicket and has this wonderful ability to angle in [00:07:00] and go away from the left hander, which is what these right hands are having in every game, right?
So he creates for the left hander what the right hands are having game after game after game. And Warner struggled with it. So when the left handers are exposed to that. They come unstuck in the same way, but you just don't see it as often because there aren't many as good exponents. And I talk about the reasons why, and the bowling coaches talk about the reason why.
And I was making the point when I spoke to James yesterday that, I don't know if you saw the T20 the other night in Barbados, but Geoffrey Archer actually, from around the wicket, got the ball angling in and swinging away. And he caused havoc for the West Indies left handers at the top of the order. So if you can, if you can do that skill.
Well, you will knock over the left handers, but at the moment, clearly, in England, there aren't many who can do it, hence why left handers are, you know, it's better to be a left hander than a right hander at the moment in county championship cricket, and it's been proven.
James Breese: Well, not that I'm a county championship batsman, but I'm a left hander, so this is like music to my ears in some, in some respect.[00:08:00]
You know, for the chain, you know, for once in a lifetime, we have something that's maybe getting easier for us as opposed to everybody else in terms of like You know, everything basically, but there's a couple of things here to unpack. So I'm going to take us back a little bit. So you talk about the angle of the right hander coming into the right handed backspin.
They've got to play the ball because if they leave it, it could hit the off stump or it goes nibbling away and they get an edge outside. How does that differ from a right handed bowler bowling to a left hander? Let's just talk about that angle first and that aspect. So let's talk about what the difference is there.
Toby Radford: Well, Darren Stevens was making the point that when he was, and he was a very successful county bowler, right, to right and left handers. Um, and actually Jimmy Anderson's stats are very similar to both. But what I was finding when I look at the stats, some are brilliant to right, but really struggle to the left handers, right?
But, but so you're talking angle and Darren Stevens was saying to me that, that he had success against the left because he got in very close to the stumps, had a good wrist position and was able to set the ball off. Yeah. on the stump line. So if it swung [00:09:00] back, he could get the LBW. If it carried on going, he could get the edge.
Now, he believes a lot of bowlers now, because of this sort of in vogue thing of bowling with the wobble seam, they just go across the wicket. They go across the left and then they've lost the art of swinging back a little bit. Plus he thinks they're too quick to go around the wicket. So they don't try to come over and swing it back.
Dan Laurel does at Surrey and he's very good at it, I guess. He's a top quality bowler, the Australian guy and he swings it a lot and late and he gets in tight, but most go around the wicket very quickly where the action has to be a bit different. So to create what broad does is not easy because you've got to come wider and not run on the pitch.
If you do your normal action from around the wicket to a left hander, you're going to end up going on the danger zones and the umpire's going to say, look, you've got to get off the pitch, which then means you've got to come wider. And if you land on a wider bit, you're not finishing off the action. So you actually end up bowling it, starting it too wide.
And then you give him the left hander wick, which you'd love, you know, cuts and you get your mouse through the ball. [00:10:00] Right? So you can't quite create setting it off in the right place to challenge that off stump. Unless you're broad or roach, you've found a way to do it by running from wider. So they're angling in and they don't fall.
They don't follow through onto the bit of the pitch. It's going to, you know, get them warned and get them sent off.
James Breese: And that's, and that's the interesting thing. Cause I always find as a club batsman, right? And take us down from the county level, the professional game down to club level as a left hander.
As soon as the bowl, the bowler goes around the wicked. To me, I think I'm winning because of what you just said. They haven't got the skillset of Stewart Board, Jimmy Anderson Roach. Right. To be able to do that. They're not they're not there. It's, it's coming. It's literally coming on one path. Most of the time it's either swinging in a little bit or coming straight and I can play straight down the ground and then they get anything wrong.
It, it's, it's going wide. I, I don't feel it's challenged me on my off, you know, on the off side at all. I think it's most of the time, and some of 'em do swing naturally. They're like, they're in swingers to Right-handers. And it goes away, but it's early swing. You just watch it go. So as soon as they [00:11:00] go around the wicket, I think I'm winning here.
Great. Game on.
Toby Radford: When I was with the West Indies, I mean, Kimar Roach, at that point, he'd lost a bit of pace. He was at, you know, 90 mile an hour bowler at his best, and he became sort of early, low 80s. But he became very skillful, and he learned the art of bowling to the left hander. And he caused a lot of problems for Alistair Cook.
And whenever a left hander came in, it was literally throw the ball to Kimar Roach, because he, you know, He had this knack of doing what Broad learned, which was a way of getting it to start on off stump, drag you in, and then this late swing away. I mean, the number of knicks that Roach would get to left handers, honestly, left hander came in, ball went straight to him, but there aren't many who could do that.
Um, then you look, and I think you mentioned about left armers, I think we mentioned left armers. You know, Trent Bolt, this is why Trent Bolt's been such a great bowler because he can start it on off stump, middle and off and get it swinging away. So he's now posing the problems for left handers that I think right hands are having every game, game after game after game of challenging both edges from that line, you know, and that's, that's the difficulty I think the right handers have got at the moment.[00:12:00]
James Breese: So with this, with this stats, with this, with this work you've come across now and from the analysts and the players, How has that impacted how you're coaching and working with the right handers? So what are you doing different with them in helping them either set up? Yeah. In terms of their alignments.
So let's just talk. Obviously you briefly share your philosophy and then again, for those who never heard, hear what you think and what you believe in, but then say how it's maybe impacted what you're doing now or start in the process to think differently about what you're doing with these guys who are struggling.
Toby Radford: Yeah. I mean, I, I think with looking at the right handers, I mean, uh, because of this sort of quality bowling on, you know, swinging late, um, challenging both edges on pitches that do a bit, right. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough and you can practice, but it's still got to deliver. Every ball one mistake and you're back in the pavilion.
It's tough. Um, I think the ones who do it really well, they find a way, um, to take, for example, when we play Kyle Abbott and we play Hampshire, right? When one can play Hampshire. So those guys, um, Mohamed [00:13:00] Abbas, very good bowler, Pakistan bowler, he and Abbott come wide of the crease, they create the angle in, so they create this bit of doubt.
So what we tend to do, certainly Jack Leaning, who's had really good success against Hampshire and against them, he's had a couple of hundreds, He tends to bat slightly outside off stump. So if you can imagine it, they're coming from wide. It's quite a, it's quite a sharp angle back into off stump. What he does is narrows the angle by almost coming out.
So he sort of reduces that angle and he gets a little bit outside off stump and comes at them a bit. Now, if he hits you on the pad and you're slightly out, you're outside the line. So he's almost taking away. The LBW ball, so he's coming down the wicket to take the length away from them, and he's coming slightly outside the line so that if you don't, as I say, if you do hit you on the front pad, you're generally outside the line, and it might push them even wider, they go even wider, then you can leave them, so you've almost got to take their length and line away from them and find little ways of doing that, and I think they're really good experienced players.[00:14:00]
They'll just alter where they stand or they'll come, as I say, they'll come a little bit forward or they'll come a little bit out. But I can think back to the test match, I mean the very good test match when I was with the Winnies and we won it late on it at, um, Headingley, I can't remember what year it was, but four or five years ago.
Great finish at the end of day five and Hope got 100 in both innings. And, The talk there was Broad and Anderson, we believed, had lost a bit of pace. And actually, your best way to play then was to take their length away. Take their length away by standing a yard out of the crease. They're not as quick as they were to sort of bump you and push you back.
Come out at them, take the length. And that's what we did. Um, so we would stand a good yard and a half closer to them just to mess their length up a little bit or make their length easier to play. Oops, sorry.
James Breese: Interesting. The phone goes down there. Brilliant. I love that. So here's a question again, because I always want to compare and contrast.
So like, you've got the top level game, the professional game, where you've got the highest level of players, you've got the highest level of um, umpires as well. And then you have the club game, right? [00:15:00] So, we're learning this now, maybe there's right handers at club cricket all up and down the country now, who are struggling and they've got these balls, you know, getting out to right handers, over the wicket, nibbling in, nibbling back out.
But the other thing sometimes you can contest with is your position, your stance and where you take guard. So you're talking about now potentially moving outside the line a little bit to negate this issue here now. Now in club cricket, there is a, and this is not me throwing any umpire under the bus, and I do apologize for doing this, but the level of umpiring is different.
And they don't understand where they would talk about in terms of like, if you take it outside the line, they're not quite sure because, They can't see as well, they're slightly older, whatever happens to be, come here. What would he say to the club cricketer, if they're having the same sort of issue here?
Would he still suggest for them to go outside here? Even though there's an issue with the idea of like, mitigating factors such as umpiring quality, which you do see from time to time.
Toby Radford: Yeah. I mean, I think the, you know, I think, I think the really top players, right, they make [00:16:00] adjustments even during an innings.
So for example, you'll find during an innings, the ball suddenly starts reversing. Right? Top bowler, he might be bowling away swing with the new ball, 20 overs in. It's not swinging much, but he's got a bit of polish on one side. He's actually now, he's now challenging you in a different way. So what you do and where you stand has to change.
So what you've done in his first six overs when he's really. You know, he's coming in off stump on an awkward angle, wider the crease, right, I've got to negate that. Now, he's coming big late in swing as he's trying to hit me on the boot and get me LBW. Now I might pull my guard slightly back a little bit.
So there's this whole thing of, you know, managing your innings, where they're looking to attack me, right. They're looking to attack me in a different way. They changed the field. He's coming straight up. I'm going to come back to the on Oliver Hannon Dalby, right? It was fascinating because in the first innings at Edgbaston this year, he swung the ball away, nicked off our top batters to slip, right?
Slip, caught behind gully, took four or five with second innings. He changed the field. He didn't swing. He came straight, absolutely back in at the stump. His wickets were [00:17:00] LBWs. So the challenge was totally different first innings and second innings. And I think the really good players, they make those adjustments while they're out there.
Um, look, this is how he's trying to get me out. I'm not going to stand on off stump now. I'm coming back to middle because he's really coming mainly in. in and I've got to make sure I'm controlling that ball that comes back in and give it full face back down the ground, because if you set up now for the bigger way as, and you know, he's coming back, you're going to be off side of the ball.
So it's those subtle little adjustments all the time. And I think, you know, as I say, the top players do those little things and, and it might, you know, you might only be an inch or two, but it makes a huge difference in terms of, you know, your, your performance really.
James Breese: Interesting. So in terms of like left handers now and everything, what would you say are the big things that right handers could potentially learn from left handers?
Toby Radford: Well, I, I think the left handers, I think because from a very early age, they generally have had, as a young age, they've had people pushing the ball across them. I think they play that quite well. I think left handers have got used to playing well square, the wicket, letting the ball come across, cut, cut [00:18:00] and drive well.
You know, the David Gower, the left hander, they pull, cut and drive, don't they, generally left handers. You know, it's a different challenge when it's coming from around the wicket. Like we say, and even they are getting exposed when you get them. You just aren't enough for those bowlers. Um, so I think, I think right hand right handers, you know, the equivalent would be a right handed being very good at the left armor, pushing the ball across, um, pushing the ball across, but again, they don't come up with many of them.
So I often see right handers when they get a left armor, swinging the ball in. It's a struggle for them because they don't come across it very often. Hence why, when I practice with our lads, I'm always setting up machines for left armors. I actually think it's good for your balance anyway, to face balls from both sides and swinging both ways.
But, you know, be ready for that good left armor. Be ready for someone who's coming around the wicket, you know, practice for that.
James Breese: Interesting. And I've kind of, I've That ties and segues in nicely as well to the fact of like, okay, so like, we've got this data, we've got this analysis, we've got this information.
So, what sort of drills are you now doing with [00:19:00] some of these right handers, knowing they've got some of these top bowlers coming up? What are the drills in practice that you're focusing on to help them? Negate it or reduce the potential impact of them getting out of this. What are you doing there? Well,
Toby Radford: I think from a right handers point of view and the challenges they face, I think a lot of the work that I would do with players leading into matches is, is, um, fundamentals based.
So every player has their strengths and their areas that they work on. So I know each player pretty well. You know the things that they keep topped up. So take a Jack Leaning, who's a very, Competent, you know, gets his hundreds in county cricket. If he's slightly out of Nick, his head goes early, falls across the ball.
He'll play across the front pad. So if you're going to get him, he gets LBW. We know that opposition know that. So it's a constant. So a lead up to a game with a Jack is, is this balanced stuff? Begin swingers on the machine, hit the ball back straight. Wait as long as you can balance and head position. So part of the work leading up with him would be that.
And then the other bit is right. Who've we got this week, right? This week, we've got Surrey. You've got a whorl. Bigger [00:20:00] way swingers. So you're preparing them for where those guys are going to bowl. Um, you know, you might be trying to get the angles they bowl, the pace they bowl, the type of swing on a machine.
So you're trying to make stuff as specific as possible for the opposition you're coming up against. And, and I mean, you know, it's the same in any sport, really, you're preparing as best you can. Um, Um, then you take a Joey Everson. Joey's issue is slightly different. His would be more of a, um, a good posture in this set up.
And if he's well lined up, you know, he's in good form if he's slightly out. So, so it's about reminding him in his position on then again the specific. So every player, as you get to know them, you know, The one thing you need to keep on top of and everyone's got their one thing they need to get, and then you've got your specifics for the match coming up, and then hopefully the two merge on the day and you go and you play and you, and hopefully you do, do, do.
Okay. Um, but that's really preparation for them, you know.
James Breese: Interesting. And I just kinda wanna almost kinda one kind of final thought of this. It's like, so the, in the work the, the analysts have done now to establish this. Are they now gonna adapt [00:21:00] this to left hand, more left handers be, I know they always try to have a right hand left hand combinations in most of the games but are they gonna start to try and do more stuff along the lines of Like, okay, this bowler is bowling now.
He's left, left handed to do well against him here now. So we can move the orders around. Is it going to change the way the analysts and tech coaches do it?
Toby Radford: Massively. And I talk in the article about, I mean, even my days when I was at Middlesex and we were fortunate to win the, um, the T20 ironically against Kent right off the last ball back in 2008 or whatever it was.
Um, But, but, but part of winning that, as good as our bowling attack was, and we had Dirk Nannes, quick left armour, we had Udall and Kartik, two international spinners, what we did have, and I write this in the article, we had five left handers. Strauss, David Milan, Ed Joyce, Billy Gottman, uh, there was a fifth one in there, so we had five, we had five left handers.
And what it's really doing. We all know the, the, the advantage in white ball cricket of having a left-hander that the right, the bowlers have gotta change their lines. The fielders have gotta move. A lot of bowlers struggle bowling at [00:22:00] right one minute and then suddenly it's a left, it's a different length, different line.
Everything's a change, isn't it? Fielders have gotta move around. So it's. It's disrupting. And, you know, even this year, um, Gloucester won the T20, right? They had three left handers in their top five. You know, James Bracey, who I do some work with. Um, you know, they got five lads in there. So it's three lads it's I think where you've got those left handers in the team, it really messes sides up.
We had a time this year where we had a lot of right handers in our Kent lineup and we had a T20 and we're playing against middle sex. Um, and really, You feel at the moment that we probably should be slightly stronger than them, but they got a good day on the leg spinner and the right hand has struggled a bit with the leg spinner.
We didn't have a left hander to put in there now. I'm thinking off. We had two good lefties. Now you put one in, you know, you'd be able to play with the spin to the leg spinner and take them down now where we went in bold with Matt Parkinson is a very good leg spinning, you know, played international cricket, but we went to bowl.
They had four left handers. They took him down over midweek. So having that left [00:23:00] hander in your. I think it's massive. I think when you're signing and recruiting, you want to get left handers. I think in your order, you want to have them and you want to move them around, certainly in white ball cricket. Now, and as I said earlier, even times where if the rights are struggling, why can't you manage the innings and say to your left hander, Hey, look, mate, do us a favor, see off Hannan Dolby.
Right. See off Kyle Abbott. It's going to be tough, but see him off because if we get through him, I know it's going to be easy for these other rights. Now, the old tradition is no, you play what comes down, but if you play what comes down, you might be 20 for four because he's taking all your right handers out.
Protect your right handers. There may be another day where there's a left hander causing havoc for the, left armer causing havoc for the left. And you say, no, I'll take him as a writer. So you, you should ideally make it easier, I think, as a pair, but this doesn't happen enough and people just play it before he arrives.
You're 20 for four and your, your game's gone, you know, so I think there should be more of that as well.
James Breese: Well, it's interesting that follows on from a slight, slight tangent from the conversation we had about last night and this obsession of strike rate, right? You know, we talk about this [00:24:00] 24, 24 type thing and these, these good balls are here now.
Do you see, People becoming so obsessed with strike rate now that it's impacting decisions at the top of the order Whereas like you just said if they sometimes you've got to build in crafting innings There's ebbs and flows to it, right for any good bats when they do it But if you're so obsessed and the pressure is to get the strike rate where you're trying to push at balls You wouldn't necessarily need to do it.
Is this element of like well Maybe we need to focus less on strike rate at some points And focus on the actual craft in the innings. A hundred percent,
Toby Radford: you've got to play the surface in front, and you've got to play the opposition. And it's about winning the match, isn't it? It's about winning games. And sometimes, you know, it's not going to be great entertainment, but you've got to win the match.
And I think there is, you know, certainly with baseball and the way England have gone, and of course, England have done it on pretty flat wickets with some top quality players. And it's worked to an extent. It's more difficult when they go abroad, because the pitches aren't always going to suit them, and teams are going to put home pitches out.
And they're finding already when they go away from home, it's not as easy as it is [00:25:00] when you set your own pitches and take the pace out of them. Um, but for me, it's about winning matches. I mean, I work with a lot of pros from other counties, and it's interesting that they say to me, quite a few of them, that they feel under pressure at their county, that they're always being told about strike rate and strike rate.
And there's always become an obsession. And actually, no, still manage the game. You've got to win the game of cricket. And there's many ways of winning the game of cricket. And I'm probably a bit old fashioned, but. You know, you can backload your innings, be in a good position going into the last 10 overs of a 50 or whatever, and you can get 10 and over easily if you've got batters in and you've got a good lineup.
But if you got too hard early on and you're 50 for 5, the game's gone. You know, so I think this balance of when do you attack, still, you know, still trying to keep wickets in hand, get, keep your good batter in there for as long as possible, those old adages, they still stand up for me. And, and I see sides that do really well still doing that.
Some are getting a bit obsessed, I think, with strike rates and, and it's putting pressure on very good players who are actually then starting to suffer and [00:26:00] they're feeling their game's going downhill because they, you know, it's pressure they don't need. It's a tough enough game anyway, you know, go and play and win the game.
And for me, if you, if you get one more run than them, you've done the job and we've won and I'm happy and they're happy.
James Breese: Exactly. It is a tough game, both mentally and physically. And I think we, we start to realize that. And again, again, just following on from again, from the conversation we had last night, I showed you the stats.
Yeah. Of how we, we put a quiz out and did a survey of how many amateur batsmen in the last 12 months have scored a 50 or scored a 100 and we're talking 94%. Of batsmen in amateur cricket have not scored 100 in the last 12 months 94 percent But yet we get one of the most one of the things they want to improve the most on is their strike rate Whereas you judge a batsman on currency, right?
Yeah, well, I think
Toby Radford: the two things we've seen and that have all led to this have obviously been the you know IPL the expansion of t20 cricket, which is almost going too far now. It's become a bit of a cash cow for me I love t20. I've had a bit of success in t20 But I [00:27:00] I still like the others but I still like the 50 over and the poor day in the 50 Five day, you know, and I think there's a bit of that.
And obviously with with England having done well with basketball, it's almost like that's become the priority. It's about entertaining. And you see it sometimes with young players, they come in, they got these heavy bats, they can't pick the bat up. They can't really deliver because they can't lift the bat, you know, and I'm having to say the parent, look, the best thing you can do is take some wood off it so you can actually control it.
Um, otherwise you're going to get into so many bad habits. You, your game's never going to develop the way you, you potentially, or you, or you want it to. Um, so. Yeah, I think you've got to be sensible about these things on a flat wicket. The bowling's average. Yeah, it's strike rates important, but a lot of times you haven't got that.
You've got to respect the quality of the bowler coming down. You know, these guys aren't there as fodder. They're not bowling machine. These, these guys have got skill and, and you've got to respect it. And we used to say in the West Indies dressing room, earn the right. Earn the right and to earn the right, um, to get your, to, to play your big shots, you've gotta survive the good ball.
Um, I had many conversations in the dressing room in the [00:28:00] summer with Kent where we'd come across teams who'd get some big scores against us. I mean, lot teams are big, but what, you know, there were the couple of players, I, I think it was one of the guys got 200 against us and I looked at the stats again and I think he played over 200 forward defensives.
And I was making the point to our lads, yes, he's got 200, it's a fantastic innings. To do that, he's had to keep out a lot of good balls, his defense was tight. He's earned the right to hit the bad ball. If you've got no defense, you're not going to be there to hit the bad ball. You're filling in the crosswords sitting on the balcony.
You know, you've got to, you've got to, you've got to be tight defensively in that four day, five day mindset to go and play your good shot. So, you know, it's, yeah, you've got to, you've got to be solid, haven't you?
James Breese: Nice one. So mate, just to sum up the article and to help any club batsmen or even pros listening into the podcast, you know.
The basis of what you've learned from those stats. What would you sum up in, like, a very quick 30 second spiel? How would you say to batsmen to adjust to the problem of the right hander coming in? How would you suggest they should adjust to it, their game, to make a [00:29:00] difference?
Toby Radford: The right hander coming in is what I said about adjusting where you stand, um, keeping your weight and head going forward.
So you don't, you don't want to commit too far offside and get done on the inside. You don't want to, you don't want, you don't want to be inside the line. If it's swinging, you've got to keep your weight forward and your head back. Back towards the stumps at the far end. So you can get, you can cover the off stump ball and if it comes in, you can access that as well.
So you've got to be aligned nicely side on and you've got to have your weight forward. What you don't want is to be too open and you don't want your weight slightly back or to the off. So you've got to keep your head and your weight. If you said to me, what else would I take from the whole thing of this left handers?
I think recruiting left handed batters. Um, I think getting bowlers when they're training, practicing to right and left, because there's no doubt when you look at these bowling stats around the country, 13 of the 18 first class counties struggle with left handers. Bowling at left handers either taking wickets or keeping the runs down right or both in some cases really badly double the time [00:30:00] So, you know in training Three balls that are right move to a left the ability to bowl at the left.
How are you going to get the lefts out? Um stuart barnes said something really interesting about the Why he thought? A lot of bowlers struggle a bit around the wicket. He said the nets are quite narrow in lots of places. So if they're narrow, you can't run as wide to land wide on the crease. And both he and Darren Stevens are saying if you look at broad, he runs from wide and he lands wide.
Which means that when he comes over and finishes his action, he's not on the danger part. If he runs in tighter and finishes the action, he's now going to be warned off the pitch, which then affects your bowling action, which then means you don't get that angle to get the late swing off off stump. So, are the nets and the restrictive nets, are they stopping you coming from where you want to go?
So I thought that was an interesting point from Barnsley. But those type of things, developing the bowlers to be better against left handed batters.
James Breese: I like it. Cheers Toby, thanks for that. And what's next for you, to finish off with? What's next for you?
Toby Radford: [00:31:00] Me? Well, I get mixed. I mean, in the winter, I sort of, a lot of private one to ones with batters from all over the place.
Um, I've got to go. I'm up in Lancashire next week doing a thing, um, in Bolton. It makes, and a bit of coach mentoring, working with some coaches. Right in the odd article here and there. So the winter is a quite a nice mix and then the summer is obviously performance and matches. Um, but I, I like the winter cause you get a chats like this.
I've got another one of these next week. Um, so I quite enjoy this, enjoy the mix of stuff, to be honest.
Josh Kennedy: Great. Well, thanks Toby. Much appreciated. Thank you very much. It's great. I think I'm left handed as well. I think I've missed my call and I should have been a, I should have been a batsman. Should have been a cricketer.
Toby Radford: I tell you what, though, the whole thing, although I know I kind of sensed it when the stats came back, it was a bit of a surprise how strong they were. And if you read the article, you'll see in so many areas. I mean, it really is. It was and I think a few people have been quite didn't realize that, you know, you know, seven out of ten the top I mean you take colin ingram here glimorgan left hander bracey gloucester all these left handers doing sort of simpson at sussex Who used to be a middle [00:32:00] sex with me?
You know left that it's seven of the top ten battles left and it's not just this year You go back over the last few years same thing and given the percentage of lefts to rights Seven out of ten is enormous huge stuff few lefts Compared with right, you know,
Josh Kennedy: yeah,
Toby Radford: huge
Josh Kennedy: go left handers. There we go. I'm
Toby Radford: coming back as a lefty as well.
Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. Thank you. Just to round off Toby, could you remind if people want to read the article where they can find it and also where they can find out more about you.
Toby Radford: Yeah, the article is on wisdom cricket magazine. So wisdom cricket monthly I I think you can either see it online or you can get it in You know any sort of news news agent really wh smiths whatever and me, um coaching toby radford cricket coaching.
com Uh, on the internet and I'm on Instagram and all sorts of stuff. Just posting sort of various technical or coaching things, really technical stuff.
Josh Kennedy: Thank you very much. Thank you, Toby. Thank you, James. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe. And if you would like our [00:33:00] free training plan, then go to cricket matters.
com forward slash train. I remember our goal is to make you a better cricketer.