By Andy Wilson
Kevin Shine points to the Potential England Performance Programme as the perfect illustration of county and country working together for mutual benefit.
Shine has supervised the development of the PEPP over the last nine years, and the ECB’s Lead Fast Bowling Coach reckons the six young pace bowlers who arrived in Potchefstroom this week are already reaping rewards from “our best programme yet”.
However, he stresses that while the goal is for the bowlers to progress to the Performance Programme, then to the Lions, and finally to the senior England team, it is their counties who will benefit first.
“I’ve played county cricket, coached in county cricket, and so I recognise how important it is,” Shine said. “That’s why we work so closely with the counties on this programme, and we also stress to the bowlers that the first task for them is to be playing regular first-class cricket for their counties. Hopefully, the bigger picture of the Performance Programme, the Lions, and England comes after that.
“We’re very proud of it actually. I think it’s our flagship programme in terms of the time we have with a small group through the winter, which allows us to work on strength and conditioning and then move into bowling in this phase out in South Africa. It’s evolved every year since we first set it up with Troy Cooley taking me out to the MRF in Chennai in India, and this year we’ve got some real ground-breaking stuff back in Loughborough which allows us to understand how to coach the bowlers technically in greater detail than ever before.
“We keep their counties informed throughout and then we keep a very close eye on them throughout the summer. All the technical things for them to work on are jointly agreed by the players and counties. It’s a very joined-up process.”
Five counties have players on the programme this winter. Somerset have dual representation through Lewis Gregory and Jamie Overton, and they are joined by Gloucestershire’s Craig Miles, Middlesex’s Harry Podmore, Northamptonshire’s Olly Stone and Sussex’s Matt Hobden.
It is, therefore, appropriate and significant the programme is being delivered by a quartet also drawn from county cricket.
Neil Killeen, the former Durham seamer and now the county’s bowling coach, is leading the PEPP for the ninth time.
“The first five of those we did in Chennai at the MRF Academy with Dennis Lillee, and then the last few have been out here in Potch,” he said. “It’s fantastic - the environment out here is second to none. You’ve got international athletes, first-class facilities, and you’ve also got the climate and at altitude as well. All put into one package makes it a pretty special place.”
This year, Killeen is being assisted by Jason Kerr, who has been on the coaching staff at Somerset for some time, and moved into a new role as bowling and assistant coach last year.
“Fortunately the club gave me permission to have three weeks away at a crucial time for us,” said Kerr. “As well as aiding my development, we’ve got two lads on the programme, so to keep an eye on them it’s superb.”
The backroom team is completed by Hampshire’s strength and conditioning coach Michael Main and the Leicestershire physio Rob Leather - both started working closely with the six PEPP seamers before Christmas at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough.
Likely lads - Miles, Podmore, Overton, Stone, Gregory, Hobden on Potential England Performance Programme in Potch pic.twitter.com/0LPPJcuwCi
— England Cricket (@ECB_cricket) February 4, 2015
“These guys have been training from Loughborough pretty much every week since November,” explained Killeen. “They’ve trained really hard, generally something between 15 and 17 sessions a week. The only thing they can’t do is get outside to bowl. So as we bring them into the back-to-bowling phase, which is this phase now, we get them out here where we can do it on good grass facilities.
“It’s a bit of an education process; we’re trying to prepare these lads to go back to their counties and be ready for full county seasons as well as moving on up the ranks through the England set-up. Educating them in the ways they can train hard and still bowl prepares them really well for the season. The idea is they continue that when they get back to their clubs and hopefully spread that education around the rest of the place.”
Kerr added: “It’s an invaluable experience. It’s about understanding what they need to do to prepare for a very challenging county season. We’re trying to give them that robustness so they can go into the season, perform, and continue to perform throughout, which is a tough challenge for any player let alone young players with a lack of experience.
“For us to have two guys involved is fantastic, because that then drip feeds into the counties and I can use some of that information to look at other players as well.”