England Cricket’s Mo Bobat: why effective ‘transitions’ between ages and stages are key to a healthy player development pathway

Player | Journey | Peter Glynn | 30.9.21

Learning: 

-       The importance of passing on player intelligence and insight

-       Effectively managing induction and exit processes

-       The benefits of collating player information over a period of time

The health of a player development programme can be measured by the quality of ‘transitions’ between stages on the journey, says England Men’s Cricket Performance Director, Mo Bobat.

“If you're trying to work out the health of a system, it’s important to look at the periods where people transition, because you get a good insight into the quality of things like communication and leadership.

“Because it’s often during the transitions that things go wrong and there might be cracks when somebody is in charge of one bit of the pathway and they hand over to someone else.”

Bobat, who worked as ECB Talent Identification Lead before being promoted to his current role in 2019, believes that player information and insight must accompany an individual throughout their journey.

“One thing we’re currently trying to get better at, is the body of information that we have developed about a player goes with them as they move up through the levels.”