Coaching staff using isolation period to set player plans and goals, reveals Mickey Arthur
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Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur has revealed that he, along with his staff, have put this unavoidable self-isolation period to good use and have been planning player roles and goals. Had the coronavirus pandemic not disrupted the world, Sri Lanka could’ve hosted England in a two-match Test series.
Following the 2019 World Cup and Pakistan’s exit ahead of the knockouts, the Pakistan Cricket had sacked a rather passionate Mickey Arthur as head coach. Arthur then took up the role offered by Sri Lanka Cricket. And now, as cricket is on an indefinite break owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arthur and his coaching staff have been utilizing this rare free time to reflect upon their new three-month tenure gone by and to remodel their planning for the Sri Lankan team. The coaching staff, in fact, decided to reassess their own goals, observe oppositions better in order to stay ahead of all other teams’ staff.Â
"We are using this time to reflect on the first three months of our tenure and recalibrate our individual and team plans going forward to the very important series that we have coming up later in the year. We have been very happy with the improvement and willingness from the players to buy into the structure, work ethic, levels of preparation and goals that we have set the team in all formats," Arthur said in a chat with SLC media.
"This isolation period is giving us as coaching staff a time to reflect as well on the player plans, roles and goals that we have set for ourselves as a group. We are also looking at trends from around the world and analyzing all the opposition that we are going to play against over the next year. We as a group want to stay ahead of the pack and be the leaders not the followers in terms of coaching trends around the world."
Meanwhile, Arthur also shared the importance of individual fitness programmes that the trainers have arranged for the players. For these regimes, players need to follow the rules and customized facilities were also made available to each player at their houses. These individualistic programmes are believed to maintain fitness levels of cricketers while also conditioning them mentally.
"Our trainers Dishan Foneska and Paul Khoury have been very proactive in working out the programs with each individual. I have been sending out exercises to each player as well based on the player reflecting and then sharing with me strengths and weaknesses of their games. These reflections are mental, physical and technical. This allows us as coaches to then add this to the player plans that we have constructed for each player," Arthur added.
