England cricket’s brightest young fast bowling talent descended on the sporting hotbed of Potchefstroom in January and February for a fast bowling camp with the England Cricket Board (ECB), under the leadership of lead fast bowling coach, Kevin Shine.
This two-week long training camp is in its sixth year in Potchefstroom and Shine believes this year has been the best training camp yet and praised the facilities of the city and the professionalism of North West Cricket, in general, during their stay.
‘The reason we chose Potchefstroom, in the first place, is because of the condensed world-class facilities. North West Cricket has a world-class cricket ground (Senwes Park) and some of the best gym facilities. North West Cricket and NWU Sports Village has also treated us tremendously well during our stay here. The food and accommodation are brilliant and they really make us feel welcome,’ enthused Shine, who has been England lead bowling coach for the past 10 years.
The England fast bowlers who are part of the camp are Mark Wood (England test bowler), George Garton (Sussex), Matt Taylor (Gloucestershire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Jamie Overton (Somerset), James Fuller (Middlesex) and Paul Coughlin (Durham).
The main goal of the training camp is to get their young bowlers up to international standard so they can withstand the rigours of test and first-class cricket.
‘It is primarily a bowling and conditioning camp. We also focus on different formats of cricket such as one-day cricket and then move to more rigorous formats such as test cricket. We help our best young bowlers from age 19-23.
‘We also look to rehabilitate injured and out of form bowlers to help them to get back into England contention.’
One of the main aspects that Shine focuses on is to keep bowlers injury free, after finding out that 50 per cent of England’s elite bowlers suffer from stress fractures.
‘We embarked on a more athletic and integrated programme that focuses on recovery, skills and technique to ensure a more robust bowling group. We feel that we have enabled cricketers to withstand the rigours of international cricketers in the last 10 years.
According to Shine, it is also vitally important to have a variety of fast bowlers in a side and he primarily identifies bowlers with natural pace, skills, physicality and character at a young age. ‘Good fast bowlers need character but must also be good team men and have discipline and the will to constantly look forward and improve,’ he said.
