Practical application of ecological dynamics for talent development in cricket

Relative Age Effects in Male Cricket: A Personal Assets Approach to Explain Immediate, Short-Term, and Long-Term Developmental Outcomes

“…Selection into a talent pathway in cricket can offer a range of immediate benefits, such as gaining access to quality coaching, facilities, higher competition levels, and holistic development opportunities [ 35 ]. If those young cricketers who are relatively older are provided with greater openings into talent pathways due to their age, they are inevitably going to be exposed to more fruitful training and developmental activities.…”

“…Thus, it is important to create immediate sport experiences that foster rich developmental outcomes that help retain players in the long-term independent of their BQ. In addition to possible deselection and dropout, relatively older players are also exposed to possible injury and burnout due to early selection procedures [ 35 ]. For instance, McGrath and Finch [ 79 ] identified that fast bowlers are most likely to suffer from overuse injuries, such as stress fractures in the lower lumbar spine.…”

Performance trajectories of bowlers and batters from youth level to senior professional status in cricket

“…Specifically, questions remain over the lack of evidence to accurately predict future performance capabilities at adulthood based on early selection and performance (Till & Baker, 2020). Moreover, biases during recruitment into talent pathways (e.g., birthplace effects, maturation bias, relative age effects; Lascu et al, 2020) and possible drawbacks of engaging in specialised environments (e.g., burnout, injury, overtraining; Bergeron et al, 2015) have also been associated with selection at young ages. Specifically within cricket, current literature utilising the DMSP raises further questions over the existing talent development structures, as both bowling (e.g., Ranson King, Burnett, Worthington, & Shine, 2009;Philips Davids, Renshaw, & Portus, 2010) and batting (e.g., Jones, Lew-Hardy, Kuncheva, Brandon, Bobat, & Thorpe 2020;Weissensteiner, Abernethy, Farrow, & Müller 2008) have been identified as late developing skills-sets.…”

“…However, an increasing amount of literature demonstrates that selection into talent development programmes is not objectively clear and often relies heavily on key stakeholders' (e.g., coaches, practitioners, scouts) perceptions of a player's potential (see Lascu, Spratford, Pyne, & Etxebarria, 2020 for a review). Despite the use of performance analysis protocols becoming popular amongst cricket organisations (e.g., Lemmer, Bhattacharjee, & Saikia, 2014), there is little evidence-based practice that utilises these systems as part of a cricketspecific talent identification and development process (Barney, 2015).…”

Exploring the influence of task and environmental constraints on batting and bowling performance in cricket: A systematic review

“…10,11 There is a growing body of empirical work which has applied this theoretical framework to investigate how coaches and practitioners can manipulate task and environmental constraints to create highly effective and representative practice. [12][13][14] Modifying constraints during practice has been proposed as a means to encourage individuals to explore diverse movement solutions and adapt their motor behaviour to meet the demands of the task and environment. This idea aligns with the dynamic systems theory, which posits that motor behaviour arises from the interaction between multiple systems, including individual, task, and environmental constraints, and skill emerges through selforganization rather than a hierarchical process.…”