Investigating academy coaches’ epistemological beliefs in red and white ball cricket

Abstract

Cricket coaches are presented with challenges unlike many other sports. Coaches are tasked with developing players’skills to play two distinct and increasingly specialist formats of the game, namely red ball and white ball cricket. Observations (n = 18), semi- structured interviews (n = 23) and focus groups (n = 2) were conducted with coaches who coached both formats to the same groups of players. Two storybook themes developed; (i) get your head down, listen to me and you’ll be right; in RBC as contrasted with (ii) players getting stuck in to learning in WBC. Findings represented a substantial and original contribution to the literature and suggested coaches held different epistemological beliefs and actioned different epistemological chains. Fundamentally, coaches’approaches were considerably different across RBC and WBC. We conclude by considering the significant implications of the findings. Firstly, an extension of the epistemology literature and secondly, the ongoing opportunity for cricket coach development.