Fifty percent of good batting is about confidence!

by A.C. de Silva

The art of batting is really in the mind. I reckon fifty percent of good batting is about confidence, the rest consists of natural ability and mental strength.

Too many batsmen at all levels of the game allow their minds to be filled with theories and forget that batting is basically very simple.

It is said that it is easy to preach the gospel of self-discipline, much more difficult to apply it. The batsman should have the talent to forge ahead to go for a century.

The ability to concentrate comes with maturity. So the young cricketers should concentrate and not despair. If you’re throwing your wicket away to rash shots too often, as long as you know why you’re getting out and try to eliminated the silly moments, you’re on the right road.

Several times a century has been there for the taking and it has been blown it through a concentration lapse and a bad shot. There was the time at Sydney when England’s Gower and Graham Gooch were taking Australia’s Graham Yallop’s team apart. There were times that Gooch got into the seventies and was playing better than anystage of the Indian tour that they were on when Gooch played lazily forward and didn’t play correctly and gave his wicket away.

Size them up

Gooch says that he has noticed that most players just sit watching the game, before going out to bat but one man took the casual attitude to an amazing degree, he was Keith Boyce, who used to play for Essex. One day Gooch says that at the start of his professional career, they were playing at Illford and there was Keith Boyce outside in the sunshine snoring his head off with his pads on – and he was next man in!

Gooch says that his advice to nay batsman is to sit outside it it’s sunny day, to get used to the bright light while waiting to bat. If possible watch the bowlers to see what they’re doing with the ball – that’s something even more important at club or school level because you probably haven’t seen the bowlers before whereas on country circuit, the players more or less know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

The batsmen should not be premeditated in the stroke selection before you take guard, but the batsman must keen thinking all the time but he should not be too mentally tired before going in to.

It can be a long haul, sitting there, watching the tactical battle, working out what shots to eliminate or use.

Get it right

The time has now arrived when you’re on your way out to bat. The old butterflies would be working overtime and the heart’s beating a bit, so what do you do to the calm your nerves?

Gooch says that he tells himself three things when he starts an innings – (1) Concentrate, play straight and if it’s wide, let the ball go. Easier said than done! The batsman should talk to himself at the wicket, tell himself you will be sick if he is to spend the rest of the innings in the pavilion because of the silly moment.

A firm resolve must be made into doing the basic correctly, try to forget everything else but the job in handtell yourself, “This bloke can’t bowl, he’s not getting me out, he’ll get tired before I do.”

Try not to crouch too low – that’s fault of concentrating too much and it affects your batting technique. If you’re too low, your head will be on the move when you’ve adjusting to play the stroke – and in case you think the test players don’t suffer from this fault, the batsman is mistaken.

Gooch says that he didn’t realise he was crouching so low until he saw a video recording of his batting in the first Test at Brisbane in 1978. No wonder he was batting badly – he was too low. He was on the move before the ball was delivered and getting very square-on, making him vulnerable to the outswinger.