FIELDING : How Moving House Reminds Me of Great Fielding Plans

I'm moving house. While I was chucking out all sorts of rubbish in preparation, I stumbled across a fielding outline document.

The file underpinned England's fielding team at the 2007 World Cup. I put it together with key fielders within that group which included Paul Nixon, Paul Collingwood and Jimmy Anderson.

It's a good read and may be something that you could think about doing with your team.

We started with a Goal or a Mission statement:

"To make an aggressive statement every time the ball comes to you; to save runs and put the batsman under pressure, always!"

We then listed the characteristics that we would like to adopt as a group:

• Hunter
• Predator
• Athletic
• Explosive
• Focused

3 sections of the game

The group decided that we should split the 50 over game into 3 sections: Powerplays, the Accumulation phase and Death. Each section would require subtly different though processes, focuses and behaviours.

We aimed to keep this as simple as possible so everyone - even Ravi Bopara who is prone to lapses in concentration when fielding - could remember the key points.

We wanted this to happen so it would the plan would come to life out on the field.

Powerplay overs

1. Always have a commitment to dive in the inner circle
2. Have a huge desire to catch the ball. If we take a half chance in the first 15 overs then it saves us heaps of runs in the last 10
3. Hunt for run outs. Especially after 2 or more dot balls. We discussed that running indecision is most likely to occur when the field is most tightly packed; so the incidence of a run out is high. Any run out in this phase of the game saves us runs in the final 10 overs.
4. Hunt the man and Hunt the ball - let the batter feel your presence individually and collectively. A great example of this within the 2007 World Cup were the pairings of Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood for England and Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds of Australia. Rarely were these pairings far from each other. They hunted as a pair always and put pressure on every batting partnership.
5. Every man has a role every ball. Get mobile.

Accumulation Phase

1. Stay focused: Every run is a premium. If someone is sleeping then it is your responsibility to wake them!
2. Boundary riders save 2 in this phase unless Vaughan (captain) says otherwise. This was important in the West Indies as the outfields are big and the grass is coarse, causing the ball to hold up.
3. Keep making statements: every throw, every dive, every decision
4. Two men chases for every ball
5. Look for work (backing up/fielding in pairs/congratulating team mates)

Death

1. Key men in high traffic boundary riding positions (Anderson, Flintoff, Collingwood, Pietersen, Plunkett, Broad)
2. Be aware of the batter on strike and what impact that has on your position
3. Support the bowler and keep him focussed
4. Hold the rope on the boundary unless Vaughan tells you otherwise

These statements were really simple yet really effective.

As a team we narrowly missed out on a semi final. Statistically (stump hits, run outs, catching %, runs saved) we came second in the competition behind World Champions, Australia.

This outline gave us focus, could a similar exercise start something special for your team?