How a former IPL player is leading the way at one Yorkshire school

Shrikant Wagh played for Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors before joining Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate

Few schools have a former Indian Premier League player to lead their cricket programme, but that is the luxury Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate possess.

Head of cricket Shrikant Wagh featured in two editions, for Rajasthan Royals in 2009/10, and 2020 and Pune Warriors in 2011.

Wagh also played several India A internationals during his professional playing career.

Naturally, he is keen to share his experience with the pupils who fill the 22 boys' and girls' teams which he oversees.

“My focus is to use my experience and expertise to provide our students with exposure in terms of high-performance coaching,” he said.

“We work with biomechanics experts at Loughborough, so that helps achieve a higher set of skills and accuracy, especially for the senior teams for both boys and girls.

“We do have one-to-one masterclasses, giving additional coaching opportunities tailored to the development of the individual athletes and the particular skills they want to develop. 

“The experience and expertise being brought to senior teams is something we are making sure we replicate with the junior teams. They look up to the older cricketers and are then want to join our Performance Sport Pathway.  That's why we’re encouraging cricket across all our different year groups, especially from Year 6 to Year 13. 

“In my experience, the focus is to give them a bit more knowledge.”

Giving pupils knowledge about their games, allowing them to pinpoint areas of improvement is a high-performance characteristic of the cricket programme at Queen Ethelburga’s.

“Someone like me who has experience of playing for 18 years at the highest level, I believe it's our responsibility to give the next generation of cricketers the best opportunities and experiences available.

 “Once they start their cricketing journey, and you see their love of the game develop, you also see their consistency grow in terms of putting in the hours and attending all the coaching sessions  throughout the season, so I think it's essential for them to learn from experience.”

So how does Wagh see the programme developing?

“How can you engage cricketers in the off-season throughout the winter? That's my focus especially this year.

“We’re trying to increase our partnerships with other clubs and local counties,  to engage younger players and try to establish some joint-traning sessions, exploring the possibility of indoor fixtures and expand on the expertise we can share when we all work together for the good of the sport.”