Content approved 17 Aug 2026
Preamble
1.1.1 This policy contains mandatory requirements and non-mandatory guidance. To aid clarity, the latter is made distinct.
Coaching Philosophy
1.1.2 NSJCA’s representative program stresses future performance, rather than early achievement. Competitive success is not treated as an end in itself. Rather, competitive experience is a means of developing teams, developing players and providing enjoyment.
1.1.3 This approach is intended to enable NSJCA’s representative cricketers to fulfill their potential progressively throughout their careers, minimise the risk of burnout and maintain enthusiasm.
1.1.4 The program’s most important performance indicator is the desire by players to continue their representative journeys and develop their cricket.
Coaches’ Roles and Responsibilities
1.1.5 The role of NSJCA’s representative coaches is to prepare players and teams to compete in high level cricket. Coaches are responsible for:
- Creating cohesive teams and fostering a positive environment.
- Setting realistic team and individual goals.
- In younger age groups, determining tactics, including deciding bowling orders, batting orders and field placings. In older age groups, mentoring team leaders in decision-making.
- Planning and conducting training. Teaching technical mastery and strategy.
- Motivating players and, in conjunction with parents, helping to maintain players’ well-being.
- Selecting players, determining players’ roles and explaining those roles.
- Setting and modelling high standards of behaviour. Ensuring players comply with competition rules and codes of conduct.
- Communicating clearly, concisely and consistently to players and parents. Engaging with parents and managing expectations about their children. Offering to advise parents about players’ development.
Guidance. Representative players expect to be tested to greater levels than is the case in club cricket. Coaches are encouraged to demand from players high standards of teamwork, technical performance, physical effort and behaviour. End Guidance
Decision-making Authority and Priorities
1.1.6 When undertaking Roles and Responsibilities described in this policy, coaches have sole authority to make cricketing decisions about their teams and players.
1.1.7 In descending priority order, coaches are to make decisions that:
- benefit their teams
- help develop individual players, according to an assessment of need determined by coaches.
Guidance. To help deal with the complexity associated with coaching, coaches are encouraged to appoint assistant coaches. Regardless, coaches are encouraged to seek and accept counsel. End Guidance
Assigning Player Roles
1.1.8 Selectors recommend primary roles for each player; however, coaches are not required to adopt these recommendations or to keep players in the same roles for the season. Coaches are to explain to players their roles in a clear, simple manner.
Guidance. Coaches are encouraged to use pre-season training and practice matches to arrive at their own decisions about the roles they assign to players. End Guidance
2.1.1 Some players are sufficiently skilled to fill prominent roles as batters and bowlers beyond what is usually the case with all-rounders. When deciding to assign dual roles to a player, coaches:
- Must be satisfied the player has the required skill to play both roles to representative standard and that the decision is made solely to benefit the team.
- Are to consider the impact on other players and whether they will receive adequate opportunity.
Guidance. Coaches are encouraged to assign dual roles temporarily, rather than for the duration of the season. End Guidance
Appointing Captains
3.1.1 Coaches are to appoint team captains and may consider creating a small leadership group of players from which a captain and vice-captain are drawn. Coaches are to explain to team leaders their roles and responsibilities. Team leaders are to be given age-appropriate responsibility to make decisions.
Guidance.
- Players may pressure the captain about bowling. To minimise this, coaches are encouraged to prepare an indicative bowling order, subject to change at the discretion of the captain or on the instructions of the coach during the game.
- Competition rules limit the ability of coaches to coach during play. Coaches are encouraged to give guidance before play, during breaks in play and to use players close to the boundary to relay instructions in the fielding innings. Coaches should not yell out from the boundary.
End Guidance
Interactions between Coaches and Parents
3.1.2 Parents are entitled to express opinions to coaches and make requests but are required to do so respectfully, privately and infrequently. Coaches are to respond respectfully and privately.
3.1.3 Parents are not to counter instructions given to players by coaches.
Guidance. Coaches are encouraged to:
- Communicate regularly and openly with parents.
- Invite parents to team briefings and training.
- To the extent possible, offer to assist players individually and advise parents individually.
Parents and coaches complement each other and jointly maintain players’ well-being. In particular, parents help players to manage anxiety; deal with disappointment and success; and maintain perspective. End Guidance
Development Needs
3.1.4 The responsibility for determining and fulfilling players’ development needs lies with parents. Coaches are to offer to advise parents about those needs.
Guidance.
- Representative coaches should be careful not to contradict advice players receive from private coaches.
- Throughout the season, coaches are encouraged to record observations they make about each player’s performance, thereby enhancing the accuracy and thoroughness of feedback they give about players’ performance and development needs.
- Parents are encouraged to request advice from coaches about players’ development needs. Parents are also encouraged to obtain advice about those needs from club, school and private coaches.
End Guidance
Providing Opportunity
3.1.5 Rules for junior representative cricket enable players to excel. Coaches are to allow this to occur – even when it is at the expense of opportunities for other players – provided players act in the interests of the team, rather than in their own interests.
3.1.6 Coaches are not required to ensure players receive equal opportunity in every game or equal opportunity across the season. However, coaches are to provide all players in their squads with the opportunity to bat and/or bowl during the competition season.
Guidance. Opportunity for all players tends to arise naturally due to a range of factors:
- The requirement to assign roles to players reduces the extent to which high-performing players dominate batting and bowling.
- Squad sizes are kept to a certain number, which makes it easier for coaches to rotate players through game-day line-ups.
- Some players volunteer to play only their assigned role on game-day, rather than expecting to bat and bowl.
- Player unavailability.
- The length of games compared to club cricket.
To help provide opportunity, coaches are encouraged to consider alter batting and bowling orders where this would not adversely impact the team.
End Guidance
Conflict of Interest
3.1.7 As parent coaches have a conflict of interest concerning their children, they are to manage this conflict actively.
Guidance. Coaches are encouraged to consider delegating and/or discussing decisions about their child with the team manager or an assistant coach, if one is appointed. End Guidance
Non-Parent Coaches
4.1.1 Parents can request non-parent coaches. However, the Sub Committee must approve any proposed candidate and will only give approval if a team parent is appointed to oversee the coach. If the coach is to be paid, parents are to pay coaches directly, not via NSJCA.
Coach Education
4.1.2 NSJCA will reimburse the reasonable cost to coaches of undertaking training required to gain coaching qualifications. However, NSJCA’s Executive Officer is required to approve training before it occurs and associated reimbursement.
Boys U11s
4.1.3 NSJCA boys’ U11s participate in a developmental competition, so NSJCA treats boys’ U11s as a development age group. The primary aim is to maximise all players’ exposure to a format and level of competition that differs from club cricket. Team performance as measured by results has a lower priority than is the case with older age-groups.
4.1.4 Consistent with its status as a development age group, there is a greater need to provide opportunity for each U11 player than is the case with to older age groups. This enables NSJCA to identify players’ strengths and weaknesses, thereby helping to inform future selection decisions and development needs.
4.1.5 Providing opportunity includes allowing players to achieve excellence. Coaches are required to facilitate this, except in circumstances where a player consistently dominates such that other players do not have sufficient opportunity to bat and/or bowl or where a player is acting in self-interest, rather than in the interests of the team.
Guidance. U11s coaches may choose to develop rules, such as those described below, for providing opportunity:
- players who bat in the top four in a match are not in the first four bowlers
- players who do not bat in a match are in the top four bowlers and given a minimum number of overs
- responsibility for opening the bowling is rotated through the bowling and all-rounder groups
- non-batting positions in the batting order are rotated through the bowling and all-rounder groups
- batting positions in the batting order are rotated through the batting and all-rounder groups
- a player who keeps wicket in a match does not also bowl.
End Guidance
Pre-season Training
4.1.6 Prior to squad training organised by coaches, there is no mandatory pre-season training, except to the extent such training is organised by individual teams.
Scope of Training
4.1.7 Reflecting the short length of seasons and limited coaching sessions available, the scope of training is narrow and focuses on areas most relevant to long-form cricket. Representative-level training is intended to complement training players receive at club level, in school and via private coaching.
Guidance
- Coaches focus heavily on fielding and running between the wickets. There is a strong focus on activity intended to enhance teamwork.
- Coaches provide very little foundational coaching required to teach batting and bowling to individual players.
- To the extent foundational coaching is provided to particular players, it is via advice after matches and during team training. Such coaching, therefore, tends to be reactive.
- If there are common weaknesses in a player group, coaches might choose to provide foundational training to address those weaknesses.
End guidance