I had a young coach ask me recently for my advice on coaching and a career in it. He really loves coaching cricket, and his aim is to follow that passion and work in the sport fulltime in the future.
We had a lengthy discussion and whilst I could certainly answer plenty of questions for him, some were quite tough, and a few queries were on issues that either I had long forgotten or possibly never thought about.
Basically, when I was a kid most of what I did revolved around sport. Our family owned a tennis centre and my dad, and his brother were fulltime tennis coaches. I played plenty of tennis on our courts after school and quickly got into cricket, Australian rules and rugby league which meant every afternoon, evening and all weekend was occupied with sport. Like lots of kids all I wanted to do was play for Australia - Davis Cup, Test cricket, VFL etc, etc - unrealistic but a pretty healthy way to grow up!
