Coach of the Year.
Martin joined the Yorkshire Visually Impaired Cricket Club in 2014 and has severe sight loss himself, which he has had since birth. He had played visually impaired cricket on and off all of his life and, despite being in his early fifties, he made an impact on the team immediately with his passion and enthusiasm for the game. He showed an interest straightaway in helping to develop new players of all ages and started to help out at coaching sessions. Martin went onto an ECB Level 2 coaching course in early 2016 and qualified with flying colours, alongside 23 fully sighted participants. He was very well supported by the tutors, who had a good awareness of VI cricket.
Martin then started to take on a major role in coaching the Yorkshire VI squad, especially the new and developing players in the regional development team and this led to them winning the Northern League in 2018. He has been instrumental in the success of the schools VI cricket programme, funded by Children in Need, and coaches children of all ages in schools across the Yorkshire area - including those with other disabilities too and also many able bodied children, who come from deprived areas. One of the main aspects of this schools programme is that as well as teaching the VI children about cricket, it also gives an important insight into the world of visual impairment for the sighted pupils too, as they can also don the simulation glasses, which give an awareness of many different sight conditions.
On the back of this, Martin has also now been asked to teach the PE staff at various schools how best to coach VI children and is once again putting his heart and soul into planning this project and making it a success. One of his main strengths is in working with individual players; recognising how they need to improve their cricketing skills but also developing them as people and in many cases helping them to adapt and overcome their disabilities with his personal lifetime knowledge of being visually impaired.
It is very evident from observing his schools sessions how much both the children and Martin himself enjoy the games and have so much fun. There is always plenty of laughter and encouragement for each other from the groups throughout the sessions. They are also learning a great deal about cricket as they go and there are many VI children who move on from this and come down to the Yorkshire VICC sessions to be coached by Martin too. As he is an expert on visual impairment himself, he is able to work out what adaptations may need to be made to a players game to improve their performance and spotting these small changes can make all the difference.
A women and girls VI international cricket programme was set up in 2015 across the UK and Martin has been a key part of this since January 2017, when he joined the coaching team - meaning that he plays a part in the development of players from when they first arrive in the game on the pathway right through to the top level. He is involved in coaching at regional centres in Berkshire and Yorkshire and also with the full national women and girls training weekends, which take place on a regular basis. He has once again worked very closely with individuals on their cricket skills and personal development and played a major role in preparing the squad for their inaugural series against the West Indies VI team in Barbados in July 2018. Martin was an important part to the coaching team on that tour and also coached the West Indies players whilst out there, as most of their squad had only limited access to cricket coaching leading up to the event. The UK team were very well prepared over three years with Martin's help and won the series by four games to one, including the first two matches ever played by two VI women's teams.
A huge well done to Martin on his staggering list of achievements. A very worthy OSCA winner.