Captains present and future learn from the guru

Sixteen members of Haileybury Cricket recently attended an inaugural "Captaincy Seminar" in The Long Room of The Pavilion.

The group of willing and interested leaders sat glued to the speaker, Nick Gandon, as he gesticulated and spread the word of cricket with great enthusiasm and panache.

Gandon, registrar at Haileybury until the end of March and now the Cricket Foundation’s new Director, was himself Haileybury XI captain in 1974. With the help of the players, he laid down what between them they thought captaining a cricket side was all about. By his own admittance, only the surface of this most complex of subjects was scratched.

The session was a complete success and all involved drew much inspiration for having attended. Indeed, it was just what was needed to get the passions flowing with the onset of the season before us.

Jon Melvill (Bartle Frere), who was earlier this year appointed as the 2003 Captain of Cricket, attended a seminar on captaincy at Lord’s on March 11. The course approached such elements of the game as fitness, batting, the art of captaincy and the spirit of the game and was run by well-known ex-professionals like Clive Radley, Chris Broad, Tony Dodemaide and of course, the captaincy guru himself, John Barclay.