Wood transferring skills from hurling and baseball to T20
JULIAN Wood was more miss than hit during his brief first-class career with Hampshire – but now he’s proving a smash with the T20 generation.
The bludgeoning left-hander was unfortunate enough to play in an era when T20 was the preserve of the evening league cricketer. Had he been playing now his gung-ho attitude to batting would have provided plenty of entertainment in the format.
As the England Lions players found out last week at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough, Wood has plenty of advice and experience to pass on, much of it gained in sports not readily associated with cricket.
After working with Major League Baseball (MLB) side, the Texas Rangers, shortly after drawing stumps on his own career, Wood has carved out a niche as one of world cricket’s foremost ‘hitting coaches’.
He’ll be extending his relationship with the England side when he flies out to join the Lions on their tour of the UAE next week, the latest destination on a whistle-stop winter tour that has also seen him pass on his expertise Down Under after a summer spent working extensively with Gloucestershire and the Southern Vipers in the newly established Women’s T20 League.
“T20 wasn’t around when I played – I think I would have been quite suited to white ball cricket,” he says.
“Those days you played every format and there was no real technique for one-day players. Now, with T20 becoming the dominant format, there’s a definite technique to it now. The game is going two ways – you’ve got Test cricket and you’ve got T20 cricket. There are two completely different skills now – one form you have to bat all day, the other you have to smash it out of the ground.”
It’s the skills required for the latter that mean Wood is now a man in demand. His time spent in the US, saw him witness the skills that are transferable from baseball to cricket. Previously any comparison between was seen as a lazy attempt at trying to explain England’s summer game to befuddled Americans.
Now, though, there’s a genuine cross-over. As there are with one of Ireland’s most popular sports.
“I watched hurling on TV and they hit it miles,” he says. “The hurling stick is very thin and it weighs less than half of some cricket bats. To generate power you have to use your wrists.
“It’s all about thinking outside of the box and as players and coaches you have to think outside of the box now. I think T20 is really helping cricket and cricketers to do that.”
Wood was teaching the fundamentals of hurling to the England Lions at the Performance Centre and saw at first hand the difference a subtle change in technique can have in the distances the ball is propelled.
“You have to snap those wrists (in hurling) and the difference with the Lions last week when they were snapping their wrists – the outcome of the shot and the launch angle was phenomenal,” he says. “It was almost as if you got backspin on the ball.”
It’s not the kind of language that cricketers of a certain era could relate to – but Wood, and T20 cricket in general, is breaking new ground. We all know how different techniques and styles change the game. From bouncers and slower balls to switch-hits from KP. Innovation is to be applauded and if it’s going to help players get better, then why not try something new? Cricket can learn from other sports, and if the technique in hurling can improve the batsmen, then we’re all for it