Keep the team on their path.

Call it culture, call it environment, call it team spirit; the coach's job around gelling the team has changed a lot in recent years. More than ever you need great man-management skills.

When the first coaches appeared at clubs, they were in charge of kids cricket and took the role of instructor. They told the young one what to do and they developed as a result.

Then things changed.

Coaching became widespread and all ages started to want a coach around. These senior players and older juniors also did not tolerate the dictatorship of a coach. They knew they were the ones doing the job on the field.

This extended to the team culture. Put a group together in a team and they will form a culture naturally. The coach might tell everyone to get to the ground two hours before the game but if the culture is to be there an hour before, no amount of shouting is going to change the result.

Progressive coaches instead took a different role in building team spirit and culture.

Duncan Fletcher - when he was England coach in the 2000s - used to say his role as coach was the same as a consultant in a company. The captain was the CEO and real leader.

Fletcher was correct. These days as coach your role in team culture is not to law down the law, but to be an influencer and advisor. You are there to help the team be the best it can possibly be as itself, not mould it into something it cannot be.

What does that mean practically?

For teams with older players, it means finding out why the team play, finding the common ground and putting it in writing to remind everyone of what they aspire to be.

It's not about catching people out.

Although there will be times when you can remind people what they said when their behaviour does not match their aspirations.

It's more about giving people an opportunity to succeed:

• Offering coaching when and how players are best motivated.
• Knowing when to let the players police themselves and backing off in certain situations.
• Putting personal opinions aside if they don't match the team culture.
• Working closely with the captain who can be far more influential as they are on the field doing the job.
• Educating players on best practices for working as a team.

These things are practical: Session plans, booking training, skill and net drills and practices can all be used to put them into place. So can plain old-fashioned conversations at practice, in meetings or after games. (Just make them conversations, not lectures and rememebr not everyone will agree with each other all the time. That's fine too.)

Players and captains all want to do well. They also all have both real constraints and the ability to make excuses. The modern coach can guide the culture of the team towards working within the real constraints but still behaving in an agreed way.

That meets setting up an environment that gives everyone the best chance of success. That means letting players make their own mistakes and helping them learn from them. That means forgetting about trying to dictate everything because you know best and remembering you are the consultant, not the CEO.

It's tough. We have all slipped into trying to control things from time to time. Keep working and your team spirit will be stronger for taking a less rigid path.

This is part of a series on guidance for cricket coaches in modern teams. For part one click here, for part two click here.