It's not often you see something truly innovative in cricket, but Darren Talbot bucks the trend. Darren is a professional coach who doesn't work with county or elite players.

I had to talk to Darren to find out his secrets.

So how does Darren make a living from cricket?

As you probably already know, paid coaching positions have traditionally been filled by ex-professionals working in the elite system at a county clubs or private schools. Some club professionals coach on the side too. Both require a certain amount of cricketing talent and luck to get a break.

Darren had talent alright, playing to a good standard, but a career in finance took him away from the game for 13 years: Too late to play as a professional and too late to get into coaching by the traditional way.

Undeterred, he combined his passion for the game with innovative business ideas he came up with a whole new way to give something back and pay the bills.

The business of cricket coaching

Approaching cricket as a business opportunity, Darren looked for new ways to get cricket out there. His successes include:

• Running cricket parties for kids
• Organising corporate cricket days for big business
• One-to-one and group coaching sessions
• Setting up and running the Cobham Avorians Colts Academy

I believe the academy is the first one outside of the counties or education.

All these methods, and the others he uses, help to spread the word of cricket. They also have been so successful that Darren is expanding his business across the UK fast.

Things are happening fast for Darren and he has done it outside of the traditional ways. That has to be good for cricket. I hope plenty more budding coaches follow his lead.

If you are a coach and interested in joining the coaching network click here for details. If you are interested in any of Darren's services (UK only at the moment) then visit his main site at www.cricketcoach.uk.com