Coaching Matheesha Pathirana: CSK's Eric Simons reveals fascinating details

Yeah, it’s such an important thing is the psychological pressure. You put in opposition. When you go into the into the break and you’re going to the change room and you have an over like that, it just gives you massive momentum. They’re looking at restricting us to under 200 and then they’re suddenly facing 206 with an over like that every time we live close to him and he he continues to amaze us. So to go out there and hit the first ball like that for six and then continue the way he does. But he has been batting exceptionally well in in in the Nets all the way through pre season into the tournament. So probably not surprising but it’s just another unbelievable Emma Stoney moment. And then yeah, Pateroni, he’s he’s a very special talent as well just the way that he comes and does things. I was really pleased with his accuracy tonight. He was outstanding. Obviously get the wickets. I sent him afterwards. The wickets is a bonus but his accuracy tonight was, it was really good because sometimes you’ll ball accurately, not wickets. Tonight he was accurate and got the wicket. So it’s great to see he got the reward. He’s a he’s a very special bowler. OK, this is going to get quite complicated. I coach externally. I don’t get you into, I don’t coach internally. So I give him a target, I turn to hit the target. How are you? How he does it? He works out for himself and and he works his own technique out. So that’s how we do it. I give him a glove, hit the glove, I give him a target at the bottom of the pitch, hit the target, and he works it out for us to to really try even even a conventional ball to really trying to understand an action is very difficult. So when you’ve watched some of the lot, you’ll pick up little things that are. You act like a mirror almost for some people and you see that something’s a little bit different. So I’ve got a few signals with him that I can see when I’m catching a ball from him that something’s just gone off. But I don’t try and coach internally. I don’t tell him how to do it. I tell him what to do and he works it on himself. So that’s the way my coaching style, and particularly for someone like him, that’s sonique he he will work out his own way of hitting a target. And that’s why I say these accuracies. Tonight was the most rewarding for me because as he starts getting accurate, he’s going to become better and better and better. What he does allow him to be unique. Don’t try and don’t try and figure it out. Yeah, it’s huge. I mean he’s he’s bringing a tremendous amount of effort in, especially the fact that when he comes on, they take the spinners off, they they put the paceman on. So he’s become more and more effective at that. But they didn’t both spin again the rest of the game because he was at the wicket. So it’s about it’s about how you control the match and some someone like him can control it because they can’t ball spin anymore. They don’t want to they’re scared to. So his ability to to now be effective against the the the the pace bowling has has become a massive asset for him. He had a cover drive through extra cover. We the IT was just the flow of the bat. It wasn’t the the brute force that he sometimes does it with and he just flew to the fence. And I I don’t think people appreciate the timing of which he hits the ball. He’s got some brute force but his timing is outstanding. So it is great to see the rewards he’s getting, particularly against the paceman because when he when the more effective it against with that the more the opposition have to strategize against us. But a tremendous, tremendous reward for what he’s doing. I think that they need to define the wide rules. I think if they give us the wide rules proper understanding we can then tactically structure overs. So I think at the moment, the moment I think what’s happened with the review system, as you can see it’s become quite because it’s an interpretation, it’s very and I I feel for the umpires. It’s not a criticism of the umpires but because his interpretation it makes it difficult. If we knew black and white, what it was and how it worked, we can then use the wide rules cleverly. So I think that’s one thing that that could make a big difference just from from proving perspective and then also give give something like for example the batsman sting out of the leg stump. It doesn’t matter where he goes. If we if we’ve got a heel to target and he wants to move into the stumps, that’s that’s his problem. He’s moved the wide line. So I think we can use the wide, the wide rule very cleverly and make it a little more, little more even contest, just to answer the other question, put it on the plays against South Africa in the first match of the World Cup T20. So I hope not. I think one of the most important things you can give your cricket is something called safety. Psychological safety is the buzzword, but safety to fail, safety to try, safety to grow and be challenged all the time but be trusted. And I think that’s one of the things that happens at CSK. I don’t think that’s one of the things that happens at CSK. That is one of the things that happens at CSK last year. There’s the Joker shadow that he was going for, the purple cap and the orange cap because he went for so many runs, but he was taking wickets. But we trusted him and he knew he was safe. And I think that’s a very important aspect of CSK and certainly from Shivam Dubey’s perspective, to be to play like he does, you have to initially take risks. And there was a while that he was battling a bit. But allowing someone to grow, allowing somebody to feel safe, to make mistakes and become better is the important part of it. And that’s what’s happened with him. He’s he’s in talent and you know it’s not even us teaching them the talent it’s them. It’s unlocking the turn they already have and I think that’s what’s happened with show them. Emma Stone is not one of the most incredible cricketers I’ve ever come across just in in the way that he goes about it. He’s calmness the wicket. We use him as a as a batting template when we bowling at the death of pre season because he’s so good at that and we can test out our theories against him then we know we’re going to do well. But the other thing is that everyone else is more interested interested in these injuries than he is. He’s one of the hardest men also that I’ve ever come across. So I don’t even think we know to what extent he may or may not be in pain. He just carries on, does his thing. He’s just amazing by it. This, this, this. I’m sure there’s some niggles. I mean, you know as as life goes on, we get our niggles, but he seems to get in the middle and he ran those two really quick tonight and he just gets on with it. He just has that ability to ignore what it is and do what needs to be done. But you know, I mean to me that’s just his, that’s just who he is, just the way he goes about it. We we’re more concerned about his injuries. When I say we, I mean the public is more concerned about his injuries than he is.