Liam Walker

As a student of cricket coaching, there are few places more exciting than Melbourne, one of the world’s major cricketing hubs.

Third-year student Liam Walker spent just over two months coaching at a cricket club there as part of his studies, putting his learning into practice and bringing back some lessons of his own.

“They live and breathe cricket over there,” said Liam Walker, a Cricket Coaching and Management with Integrated Masters student.

“As much as people here love the game, it’s doubled over there! On a day off, you’d find a match to watch somewhere, or it’s on TV at night, it’s so ingrained into people there.”

He added: “It’s brilliant!”

Liam found his placement through a friend in Australia, who knew of a coaching opportunity at a club called Kingston Heath.

He said: “It was mainly coaching adults, but I also did a bit of work with under-16s and under-14s while I was there. It was a really good mix. It was so interesting to see the culture in cricket in Australia; they’re all so keen to learn and eager to get involved.

During his time in Melbourne, Liam was able to explore the way he coaches.

He said: “I didn’t know what to expect, so I went in with a really open mind. There wasn’t any pressure on me having to do anything in a particular way, so I was free to approach my coaching however I wanted. I could be creative, and they were really keen for me to introduce my coaching style from England and use my own approaches.”

Liam already has more than two years of study behind him, and says he was able to put what he’d learned in the lecture rooms of the University of Worcester into practice on the pitches of Australia.

He said: “I think about the teaching approaches we’re taught at Worcester, and also areas like psychology, or the lessons we learned from external speakers, it’s really great to see how you can put what you’ve learned in all of those lectures into practice, you can see how it impacts your style of coaching.”