Sky Sports Coach Awards 2012

Outstanding Coaching Achievement award winner 2011, Andy McCrea, receiving his award from Ravi Bopara

Sky Sports sponsorship of ECB Coach Education allows the ECB Coaches Association to identify nominations for the annual Sky Sports Coach Awards.

The awards are a way of saying thank you to people who have made a significant contribution to the support and development of coaches and coaching in cricket.

Once you have submitted your nominations you need do nothing further as we will contact all those nominated to inform them of their award.

There are three categories, and the nomination forms can be downloaded below and emailed to reward.recognition@ecb.co.uk

• Category 1 - Outstanding Contribution (518 KB)
• Category 2 - Coach Of The Year (520 KB)
• Category 3 - Young Coach Of The Year (518 KB)

The Sky Sports Coach Awards were launched in 2007 as a way of saying thank you to people who have made a significant contribution to the support and development of coaches and coaching in cricket.

More detail on the three award categories can be found below:

Outstanding Contribution

This person has been at the heart of things seemingly forever. They have probably played every role there is to play and without them cricket coaching in your club, in your league, your county or at your school just wouldn’t be the same or just would happen at all.

Does your hero do one or more of the following?

• Administrative support and or the development of coaching
• The development and growth of coaches and or Coaches Association’s
• Increased the number of coaches and or player participation

Coach of the Year

There are thousands of qualified coaches in clubs and schools up and down the country. Who goes the extra mile? Who makes a difference to you or your players, club or school? Who’s your coaching hero?

Does your coaching hero do one or more of the following?

• The development and success of players and teams
• The design, production and implementation of coaching programmes
• Provide Innovation and inspirational coaching methods which have significantly improved player and team performances

Young Coach of the Year
Do you know someone who’s already making a difference? Who’s already passing on their enthusiasm for the game and inspiring the next generation of players.

We are looking for young coaches who are 25 or under who you would like to say thank you to.

Does your coaching hero do one or more of the following?

• Shown a commitment to developing the game at grass roots and community level
• Has had a clear impact with a local school or club
• Shown creativity and determination in their development as a coach

2011 winners

Lizzie Harrison, a Level Two ECB Coach, who works with Burton Latimer Cricket Club and the Northants Girls Under 17 squad was named Young Coach of the Year. She is currently studying at Bedford University and coached Burton Latimer’s Under 15 girls’ side to victory in the National Club Finals earlier this year.

83-year-old Les Bishop from Worcester won the award for Outstanding Contribution and Services to Cricket Coaching. A founder member and former President of the Worcestershire Coaches Association, Les has been involved in cricket coaching and administration for more than 60 years and is currently Secretary/Trustee of the Lord Cobham Cricket Trust.

The Outstanding Coaching Achievement award was made to Andy McCrea, a Level Three ECB Coach, from County Antrim. A professional teacher, Andy has made a major contribution to talent development in the local area and helped achieved significant participation growth at his club, Temple CC.

The three winners were presented with their awards by England cricketer Ravi Bopara at a special presentation dinner held at Lord’s.

ECB and Sky Sports had recently announced that more than 45,000 coaches have graduated from the Sky Sports ECB Coach Education Programme since it was first launched five years ago – including 11,000 who have received new qualifications in the last year alone.

Praising the winners, ECB Chief Executive David Collier said: “These awards are an excellent way of recognising and rewarding the very significant contributions coaches make to the development of our non-First Class game. We thank Sky Sports for their continued support and send congratulations to all our winners.”

Sky Sports commentator and former England captain, Nasser Hussain said: “This is a fantastic programme that is proving how important coaching is to the game of cricket. Everyone at Sky Sports is immensely proud of our involvement and we congratulate all the winners from the Sky Sports Coach Awards.”

Lizzie Harrison, Young Coach of the Year winner for 2011, with England's Ravi Bopara