The inaugural international coaches conference, organized and hosted by the KNCB in Utrecht on April 20, can be put down as a success, to be repeated and expanded in future years. KNCB Performance Manager Roland Lefebvre set up this full day event for active coaches, in conjunction with ICC Europe. The KNCB's new Development Officers, Subir Shrestha and Hannah Hofman also helped put together an interesting and stimulating programme of clinics, workshops, seminars and demonstrations in which the participants could benefit from the knowledge of a number of accepted experts in their respective fields.

Pity was that the number attending was disappointing, only around 20 in total, of which 5 had come all the way up from Belgium and one from Estonia (more about him later)! Perhaps even more surprising was the small number of male coaches active in the Netherlands who attended, although amongst them were ex-Test player Mohammad Wasim, who is coaching at Sparta, and Dutch international Tom Heggelman. On the other hand half of the coaches based in the Netherlands who attended were female, a very encouraging aspect.

Well they missed an excellent day, which began with a fascinating clinic on basic batting principles by Roland Lefebvre and ICC Europe's Regional Performance Officer Philip Hudson who is also a level 4 coach. This was followed by a talk on cricket-specific fitness, strength and conditioning by probably the fittest cricketer in the Netherlands, Atse Buurman, who happens to be a professional fitness and wellness instructor as well as being a coach in VOC's new Cricket Academy.

One of the highlights of the day and a real ‘eye-opener' was the talk by Johan Scholvinck of EyeBallSports, who has worked with the Dutch Lions junior teams and several leading hockey clubs in the Netherlands, about training the eyes. Cricket as we all know is a sport in which hand-eye coordination, especially in batting and fielding, is of vital importance. How often do we remark that a particular batsman sees the ball that fraction quicker or plays it later? Training the external eye muscles can certainly help everyone at any level. Johan worked through a number of exercises with the participants, one of which was juggling which apparently expands the size of the brain! Dan Renwick, an Australian who works as Cricket Development Officer in Estonia, proceeded to demonstrate that he was a professional standard juggler!

After lunch the participants all took part in an indoor cricket game under the guidance of Subhir Shrestha following the rules of ‘Street 20' cricket and then Richard Cox and Kelly Evenson, a former England A Ladies player, who is currently working for the Warwickshire Cricket Board as Cricket Development Manager, conducted an interactive workshop about managing and coaching a club team and the role of a coach before, during and after matches.

Finally, later in the afternoon there were two parallel sessions. Former Kent and England left arm spinner Min Patel, who works at present for Kent, Middlesex and the ECB National Spin Programme, conducted a clinic and practical session about the art of spin bowling, with spin talents Sean Walsh and Mahesh Hans joining in. The importance for spin bowlers of having a repeatable action was emphasized and he showed all sorts of methods to help achieve that goal. And Kelly Evenson demonstrated a number of drills, skills and exercises that could be worked through on club evenings with players of all standards - cricket development pathways at club level.

The feedback from all the participants at the end of the day was very positive. Perhaps the timing of the event explained the low turnout. Maybe a different title?, It was much more than a conference, which implies sitting round a table all day. The suggestion was made to hold it a month or so earlier but everyone agreed that it should be repeated next year.