Michael Vaughan: The cricket captain who only needs two short phrases

They think they are better than they are. It explains the view that they have just experienced a one-off and that next time with a little bit of luck and well... "it couldn't happen again to a talented bunch like us, could it". So on we go. It's odd but they say the right stuff but behave in a very fragile manner when things start to go wrong. Failure to build a score and persisting with out of form players eg. Harmison is a killer. Harmison has a long way to go to get back to the form he was in a few years ago. This will need patience and some very good psychological and tecbnical support. For the team, perhaps a bit of grounding and realistic goal setting would probably be a good start. Work ethic is another thing but I don't know if it's good or not. Any views?

Keith
Keith Irving
iStadia

It's hard to say from the outside what would help. The nature of their collapses suggests that they be too focused on the end result, and not enough on getting the basics right, but that's only a hypothesis. I would hope that they are setting personal and team goals, including process goals, but it may be that in the heat of the moment, at critical times, these are going out of the window.

Rob Robson

Sport and Business Psychologist, Warwickshire