NCC gathers the brains trust

The high performance support staff that keep Australia's top cricketers at their peak have gathered in Brisbane for a four-day conference to share knowledge and ensure best practices are applied across the country.

Nearly 200 high performance managers, coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, nutritionists and strength & conditioning staff came together for the first time at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane where topics discussed ranged from hamstring injury prevention therapies, best practice on treating bone stress issues and technology used for measuring elbow extensions and ball revolutions of spin bowlers.

The role of support staff is often largely overlooked by fans, but was heralded by Cricket Australia after the Ashes whitewash and men's Test team's return to world No.1. 

They also played a key role in Michael Clarke's epic Cape Town century, as revealed by the Australia skipper to cricket.com.au last month.

The conference was kicked off by an address from Team Performance Executive General Manager Pat Howard (pictured above) and the coaches of the Australia men's and women's teams, Darren Lehmann (pictured below) and Cathryn Fitzpatrick.

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High Performance manager Shawn Flegler said the conference focussed on the "holistic view of the cricketer" with three themes: unification across Australian cricket; ensuring a solid foundation was in place; and innovation and risk-taking.

"We've asked all the delegates to have a think about what they've learned and heard over the past few days and what change they can make to Australian cricket that they believe is going to assist us getting back to No.1 in all formats for both male and female cricket," Flegler said.

While 'risk-taking' sounds like an incongruous concept for those tasked with keeping cricket's most valuable assets – the players – on the park, Flegler said there was room for manoeuvre. 

"It's about being smart about the risks, understanding what you have and the areas you can be prepared to take risk in," he said.

"From a coaching point of view, it's having an environment that allows your players to do that and support staff that are aware of risks that need to be taken to succeed. 

"A lot of the time for support staff it's about mitigating those risks with injuries but sometimes you just need to be that little bit braver.

"Now, all the discussions that have happened and goals set by different working groups, it's about actually implementing that.

"There's been a lot of talk, now it's about actions and behaviours from here."

Keynote presentations came from David Epstein, the former Sports Illustrated writer and respected author, TV personality Todd Sampson, and Australian of the Year nominee Li Cunxin (pictured below). 

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They brought themes of creativity, exploring and being open to change and performance excellence in a series of motivational segments. 

"Now it's about all the discussions that have happened and goals set by different working groups, it's actually implementing that. There's been a lot of talk, now it's about actions and behaviours from here," said Flegler.

Photos & Tweets

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Pat Howard rallies the troops (Image: National Cricket Centre)

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Todd Sampson gives his creative perspective (Image: National Cricket Centre)

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Kevin "Shifter" Sheehan brings an Aussie Rules flavour to the cricket summit (Image: National Cricket Centre)

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David Epstein in full flight during his inspiring presentation (Image: National Cricket Centre)

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Iain Roy, Senior Legal Counsel & Senior Manager - Integrity, Cricket Australia (Image: National Cricket Centre)

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Fiona Sutherland and Erin Marsland presented 'Disordered eating in athletes' (Image: National Cricket Centre)