Breakers appoint experienced mentor

The NSW Breakers have locked in a new head coach, with experienced mentor Gavan Twining taking the reins for the 2021-22 domestic 50-over season.

Twining will be tasked with maintaining the remarkable standards set by the Breakers through the Women’s National Cricket League’s 25-year history, which has seen them make the final 24 times and win 20 titles.

Twining, who replaces former coach Dominic Thornely, comes to the Breakers from his role as a coach in the Cricket NSW pathway system, while he was also assistant to Greg Shipperd at the Sydney Sixers where he helped guide the team to back-to-back KFC BBL titles in the last two seasons.

Before he began working at Cricket NSW full-time in 2015, and while he was on the books part-time as a pathways assistant, Twining was an educator, working at various schools in Sydney as both a cricket coach and a PDHPE teacher.

He believes those roles also helped arm him with the skills he will need to succeed at the Breakers.

"I think being an educator teaches communication and people management, both of which are just so important in coaching – you’re doing it all the time in classroom," Twining said.

"While you’re teaching you learn that people are different and take in information in different ways.

"You get pretty good at learning different individual cues and messaging to be able to then get the best out of each individual.

"In coaching you need to tailor your communication to each person in a way that they understand and engage with so you can hopefully get the best out of them."

Breakers captain Alyssa Healy welcomed Twining’s appointment, adding his experience working with Shipperd would be a valuable addition to the group.

"I think it’s really exciting to have Gav on board," Healy said.

"He was a really great candidate amongst a host of great candidates for this job.

"We feel the Breakers’ job is a prestigious role within cricket in this country and Gav is befitting of that role.

"Gav interviewed incredibly well and he has been involved in our program behind the scenes in recent years and was a great help during the COVID period last summer.

"He’s been open to sharing what he’s learnt from some great coaches in the BBL. Just the confidence he has in situations and the lessons he has learnt are going to be invaluable to us."

This will be Twinging’s first experience coaching a women’s team, but he can foresee no issues in the transition.

"To me a cricketer is a cricketer, all of them want to get better, all want to improve," he said.

"All the skills are the same, no matter who you are.

"You may communicate differently between the men’s and women’s teams or players experienced and less experienced but essentially it’s the same.

"It goes back to those things learnt as a teacher and finding the best way to communicate with each individual."

The WNCL schedule for the upcoming summer is due to be released this month.