Cricketers’ on-field careers can last only so long, which is why SACA takes its role in developing well-rounded people seriously.

After the establishment of the Player Plus programme in 2008, it was imperative for SACA to find the right partner to help the programme achieve its goals – offering comprehensive personal development, education and support for their members.

Fortunately, a suitable life skills partner was not hard to come by. While the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA) has been at the forefront of fine-tuning the physical and mental requirements of elite athletes, they had not neglected the fact that performance is influenced by off the field factors too – be it personal, lifestyle or environmental.

As Gill Taylor, the Education, Training and Development Manager of SSISA, says, “Our extensive research shows that the most successful athletes or players globally are those who have a balanced approach, and who take ownership of what they’re doing in all aspects of their life. It’s not about the cricketer, but the person beyond that.”

Through SSISA’s Macsteel Maestros initiative, primarily a CSI programme which focusses on disadvantaged athletes, Taylor and her team of mentors around the country have built up a well of relevant content.

“We deal with three pillars in the life skills landscape. The first pillar is personal growth skills, things like communication, ethics, values, diversity… I sometimes call them the ‘touchy-feely’ aspects. Second is self-management and those are the practical issues in a player’s life like do they have a will and a tax number, or do they understand time-management. We also have a module that deals with taking responsibility, drinking responsibly and substance abuse – those types of things. Then finally, we look at professional skills which includes dealing with media, social networking and nowadays linked to that is a dual career programme.”

Often the main question when trying to engage professional sportsman, especially on topics not directly related to their sport, is ‘how?’.

“When SACA approached us saying they were looking at working more closely with the cricketers, one of the things emphasised was that it had to be a relationship-based programme. It’s no good just saying to a player that if they need a psychologist they should go and see one, they need somebody they can confide in, build a relationship with and with whom they are able to discuss any aspect of their life.”

This is why it was decided that each franchise would have a Personal Development Manager (PDM), who would not only deliver workshops to a team but also engage in one-on-one sessions. In group sessions, topics would also be to-the-point rather than broad.

“Topics range from self-confidence and respecting differences, to conflict-management and teamwork. Many of the team workshops lead from or are followed up by individual sessions. You need to know what the team’s goals are and then create a synergy, like if we’re doing a session on communication it has to be done in a team dynamic.”

Taylor says that their research and feedback has also delivered some interesting insight on the effectiveness of the life skills sessions they’ve conducted over the years.

“The research we did showed that when doing life skills sessions, there’s an increase in critical thinking, which is what creates behavioural changes. Encouragingly, coaches have given feedback that they feel their teams have played better after life skills sessions.”

Taylor explains why a healthy player-PDM relationship is important.

“Initially the players were wary of the PDMs, wondering whether they were there to feed back to their coaches or selectors. Nowadays it’s completely understood that they’re there to meet the players’ needs. There is now a healthy trust relationship between players and PDMs. Players are particularly receptive when they’re injured, have had a change in family situation or nearing retirement but a big focus area for us will also be the other transition period, when players first leave school and are met by things like contracts, free time and female attention.”

The identification of suitable, qualified PDMs is crucial to the success of the programme.

“We were fortunate that when SACA partnered with SSISA we already had a group of experienced PDMs at our disposal. By that time they had already been with us for about eight years so they understood what sportspeople go through. They do this secondary to their other jobs. We usually look at people who’ve been in the field and who are able to view things objectively.”

As they do with players, PDMs are also continuously given opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge.

“They get training annually. All of them went through an accredited course on career assessment and advice; then every year we give them new modules to work from for life skills training and there is constant liaison between them and myself, and Ruan Schlebusch, the National SACA PDM Manager, with regards to the life skills programmes. What helps is that they bring to us the topical issues which players talk to them about and then we change things accordingly.”

Having worked with other sports bodies, Taylor is greatly encouraged by the benefits cricketers are receiving off the playing field.

“Many sports tend to only do one-off programmes whereas the Player Plus programme engages with players through the PDM-player relationship on an ongoing basis. There is regular evaluation of player needs and appropriate action to cater for it. It’s harder to get through to the players in cases where you engage once-off, so we’re really happy with the partnership we have with SACA. Hopefully other sports will follow their example…”