Our Great Coach on this episode is cricket coach, Mark Coles.

Mark grew up playing competitive level cricket in New Zealand. He then started coaching both men’s and women’s teams progressing to being appointed High Performance Manager for the pacific island nation of Vanuatu in 2010. 

He then became the head coach for Scarborough Cricket Club in Western Australia, before moving back to New Zealand to be the coaching coordinator and specialist coach for the Wellington Blaze in the new, national T20 league. 

In 2017, he was appointed head coach of the Pakistan women's national cricket team. During this time Pakistan won nine of the 28 Women's One Day Internationals, and 12 of their 30 Women's Twenty20 International matches, and also finished fifth in the 2017–20 ICC Women's Championship.

He left in 2019 to spend more time with his family and in 2021 was appointed head coach of the Scottish women’s cricket team. 

Key topics he discusses with us include:

• Focusing on the simple of task of trying to be 1% better each day through experimentation and learning
• Taking risks and building confidence by pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone
• Being vulnerable as a coach so that players aren’t afraid to come to them with their own imperfections and problems
• How winning was just getting the Pakistan National Women's team on the field given the animosity and resistance there was to the idea of a women’s team.

Article link: 

Cricket coach Mark Coles moved to Pakistan for a job that paid nothing - it changed his life | Stuff.co.nz

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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