1. Source: The Times {Main}
Edition:
Country: UK
Date: Thursday 19, January 2017
Page: 65
Area: 702 sq. cm
Circulation: ABC 443960 Daily
Ad data: page rate £16,645.00, scc rate £75.00
Phone: 020 7782 5000
Keyword: ENGLAND CRICKET TEAM
Cricket Sport
Mike Atherton
Cricket Writer of the Year
kek
Army motto behind search for captains
W
hat have the sight of corpses in
Kosovo, shredded after a
machinegun ambush, and the
England captaincy got in
common? A little, as it happens,
given the experiences of a former Sandhurst
army officer who has been recruited to help
train potential leaders of the future.
In any history of English cricket the captain
will loom large, although none of those 70 or so
men have been formally trained as leaders.
Captaincy? It’s a little like fatherhood, said Joe
Root earlier this week: you don’t know what to
do until the time comes and “you just sort of go
with it and see how it goes”.
My experience chimed with that statement.
Appointed vice-captain on a whim and made
captain after a ten-minute phone call with the
chairman of selectors, such a stab in the dark
was more understandable two generations ago,
when resources were thin. Now, though, such
an approach feels amateurish at best, negligent
at worst.
Which is where Gemma Morgan, a
personable 43-year-old former army captain
and the first female recipient of the Carmen’s
Sword of Honour for outstanding leadership,
comes in. Morgan has a varied background: a
sports science degree; international caps
(lacrosse) for England and Wales; training at
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, followed by
a stint in Kosovo, the experience of which left
her suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder; management consultancy and then
business. It is a carefully constructed CV, now
put to use advising England’s young cricketers
on leadership and personal development.
Two years ago, Andy Flower, charged with
nurturing the next generation of England
cricketers, asked her to become involved with
the Lions to help develop leadership skills in a
generation starved of them. Once elevated to
international cricket, scheduling means that a
young player is unlikely to gain any practical
experience of leadership in county cricket
before, like Root this week, he contemplates
being given the captaincy of the national team.
Morgan’s aim is to use formal techniques
learnt at Sandhurst, allied with practical
experience of leading a small patrol during one
of the great humanitarian crises of recent times
— fitted, crucially, to a cricketing context — to
help bridge this gap as well as overcome many
of the limitations that weigh on young players
and inhibit them from considering themselves
as leadership contenders.
Over coffee near St Albans, she says: “The
first time Andy asked me to run a pilot scheme
with the Lions I was struck by the unhelpful
narratives surrounding leadership. Players often
discounted their potential because they
perceived themselves to be not senior enough,
or good enough, or vocal or extrovert enough. I
try to challenge these notions, especially that
‘leadership equals time served’, by showing them
what great leadership is really about.”
Where sport generally picks leaders on a
whim, or because of background, schooling,
longevity, playing ability, or a ridiculous
combination thereof, the military has a rigorous
procedure before anyone is allowed to
command troops in the field.
“The army identifies potential leaders first of
all and measures them against a very clear
profile of what makes a great leader: physical
challenges, cognitive tests, social interaction and
practical challenges. It’s a very demanding
process, and not many get through,” Morgan
says.
“Sandhurst’s role is then to develop this raw
potential in these young cadets. It’s a year-long
process. They break you down and gradually
build you back up and by the third term you are
ready to lead your peers. Sandhurst has a very
human-centred approach to leadership. The
motto ‘Serve to Lead’ is everywhere. Coming
from the sports field initially this turned
leadership on its head for me, because until then
I understood leadership as hero-based: am I the
best player, the leading goalscorer, the go-to
player, that kind of thing.”
“At Sandhurst I came to understand that it
was not about me but about duty and service to
others. It opened my eyes. Before they teach you
any technical stuff, they underpin everything
with values that are uncompromising. Integrity,
for example, if you breach integrity you’re gone
and you won’t be invited back. Once you’ve got
these anchors in place, they add on the
technical bits. In sport and business it is the
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2. Source: The Times {Main}
Edition:
Country: UK
Date: Thursday 19, January 2017
Page: 65
Area: 702 sq. cm
Circulation: ABC 443960 Daily
Ad data: page rate £16,645.00, scc rate £75.00
Phone: 020 7782 5000
Keyword: ENGLAND CRICKET TEAM
other way around. In the army, they will not
take a risk on character.”
In an overwhelmingly individual sport such as
cricket, mavericks and match-winners, who are
often the most difficult characters, are essential.
How does such an approach incorporate them?
“You get mavericks in the army,” Morgan says.
“It’s often a fine line with some soldiers as to
whether they will become brilliant soldiers or
end up in trouble with the law. The army wants
people with an edge.
“There is a balance always, between what
they bring and how sabotaging they can be.
More often than not, you can bring these people
into the fold while maintaining their
individuality and they are often incredibly
influential. Often what happens is that they end
up on the outside, staging a mini-coup. I was
that player for a while, that’s why I got kicked
out of England lacrosse. There have to be
consequences though for continual disruptive
behaviour.”
The biggest advantage of Morgan’s
involvement may be the creation of a pool of
potential leaders, including some who would not
otherwise be thought of as captaincy material,
to avoid the “there’s no-one else but Joe”
scenario at present. That is not a healthy
situation. “We create a profile of great
leadership against which we benchmark players,
measuring strengths and acknowledging
limitations,” Morgan says. “It helps that we
embrace the notion that there is no such thing
as a perfect leader, so it’s not threatening. We
measure four areas: a player’s impact within the
group; his ability to make things happen; his
interpersonal skills and his thinking skills. And
we try and ensure the environment allows the
players to take responsibility.”
So who, among the Lions, impresses? “Keaton
Jennings [who will captain the Lions in Sri
Lanka shortly] is a very impressive young man,”
she says. “All elite cricketers are driven but
Keaton has self-discipline and an active
curiosity. He’s always seeking information rather
than waiting to be spoon-fed. He’s very
independent; has good critical thinking skills.
When he speaks he carries impact.
“But it’s very important that we develop a
broad group of leaders so we have tried to
develop a hub of players with complementary
skills. Toby Roland-Jones is a very adept leader
and strong thinker. Plenty of others have
strengths in certain areas. In any healthy,
high-performing environment there should be
lots of leaders and the Lions have six or seven
with potential.”
Mischievously, I wonder how a leader in the
army would be perceived if, like Eoin Morgan
before Bangladesh, he stepped away from the
line of duty? The query is answered neatly: “You
have to lead by example and my experience is
that people will follow if they think you have
their best interests at heart. So I’d want to
understand the motivation behind the decision.
If it was to say it’s not safe and on behalf of the
team I’m making a stand then that’s ballsy and
shows loyalty and moral courage and I’d
celebrate that. If the motivation is an individual
one, then that may be different.”
How suitable is the military analogy with
sport in any case? The talk of sport as a
battlefield always strikes me as ridiculous. “In
the military the consequences are clear, it is a
matter of life and death and that galvanises
people,” Morgan says. “Sport obviously is very
different. But as you are about to go out on the
field, there is a clear sense of urgency and the
results are black and white. Sport is probably the
closest to it.”
Does Morgan accept that here can be old-
fashioned, macho, look-at-me, hero captains?
Like Tony Greig, say, or Ian Chappell?
“With the proviso that the values we’ve
discussed are ingrained, yes,” she says. “There is
a time for autocratic and direct leadership but to
get people to follow unquestioningly you have
to have invested a lot of time in the
relationships. If you’re selfish you will get found
out. If you get a combination of a brilliant
player, a charismatic leader, and someone with
the interests of others at heart? Then, great. But
they don’t come along very often.”

3. Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further
copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright
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379665623 - DANSMI - A21595-1 - 121465643

4. Source: The Times {Main}
Edition:
Country: UK
Date: Thursday 19, January 2017
Page: 65
Area: 702 sq. cm
Circulation: ABC 443960 Daily
Ad data: page rate £16,645.00, scc rate £75.00
Phone: 020 7782 5000
Keyword: ENGLAND CRICKET TEAM

5. Jennings, according to Morgan, below, shows key attributes that mark him out as an on-field leader
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Article Page 3 of 3
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