The role of a cricket captain can be defined in many ways and can vary from captain to captain.

From my perspective, the role of a captain is threefold.

Firstly, the captain needs to ensure their own performances are worthy of being selected for the team. Don’t take it for granted; your place in the team is secure just because of the captaincy. You’re a player first, and depending on your skills, you need to be scoring runs, taking wickets, wicket keeping or fielding well, and making a valuable contribution to the team.

Secondly, it’s part of a captain’s role to help each player on the team become a better player.

Some cricket clubs have the good fortune of a club coach and perhaps a team of coaches. Many don’t.

If a club has a coaching structure in place, captains need to work very closely with the coaches to identify and communicate with the players on how they can individually improve.

Captains should never abdicate all responsibility to the coaches because, as captain, you’re the one out on the field with the players, and they’ll be looking for your support in the heat of the battle.

If a player or players aren’t performing, ask yourself why and what you can do to help the player. A good captain doesn’t take the easy option of just dropping the player from the team.

When was the last time you communicated with all your players outside of a training session or game day?

If it’s a technical issue within their game, share your thoughts with the coaches.

If it’s not a technical issue, take the time to show you care. Ask questions and talk to them about life outside of cricket.

You never know how a conversation or a quiet word of encouragement can help.

Communication and caring are such powerful ingredients in building a player’s confidence and building a team.

Thirdly, encourage your players and the team to compete and play to win games of cricket.

Helping players understand their roles and talking through game plans is obviously vital to any team’s success, but if a captain can do points one and two well, winning and enjoying games of cricket becomes a lot easier.

Best wishes to all captains and aspiring leaders. I hope this might add some value to some of you.