Acquisition of expertise in cricket fast bowling: perceptions of expert players and coaches

Objectives: Experiential knowledge of elite athletes and coaches was investigated to reveal insights on expertise acquisition in cricket fast bowling.

Design: Twenty-one past or present elite cricket fast bowlers and coaches of national or international level were interviewed using an in-depth, open-ended, semi-structured approach.

Methods: Participants were asked about specific factors which they believed were markers of fast bowling expertise potential. Of specific interest was the relative importance of each potential component of fast bowling expertise and how components interacted or developed over time.

Results: The importance of intrinsic motivation early in development was highlighted, along with physical, psychological and technical attributes. Results supported a multiplicative and interactive complex systems model of talent development in fast bowling, in which component weightings were varied due to individual differences in potential experts. Dropout rates in potential experts were attributed to misconceived current talent identification programmes and coaching practices, early maturation and physical attributes, injuries and lack of key psychological attributes and skills.

Conclusions: Data are consistent with a dynamical systems model of expertise acquisition in fast bowling, with numerous trajectories available for talent development. Further work is needed to relate experiential and theoretical knowledge on expertise in other sports.