Warwickshire bowlling coach Graeme Welch has assured young all-rounder Tom Milnes that his recent hard labour with the ball is nothing more than a blip – and all part of his long-term development as a cricketer.
Milnes has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a freak shoulder problem – only the second stress-fracture of that particular joint on record.
That setback, a one in a million occurrence, just about sums up the Bears’ luck injury-wise this season.
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On a personal note for Milnes, it truncated a season in which the 21-year-old has shown his promise with the bat at first-team level but seen his bowling roughed up a bit at times, not least in recent one-day games.
But Welch has been quick to point out one consolation to Milnes – at least he didn’t go for a ton.
That was the unhappy harvest reaped by Welch on one occasion in one-day cricket in his playing days for the Bears.
In May 1995, against Lancashire at Edgbaston, he became the first bowler to concede 100 runs in a Benson and Hedges Cup tie.
An analysis of 11-0-103-0 presented a stern test of character to Welch who was then, like Milnes now, just emerging as a first-team all-rounder. He freely admits he was bruised by it at the time.
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But he came through it to carve out a long career in county cricket.
“Tom has played a couple of one-day games and got lashed,” Welch said. “But I have told him about the time when I played against Lancashire and went for 100. That hurt me and it probably took me six months to get over it but it’s all about what you take from an experience like that and how you react.
“He is not bowling as well as he can at the moment but it’s part of his development. He’ll be fine. He will look back on this stage of his career and realise that it happened for a reason.”
If anyone is well-qualified to understand that reason and address issues arising from it, it is Welch.
Renowned as one of the best bowling coaches in the country, he recently spent two days working with the England Lions bowlers, the first step along what could well prove to be a path into the national set-up long-term.
For now, though, Warwickshire remain fortunate to employ the man who expertise has lifted all of their senior seam-bowlers into the England selectors’ thoughts.
To a man, those bowlers hail Welch as an invaluable mentor. In return, he is delighted with their progress and salutes their hard work and a capacity to learn which leaves them able to react to situations as they crop up.
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“During the season we hardly talk about technique,” Welch said. “There are too many games to be going out there worrying about your action and where your feet are. I just say ‘go out and compete and trust what you have worked on in the winter’.
“I have tweaked a few things in the lads’ actions here and there but we talk about bowling so much during the off-season that, when they are out there in matches, they know what they are doing and can change what they need to. They become self-reliant – it doesn’t need me to tell them.
“Keith Barker knows what he’s doing, Boyd Rankin does, Chris Wright does and it’s a pleasure to watch them. And what those lads coming through so strong has done is give the club four or five years grace to get the next lads through.
“Next it will be Tom Milnes, Recardo Gordon and Oliver Hannon-Dalby. We have got Aaron Thomason coming through in the academy too and I love working with these guys and seeing them develop.”
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Warwickshire’s Edgbaston stadium will host two limited-overs games between England and India in 2014.
The teams will meet there in an ODI on Tuesday September 2 and a T20 on Sunday September 7. England will also play a ODI v Sri Lanka at Edgbaston on June 3 next summer while the ground will also again host T20 finals day.
Those occasions will be useful earners for the Bears as they address their huge debt to the city council, though much the most lucrative occasion next year – a Test match against India – has eluded them.
India will play a five-match Test series in this country for the first time since 1959 but it will bypass Birmingham as Trent Bridge, Lord’s, The Rose Bowl, Old Trafford and The Oval host Tests.
Warwickshire chief executive Colin Povey expects the limited-overs duels to attract big crowds.
“India have a huge following whenever they play at Edgbaston,” he said.
“Next year promises to be another great summer of cricket at Edgbaston, with the ODI between England and Sri Lanka and the t20 Finals Day too.”