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The Big Interview: South Africa are looking for somebody to take them to the next level and I'm delighted they've chosen me, says Jeremy Snape

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Former Gloucestershire and Leicestershire spinner Jeremy Snape has traded bat and ball on the pitch for a role coaching players on the technical and mental side of the game off the pitch. And by the way, he's doing it for England's opponents this summer South Africa. Betfair caught up with him to talk about it all...

Always believing in the power of positive thinking (that 100-1 bet WILL come in!), Betfair went to meet former England cricketer Jeremy Snape who has been recruited by the South Africans as performance director for the Test series which starts next Thursday.

We gather your role is more about mental than technical coaching. Tell us more

The basic idea is that of course in junior sport coaching is about learning technique. But once you have mastered in cricket those techniques, how to play a defensive shot, how to hit the ball, it becomes more about the selection of those shots under pressure.

Then what counts is decision making, commitment to the shot and the mental processes involved, and concentration for batting long periods of time or handling nerves in high pressure situations. People often say the game at the top level is played 80 per cent in the mind, so it always surprised me that only five per cent of your coaching is devoted to how you think about it.

So how did you get into it?

Playing the game at county level with Northants then Leicestershire and in One Day internationals with England you feel you get to know it inside out. I've always been a thinker, trying to find new ways to advance either my own game or the team.

I felt so many of the discussions in the dressing room were either frustrations with technical coaching, or not being able to master it, or more on the emotional, off the field stuff, or the handling pressure side. I got injured playing for England just before two World Cups ago, Brett Lee broke my thumb.

I sat there thinking: 'I am at the top of my sport, and apart from the degree I did ten years ago I don't have anything else to go into'. That made me think about my long term future. The psychology of sport interested me, and I started doing some research into the kind of things I would need to do to follow that area in the development of elite sport. That led to a Masters degree at Loughborough University which I completed a couple of years ago.

So you're a bit of a boffin now. You played nine times for England. Would your playing career have been better if you'd met somebody like you back then?

Quite possibly. I think we're all looking for influences on all sides of coaching. A lot of the stuff I talk about is grounded in my apprenticeship in an old school dressing room, a very, very tough dressing room at Northants.

I think a lot of coaching has moved away from informal discussions about match play and hypothetical situations, and has gone to very scientific, evidence based analysis, with video analysis and biomechanics. I think that all has a place, but ultimately the game is about the combat between bat and ball and we all know we play our best sport when we are instinctive and don't think too much about it.

How did the link with South Africa happen?

I set up a company called Sporting Edge a few years ago, and since then I've been working with ICC with developing nations. I worked with countries like Ireland and Scotland and Holland at the World Cup, I also worked with England at the previous world cup, and more recently got invited to go out to help Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League with Shane Warne.

We were very successful, and Graeme Smith was a senior member of that squad. I did some work with him one-on-one and as part of the team dynamics, and building that team, and he was suitably impressed and asked me to work with them once he heard I was retiring from playing

So won't you feel a bit of a traitor?

Not really. I think this will be the seventh or eighth international team I have worked with, and that obviously includes working with England before. I spoke to Peter Moores and Michael Vaughan a while ago, and said this opportunity could present itself. Coaching is an international role now.

We've seen it in football and rugby, and cricket is no different. We've had Duncan Fletcher coaching England, and Australians and English people travelling the world to work with different international and provincial sides. I just think it is great timing for me that South Africa are looking for somebody to take them to the next level and I'm delighted they've chosen me.

Are there particular issues to deal with in a touring side?

Possibly, but what I do is just about getting to work one-on-one with the players. There are different techniques and strategies. Basically you are just trying to get everybody to play their best game, and often your best game is compromised by issues off the field or lack of concentration.

There can be all sorts of things. Not handling pressure well, and starting to concentrate on outcomes. Will we win the match? You try to take people back to the very basic processes that make them successful. How many dot balls do they bowl, and how can they control the game rather than feeling affected by the crowd or the media.

Give us an example

Well for instance it's impossible to concentrate for six hours solidly, but that's what a Test batsman has go to do to make a big century. It becomes instead about the efficiency with which people concentrate up and down in between balls. It's not so much switching on and off, more turning the volume up and down. The efficiency with which people do that is critical to their success. It's an area where having played for a long time I've beeen able to tailor the academic research that's out there, with some very practical exercises to do.

Tell us more. Our punters need to concentrate all day on a sports event as the odds keep changing!

Ha. Would love to but it's a state secret. There's a few clues at www.thesportingedge.co.uk!

So how do you see South Africa's chances in the Test series?

Very good. They have obviously got a great blend of experience and youth which all teams are looking for. They have gathered some momentum and this is a defining year for them, with a tour of England and then of Australia.

And who will be the key individuals?

A lot has been talked about the pace attack, and quite rightly because Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel are both very quick, but people like Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher are exceptional players. We also saw at Somerset right from the start of the tour the ability with the bat of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. In fact all the batsmen there got 50 or 100. They are looking a pretty good outfit.

We've a free £50 bet for your favourite charity

Thanks, after retiring from playing it's my testimonial year at Leicestershire and I'm supporting Operation Smile so the proceeds can go there. After doing so well at Torrey Pines I fancy Lee Westwood has a big chance at the Open. I think [20] is a great price and I'm backing him.

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