FAIL BETTER

Gareth Southgate's BBC lecture about the crucial gains you get from failing should resonate with everyone who plays sport for a living

Listening to Gareth Southgate’s Dimbleby lecture I thought of the Glamorgan legspinner Mason Crane. Southgate emphasised the resilience that failure had taught him, an invaluable asset in his subsequent career, while also admitting that he would still rather have scored that penalty. So do we. At the tender of 20 Crane had to deal with an equally onerous responsibility. Piloted into an Ashes Test in Sydney having played just a dozen first class games with England having already surrendered the Ashes 3-0, he laboured through 48 overs in 40-degree heat as partying Australia piled up 649-7. He idolised Shane Warne as a kid and copied everything he did. His Test debut analysis (1-193) was remarkably similar to his hero’s own first Test experience (1-150.)

That is when the stories diverge. We all know the greatness Warne attained to be rightly anointed as the King of Spin, or actually just King. Whereas soon after the Sydney Test Crane was diagnosed with a stress fracture – not surprising given that Herculean bowling effort – which kept him out of the game for some time. He has had something of a chequered career since, hampered by unresponsive county pitches and unimaginative county selectors, and grappling with the demands of learning the difficult art of leg spin in a bat-dominated world. He hasn’t played for England again.

Mason Crane on his Test debut in Sydney in 2018

As he confesses on the latest Analyst podcast, the Test match call came a bit too early. “It perhaps was to be honest. I had that Test match. I got injured after and missed the best part of a year and a half. And, it probably took me another year and a half to get back to somewhere I was really happy with. Obviously you're never going to say no to a test cap. And it was the greatest honour of my life so far.

“It was quite rare someone would play at the age of 20 then. If it had been when I was 25, I might have been better equipped as a person to be able to cope with that. Whereas if you fast forward to now, it's quite a normal thing to do to have someone debut at that age.” [Rehan Ahmed was 18.]

“But it's not over yet. My goal is to add to that. There's been times when obviously you feel as a player that maybe you're getting close and your name's going to be in a discussion. But when you've had a go and then got injured, you've probably gone to the back of the queue again. They come in waves and sometimes you've got to ride it out and just wait, wait your turn. Work your way back up. So I just keep trying to bowl well, keep trying to improve. And then hopefully someone likes what they see and I get back in.”

It’s a good attitude. It is a reminder that adversity, as Southgate suggested, can make you stronger. I liked his line: “True success is how you respond to the hardest moments. It is about having the belief and resilience to persevere.” And - “Try to fail rather than fail to try.” It echoes Michael Jordan who once said “I've missed more than 5000 shots in my career, I've lost over 800 games in my career, 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed, I've failed over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed.”

I’ve experienced failure. Lots. Most famously being hit for six in the last over of the Nat west final, but also fluffing easy catches in knockout games, bowling badly at crucial times infront of large crowds, being castled first ball, getting dropped, or worse, sacked. “I’m afraid we are not renewing your contract” is a phrase I have heard both during my cricket career and after it. It doesn’t make me afraid to try a new approach, like writing a book (where you’re more in control) or this blog for instance. Failure isn’t as bad as you think it’s going to be.

All you need to do is have a go. Give it your best shot. Be enthused about the opportunity, as Crane’s Glamorgan colleague Marnus Labuschagne is clearly, about everything (see video below.) Try and make a difference. If it doesn’t work, say to yourself what that other famous penalty-misser Stuart Pearce did – “I’m going to feed the horses. They don’t care what you’ve done. They just want carrots.” Happy Thursday everyone. Send this to someone who needs a pick me up.