Play better. Know yourself.
Our Approach
Most coaching develops your skills. We develop you.
That means working on your technique, your tactics, and your game understanding, yes. But it also means understanding how you think under pressure, how you prepare, how you respond to failure, how you lead yourself and others. Because the cricketer who knows themselves is the cricketer who performs when it matters most.
We don't treat the technical and the personal as two separate things. They're the same thing. A player with a sound technique and a fragile mindset will always underperform their ability. A player who understands themselves, knows their game, and has learned to stay composed when things get hard, that player finds a way.
That's what we're building here.
Who We Work With
Thrive in Cricket is for players who want more than drills and repetition. Players who are genuinely curious about their game, willing to go deep with their learning, and motivated to develop as cricketers and as people.
Whether you're a young player finding your feet, a developing cricketer pushing for selection, or an experienced player looking to add another dimension to your game, if you want to grow, there's a place for you here.
Thrive in Cricket
Meet Matt Bell
Matt Bell brings something rare to cricket coaching: the experience of someone who has lived the game at the highest level and the insight to help others reach theirs.
As a former Black Cap, Matt knows what elite cricket demands, not just technically, but mentally, emotionally, and personally. He has experienced the pressure of international sport, the grind of professional cricket, and the journey of becoming not just a better cricketer but a better person through the game.
That experience shapes everything about how he coaches. Matt works with players to develop genuine technical foundations, sharp game intelligence, and the kind of deep self-understanding that separates good players from great ones. His coaching is honest, detailed, and built around the individual in front of him
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Alongside Matt, Ellie Bell brings expertise in the performance and life skills side of the programme, ensuring that every player's development goes beyond the boundary.
The 7 Thrive Behaviours
Everything we do at Thrive in Cricket is built around seven behaviours that we believe sit at the heart of both great performance and a great life. In cricket, these aren't abstract concepts. You'll see every one of them show up in a match, in a training session, in the way you carry yourself when things aren't going your way.
Preparation and Practice. The best players don't leave development to chance. How you prepare tells you everything about what you believe you're capable of. We build deliberate, intentional routines that make skill automatic and confidence earned.
Mental Toughness and Emotional Awareness. Staying composed at the crease, resetting after a mistake, holding your intensity through a long spell in the field. Cricket demands emotional regulation ball to ball. We make it trainable.
Self-Awareness and Responsibility. Knowing your patterns, owning your preparation, using feedback honestly. The cricketer who understands themselves clearly has a significant advantage over the one who doesn't.
Adaptability and Game Intelligence. Reading conditions, adjusting your plan, making clear decisions under pressure. We don't just coach skills. We coach thinking. Because cricket is a game of information, timing, and decisions.
Wellbeing and Balance. Sustainable performance requires a sustainable person. Sleep, recovery, relationships, identity beyond cricket. We take these seriously because the evidence says they matter.
Team Connection and Self-Leadership. Leading through your actions, communicating honestly, contributing to culture. How you show up for your team is as important as how you perform for yourself.
Continuous Growth and Mindset. Curiosity, honesty about where you are, and the resilience to keep improving when progress feels slow. The best cricketers never stop learning.
Cricket is a vehicle for life
Something we know at Thrive: when people are deeply engaged in something they love, they learn differently. They're more focused, more open, more willing to go deep.
Cricket gives us that. The conversations we have around preparation, pressure, failure, and identity aren't abstract. They're grounded in something the player already cares about enormously. That makes the learning stick, and it means the growth that happens through cricket doesn't stay at the ground. It travels with the player into the rest of their life.
We're not just developing cricketers. We're developing people who happen to love cricket, and who will carry what they learn here into everything they do next, whatever that looks like.
How We Work
All programmes are available year round, so development doesn't stop when the season does.
1-1 Coaching with Matt Bell
Individual sessions · Casual drop-in or structured blocks · All ages & levels
The most personalised coaching Thrive in Cricket offers. Every session is built entirely around you — your technical goals, your tactical blind spots, your game. Matt brings 15+ years of high-performance experience into a focused, private environment where your development is the only agenda.
Personalised technique and tactics work with Matt Bell
Casual drop-in sessions for targeted skill work, any time in the season
Structured training blocks with clear progressions and review
THRIVE framework woven in — connecting skill to mindset and performance habits
Available to players of all ages and levels
Elite Training Blocks
Intensive skill-based blocks
Committed players · Targeted skill development · Application required
For players who are serious about their game and ready to go deeper. Elite Training Blocks are intensive, focused, and deliberately small so every player gets the coaching attention they need to make a real shift.
These aren't for the casual participant. They're for the player who wants to be challenged.
Intensive, skill-focused training in a high-performance environment
Small group (max 12) for personalised attention within a competitive peer group
High expectations, honest feedback, clear technical progression
Mindset and performance habits integrated throughout
Players must demonstrate commitment, not just ability
Development Program
Winter development cohort
4–5 months · Winter season · Next step after Foundation
You've done the Foundation Programme. You know what Thrive is about. Now it's time to go further. The Development Programme is a longer, deeper commitment for players ready to turn the corner, working across a full winter on the technical, tactical, and personal development elements that separate good players from great ones.
4–5 month programme: serious time investment, serious results
Smaller cohort (max 12) for more targeted coaching and greater accountability
Advanced technical and tactical cricket work with Matt
Deeper Performance Life coaching with Ellie — identity, leadership, emotional regulation
Evolving PDP tracked across the full programme duration
Access to the Performance Life Online Programme throughout
Foundation Program
Where it begins
8 weeks · Ages 13–18 · Runs Feb/March and Sept/Oct
Canterbury's only programme combining high-performance cricket coaching with professional Performance Life coaching.
In 8 weeks, players build the technical skills, mindset tools, and self-awareness to take their game and themselves, to the next level. This is where every Thrive journey starts.
High-performance cricket coaching with Matt Bell — technique, tactics, skill progressions
Performance Life coaching with Ellie Bell — mindset, identity, confidence, habits
Personalised Development Plan (PDP) created at the start, reviewed at the end
Parent communication pathway throughout the programme
Supported by The Willows Cricket Trust Foundation Programme