Having coached the youngest age groups through to the first team, Anton Roux has seldom had a quiet day during his 18 months at Nottinghamshire.
It’s been a journey for which he is grateful, one that has allowed him to delve deep into all that Notts has to offer.
Although, whether the players realise they are at the mercy of a former international head coach is another matter.
“It has been full steam ahead since I got here,” he said, reflecting on his arrival at Trent Bridge. “There hasn’t really been a chance for me to explain my journey, or where I have come from.
“Meeting people from across the ages has been a great way for me to understand how this club works.
“I try to drip feed my experience in whenever I can, but I haven’t had the opportunity to explain to the Academy players where I have come from. I’m not sure they know I have coached Holland in a World Cup against England!”
Roux arrived in West Bridgford in March of 2020, tasked with overseeing the development of players within the County Age Group structure following a stint coaching Otago in New Zealand.
For the covid-enforced behind-closed-doors Vitality Blast, though, he was catapulted into the first team fray, leading the fielding coaching for the eventual champions. This season, he has assumed a lead with Notts' Second XI, identifying talent and improving players.
His wide scope has been a blessing, able to endorse the developmental approach for the age groups - a style with which he became familiar during his time producing future Black Caps at Otago - while adopting a Netherlands-esque win-first attitude with the Outlaws.
“Spending a bit of time with the U12s, watching them go about their cricket and their love for the game, is very refreshing,” he said. “It brings you back to the reason why you are in the sport in the first place.
“My philosophy is that the younger you go, the more the emphasis is on keeping them engaged and in love with the game for as long as possible. Keep them enjoying it. As you move up the chain, you slowly start introducing skill refinement.
“For the Academy and U18s, it becomes about player development and identifying players with huge potential to go on and represent the club.
“The second team is about getting guys ready to win trophies for the first team, understanding what it takes to follow on for example, how the body feels on day four, digging deep into dark places. With the first team, we are here to win trophies.”
And a trophy was won just months into his stay.
Notts’ second T20 triumph in four years was in no small part due to his work with what he considers to be an often ignored art.
Having grown up in South Africa under a cricket culture created by Jonty Rhodes and Colin Bland, Roux believes fielding is the bedrock of a successful cricket team.
A good fielder starts with a good mover, and the process to being a good mover begins early.
“A lot of kids don’t play enough sports outside of cricket,” he said.
“The best players in cricket are those who played another sport, whether it is football, rugby, or tennis. They learn how to move in different ways. You meet so many kids who just do cricket, and when they train at school and club, they either bat or bowl. Fielding is an afterthought.
“All of a sudden you start seeing kids who can play a cover drive and can bowl decently, but their throwing and their running is behind their cricketing skill development. Myself and [former Strength and Conditioning Coach] Henry Woodward started that transition by changing how people move.
“It is a work in progress, and I am trying to filter it down into the pathway so that hopefully we get the fielding approach from an athletic perspective to a point where when they come into U18s and second team we don’t have to teach them how to field.
“For example, throwing a ball from the shoulder versus from the side is the equivalent of seven frames on a third umpire's camera, or about half a meter. That’s a lot. It’s the difference between the batter being out, or being past the stumps.
“From an improvement perspective, you just need to look at how we fielded against Hampshire in the Blast quarter-finals. We were brilliant, and the culture has got to the place where we put as much emphasis on our fielding as bowling and batting. I can only credit the guys for buying into that.”
For Roux, an off-spinning all-rounder for Johannesburg's Northerns in his playing days, the chance to be at Nottinghamshire not only represents an opportunity to implement his own ideas, but an equal acquisition of knowledge on his part.
“Pete [Moores] is one of the greatest coaches of his generation,” he said. “His record speaks for itself, and the way his current players and former players talk about him as a person is a sign that he does something right.
“Having been a head coach, I think it is very important to allow the coaches you are working with the freedom to do things their way but within the team framework, and Pete does that brilliantly.
“I get told by friends and players where I have worked that I could be coaching here or there, but I have become a better coach here because I have been able to sit and rub shoulders with the likes of him and Kevin Shine on a day-to-day basis.
“I am constantly asking them why they are doing this or the reason behind that, and I never would have had that opportunity otherwise. I relish every day that I am with them, learning how to do things.”
As his second season with the Green and Golds ebbs to a close, he is pleased to be able to spend some time with his family after a busy season on the road.
When the summer draws near again, though, he will be raring to go, and is under no illusions about just how special it is to be in the inner sanctum of an historic club.
“It is safe to say that Notts is one of the best clubs of all the cricketing institutions out there," he said.
"Walking to Trent Bridge every day for work, how can you not enjoy that?
“I have been involved around the world in a lot of cricketing cultures and teams, and this is right up there.”
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Nottinghamshire membership for the 2022 season is on sale now, with those who join our club bestowed priority access to tickets for Trent Bridge’s international summer alongside a plethora of additional perks.