DANIEL Rixon is pretty handy with the wicket-keeping gloves for the Sutherland first grade team.
And he's also proving a good teacher in his capacity as a cricket coach with Westfields Sports High School at Fairfield-West.
Rixon is a physical education teacher at the school.
Ian Gill is head coach of the school's program.
A fully-accredited coach with Cricket NSW, Rixon helps chart the development of year 7-12 students.
The 27-year-old has cricket pedigree flowing through his veins.
His father is former Sutherland, NSW and Australian wicket-keeper Steve Rixon who is now fielding coach with the Australian Test team.
The cricket program is part of the Westfields Sports High School education curriculum.
The cricketers train several periods a week as part of their program. They also play matches against other schools in various competitions.
And there's a long list of buddying cricketers in year 6 at primary school who nominate to be accepted at Westfields hoping to get into the program when they reach year 7.
Back to basics
Gill tutors the 61 students, along with Rixon.
"Daniel is very astute," Gill said.
"He's a great teacher about the skills and fundamentals."
And Gill and Rixon are playing their part in getting "back to basics" with junior batsman, wicket-keepers and bowlers.
There has been a generation of batsmen dining out in Twenty20 tournaments, earning big money, and playing a "thrash and bash" game.
But while their bank accounts have swelled, their techniques have declined.
"You have to have the basics right and that's what we very much work on," Gill said.
Cricket NSW has endorsed their program as one of the state's best.
"We work on putting down the building blocks and laying the foundations," Gill said.
"No matter what level of cricket you play you have to have a good technique as a batsman."
Gill, an experienced coach of two decades standing, said the foremost thing taught to the young batsmen is their stance, grip, balance, footwork and their technique.
He said the program worked on the players adopting the fundamentals, whether batting or bowling in any version, no slogging for the batsmen, and for the bowlers sticking to their routine.
"For batsmen it starts with having a good defence," Gill said.
Gill said the school's program has churned out stacks of junior representative players and Australian players including skipper Michael Clarke and Usman Khawaja.
Some of the NSW players who came through the school program include Josh Lalor, Matt Foster, Simon Keen and top female player Kate Waetford.
"And for the past 10 years we have also been state schoolboys champion school in the Alan Davidson Shield," Gill said.
The Alan Davidson Shield is named after former Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson.
Gill said Westfields had also produced four players who represented at the Imparja Cup, which is the national indigenous cricket carnival held annually at Alice Springs.
"Overall we have provided 150 players to the Sydney grade ranks, 50 of them in first grade and 95 players in various NSW age representative teams," Gill said.
