WPL 2025: From coaching and game strategy to soft skills training, Lisa Sthalekar enjoying UP Warriorz mentor role

Since hanging up Australia’s baggy green cap in 2013, Lisa Sthalekar has gone on to don many others. From calling games to coaching in New South Wales, Sthalekar has done it all in the cricketing world. For the past three years, the former Aussie skipper has been mentoring the UP Warriorz in the Women’s Premier League.

In a conversation with Sportstar, the four-time World Cup winner spoke about how her role has evolved since the inaugural season and what it feels like to work with talented Indian and overseas youngsters alike.

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Excerpts:

Q: How’s the mood in the camp after the first two legs in Vadodara and Bengaluru?

A: We’ve just moved to Lucknow so we get to play in front of our home fans which I think the group is really looking forward to. It was a bit frustrating at the start of the campaign. It’s always hard to get the group to click and gel, especially with the overseas players coming in a bit later. I think we’re finding the right balance. They need to take it up a notch this last week so that we make it through the finals.

Q: How has your role as the mentor evolved in these three years?

‘A: This year, I’m more heavily involved from a coaching point of view; working with the spinners, working with Deepti [Sharma] as the captain. I also provide assistance to all the players who do the media. The first few years it was more sitting back and ensuring the group was going well. If I saw a player wasn’t quite right then I made sure I spoke to them. I’m still doing that this year, but more involved.

Lisa Sthalekar and Deepti Sharma
| Photo Credit:
Sportzpics for WPL

Q: With players not moving around much and the side’s core remaining intact, does that make it easier for you to develop relationships?

A: Yes, it does. Relationships are being built and it’s not just during WPL that I speak to the players. When India A was touring Australia, I went and caught up with them, had dinner with the players. Tahlia McGrath and Grace Harris joined us. People message me, I follow domestic results to see how they are doing. I send them a ‘well done’ or ‘good luck’.

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Q: During the Bengaluru leg, you would accompany some of the young UPW players to the post-match press conferences, but never speak. You would stand at the back and just observe how they face the media. Tell us how that came to be.

A: I guess, given my experience in broadcast, they ask me ‘What are the questions they will ask?’ or ‘What will they look for?’. I give them the usual line of questioning a player would go through. So, they hopefully have an idea before they walk out there and sit in front of the media. It’s just about reminding them to smile and be themselves. As a broadcaster, you don’t want stock standard answers all the time, you might as well write your report anyway. But if personality comes out, then that’s even better.

Q: How has it been working with Deepti Sharman especially after she was handed the captaincy?

A: She’s been really good; engaging and made sure she gets around with all the players. She has also become more comfortable speaking in English in the group. In team meetings, she will provide nuggets of advice and say how she wants the team to play. It’s still early days but she’s growing and developing in this role. She’s trending in the right areas.

Q: Is there a difference in working with young Indian players and young overseas players?

A: If an overseas player is selected, they are usually accomplished. They’ve either played internationals or they are a Shabnim Ismail, extremely successful. Their understanding of their own game and their strengths and weaknesses is certainly above that of young Indian domestic players who are still figuring themselves out. We have some Australian players and there’s a way in which they attack the game, and the Indian players don’t do that because that’s not their environment. That’s not how they play their cricket. It’s all about trying to blend the both and taking them on a journey to becoming better cricketers.

“It’s called the Indian Premier League for a reason, it’s predominantly Indians and you can’t fit all of your overseas players,” said Sthalekar about key players like Chamari Athapaththu missing out on selection thus far this season.
| Photo Credit:
Sportzpics for WPL

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Q: Are there any ways you have tried to bridge the gap in quality over these years?

A: There’s lot of decision-making on the cricket field. I would say the overseas players are better problem-solvers than the younger Indian domestic players. Deepti Sharma with the ball in hand knows how to solve problems and get players out. But the younger players are still figuring that out. I don’t know what their structure is usually like but we make sure we put them in scenarios where they have to figure things out. It’s to make them constantly think about the game.

Q: How has the problem-solving abilities of the younger Indian players improved in these years?

A: It’s tough when you just get to spend one month a year with them. When you try to teach a new skill and they don’t do it consistently, you forget and go back to doing what you usually know. Certainly, our players have developed in areas but it requires being put in environments where they are constantly being tested and challenged.

Q: Who was your mentor when you were starting out in the sport?

A: My father and my personal coach were my two mentors. My father was a sports psychologist so I got a distinct advantage from understanding goal-setting, mental visualisation, relaxation techniques. From the coaching side, I wanted to better the technical side of my game. I supposed I had the best of both worlds.

Q: Is there any player in the camp who has been a hard nut to crack? Or someone who’s been very receptive of your advice?

A: I think Shweta [Sehrawat] is the one I’ve had the most exposure with. Even when she’s back home and I’m in Australia, she messages or calls me. We probably have three of four girls whose English isn’t great. We’ve got to try and master that. It’s constantly stop-start, asking them to say it in Hindi and whether they understand. That takes time, but the girls are wonderful. For them to open up and trust me, and vice-versa, hasn’t been hard. It helps that it’s not a big learning curve for me and that I’m aware of some things.

Q: Take us back to when you got to know when Alyssa Healy would be missing out on this season.

A: She did tell me early on [about missing WPL]. Obviously, they had to keep it a secret for a bit because the England coach was also the UP Warriorz coach [Jon Lewis]. It’s disappointing that she’s not here. You can’t replace an ‘Alyssa Healy’ but people have stepped up in her absence. For her, it’s about getting her body right. Since that T20 World Cup, she’s been managing a lot of injuries. She’s at that age where she can’t always manage. She has to sometimes stop completely and let herself recover, especially with a 50-over World Cup coming up. She’s obviously looking forward to that.

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Q: Was there any reason why Chamari Athapaththu wasn’t being played? And how different is it to be a mentor to such an experience international player?

A: She’s a great team player. She helps out, she trains hard. If you look at the IPL teams, there are so many amazing players sitting on the bench. It’s called the Indian Premier League for a reason, it’s predominantly Indians and you can’t fit all of your overseas players. For the women’s game, you don’t usually have an overseas player sitting on the bench, they’re normally in the line-up. This is a new learning for them, especially for someone like her [Athapaththu] who’s always been selected. She’s disappointed and wants to contribute, but she understands.

Q: Players always have personal goals at the start of every season. Did you set yourself any as the mentor?

A: As players, we’re driven by outcomes and results. As a coach, it’s to see how the players are understanding the process. If we see incremental progress, then we’ve done our job. At the end of the day, things are judged by win or loss, but there’s a lot more that goes behind it.