Our Coaches

At Sydenham, we prioritize player development, investing significantly in our coaching resources across the men’s, women’s, and youth sections. Our coaching team, led by Director of Cricket and former Black Cap Matthew Bell, comprises four highly skilled coaches dedicated to nurturing and enhancing the talents of our players.

Former White Fern Maria Lankeshwar is Director of Coaching for Sydenham Junior Cricket Club and leads our junior coaching team.

Matt Bell

Director of Cricket

Matt, in his role as the club’s Director of Cricket, manages the coaching resources of the club and is head coach of the morning men’s grades. He has a wealth of cricket experience and expertise to offer having been involved with cricket in New Zealand for over 30 years. Matt has 16 years of first-class cricket playing experience and represented NZ Black Caps for 18 tests as an opening batter. He is a qualified level 3 coach who has worked with a variety of men and women players and teams that range from youth and senior cricketers to national age group and international cricketers.

Matt is passionate about developing players to reach their potential and to be the best version of themselves both on and off the field.

For more information on pricing and available options for private coaching, please contact Matt at matt@thriveaftersport.com.

Maria Lankeshwar

SJCC Director of Coaching and Player Development

Maria has been involved in the junior club for more than 5 years. She represented the White Ferns and then moved into the pathway of becoming a coach. Maria’s accolades in coaching extend from NZ Women’s A team to Magicians. Maria is a level 3 NZ cricket coach and is considered one of the best New Zealand has to offer. Maria’s role with the club is in Player Development, technically assisting our players, but also a large part of her role is ensuring that our volunteer coaches are well resourced and provided with support and guidance.

Felicity Robertson

Felicity is head coach of our women’s teams. She is a right-hand top order batter and right arm pace bowler. She has played in the Sydenham Premier women’s team since 2020 and is a contracted player for the Otago Sparks. She also represented the NZ White Ferns from 2014-2016. Felicity holds a level 2 NZ coaching qualification and in addition to private 1-1 coaching, has coached holiday programmes, school teams and regional representative teams. Outside of cricket, Felicity has previously represented NZ at Badminton, has a Bachelor of Science degree, is a qualified massage therapist and also works full time for Foodstuffs South Island as a Project Manager.