Raise Your Game: You've had a varied career so far. What was your pathway into the Glamorgan cricket role?

Mike Fatkin: I think it was a lot of luck really. I'd finished my degree in 1985 at Nottingham Trent University and told everybody that I was taking a year out when I was actually struggling to find work!

I wrote to all the cricket clubs, there were only 17 back then. Durham came on the scene a few years later, and the guy who was in charge, Phil Carling, said "We'll get you down here for six months, you can do nothing in particular and we'll let you be a bit of a gopher and we'll pay you." I just moved up from there so I was very lucky.

RYG: Now that you've moved into a completely new discipline, from cricket to netball, what sort of skills can you transfer from your old role to your new role?

MF: I've got a good understanding of government bodies because I worked with the cricket board of Wales for 12 years. A lot of it is strategic and putting down some sort of pathway and budget for the organisation, and from a sporting perspective, balancing community involvement at grass roots and elite success at the top level.

It's very tempting, certainly in cricket, to throw all your resources in at the top because that's naturally your shop window. You've got to make sure that there are plenty of people playing the game so there's a good standard and then go straight on to the elite afterwards. I've got a good overall knowledge of cricket, but clearly I've got a lot of learning to do before I can consider myself a bit of a netball buff.

RYG: How important do you see your new role in the development of our young people?

MF: I'm aware of how successful netball is in Australia and New Zealand and obviously you want the challenge of making the various Welsh teams as successful as possible.

It's understanding how netball can improve, what the particular challenges are and improving the profile of the sport. Netball doesn't have the same level of exposure as some of the major sports so I think my media background can help generate some income as well.

RYG: Why is it important that young people are involved in a sport like netball?

MF: Playing any sport is important in terms of the physical needs of exercise, but also the sheer love of sport. Whether that's in a team context or as an individual. Events like the Olympics have a massive impact on people watching.

Tennis is the best example because for two weeks of the year everybody's obsessed with tennis, but if you take someone like Andy Murray out, people aren't particularly bothered about it for the other 50 weeks of the year. Governing bodies across the UK need to understand that they've got to sell their sport to people, but also from a health perspective as well.

RYG: What can sport teach us?

MF: Sport can teach us about life. Understanding how to lose is one thing in particular, but also building a whole environment when you go through your working life in any organisation. A business organisation is a team. You need to learn what some people are good at, what others aren't particularly good at and vice versa. Play to people's strengths.

Above all, solidarity is very important and you should enjoy your successes, but as Kipling used to say you've got to keep an even keel, you've got to be just as dignified when you've won as you do when you've lost.

RYG: Why are team sports important to young people?

MF: The strengths that people have got need to be balanced by weaknesses of others and I think sport teaches you that from a pretty early age. All of us have seen children at school who have dominated a particular sport and you can actually rely on that and sit back, or you can get stuck in and try and improve. I think it teaches a lot of lessons.

RYG: What are your hopes and ambitions for the future of Welsh sport, in particular netball?

MF: I'm looking forward to trying to replicate what I did at Glamorgan through the Welsh Netball Association. Participation is very important. Get as many children playing as possible and I think that enables you to raise the standard and you can then start concentrating on the elite levels.

There are opportunities for the senior team in terms of Commonwealth Games qualifications, but there's also a super league.

Above all, I want netball to be a respected sport from top to bottom. I'd like to think that within three to five years there won't be a single child who's not aware of the importance, or certainly the excitement, of actually playing netball.

RYG: For somebody looking to follow in your footsteps of working closely with sport, but not being involved directly as a sportsperson, what would be your advice?

MF: Be passionate. If you believe in something strongly enough, then you should follow it. I can't pretend to have been the world's greatest cricketer, but I understood the sport and I knew it pretty much inside out. I just got a break and worked as hard as I possibly could. Deal with people properly and you should go a long way.