What with all the words written about the Pakistan doping controversy, I thought it would be interesting to get a club cricket angle on it all.

After all, if you can find legal ways to supplement for Shoaib then perhaps you can use them yourself as a club player?

One thing you need to keep in mind is that most club players don't need any supplements - legal or not. A combination of a good diet, focussed training and a well-planned fitness routine is more than enough to skyrocket your performance.

After I posted the reason all cricket clubs need a coach yesterday I had a moment of realisation. I had totally missed another important factor a good coach can bring:

Testing

Well-rounded coaches will have knowledge in the technical, tactical, physiological and psychological aspects of cricket, and to improve on them you need to know where you are to start with.

Has your cricket club got a coach?

I'm talking about the senior section here, not the colts or youth teams. If not, have you ever considered why not?

I know that at the clubs I have played the answer to both questions is 'no'.

I spend a lot of time talking about working hard, but in many ways rest is just as important for players who want to improve their cricket.

Specifically, I'm talking about the demands cricket makes on your body during a game. To make your practice worthwhile you need to reflect these demands in practice: Your work to rest ratio.

Coming back to playing cricket after some time away from the game is hard work.

A lot of cricket specific movements are not reflected in real life and bowling is, frankly, an unnatural thing to do. That means returning can cause players to perform below their best and be very sore after their first few games.

Although there is no way to get around this, you can reduce the worst effects by some careful planning.

Update: This article has now been updated and reposted. Click here to go to the latest page and download the latest plan. The information below is for archive puropses only.

Most club cricketers in the Northern hemisphere are not thinking about next season yet. Winter nets tend to start after Christmas and football is dominating the world. But this is the best time to set down a fitness plan for the year.

You may or may not have heard of Darren Rowse. He has been called many things, but what he does is takes lessons from life and applies them to his job.

Darren recently drew a comparison between practising tennis and practising blogging (he's a full time blogger) and came up with 10 ways to get better at blogging by practising. And just as those 10 ways work for tennis and blogging they can work for cricket.

Did you know that Greg Chappell is a strict vegan? I didn't until today when I read that he has also decided the Indian national side will stay off meat for the Champions Trophy.

Is it a good idea, or is at another crackpot scheme in the Buchanan boot camp mold?

For India it makes sense if, as reported, the quality of meat cannot be trusted in hot weather. But Chappell has been a vegan for years and in a variety of conditions, would it make a difference to his game?