Players often tell me that they don't want to 'bulk up' or become so muscular they can no longer bat or bowl efficiently.

Frankly, I think that's a bit of an excuse not to train. At the very least it's a fear you can put aside.

It's widely recognised that bowlers have to be strong and powerful to prevent injury and improve their performance. Top players train regularly in the gym to develop this.

Cricket is one of the longest lasting sports, yet the skills are all explosive: Bowling, throwing, running between the wickets and the like. In between these bursts you are generally standing still or walking and recovering.

Cricket is a long game with various requirements: explosive power, speed, agility, strength and recovery speed. All of these factors are heavily influenced by what you eat.

Food is fuel and if you fuel your body right it will keep you at the optimum level for playing cricket.

While you don't need special supplements or diets to maintain good cricket nutrition, you do need to know what works best. Here I have collected together all my tips on what to eat to make you a better player.

• How many English players can score a club triple century and have hope of playing in the International side? Perhaps this is the difference between the old enemies.
• A couple of great posts in a week from Vern Gambetta: 11 things all cricketers need to succeed and 5 thoughts on team sport training.
• Sport training guru Mike Boyle discusses functional training on his forum. It's all very applicable to cricket.

You can separate cricketers into two groups: Those who train and those who don't. Both groups make some common mistakes.

Ideally, I would love to see everyone training in some way or another. But even the die-hard non-practicers, can do some simple things to improve their game.

It's all about knowing what to avoid.

Steve Waugh was the master of 'mental disintegration': the process of wearing down a team's confidence until he is paralysed by self doubt.

It's a powerful, often aggressive weapon that won't make you many friends if you use it as a bowler or captain, but you can still use a version of the technique that can be just as effective as Waugh used and still be able to have a drink in the bar with the opposition batsman afterwards.

Everyone knows how important it is to focus hard on the ball as it is bowled. Martin Crowe even recommends trying to focus on the seam to help with this.

There is a limit to this as watching the ball onto the bat is not the most efficient way to play. Top batsmen like Martin watch the ball from the hand, judge the length then adjust their eye to where they think it will bounce.

It's always seemed to me that 'visualising success' is one of those wishy-washy new age things that should never work.

Success, in my view, comes from hard work and laser focussed training, not lying back and imagining how good you can be.

In fact, visualisation is a proven vital element executing the skills you learn in practice (word doc).

It seems everyone does it all the time.

However it can be used for good or evil.

Research has shown that setting yourself effective cricket goals can lead to an improvement of up to 78% in your game.

It's also one of the simplest techniques to employ in your efforts to becoming a better cricketer. All you need is a pen, paper and 10 minutes or so.

Ever wonder how international batsmen have the cheek to play those audacious shots at the end of one day innings?

You know the ones: stepping across the line or making room to drive. Sweeping the fast bowler and reverse slog sweeps for six.

Bowlers are the same when the come up with slower balls, cutters and variations galore as the overs clock ticks down.