How many times has a left arm seamer been picked because they offer “variety” to a cricket team?

If you have any pride in your left arm seam bowling, you need to bowl at the death in your cricket matches.

Left arm bowlers are special. Here's how to make the most of your southpaw cricket style.

Another year, another 150,000 words, another 1,500 minutes of audio and video. It's been a crackerjack year for players and coaches who follow PitchVision.

This is part two of Mark Garaway's cricket coaching year.

Bowling a few yorkers at the end of nets is no way to prepare for the stress of death bowling.

Bowling the last few overs of an innings is like being a Hollywood star. When everything goes well you are adored. Put one foot wrong and your embarrassment could not be more exposed.

Santa doesn't play or coach much cricket. I know because he told me one one of our regular updates to him about my kid's "naughty or nice" status.

But I told him he should give it a go.

Think about it, he's the perfect opening batsman. Sure he is overweight by modern standards but anyone who has the stamina to ride a sleigh all night, clamber up and down chimneys and lug that huge sack around would find scoring a hundred a cinch.

So I said to Santa that he should consider trying a few games when the Christmas break is over.

In the last show of the series, Mark Garaway, Sam Lavery and David Hinchliffe and Mark Garaway talk about what they learned in cricket this year. Plus we squeeze in two final questions for this series: playing indoor cricket and opening in T20 cricket.

Remember to follow PitchVision Academy for free bonus content.

Listen for the details.

Christmas is well appreciated in the Garaway Household. As with many families, its a time for getting everyone together, for over-indulgence and for reflection on the hectic 12 months that we have had in 2017.