Purpose: To practice picking up, backing up and shying at the stumps under the pressure of competition.

Description: Two stumps are placed between two teams. The coach rolls the ball out and calls which stump should be aimed for. The fielder picks up and shys at the stump. The other team back up the throw then attempt to hit the stump as called by the coach. Score 5 points for a direct hit, lose a point for a misfield.

Here is the latest additions to the Select XI. Still plenty of places up for grabs, especially if you bat.

Harrowdrive Select XI

1. TBC
2. TBC
3. TBC
4. TBC
5. TBC
6. Kieran Lloyd (Batter, England)
7. Marlene Steenkamp (Off Spin All Rounder, South Africa)
8. TBC
9. TBC
10. Vijaya Saradhi Nowbathu (Fast Medium Seamer, India)

Let's have a bit of fun today. I'm looking to build the perfect XI from harrowdrive readers. Are you up to scratch? Email me with your story of why you deserve to be in the team.

You can be of any standard or age and play cricket anywhere in the world. Players who make the team get the right to claim they have been selected to play for the Harrowdrive Select XI.

Thanks mainly to Shane Warne, strength and fitness is not the first this you associate with successful spin bowling.

It's reported that Warney's idea of a balanced diet is a cheeseburger in each hand. Sadly for you and almost every other spinner in the world, you are not as good as the great Aussie leggie. So you need to make the most of what you do have with a fitness plan that makes you better.

Being fit as a spinner has a number of proven benefits that can be gleaned from just 2-3 workouts a week:

As a new event, the World Twenty20 in South Africa has shown us how international players can score at 8-10 an over. I reckon club batsmen take a leaf out of the top guys book by watching the way Pietersen, Hayden and Smith bat.

One of the key aspects I have noticed while watching the games is the adaptability of the top order players. They are able to play more than one shot to different deliveries and work the ball around for singles when they are not hitting boundaries.

Purpose: The practice running/diving to stop the ball on the boundary and saving a four.

In our society the phrase Big Shot refers to important people, with money, power and a strong social status. Paul Baker, an ECB coach in Hertfordshire is putting a new spin on the term with his latest project and he needs your help.

In October 2007 Paul is taking a team out to some villages outside Kolkata, India to teach cricket to children who would not normally get the chance to have top quality input from qualified coaches.

One of the Australians hall marks in cricket is their intensity in practice.

For them it's all about getting as close to game pace as possible. Jeremy Snape demonstrated something similar in his World Twenty20 diary with the England team:

An average club cricketer might spend a few hours a week improving their game.

You might play a couple of games, go to the gym and train in the nets regularly.

What about the rest of the time?

What you do outside of this time also has a huge effect on your performance. Getting the edge and playing good cricket at any level requires good intense training. It also needs attention to the other hours in the day.

This idea is often known as the 24 hour athlete.

Purpose: To practice a clean pickup and return on the run and backing up.