Do you want to become the bowling spearhead of your team?

I can understand the feeling. I had the same one but things weren’t working out for me. Then something happened which made me into the strike bowler and the pace spearhead of my team. Read on, learn from my experiences and help yourself to become a strike bowler too.

A couple of years ago I was a fast bowler with decent (not furious) pace. I used to open the bowling and take wickets swinging the new ball.

I was playing a game not long after the review system was introduced to Test matches. Without TV cameras and technology at our game there was no chance of a review. Yet at the first dodgy LBW decision the first slip turned to me and made the now familiar T sign. We both quietly giggled and hope the umpire hadn’t seen the dissent.

That story tells me all I need to know about how TV has changed how we approach cricket, even when we don’t have cameras and Hawkeye at our games.

We all recognise the importance of fitness in our lives. It’s not just about being better on the cricket field. Regular training makes you healthier and, let’s face it, damn good looking.

Yet fitness is so often the cause of mistakes that lead to the opposite: weaker, more injury-prone, run down and looking awful.

By now, like me, you will have adopted Watsonian CC as your 2^nd team and willing them to success as well as learning a few things along the way (Leave a comment here if you are, I'd love to see the readers backing the side).

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: To add a conditioning aspect to the practice and throwing and backing up.

This article is part of the “How to Improve Your Batting Shot Selection” series. To see the full list of shots click here.

With its stylish flourish, the cover drive will always get your team-mates roaring “shot!” as you blaze the ball away. Yet, it’s a paradox of a shot.

Mushtaq Ahmed, Graeme Swann, Syd Barnes and Shane Warne: Each player a unique and world-class spin bowler of his time.

None of them used every variation in the book.

They didn’t need them all. They maintain their deception by varying the angle of spin within a small region either side of their stock delivery.

Subtle and devastating.

This article is part of the “How to Improve Your Batting Shot Selection” series. To see the full list of shots click here.

The crowd-pleasing cover drive gets all the glamour and attention. Meanwhile really good batsmen know that the on drive is a far more useful shot.