If you want to play better as an individual cricketer, you need to feel part of a team.

That might sound contradictory, but there is great power in acting as one towards a common goal. Psychological studies have show many times that the more bonded you feel to your team, the better you perform as an individual.

The effect of feeling like you are "all in it together" makes you try harder not for yourself, but for your team mates. You don't want to let the guys down because they have worked so hard for you. The last thing you want to be is the weak link in the chain. So, you do your work with steely determination.

It works for armies in wars. It works for businesses and it sure as heck works in sport.

But how do you form this bond?

That's a complex subject, but one easy way is to build in some "coordinating" time. Armies march in time and are drilled on doing everything in perfect sequence. If one fails, they all fail.

I don't suggest you march round the oval to bond as a team, but you can take the same principle into cricket skills,

• Warm up with mobility drills where the goal is also to be perfectly in time.
• Fielding drills where the aim is to keep it going as long as possible with no mistakes.
• Line up the top order do throwdowns and throw/hit at the same time.
• Tent peg drills done in perfect synchronisation.
• Ballroom dancing.

Actually, that last one is not recommended. But you get the idea!

Make it fun - and it is fun when everyone messes up - and over time you will see your team syncs up more quickly and for longer periods. The result is that you feel closer because you have worked something out together.

It's a simple trick but has big results, and as you are doing those drills anyway, what have you got to lose?