In the Champions Trophy, India out-fielded South Africa to victory.

It wasn't the only reason for the win, but it was enough for the sages to comment on the difference. What was going on?

There is a lot of talk about fielding. It's never got more attention from coaches and players than in modern times.

But does it really win you matches?

Somewhere in the world right now is a cricketer panicking.

He's panicking because his season starts in two or three weeks and he has spent the winter doing anything but cricket.

He was too busy for nets, he forgot about the gym membership he paid for in January and pressure for his time comes from all sides; family, friends and work.

Maybe that guy is even you.

If it is, you're not alone. Life gets in the way of good intentions.

How big are your players catching areas?

Super slow motion cameras are great for noting the size of catching areas in both keepers and fielders. Often, we see that catchers line the ball up with one open hand and more closed one, this is great if judgement is spot on or if the ball does not dip or deviate in the air.

Yet as we know, we are human and sometimes our judgement is not 100% precise.

This drill will help to increase player's catching area on flat catches, nicks to slip and edges to the keeper, giving the catcher a bigger margin for error.

This is a guest article from coach and PhD candidate Adam Kelly

Everyone says you should train hard but sometimes it's good to step back and ask a bigger question of ourselves.

What is the purpose of training?

We spend hours and hours in nets and on the field looking to enhance our performance. Drills are designed to improve our skills.

Logically we should train recognise which skill to execute and when to execute said skill.

This short video discusses the benefits of the modern method of taking outfield throws from in front of the stumps.

Is it always a good idea? Watch the video to find out from a real life run out experience.

Click here to view the video.

Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here.

India has many great cricketers, but fielding has always been the weakest area for the team. Like a club side, the attitude is that fielding comes last. It's not as important as batting or bowling so you can afford standards to drop, as long as your main skill is in form.

That's a pure hoax.

This is a guest article from Iain Brunnschweiler, former professional player and a coach at Hampshire and England’s Development Programme.

How many times are you involved in a session which is just 'a hit in the nets', or 'taking a few high catches?

This is part of a series. To go to part 1, click here.

Players get shoulder soreness and injuries as a result of only using their throwing shoulder rather than the whole body to produce the pace and power needed to deliver a strong and accurate throw.

Here are 3 more tips to improve your throw with that in mind:

I employed a baseball coach called Will Lintern to teach the Ireland Cricket Team to hit stumps on a more regular basis in the lead up to the 2011 World Cup. The aim was to become the best ground fielding team in the world.

Our indicators were number of clean pick ups, run outs and direct hits.

Will coached a number of principles yet the ones that are easiest to remember are the 3 Keys to Accuracy:

This article has been written by the contributions of the community (and edited by the Director of Coaching). My thanks go out to Munwar Hussain, Rutej Mehta, Tev, AB, Kerron Ryan, TonyM, nurav_cool, shivbaba,  AjayBP, Coxy, Robin Collins and Paul Williams for their contributions.

In cricket we are obliged to give it our best in the field for a full innings, which is significantly more time than we spend bowling and almost always more than we spend batting. We can approach fielding from several angles.