Mid-way through our season in Australia, I play in the 3rd grade in our comp. We're doing quite well, positioned 4th and ready to do well in the finals at the end of the season.

I am an opening bowler and my aim is to continue to restrict the runs and take early wickets (haven't taken a great deal this season but have contributed a lot to wickets), and also to get 20+ runs when I bat at least once this season. Last two bowling figures have been 3/12 (off 5 overs) and 2/13 (off 9 overs), so keeping that consistency going is important for me.

Want to continue to push other players as much as possible to improve their game with chirping in the field and encouragement off the field.

Great target Nishi. How do you plan to do it?

My targets for the upcoming season in Malaysia are:

1. Make sure that I am more consistent with my form: Last season, due to exams, bad weather and unavoidable circumstances, my form suffered and I was very incosistent in both batting and bowling. With 3 months intense pre-season training under my belt, and healthy eating, I hope to capitalise on my new level of fitness by grinding out more consistent performances (high-level performances) when batting, bowling and fielding.
2. Improve my bowling accuracy: I am known to be a strike bowler, a bit like Brett Lee when he started off; I'll take wickets, but I'll spray it. With my strength work, I've found my pace increasing slightly and I get carried away trying new things to outdo the batsman every other ball. The aim here is to work on a stock length ball and make sure that in matches, my economy rate stays good as I'm known to take wickets, but leak runs.
3. Improve my batting average from last season: Towards the end of last season, I started getting more time to spend at the crease averaging 28.93 with the bat. I want to improve this and with the upcoming skills work I have in the month and a half left before the first game, I'm hoping to fine-tune my technique so that I am able to contribute more to the team in both bowling and batting.
4. Fielding: Since starting cricket, my fielding has improved much but can obviously still be better. With the strength and speed work I've been doing, I hope to be quicker in the field and have a better throwing arm, vital in cricket!

Same question then Kelvin. How do you plan to make it happen?

My personal aim last year was to become the first team top batsman and I achieved this with an average of 45. My aim for this coming season would be to get into the Cheshire team or even the 2XI as an allrounder.

David you may have seen this already as it's from my blog - I know you advocate setting goals and recording them and this is part of that process - Plans and Hopes 2007-2008
Bowling

After spending all summer trying to get the Flipper to pay dividends as my stock ball I've had to review the situation. It seems that in practice (This is still the case now) I can get my Flipper to turn acutely across the wicket from Leg to Off. But on the wicket at Blackshots it just wasn't happening and that tied in with the psychological aspects of having my confidence knocked for 4 along with the ball mean that my bowling was poor.
Then in the last game we played I saw the bloke that got the multiple maidens. He seemed to be bowling straight balls, straight down the wicket at the stumps on a good to short length, nothing flash just very consistent. So I've left the Flippers and now I'm concentrating on bowling Top Spinners but getting them to land in a very small area to order. So over the next few months all I'm doing is bowling 95% Top Spinners concentrating on line, length and flight. The other 5% will be the ocassional Flipper and Wrong Un which will serve as my variations. On that front since laying off the Flippers and concentrating on the Top Spinners it seems the rest has done wonders for the Flipper as it seems to be a lot more accurate now that I bowl it less?

With regards playing for G&CCC my main strategy will be to try and ensure that I don’t suffer any injuries. Seemingly the problem areas are

• Sprinting in the outfield calf muscles
• Sprinting in the outfield thigh muscles
• Throwing the ball in from the outfield shoulder and upper arm muscles.

Needless to say it sounds like I might have to do some kind of training with my legs, either more running or more cricket specific running. Looking back all the time I was practicing over at Great Berry I never suffered and that represented cricket specific training. As soon as we had the problems at Great Berry and the practicing tailed off that’s when the injuries started to occur. It may have been the reason for both the arm and leg muscle pulls?
With the throwing it’s also obvious technique is also an issue, so I’ve got to look at my technique.
Bowling aims – to take more wickets. The equivalent of one per week would be really good and to reduce the amount of runs I conceded. All of this I’m hoping will simply fall in place because of the new strategy with the Top Spinner ball which will become my stock ball. I’m hoping that the fact that I deliver it straight will mean it will threaten the stumps and cause the batsmen to play in a more cautious manner.

Persevere with the Flipper and the Wrong Un and have them as my other balls in addition to the Top Spinner.

Batting – I’ve not even addressed this yet, but one of the blokes at G&CCC commented that I need to move my feet more and stand slightly sideway to the stumps rather than directly in front of the stumps and then not move. At the end of the summer I had started to practice with a ball up against a wall which was useful in that it forced me to move my feet in relation to the trajectory of the ball otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get behind or on top of the ball. The thing with this is finding a decent wall and a ball with the right amount of bounce. Having said that now having discovered the basket ball courts with their high fences and tight nit mesh I may be able to use large bouncy balls if they come back off the fence in the same trajectory that they went into the fence? Something to look at for the future. Ideally when the spring comes I’ll be able to resume practicing on Great Berry and people will join in over there.

Teams – Obviously I’ll be playing all year with G&CC. Other than that I’m looking to get a team together within the college amalgamating our old MPA teams with sports science. The intention then is to play against G&CCC a couple of times if not more.

The other thing I’d like to do is get the blokes over at Glouscester Park to get a team together and play them over at Glouscester Park or Great Berry. There is so much potential there it would be a shame if those blokes never ever got to play a real game, so I’m determined that I get that together somehow.

Fitness

I've started a fitness regime with a strategy to get my upper body strength increased - arms and shoulders with some attention to core strength. I've got a series of exercises I'm doing every other day and for the next month I'll be doing the exercises and seeing how I get on. I'd imagine that if I keep it up for a week or two the exercises will then become easier and I'll increase the amount of reps. Once I get organised what I may also do is post the exercises on www.simplycricket.net and get feedback from the people on there - Liz Ward and David Hinchcliffe of www.pitchvision.com That way hopefully I'll be building up to a good start to the season at G&CCC

It probably makes more sense if you look at the blog and my comments on the simplycricket website.

Cheers
Dave

It's always great to read your stuff Dave!

Good luck Andy. How are you going to do it?

my aim is to wear my country shirt and with pride
i want to play cricket for my country and fight for a win until my last breath. this year i want to incease speed reduce body fat and bowl faster

wow that's a big aim. Are you playing first class cricket?

Hello David,
I'm a medium pace bowler and all i want to do is to prepare my-self for upcoming youth U19 Selection also i want to increase my consistency. I keep practicing but still I lack that extra what a player needs for success. Can any one Gimme some tips to perform good on bowling and at least score 15+ runs in Games.

Firstly, I just want to get a good run of games under my belt! I guess the weather may have to assist with that one though.

Seriously, I want to get settled back into playing good, hard cricket, picking up my pace and improving my batting. I'll also be looking at vastly improving my fitness, with help no doubt from here.

Wishing you all a happy 2008!

Tom

Keep me posted on your progress Tom.

Just got one ambition - find somewhere to play as I've just moved to Berlin! Might have to settle for indoor cricket but we will see.

From Sachin Gamage

I am a 14 year old playing 4th eleven grade Hawthorne Monash Uni in Australia. I play with former first class David Alleyne (Nottinghamshire) and Simon Dart (Victoria). My aim for the second half of the season is to improve from the 4 wickets I have taken from eight games to 6 from the remaining nine. I am a left arm pacer and am going to improve by being a bit more patient and using the crease to vary the angle. I am also working on my off and leg cutter.

good luck in your new city

Sachin, let us know how it goes

Having only really got my game going properly last season for a local club side where the aim is more about having an enjoyable game than the fierce competitive aspect of things, my aims for 2008 are to either take 5 wickets for the season (I'm very much a part-time bowler) or to break the 25-run mark in a single innings - preferably both, but we shall see.

In 2007, the aim was to either break double figures with the bat in a single innings or to bowl a full 8-over spell, both of which were acheived, so I'm hoping for the same this year!

Not tremendously ambitious goals, I know, but I find I'd rather set reachable goals and reevaluate during the season than set an unrealistic goal for myself and feel like I've failed when I inevitably don't reach it.

Great news Jason. So how is that going to happen?

hi
my aim is to increase my bowling speed to a much extent. & also to get more fitter & power

[...] The secret of cricket goal setting Turn your cricket dreams to reality What’s your ambition? [...]

Well ma ambition is totally different from others............... I know i ve got the talent to make it where i want, but there is one thing that is badly stopping me to get there...........SMOKING!!! after playing in the U-17 side, i took it all 2 easy & started smoking on ma freiends' insistence but now i find I m really getting f*** up!!! i mean i can't even play an innings longer than say 70!! Please can u help me with quiting smoking?? & will i be able to regain wat i used to be after 2 years of smoking??? HELP PLEASE!!

My aim for this year is to get into the Delhi state U13 team. My long-term goal is To be the greatest fast bowler in the world.
I'm doing everything I can to get there. any suggestions?

you should now start with the 2009 version of this.

Hi Dave,
I currently play for my sides under 15 team and i am the opening bowler. I have kept the runs down to a reasonable standard, but i can't seem to take many wickets. Also i have got fairly decent batting scores but my strike rate is far too low. Please help! Thanks

where is the 2009 version?!?

Why don't you start one in the forum dhruv?

My Targets batting wise;
1) Nothing under 15
2) Score at run a ball at least
3) Always bat at least 8 overs
4) More quick singles and generally better running
5) 120 runs

Good Idea! I have posted it here - http://www.pitchvision.com/node/3122.
So everybody please tell everybody else what is your cricket ambition for 2009 here