Captaincy | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Reading the signs: How to decide whether to bat or bowl when you win the toss

WG Grace, it's famously said, used to call "the lady" when tossing up. Seeing as coins of Victorian times had Her Majesty Queen Victoria on one side and Lady Britannia on the other, he was a certain winner.

True or not, the good Doctor always knew what to do once he had won the toss and that was to bat. The exception being when he though conditions favoured the bowling. The he would think about it and still bat.

How to adopt the killer instinct in your cricket club (part 2)

This is part two of a two part series. To go to part one click here.

In the last part of these series we found out why a killer instinct is critical to your clubs success whatever level you are at. Today we look at the three ways you can do it as a captain or player.

1. Keep wickets at the front of your mind

How to read the pitch as well as Botham

Filed in:

Ian Botham is the King of Sky Sports pitch reports. But you can't have him at your game. How are you going to fathom out the way it will play without Beefys help?

When is a mid off not a mid off? (Or how to manipulate the field without changing it)

It's possible to make changes to your field without actually moving the fielders.

Tradition dictates that changing a field involves moving a fielder from one position to another. Mid off may go to deep mid off in defence or silly mid off in attack for example.

The complete guide to in season training for cricket

How much training can you do during the season?

Many people might say the more the better. I think it's more complex than that. After all, most club players will not have the time or resources to spend all day training. That's without the risks of injury and fatigue through overtraining.

Getting the balance right is a science and an art.

This complete guide covers the articles on this site that give you the answers to the questions:

Ask the Readers: What should Chris do?

Chris is a reader with a dilemma. He has emailed in to seek advice. What do you think he should do?

The back story

Chris is a 28 year old club cricketer playing in the UK. He has had some success but never made it to a high enough level to play professionally. He still has ambitions to play a good level of club cricket, perhaps even at representative level.

How to out think your opponent (part two)

This article is part of a two part series. To go to part one click here.

In part 1 we learned how batsman and bowlers are able to learn how to pick up on the tell tale signs of what their foe is thinking. The next step is being able to manipulate their plans to get them thinking what you want instead.

The complete guide to cricket field settings

Recently I found out there is no online repository for field settings in different situations.

That is until now.

Under the influence of Richard, the CEO of the company behind PitchVision, I have decided to collate together every field setting for any match situation. It's going to take a while.

How to be a stand-in captain

It was my turn to make the teas one Saturday, so I was in the club kitchen buttering piles of bread. It was lucky I got there early because as I buttered away one of the selectors walked in.

"Hi David, you know you are skippering the 2nd XI today don't you?"

I didn't.

It was the first I had heard, a few hours before the start of play.

Cricket bestseller list

Every now and again I reveal what books are selling fastest through the Amazon store we have here on miCoach.

As you may already know, I get a small commission (about 4%) every time you buy a book, DVD or anything else through this site. I use the vouchers Amazon sends me to buy more books and help make miCoach better (and to keep it free).

So here are the latest bestselling cricket books through miCoach, in order of popularity: