Cricket is a simple game, but getting good during preseason gets complex when you look at the hundreds of different methods espoused by coaches and fitness gurus.

These are the things I have tried and tested over a 20 year period as both a cricket coach and fitness trainer.

Controversial? Only if you don’t follow the evidence.

I stand by every one (and have made them all at one point or another).

There are two types of fielders; people who are allowed to field in the slips and those who aren’t.

This is more down to the fielder’s reactions that their ability to catch.

The edge that flies straight into the body is regulation for the slip fielder, but many club and Academy cricketers struggle to react to catches either side of their body simply because of the variation in the pitch.

The more variation in the pitch the greater variation in the carrying edge.

I don't know about you, my eyes are good, but they can’t freeze frame, move images forward and back frame by frame or calculate angles.

So to support my coaching, irrespective of the standard of players, I use cameras and computer applications to support my players learning and development.

In the modern world there is no excuse for a coach to avoid the use of video cameras and visual feedback with players.

The technology is so easy to use and accessible. Yet incredibly powerful.

Imagine you scored 220 of your 50 overs and you now have the opposition 185-8 with 5 overs left.

You’ve bought your openers back on to finish the job, and rudely the last few batsmen are defending like their life depended on it.

You can stick with the strike bowlers and hope the batsmen get bored or the bowlers are fast enough to blast them out.

The game will end in a draw and your hopes of a strong league position fade a little more.

Or you can bring on your more occasional spin bowler.

It’s a simple calculation:

Desmond Haynes was a world-class batsman. He is a world-class coach. The unique skills he can teach are invaluable to any player (or coach) with the desire to improve.

But you will never get to have coaching from him.

This video is the 2^nd free preview of the online coaching course Batting Lion: the Desmond Haynes

At club cricket the slower ball is Marmite. 

People either love it or hate because there’s a thin line between bravery and stupidity. Deciding when to use a slower ball is subjective and relative to the situation.

I see most people (and I myself am guilty of this too) bowl a slower ball after they have been hit for a boundary as a comeback ball.

Most people groan at the thought of a game of indoor cricket and regard it as a waste of time; the runt sibling of the traditional game.

Where is the fun in getting up early on cold Sunday mornings to dodge cricket balls bouncing off the walls of a humid leisure centre sports hall?

It’s not even a standard game, with regional rules and differing facilities.

It’s a far cry from warm summer days and the momentum of outdoor cricket. You may as well be a starving dog with a rubber bone.

We have come across that wily batsman who manages to score stacks of runs without a great technique.

At first you look at them with contempt, frustrated at how someone with so little technique can hang around so long and score so many runs (especially if you’re the bowler).

Then after a few overs of this you will just put it down to pure luck.

It’s not luck at all.

That guy knows how he bats: He knows his limits and what he is able to do.

 Club cricketer and controversial PitchVision Academy columnist AB is back with his views on playing on dodgy tracks.

 The "up and down" pitch is a nightmare: one moment a full length ball balloons up to chest height, and two balls later a short delivery shoots though by the shins.

How on earth are you supposed to deal with this?