Being a good player is a lot of hard work. Technical training takes enough time, but then there is the fitness training, not to mention the actual matches. What do you do when you don't have time to train?

Fielding is guilt. Everyone wants to be better at it, but it always plays second place to your main skill so you end up feeling bad about not doing enough.

Well guilt no more, as you can use these three tricks to make an instant difference without endless hours of drills.

It's all in the way you think about fielding.

Every cricketer who has nervously bitten his nails waiting for a turn to bat knows how important the mind is to playing well. Yet we spend little time working on this aspect of our game.

When you think of the great West Indian pace bowlers of the past, you can't help but wince at their ability to bowl terrifying bouncers. How do you make a batsman jump like that?

It could be going from representative level back to grade cricket or simply being selected for the 2nd XI. For some players getting dropped is a cricketing disaster. It's a dramatic demonstration that they are not up to the task.

Does good off spin bowling baffle you? It probably should. Even if you are confident against spinners, you can never really relax. Ask Ricky Ponting.

What you can do is learn to play better against off spin by making small changes to your technique and tactics.

Let's look at some of these now:

This edition of Laws of Cricket, in association with the International Institute of Cricket Umpiring and Scoring, covers some more tricky questions of the Laws.

Geoff Boycott has a simple formula: If you think your innings is doing well, just add two wickets and see how it looks. 80-1 sounds good. 80-3 is shaky. It's a nice idea but that safety-first approach can only lead to a batting collapse.

Players, coaches or spectators roped in to umpire club cricket matches all want the same thing: To keep mistakes to the minimum and let the players enjoy the match. But it's tricky if you are not a qualified umpire.

No wonder you are a little reluctant to do it.

In August 2009, 19 year old Josh Davey was awarded a contract with Middlesex County Cricket Club. How did he do it?