As you have probably already noticed the new community section is open.

It's accessible through the sidebar on the right hand side underneath the Cricket Resources box. If you are reading this in an email or RSS feed then click here to visit the site and see it.

The reason this section has been created is that I want this site to be as interactive as possible.

photo credit: desi.italy

This site has now grown to a size where I can say for sure there are regular readers and regular commenters.

Thanks for being part of the harrowdrive community.

As this site continues to grow I want you to feel part of it. We are all interested in improving our game (or the games of others).

photo credit: Spoungeworthy

If you wanted to improve your catching I'm betting you would do some catching practice.

One thing you would not do is train each finger individually.

‘Finger training' is a bad idea because you are isolating individual components involved in catching without practicing the skill as a whole. You know already that your brain doesn't work like that: To develop any skill you need to practice that skill.

photo credit: Spoungeworthy

Back in the mists of ancient history (the 1980's) the Soviets were kings of sport. Their state funded athletes became a huge experiment in maximising performance.

This included the development of periodisation: the planning system that most sports follow to this day, cricket included.

At Old Trafford in 1993 Mike Gatting faced Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket. You probably know the rest already.

Despite this ball, Gatting is recognised as one of England's finest modern players of spin. In this article he gives some tips on how he used to do so well. They can be summarised like this: