In the 5th Century BC, 2 Greek athletes gave up their usual vegetarian meals for meat to try and get stronger. It was the first recorded sport specific diet.

And it worked.

Ever since that day, our obsession with food has grown into a multi-billion pound diet industry with fads and fashions claiming instant fat loss, huge performance gains or massive muscle growth. As cricketers we can ignore the hype and head straight for the facts:

I’m having a few technical difficulties with email updates at the moment. This means you will not be getting email updates currently.

The fine people at feedburner are working on it for me though.

I’m hoping it will be sorted soon, but in the meantime why not subscribe to my fully operational death star RSS feed? It’s just as funky as email.

Cricket is a game that needs you to be fast and strong. If you have been following my pre-season training programme you will have been building up to this workout.

Kelvin is a club cricket all rounder. Like many other players he is motivated to take his game to the next level.

He sent me an email to ask my advice:

I'm 17 years old and 6'4. I'm considered an all-rounder and have played in the top Malaysian League. However, I still want to improvemy game as I know there are many things I can do better.

If you have ever bowled or captained, you are sure to have asked yourself: Where are we going to get 10 wickets from today?

It's rare in club cricket to have bowlers good enough to knock a side over one their own, so you have to use every trick in the book.

You already know the main ploy: Risk losing in order to win. Now you need to convert that to real life tactics:

So you are convinced SAQ is an essential part for your cricket training. But you havent bought the book yet.

Bob Willis is a great believer in long slow running to get fit for cricket.

Bob may have been a great bowler, and he sure knows more about the game than I ever will.

He doesnt know fitness for toffee though.

Cricket is a game based on explosive speed, quick feet and fast sprints not long, knee crushing endurance tests. Thats according to Alan Pearson the sports science mastermind behind the SAQ for Cricket book.

Fred Flintoff hooking a fast bowler into the stand, Adam Gilchrist taking a diving leg side catch or Steve Harmison exploding into his action.

All examples of the need for explosive power as a cricketer.

While much of this is natural talent, you can dramatically improve your power through training. Particularly pre-season.

Improving your cricket can be a daunting prospect. Where do you start? Whats most important? Will you have the time?

These are the kind of questions I ask myself just as much as a club cricket wicketkeeper/batsman.

As a result, I thought it would be interesting to keep you up to date with my own current cricket programme. Hopefully you will feel inspired by my trials and tribulations.

Remember though, that training to improve your cricket is very personal and very specific. What works (or fails) for me may be different for you.

No, there isnt a double meaning in the title. What with the entire furore around Pakistan and ball tampering, you might have forgotten that Bob Woolmer is one of the worlds most respected coaches.

His theories are laid out in Cricket - The Bob Woolmer Way.

Like the Martin Crowe batting DVD, its a fairly straight up coaching video made around the time Bob was coaching the South African side.