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What are the basic principles behind your tactics on the cricket field?

How do you turn those principles into real life field placings, bowling changes and wins?

Each game may be different, but one thing always remains the same: You must always be trying to win, even at the risk of losing.

But that idea, no matter how sound, is not enough in itself. Here are the practical principles that lie underneath:

Controlling the game: Fielding 2nd

Update: This article is now out of date and has been superceded by the following information:

This workout is part of the Strength-speed workout for cricket. To see the full details click here.

Resisted Buggy Runs

• Put on a Power Speed Resistor.
• Run with your training buddy running behind providing resistance. Accelerate for 10 yards then decelerate for 10 yards.
• Complete 1 set of 6 runs. Take 30 seconds rest between runs then rest for 3 minutes. Repeat with partners swapped around.

Fitness in cricket is vital to improve performance.

Part of your pre-season training should be dedicated to developing your 'strength-speed'.

Strength-speed is defined by your ability to move heavier objects quickly under sport conditions (such as rugby tackling). Its a move from pure strength towards pure power.

Ever wanted to share your expertise or improve your cricket by reading the expertise of others? Squidoo is a great, free and easy to use website for doing just that.

There are already a few good pages (or lenses) on cricket for you to check out of you want to play better cricket.

You could start with my very own Fitness for Cricket and then make sure you drop by Ian Canaway's Cricket Tips.

Have you ever pledged to improve your cricket fitness by doing more running? If you are like me you have often failed to keep it up.

The good news is that there is a way to go running without the disadvantages.

On the surface things are straightforward: The longer you run the fitter you are. But fitness is rarely that simple.

This is a great drill for working every fielding skill for the whole team. It covers underarm throwing, overarm throwing, catching, backing up and shying at the stumps.

You can use it as a skills drill or, with several balls, a skills conditioning drill:

1. The coach (wk) starts the game by rolling the ball to position 1

If you have good timing you can get a away with a lot while batting and will certainly get more runs, even if your technique needs work.

But timing often takes a while out in the middle to come, meaning you are vulnerable at the start of your innings.

To help overcome this you can do a short pre-innings routine to groove your timing before you go out.