The five things

You cannot control whether you win or lose.

You can control how you show up for your team: supporting each other, helping each other, encouraging each other. That matters more than any score you put up on your own, and it is where most of the fun in the game actually comes from.

1. We win as a team, and we lose as a team.
2. Two ambitions: to be the most encouraging, most fun team out there, and the best fielding team, because cricket can turn on a single ball.
3. Practise like you are going to play. Time to practise is limited, so use it to rehearse what you actually do in a game, not to mess around with something you will never bowl or never play on Saturday.
4. Be grateful for your parents. They support you and encourage you, and that is part of what gives all of this meaning, alongside your team. The way we lead is the same: encourage every chance you get.

The team page sets this out in full. Read it there.

Some games you will feel in control. Some you will not.

Either way, play for fun, with real intention, skilfully, with a smile. You cannot control the result, only the things you have practised. That means your technique, what you do with your arms, legs, hands and head, and what you are thinking at the important moments.

Everything else, hitting the ball, hitting a four, bowling the ball in a perfect spot, getting a wicket, winning or losing, is a result of that. Win, and that is the reward. Lose, and you learn.

1. After every game, ask yourself one question: what did I learn, and how do I use that to get better, have more fun, be a better teammate, and keep developing?

Read it there.

As a general rule, take guard on middle stump.

Stand side-on, with your back shoulder facing towards second slip rather than square on to the bowler.

1. Grip the bat the way you would grip an axe. Lay it flat and pick it up.
2. The two Vs run just left of the middle of the handle if you bat right-handed, just right if you bat left-handed.

Read stance and grip in full.

When you are hitting the ball straight, keep your bat swinging close to your body rather than away from it.

The bat goes back, then comes through on a straight line, not looping out to the side.

1. Take the bat back so it is ready, without throwing your hands away from your body.
2. Elbow and bat stay connected. That is what keeps the swing on line.
3. Coming through on a straight drive, the maker’s name on the face of the bat points down the ground.

Read keeping the swing close in full.

Every ball, the first question in your head is the same: is it full or short?

Get the length right and everything else about the shot gets easier.

1. If it is full, go to the ball. Get your front foot in line with it, so your head ends up looking straight down over the top of it.
2. If it is short, go back and across. Get your head either behind the ball or inside the line of it, depending on which shot you are playing.

Read judging the length in full.

Think about scoring runs, never about not getting out.

A mind that is looking to score puts your feet in better positions and gets you moving towards the ball, without you trying to.

1. A common mistake is jumping backwards because the ball feels frightening. Move to it instead.
2. Think about the gaps in the field, not the fielders standing in it.
3. Stay in a good position to defend when you need to, hit the gaps and rotate the strike with a single, and when the ball is genuinely there to hit, get into position and hit it hard.

Read playing to score in full.

Imagine two lines: one running straight out in front of you towards the target, and one running straight up above your head.

Your whole action, the arm going back, the arm coming up, the release, stays on those two lines. It is a game of two seconds: from the moment you start your run up to the ball leaving your hand, that action is the only thing you are thinking about. Stay on those two lines and you get the same robot-like consistency every ball: the most accurate, most in control you can be.

Look at, and point at, the exact spot where you want the ball to land.

1. Bowl a trajectory that, if left alone, would go on to hit the top of the stumps.
2. That combination of line and length is what creates the corridor of uncertainty, it puts the batter in two minds about whether to come forward or stay back.

Read the whole of it.

Catches win matches, people say.

The real separator between a good team and a great one is bigger than that: every single ball is a chance to influence the game, whether it comes to hand or not.

1. You can switch off between balls. For the two seconds a ball is actually happening, you are concentrating hard enough that the batting side feels it.
2. Above the waist, your fingers point up, to the sky. Watch it right until it goes into your hands, and let them give like springy foam, not stay rigid like a hard ball, or it bounces straight back out.
3. Below the waist, the same rule holds, except your fingers point down instead of up.

Read the whole of it.

Dropping catches? Check how long you are actually watching the ball, before you check anything else.

Most drops happen because your eyes come off the ball early, half a second or so before it arrives, ten to thirty centimetres out. That is plenty of time for your hands to close on air instead of the ball.

1. Dropping catches: watch it all the way into your hands, not to somewhere near them.
2. Fielding badly out of position: the same fault, earlier. Your eyes left the ball before your feet knew where to go.
3. Batting badly: the same fault again, in the other direction. Play the ball as late as you possibly can, not as early as feels safe.

Whatever the symptom, check the eyes first, and go back to the basics before you go looking for anything more complicated. Read watching it all the way in, in full, or read playing it late, in full.