Steve Waugh was the master of 'mental disintegration': the process of wearing down a team's confidence until he is paralysed by self doubt.

It's a powerful, often aggressive weapon that won't make you many friends if you use it as a bowler or captain, but you can still use a version of the technique that can be just as effective as Waugh used and still be able to have a drink in the bar with the opposition batsman afterwards.

Great cricket teams can do extraordinary things. But greatness is not just a matter of individual talent. The captain has a key role in bringing the best out of every player and merging them into a successful team.

In "The Art of Captaincy" England's finest leader, Mike Brearley, outlines how captains (and senior players) can build 11 players into a formidable unit:

Have you ever captained your club team? If you have you know how it can seem like playing chess while running a marathon.

To keep yourself from going insane you need reliable bedrock principles to fall back on.

In club cricket these principles can be applied at any time to remind yourself why you are there in the first place:

This article is part of "The complete guide to cricket field settings" series.

A while back I gave you some tips on spin bowling tactics for club cricket (although a lot of it works just as well at higher levels too).

Playing under a good captain is a wonderful way to play cricket. Good captains rarely, if ever, let players, games or seasons drift away into boredom. You always get a game, the matches are as close as can be and you win more often than not. And if you are a club captain yourself, you have no doubt asked yourself how you can be this good yourself.

The 6 Keys to Great Club Captaincy

The hoo-haa over the discovery that England plans how to get Australia out has been blow into an outrage.

It's not a suprise to me. After all why shouldn't they?

All players have weaknesses and England have a chap whose job it is to analyse these and come up with strategies and field placings for each man: It increases your chances of getting them out if you know how they are likely to play.

Most clubs play league and cup cricket these days. From the County Championship down to Under 13's, there is always trophy to play for. But building a winning side is a combination of complex factors, something that comes naturally to some sides while others struggle to gel together over a summer.

Richard is a talented young club batsman and exceptional fielder. He plays for a club who are league high flyers so settles for scoring loads of runs in the 2nd team.

On the occasions when he is promoted to the 1st team, the batting is so strong he bats at 8 and doesn't get a game. He is making up the numbers for his fielding alone.

There have been a few books on cricket captaincy over the years. While they are all interesting to read up on, they all focus of skippering at the top level, but what about the role of the club captain?

The two jobs can be very different and not only in tactics.

Here are the 9 most important duties a club captain has:

Picture the scene: It's an important league game for your side. You take to the field on a sunny day full of enthusiasm. You jog between overs, clap every decent ball and are sharp on the singles.

But things don't quite go your way. The field starts to spread and wickets are not falling as you would hope.

How long before heads start to go down and the game is played in a kind of resigned silence?