Jack Nicklaus is renowned for saying that the more he practiced, the luckier he got. It's a great philosophy but it ignores an important factor.

You don't have to do things perfectly to win.

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.

The famous saying goes: 'Fail to plan and you plan to fail' but who has the time to prepare from cricket when you have a life to live?

It's easier than you think.

Start with these 5 things before games and you will be better prepared and more likely to succeed.

1. Have a net. Netting prepares your body and mind for the task at hand. So after a good warm up, get in the net and get your looseners out of the way before the game starts.

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:

I'm sure you have seen wild claim adverts like that almost every day. How do you separate the facts from the snake oil?

It's not easy.

Getting it wrong could be expensive.

You could always ask someone who knows. You could investigate the facts for yourself to see how things match up.

But the real key to remember with these types of claims is: 'If it's too good to be true, it probably is'.

Have you ever wondered why run rates in One Day International cricket are so much faster than those in club cricket?

Top teams feel comfortable scoring at anything up to 10 an over at the death, while many club games still meander along at 4.

As you know, there are factors like less true wickets and harder hitting batsmen to take into account but any side can improve the speed they score at.

Has your cricket club got a coach?

I'm talking about the senior section here, not the colts or youth teams. If not, have you ever considered why not?

I know that at the clubs I have played the answer to both questions is 'no'.

It's an increasingly common site across the cricket fields of the world: Games without draws. These games are a totally different way of playing with their own challenges for cricketers, especially captains.

The essential difference between the two forms is that you don't need to bowl the opposition out to win. This means you are looking to defend in the field far more quickly, ideally using the basic field placing structure to cut off as many runs as possible in the V.