Great target Nishi. How do you plan to do it?

Same question then Kelvin. How do you plan to make it happen?

David you may have seen this already as it's from my blog - I know you advocate setting goals and recording them and this is part of that process - Plans and Hopes 2007-2008
Bowling

After spending all summer trying to get the Flipper to pay dividends as my stock ball I've had to review the situation. It seems that in practice (This is still the case now) I can get my Flipper to turn acutely across the wicket from Leg to Off. But on the wicket at Blackshots it just wasn't happening and that tied in with the psychological aspects of having my confidence knocked for 4 along with the ball mean that my bowling was poor.
Then in the last game we played I saw the bloke that got the multiple maidens. He seemed to be bowling straight balls, straight down the wicket at the stumps on a good to short length, nothing flash just very consistent. So I've left the Flippers and now I'm concentrating on bowling Top Spinners but getting them to land in a very small area to order. So over the next few months all I'm doing is bowling 95% Top Spinners concentrating on line, length and flight. The other 5% will be the ocassional Flipper and Wrong Un which will serve as my variations. On that front since laying off the Flippers and concentrating on the Top Spinners it seems the rest has done wonders for the Flipper as it seems to be a lot more accurate now that I bowl it less?

With regards playing for G&CCC my main strategy will be to try and ensure that I don’t suffer any injuries. Seemingly the problem areas are

• Sprinting in the outfield calf muscles
• Sprinting in the outfield thigh muscles
• Throwing the ball in from the outfield shoulder and upper arm muscles.

Needless to say it sounds like I might have to do some kind of training with my legs, either more running or more cricket specific running. Looking back all the time I was practicing over at Great Berry I never suffered and that represented cricket specific training. As soon as we had the problems at Great Berry and the practicing tailed off that’s when the injuries started to occur. It may have been the reason for both the arm and leg muscle pulls?
With the throwing it’s also obvious technique is also an issue, so I’ve got to look at my technique.
Bowling aims – to take more wickets. The equivalent of one per week would be really good and to reduce the amount of runs I conceded. All of this I’m hoping will simply fall in place because of the new strategy with the Top Spinner ball which will become my stock ball. I’m hoping that the fact that I deliver it straight will mean it will threaten the stumps and cause the batsmen to play in a more cautious manner.

Persevere with the Flipper and the Wrong Un and have them as my other balls in addition to the Top Spinner.

Batting – I’ve not even addressed this yet, but one of the blokes at G&CCC commented that I need to move my feet more and stand slightly sideway to the stumps rather than directly in front of the stumps and then not move. At the end of the summer I had started to practice with a ball up against a wall which was useful in that it forced me to move my feet in relation to the trajectory of the ball otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get behind or on top of the ball. The thing with this is finding a decent wall and a ball with the right amount of bounce. Having said that now having discovered the basket ball courts with their high fences and tight nit mesh I may be able to use large bouncy balls if they come back off the fence in the same trajectory that they went into the fence? Something to look at for the future. Ideally when the spring comes I’ll be able to resume practicing on Great Berry and people will join in over there.

Teams – Obviously I’ll be playing all year with G&CC. Other than that I’m looking to get a team together within the college amalgamating our old MPA teams with sports science. The intention then is to play against G&CCC a couple of times if not more.

The other thing I’d like to do is get the blokes over at Glouscester Park to get a team together and play them over at Glouscester Park or Great Berry. There is so much potential there it would be a shame if those blokes never ever got to play a real game, so I’m determined that I get that together somehow.

Fitness

I've started a fitness regime with a strategy to get my upper body strength increased - arms and shoulders with some attention to core strength. I've got a series of exercises I'm doing every other day and for the next month I'll be doing the exercises and seeing how I get on. I'd imagine that if I keep it up for a week or two the exercises will then become easier and I'll increase the amount of reps. Once I get organised what I may also do is post the exercises on www.simplycricket.net and get feedback from the people on there - Liz Ward and David Hinchcliffe of www.pitchvision.com That way hopefully I'll be building up to a good start to the season at G&CCC

It probably makes more sense if you look at the blog and my comments on the simplycricket website.

Cheers
Dave

Good luck Andy. How are you going to do it?

wow that's a big aim. Are you playing first class cricket?

Firstly, I just want to get a good run of games under my belt! I guess the weather may have to assist with that one though.

Seriously, I want to get settled back into playing good, hard cricket, picking up my pace and improving my batting. I'll also be looking at vastly improving my fitness, with help no doubt from here.

Wishing you all a happy 2008!

Tom

Just got one ambition - find somewhere to play as I've just moved to Berlin! Might have to settle for indoor cricket but we will see.

good luck in your new city

Having only really got my game going properly last season for a local club side where the aim is more about having an enjoyable game than the fierce competitive aspect of things, my aims for 2008 are to either take 5 wickets for the season (I'm very much a part-time bowler) or to break the 25-run mark in a single innings - preferably both, but we shall see.

In 2007, the aim was to either break double figures with the bat in a single innings or to bowl a full 8-over spell, both of which were acheived, so I'm hoping for the same this year!

Not tremendously ambitious goals, I know, but I find I'd rather set reachable goals and reevaluate during the season than set an unrealistic goal for myself and feel like I've failed when I inevitably don't reach it.

hi
my aim is to increase my bowling speed to a much extent. & also to get more fitter & power

Well ma ambition is totally different from others............... I know i ve got the talent to make it where i want, but there is one thing that is badly stopping me to get there...........SMOKING!!! after playing in the U-17 side, i took it all 2 easy & started smoking on ma freiends' insistence but now i find I m really getting f*** up!!! i mean i can't even play an innings longer than say 70!! Please can u help me with quiting smoking?? & will i be able to regain wat i used to be after 2 years of smoking??? HELP PLEASE!!

you should now start with the 2009 version of this.

where is the 2009 version?!?

My Targets batting wise;
1) Nothing under 15
2) Score at run a ball at least
3) Always bat at least 8 overs
4) More quick singles and generally better running
5) 120 runs

Ben, they are great goals mate but try not to be negative(not being rude). For example 'nothing under 15' puts a bit of pressure on yourself which will make you nervous before a match. Maybe try average over 15 every match. Because sometimes the bowl you get out on is unplayable. Hope this helped

I think bens approach with trying to get past 15 runs every game and hang in there for at least 8 overs is a good way to think when your out there batting. So you can always have mini goals. To get to 15 you'd probably take your time and after 8 overs he should be well and truly settled in and will lift the scoring rate so eventually he would end up scoring at a run a ball. Bens set up a good way to approach your innings with those first 4 goals. With that approach i think you will easily get your goal of scoring 120 runs altogether. =)