It’s been a few days since we made the changes to PitchVision Academy, and I wanted to take a moment to say a quiet “thank you” to you.

You the reader, you the listener to the podcast, you the member of PitchVision Academy and everyone else like you are the reason we work so passionately on the site. Your positive feedback about the changes has helped us get through the tricky parts and made most of it a lot of fun.

In a specially extended show we bring up a century in true PitchVision style.

The captain is the all powerful dictator of a cricket team. At first glance it’s his tactical nous that makes a group of individuals into a team and wins matches.

Despite this appearance, good teams operate with a collective consciousness that is greater than even the captain. It’s almost like the Borg. Just like the science-fiction hive mind race, when you are all working together, resistance is futile.

The cricket bat is more than a lump of willow with a rubber handle. It is your only weapon in the quest for the runs you need to succeed.

No wonder so many batsmen love their blade so much they can’t even be parted with it at bedtime. It‘s like losing a beloved family pet when the time comes to replace it. Sometimes it has to be done. Sometimes tape and sandpaper and oil are no longer enough.

This article is a story of fast bowling success from a young reader who emailed in to PitchVision Academy.

I’m a  13 year-old fast bowler. Last season I learned a trick which helped me turn a season around.

In another guest article, club left arm spinner AB talks us through exactly where to land the ball to cause maximum damage to batsmen’s averages.

We all know the key to top quality spin bowling is to bowl a consistent line and length. But what does that actually mean?

First we need to figure out where is the best length to bowl.

We want a length that is full enough that the batsman is forced to come forward, but not so full that he is able to reach the ball on the half volley without mis-hitting it.

Do you bowl or coach leg spin? Do you want to improve your skills?

If you said ‘yes’ to that you want to act fast because I’m about to close both offers of free leg spin advice.

As you know I have been giving away free leg spin videos and articles to celebrate the launch of online coaching courses by Mohammed Haroon, our leg spin coach.

But we can’t do it forever so we are giving you a last chance to:

Let me be the first to welcome you to the exciting new PitchVision Academy pages, come in, take a look around and make yourself at home.

As you know, we have had the virtual decorators in to give the place a full makeover (if you are reading this in an RSS feed or email you can click here to check out our pimped ride).

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: A pre-match warm up that practices the skills of chasing down a ball in pairs and backing up.