Ian Botham is the King of Sky Sports pitch reports. But you can't have him at your game. How are you going to fathom out the way it will play without Beefys help?

With the year over it's time for a look back on the events of 2008, look forward to 2009 and say thank you for being a big part of what makes the site a success.

If you were reading this time last year you will have been amazed by the changes that have gone on in the last 12 months.

It's possible to make changes to your field without actually moving the fielders.

Tradition dictates that changing a field involves moving a fielder from one position to another. Mid off may go to deep mid off in defence or silly mid off in attack for example.

Last season my team were cruising to an easy victory in a one day game. We had skittled the opposition for 144 and were 120 for 2 in reply.

I was down to bat at 6 but had not bothered to pad up, a situation which rapidly changed when we lost our best batsman to a rash shot followed almost immediately by the new batsman muttering something about unplayable deliveries as we passed each other.

How much training can you do during the season?

Many people might say the more the better. I think it's more complex than that. After all, most club players will not have the time or resources to spend all day training. That's without the risks of injury and fatigue through overtraining.

Getting the balance right is a science and an art.

This complete guide covers the articles on this site that give you the answers to the questions:

Practice makes perfect, the coaches say. Researchers thought "how much?" and tried to find out.

The answer their research established was simple: 10,000 hours or 10 years of daily practice. This applies for everything from athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists or any field.

If you have been following the site recently you know I have been looking for a subject for the 2009 Case Study.

Competition has been fierce this year with cricketers of all ability levels, walks of life and ages applying. 5 dedicated souls reached the final stages with me whittling it down to just two over the weekend.

December the 21st in Britain seems like an innocuous day but this year it taught me something about cricket.

The date is the Winter Solstice: The shortest day of the year when we enjoy just 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight and darkness arrives before 4pm. Some might say that the depths of winter are depressing, dark, cold and often wet. Others may say this is the start of the long road towards summer.

International cricket grounds in England are dotted with brushed metal containers on the edge of the boundary advertising the energy drink Red Bull.

The drink claims in its advertising to "give you wings" and England Captain Kevin Pietersen is on record as drinking a can before going out to bat. Its big business for the companies that sell them but do energy drinks really help your cricket?