Picture the scene. You are at the end of your run up. Conditions are in your favour and the ball has been swinging. Slips, gulley and the wicketkeeper are waiting.

You have been pitching the ball up a little further to encourage it to move but so far the batsman has been on top of you, hitting three drives through the gap at cover. He’s 12 not out.

You are not worried.

Nobody knows what the core is.

Is it your abs? Your deep musculature? Your lower back? Your shoulders? Your bum?

Try and find common textbook definition and you fail. Everyone has an idea what the core is, but it’s hard to find agreement on what exactly it is.

Add to this, the ability of the core area to do more than one thing and no wonder there is so much myth and confusion around core training to improve cricket.

So let's get back to basics.

Cricket and golf have a lot in common: sports that go on in the head as much as in the body.

For example, there is a story about a famous golfer who lost his form. He decided to seek one of the finest golf coaches in the world to sort out his technique.

The coach took the player to the driving range with a bucket of balls and asked him to show him his swing. The coach sat down on a chair and watched as the player hit a few balls.

In two simple practice sessions your club side could make dramatic improvements in both speed between the wickets and judgement of runs. That could lead to an extra 50 runs per innings in an afternoon match.

These sessions can be run by coaches or captains and don’t require much equipment beyond normal cricket stuff.

After warming up, this is how you do it.

Practice session one: Improving technique