Welcome to Howzat!, the free magazine from www.cricket-for-parents.com.

In this issue, read about "How to Play Cricket", the new e-book from www.cricket-for-parents.com; discover how the Mongoose made its debut at the IPL; be the "predator" - improve your throwing accuracy with the cross fire game, and read about the latest ECB fast bowling directive.


How to Play Cricket e-book

The Cricket-for–Parents e-book is now available on my web site. Its a 40 page PDF book titled “How to Play Cricket”, and is packed with articles on how to play cricket and enjoy the game as a parent, player and fan.

It’s fully hyperlinked to the key cricket sites on the web, and is packaged with three free bonus features that you won’t find anywhere else – a checklist of 50 essential items to keep in your cricket bag, top tips on how to organise a junior cricket match, and a hyperlinked list of the 50 BEST cricket websites.

You can find out more at http://www.cricket-for-parents.com/how-to-play-cricket-ebook.html.

Mongoose Wins the Day

The Mongoose has made its debut at IPL3. This wasn’t a furry, carnivorous mammal, but a cricket bat designed specifically for T20 cricket. Its the same length as a conventional bat, but has a long handle and short blade which, according to the manufacturers, gives the bat 20% more power and 15% more bat speed.

Matthew Hayden is using the Mongoose for Chennai Super Kings and, after a couple of false starts which caused considerable mirth, scored a brutal 93 for CSK that left Delhi Daredevils and all other witnesses in complete awe. Hayden is brutal enough with a standard cricket bat, but this was in a different league.

The Mongoose is designed to be within the laws of cricket, but made for the power hitting of T20 rather than more subtle batting skills. Cricket bats were actually this shape in the early days of cricket so the wheel may be turning full circle. But, will it catch on for longer this time?

For more info on cricket bats, visit http://www.cricket-for-parents.com/cricket-bats.html


The Cross Fire Fielding Skills Game

Here’s a fun game to improve throwing accuracy. The fielders are divided into two teams, F1 and F2, and the grid is set out as in the picture. This set up needs eight cones (red), around 10-12 tennis balls, and a large ball to act as a football (blue). The cones are used to define the goal line for each team (red), and to increase/decrease the distance of the fielding lines (blue) from the large ball.

The objective is for each team to throw tennis balls at the large ball, and drive it over the opposition team’s goal line to score a goal. After a goal is scored, the tennis balls are collected by their team at the command of the coach (C), and the game restarts again from each fielding line. It can help if each team designates a “sweeper” to collect opposition balls which run behind them during play. If both team’s balls are used up but no goals are scored, then the coach gives the command to collect the used balls and start again.

The game can run for a set time, or until a set number of goals are scored. Variations can include changing the distance of the fielding lines from the target ball, adding a second large ball, reducing the number of tennis balls and reducing or increasing the number of throwers.

For more info on cricket skills, visit http://www.cricket-for-parents.com/cricket-coaching.html

Safety First

Bowling isn’t a natural process for anyone’s body, and either too much bowling and/or a bowling action that mixes front-on and side-on actions can cause injury. A good coach can help junior bowlers to develop a safe, effective action, however, preventing too much bowling in the nets or in a match is a different matter.

The ECB fast bowling directive has addressed this during the last few years, however after a two year consultation, the directive has been amended for 2010. If you’re responsible for applying this guidance, you can read more about it on the ECB website at http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/directives-guidelines/ecb-fast-bowling-directives,100,BP.html.

The bottom line is, fast bowlers at under-17 level and younger can now bowl one extra over per spell, but under-18s and under-19s have had the total number of overs they can deliver per day reduced from 21 to 18. The directive defines a fast bowler as one to whom a wicketkeeper of the same age group would normally stand back to take the ball.

Even if ECB directives don’t apply in your country, you may want to consider them as they’re based on lots of research and common sense.

Until next time!

Best wishes,