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

In this issue, find out how to throw a cricket ball like the professionals, read the latest hot news on the return of the referral system, and check out some top tips on buying a new cricket bag.

How to throw like a pro

I went to Edgbaston last week to watch day 5 of the Ashes Test. While Australia batted well to save the match, I really appreciated the athletic fielding and the effortless throws that fly to the wicketkeeper like an arrow! So, how do they do that?

Every fielder needs a good accurate throwing arm, because an accurate throw can make the difference between winning and losing a match. Pick the ball up and form a low base with the knees bent and legs astride in the direction of the throw. Grip the ball across the seam with your index and middle fingers behind the ball, and thumb below it. Raise the throwing arm to “12 o’clock” behind your head and point your non-throwing arm at the target.

Bring the throwing arm through in a vertical plane, and follow through with your throwing shoulder towards the target. Keep your eyes level throughout the throw, and keep your fingers behind the ball until the point of release. Keeping your eyes level and throwing from 12 o’clock will help with accuracy and power. It helps me to aim slightly higher than the wicket keeper’s gloves, because I know that the ball will dip in its trajectory.

A good practice drill is to stand about 10 metres away from the stumps, and try and hit them as many times as you can. Once this gets easy, try moving further away from the wickets. Practice makes perfect, so keep up the repetitions until you can hit every time. Then, try this drill on the move with a friend rolling the ball for you to chase. For inspiration, watch Ricky Ponting or AB De Villiers in action – only the bravest batsmen will challenge these predators to a quick single!

You can find out more coaching tips at http://www.cricket-for-parents.com/cricket-coaching.html

TV Referrals – do they still appeal to you?

After the controversial debut of video referrals last year, the ICC has decided to bring back the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS). The ICC have decided that the positives of getting more decisions right outweighed the negatives, including eroding umpire's authority. The new UDRS system will make it clearer when a decision can be changed after appeals from the batsmen or fielding captain, but I understand that in general the onfield umpire and the batsman will be given the benefit of the doubt. The system will be phased in from October 2009, after the top umpires have been fully trained and the technology has been “fine tuned”.

Video reviews still divide the cricket media, but even the doubters have had to concede that some of the key decisions in the current Ashes series would have been justifiably reversed by video review. And, some of the leading umpires are also in favour. Rudi Koertzen and Daryl Harper said they would be happy at the end of each day to be sure that their decisions were correct and that players can enjoy a fair playing environment. The recently retired Steve Bucknor is also in favour, but only if the referral is made by the onfield umpire – in his view, better that the umpire makes sure and cuts down on the number of mistakes than for captains to run out of reviews and then see a series of shockers given against them.

It isn’t clear what “fine tuning” means yet, but I hope that all the available technology is part of the new package, including “hot spot” and the “snickometer”. I’m in favour of the review system, but only if it gives the umpires the right tools to do a difficult job even better than they do it now.

You can find out more about high tech cricket analysis at http://www.cricket-for-parents.com/cricket-on-TV.html

Buying the best cricket bag

A good cricket bag is possibly the most important cricket accessory, but often gets the least attention. Its no use having the best cricket equipment in the world if you can’t carry it easily and safely. A good bag makes good use of modern technology but doesn’t have to cost the earth, so here’s a rough guide about what to look for.

Cricket bags live in a harsh environment. They are routinely crammed into car boots, dragged across muddy fields and trampled in crowded changing rooms, as well as being brim full of heavy cricket kit. So, they need to be durable. Hard wearing 1200 denier polyester fabric with anti-scuff corner protection is a good start. Look for a heavy duty integrated wheel system – cricket kit is heavy, so a wheelie bag is essential. All zips should be heavy duty and rust proof, and the top and towing handles need to be suitably sturdy.

End and side pockets are useful for carrying small items of clothing as well as essentials like bat tape, spare boot studs and stud keys, sun cream, bottled water and practice balls. A shoe tunnel keeps boots away from other kit, and an external bat sleeve will help to stop your bat being damaged by contact with metal objects like boot studs or a helmet grille.

To state the obvious, a cricket bag has to be at least long enough to hold a cricket bat, but short enough to fit in a car boot. A cricket helmet, pads and bat take a lot of space even at junior kit sizes, so its good to plan for expansion. Its tempting to buy from the wide range of bags available on the web, but its difficult to gauge their capacity without seeing them first. As a rough guide, a 90cm bag is long enough to hold an adult bat, but if you have a local retailer its still worth checking out what a large bag looks like. In my experience, its good to buy big because you always have more kit than you think!

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

Until next time!

Best wishes,