The Midweek net continues this week at the now established venue of The John Warner Sports Centre in Hoddesdon. The session will commence at 7pm and is likely to continue until at least 8.30pm.

The usual £2.50 per player will be charged, and it will serve as a great night for players involved in the massive collapse on Sunday to start rebuilding. On that note, it would also be a good idea for everyone to watch Andy’s internet clips posted yesterday, and pay particular attention to the second link in which Ricky Ponting talks about batting practice in the nets.

The main point to take is that you should use the first 5 minutes to defend your wicket and play yourself in as you would in a match. Good balls should be defended and bad balls should be dispatched safely on the floor. Sunday’s collapse demonstrated that a large proportion of batsman have no idea how to defend their wicket. Andy needed someone to hang around at “the other end”, so that he could build the score at his end. Sometimes batting for tailenders is not about scoring runs, but purely about frustrating the opposition.

Cricket is definitely one of the sports where the more you put in, the more you get out. Practice may not make you perfect, but it will certainly help in the long run to build confidence and make you a better player.