The Brian Statham guide to keeping bowling simple

Modern cricket is a game swamped with fashions and coaching theories. It can get confusing for young bowlers who just want to take a few more wickets.

So it's very tempting to go back to English fast bowler Brian Statham for a much more simple answer.

Statham took 252 Test wickets at twenty fours during a time when conditions did not always suit fast-medium bowling. He always seemed to be second fiddle to someone, Tyson or Trueman, because of his quiet understated ability to get on with bowling non-stop come rain or shine.

In first class cricket his average of 16.37 is lower than any other bowler of note in the 20th century. Not bad when you consider he took well over 2000 wickets.

And he achieved it all by keeping it as simple as possible.

Bowl 5 good balls

Statham worked on the theory that if he bowled 5 balls an over that the batsman had to play, wickets would always come. Bowling as a percentage game.

He would consider it a waste of energy to run in and watch the batsman leave it so he developed an unnerving accuracy, rarely deviating from a good line and length except to bowl yorkers.

He did this by bowling and bowling, as all good pacemen should do. If you want success there is no substitute for practicing your accuracy. And the good news is you can do it on your own in the nets. Either with a low tech solution (a blanket to mark a good length) or something to record and track your results via Bluetooth to your mobile phone.

If you played darts you wouldn't enter a competition without throwing a few arrows at a dartboard first would you?

Be as fast as you can be

But Statham wasn't just about accuracy. He also had serious pace. He wasn't up there with the fastest of his time, but he made the most of the speed he had, especially after remodelling his action.

And that's important. If you want to trouble batsman, making them feel rushed is part of the job. If they are worried when the inswinging toe-crusher is coming they are not as certain against you.

Even if you bowl slow medium pace, you should be looking to move up speed because the quicker you are the harder it is for the batsman. You might never be the fastest in the team, but that's OK as long as you are as fast as you can be.

Like Statham, you can remodel your action for speed and accuracy. The good news is you can do it with the help of Andy Caddick, another fine pace bowler.

When you keep things simple you avoid getting a cluttered mind and you can get on with the business of bowling; which is simply waiting to pounce when the batsman makes a mistake. Or in other words: You miss, I hit.