Glenn McGrath's bowling tips for beginners

1: Be tall.

2: Try and land six balls out of six, three inches outside off-stump. When you hit the seam, the ball should strike the very top of off-stump if it goes one way and should find the edge of the bat if it goes the other way.

It's sometimes helpful to identify a particular blade of grass to aim for. That way you know at what exact fraction of a picosecond to release the ball.

3: Beginners often make the mistake of not being tall or of landing the ball in several different spots. If you're prone to these mistakes, apply steps one to two.

Also see Glenn McGrath's bowling tips for experts

Glenn McGrath's bowling tips for experts

1: Be tall.

2: Land six balls out of six, three inches outside off-stump. When you hit the seam, the ball should strike the very top of off-stump if it goes one way and should find the edge of the bat if it goes the other way.

It's sometimes helpful to identify a particular blade of grass to aim for. That way you know at what exact fraction of a picosecond to release the ball.

Don't worry if you're out by a millimetre or so - it'll keep the batsman guessing and you can also make the most of any uneven bounce.

3: If the pressure's on and you need to restrict the flow of runs, apply steps one to two.

4: If the pressure's on and you need to take wickets, apply steps one to two.

Also see Glenn McGrath's bowling tips for beginners

We're a little bit concerned that Kevin Shine might be talking balls about Steve Harmison

Steve Harmison bowled loads of wides and other garbage during the first Test. Kevin Shine is England's bowling coach. It's his job to mend Steve. Here's what we just read in the Sydney Morning Herald:

According to Shine, a change of just two degrees in the angle of Harmison's bowling arm was the initial cause of the fast bowler's problems.
When bowling at his best, Harmison's arm is six degrees past the perpendicular towards his head. That, however, blew out to eight degrees at various stages at the Gabba, prompting him to lose all sense of direction and rhythm in his first few spells.

We'll be the first to admit that we know less about the technicalities of elite fast bowling that we do about 'applying ourself'. However, two degrees sounds like a mighty fine line between success and abject failure.

Kevin Shine might well be right, but we're worried that to the ears of Steve Harmison, this sounds like: "Steve. There is, quite literally, NO margin for error here. If you're out with one of your movements, by so much as a degree, you'll transform into Crap Bowling Man."

With this playing on your mind in front of millions of people, how would you bowl? We get a bit wobbly and uncertain when we think someone's watching us walk and walking's piss-easy.

Lasith Malinga's bowling action

Lasith Malinga's bowling action is first-class. He slats it. He whangs it. He slings it. He doesn't chuck it. Better not use the word 'chuck'. No, what Lasith Malinga does is what all of us used to do when we were kids. He just tries to propel the ball as fast as humanly possible. It looks pretty weird, but it's effective. There are pros and cons.

Pros:

Lasith Malinga's action uses every part of his body in generating pace.

The ball is released from an unusually low point, which can catch out batsmen used to more conventional actions.

If he swings the ball in, it will also dip, due to the angle of the seam. Waqar Younis's inswinging yorker did this. Waqar Younis's inswinging yorker was just about the best delivery there's ever been.

If he swings it out, the ball will also rise, pitching fuller than the batsmen anticipates. This is likely to lead to false strokes.

Cons:

Accuracy. If Lasith Malinga releases at the wrong moment, the ball will either go full and down the leg side, or short and on the off-side.

Those of you with modern internet connections or at work can see a video of Lasith Malinga bowling against the West Indies here.

Go on Lasith Malinga. You fire your tennis ball into that piece of wood propped up with a brick. Your bowling action's purer than any in international cricket.


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Lasith Malinga - cheat?

This is slightly apropos of nothing, but there's always someone moaning about Lasith Malinga's bowling action.

One of his critics' main points is that he breaks the rules and cheats. We don't actually think that Malinga does break the rules, but let's assume for a moment that he does.

What is 'cheating'? It's gaining an unfair advantage somehow, isn't it? Even if Malinga does break the rules, does he get an unfair advantage?

No. He doesn't get any advantage at all through the way he bowls. It's a disadvantage. It's a crippling disadvantage and it's miraculous that he's so effective. He succeeds in spite of his action, not because of it.

Have any of his critics attempted to bowl like him to see the true effects of his 'cheating'? When the first two deliveries get fielded by deep square leg and the third by cover, they'll realise that Malinga's round-arm action isn't cheating.