Cricket My Way. Ian Botham

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       Graham Gooch, England and Essex. An unusual stance, but the raised bat and straight legs work for him. A perfect position of head and level eyes.

      There is one technical advantage in a wider stance: it cuts down unnecessary movement. Most batting errors stem from incorrect movement of either feet or head, or both. For instance, if the feet are together against a really fast bowler the great majority of strokes will have to be off the back foot. So as well as valuable split seconds being lost in getting back on to the stumps, the whole body is on the move, and a ball coming at around 85 miles an hour over about 19 yards is difficult enough to keep out, even if you are in a correct position.

      The position and alignment of the feet are aimed at producing a sideways stance, with the batting crease the ideal dividing line between the feet.

      Standing ‘spread’, with the head still, cuts movement down to a minimum, as I soon worked out for myself – all because it felt comfortable. That magic word again.

      In my opinion, the big disadvantage of standing with feet too close together is that the batsman has little balance. For instance, if you stand with both feet together it won’t take a strong person to push you off balance with just a forefinger; but if you spread your feet you have a solid base to resist much more pressure.

      The other thing to remember is not to stand too rigid. If you do, all sorts of movements have to take place before contact is attempted. To illustrate the point, there is another valid comparison to make in golf, which I think has a lot in common with batting, although one game involves a moving ball and the other does not. All the top pros go through the same routine in setting up for each shot, and they have a key which releases the backswing. Jack Nicklaus, for instance, has that slight turn of the head to the right. There are players like Sam Torrance and Greg Norman who sometimes do not ground their club, because that makes their body too rigid.

      The same with batting. Flex the knees slightly and make sure the body weight is evenly distributed, so that you can either play forward or back, dependent upon the length of the ball.

      Try not to crouch; although there again there are plenty of successful batsmen in top cricket who don’t ‘stand tall’ at the crease, and it works for them, crouching is not ideal.

      A lot of nonsense is talked about a ‘two-eyed’ stance, which is supposed to mean that the batsman is too square on and therefore likely to play across the ball.

      The temptation in trying to concentrate on a perfect sideways stance is not to allow the head to look straight down the pitch at the bowler, and so the batsman finds himself really only looking with one and a half eyes.

      Both eyes should face the bowler, on a level keel with the head still. It sounds obvious, but batsmen forget that once the head moves, the rest of the body follows suit.

      To sum up, make sure the feet are spread wide enough to suit you, with the knees slightly bent. Make sure both eyes are watching the bowler, and keep that head still.

      That deals with everything, except the rather important matter of the position of the toe of the bat. It can either be grounded or not, and I change according to type of pitch conditions and the pace of the bowlers.

      Assuming that I can ground it, I always do so behind my right foot. Some batsmen ground the bat away from them, but that only increases the possibility of picking it up crookedly, so I would advise against that.

      The great Sir Donald Bradman apparently used to ground his bat between his feet. Again I would never tell a batsman to copy him because somehow the bat has to be taken outside the back foot, and that can only be done by taking it out towards gully. But, as the record books show, ‘The Don’ was hardly a failure, which only proves once again that no matter how peculiar some part of your technique may look, as long as it works for you, never change because some coach wants you to look more elegant.

       The face of the bat open to point, with the eyes facing the bowler and the head held still. This photo was taken as I was about to ‘step into’ a drive.

       Prolific run scorer Peter Willey here demonstrates everything that is wrong in a stance – but it has not prevented him playing many fine innings over the years.

       THE PICK-UP

      Now to the last part of the set-up before the ball arrives – the pick-up. Everything I have said so far is aimed at helping you to hold the bat properly and stand at the crease in the manner most likely to produce a straight, correct back-lift of the bat.

      Remember that although this vital part of your technique can be individualistic, if a bat is picked up incorrectly, it is probable it will also be presented to the ball wrongly. I tend to take the bat back towards slip, instead of the classical takeaway back over leg stump, and in this way I adopt the same technique as some West Indians. Notably Rohan Kanhai, who although he used to pick up towards gully invariably managed to drop inside from the top and come down in a beautifully straight line.

      Again, don’t worry if what works for you does not suit your coach, because the game is full of players who have made the most unlikely looking methods work successfully. I have already mentioned the stances of Peter Willey and Graham Gooch. Peter stands so front-on that both feet point straight down the pitch, his left shoulder faces square leg, and it seems impossible for him ever to score on the off side. But he shuffles round just as the ball is delivered, and consequently his pick-up is not so much off line as most people think.

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