Starting a cricket season without goals could be compared to batting blindfolded in dark. What would be your chance of hitting ball? It is essential to set goals at start of season to aim for: How many runs, wickets or catches will you takes? Giving yourself a target to aim for will help focus your mind and mentally prepare you for setting plans to achieve them.

If when you start your cricket season, you have no goals and aim at nothing; is it not unlikely that you will hit nothing and achieve nothing? If you haven’t set goals, start now and set yourself goal to score 250 runs or take 60 wickets by end of season, then plan how you will do it.

To set effective goals there are a few things you need to know about yourself which will affect how you set your goals. You are affected by, environment in which you live, your experience and knowledge, your attitude and dreams and visions for future.

When you set your goals you need to decide what you want and when you want to achieve each goal. You should spend time writing down your goals and display them in a prominent position where you will see them daily to remind yourself to stay motivated and focused. Cross off your goals once they’ve been achieved, add new ones to ensure when you reach your goals, you can further them and take your cricket to next level.

- The brand, - The size, - The model, - The weight,

…these are just a few factors to consider.

This article will look briefly at a few tips to follow when it comes to replacing your old favourite bat with a new cricket bat.

Choosing a cricket bat based on its brand really comes down to personally preference, as realistically there is not much major difference between brands. They all have cricket bats with similar attributes and features; it is variation between models that I would pay closer attention too, not brand name. However it is worth mentioning that some of new Kookaburra cricket bat models are almost unique, as some are now reinforced with a new graphite matrix, giving “maximum power transfer and increased strength”.

When buying a new cricket bat, carefully select model of cricket bat that most suitably fits your style of play. As some bats are designed specifically certain styles in mind, for example Kookaburra Big Kahuna, is designed for strong, ‘big hitters’. Whereas Kookaburra Kahuna Ricky Ponting cricket bat is an excellent choice for a stroke player who likes to hit boundaries.

It is very important when buying a new cricket bat to choose correct size bat. As a bat that is too large or too small will only hinder your playing ability. I’ve found best way to determine if a bat is of right size, is to stand in your batting stance and rest toe of bat against outside of your back foot, lean cricket bat so that top of handle rests next to inside groin of your front leg. If bat is of right size it should rest comfortably next to your box on inside groin of your front leg.