OK it’s official – Kevin Shine replaces Troy Cooley as England fast bowling coach. Shine has been Cooley’s assistant for the last year, and Simon Jones is just one of the bowlers who has benefitted from his coaching.

Kevin Shine is of course one of the biomechanic coaches, operating the Vicon 3-D £250,000 computing imaging machine. If you can’t afford one of these then hire it for a day – a snip at £10,000, and look at all the pressure ponts on the skeleton as you deliver the ball.

While the talk last summer was of reverse swing, over the winter the England bowling coaches have been rumoured to be working on “contrast swing.” This only comes into play when the ball is 40 overs old, and it swings very late. Although few bowlers have mastered it. We’ll have to wait and see whether it’s used by the England team in India.