The idea of layering electrical tape to one side of a soft-ball to make it hoop and swing seems to have sprung up in Pakistan, where ‘Tapeball’ has long been the street’s riposte to the age-old issue of bat’s dominance over ball. The idea is that taping up one half of a tennis ball and giving that side more weight can replicate the properties of the manipulated leather ball. And it works. In the right hands this can result in the kind of carving swing that Waqar Younis once trademarked. Now the big manufacturing companies have cottoned on and sell their own versions of the street classic. As with all good ideas… 8. The Skyer

From those elementary stretching exercises, you can now move on to practise some throwing drills. Underarm throwing at stumps or cones can help you to get that arm nice and loose and then you can move on to something more strenuous. We’ve had a number of enquiries recently from parents with fond memories of the cradle they used at school many years ago, anxious that their offspring have a taste of the same experience. His place in Yorkshire history is strongly imprinted, even though his county batting average was only 30.73. It was for several summers one of the most powerful county sides ever, and his steady batting, immaculate slip fielding and calm counsel brought much to his county's cause, through triumph, crisis and infighting.No player matched him as a slip fielder: he was utterly reliable, relaxed and confident, never throwing the ball up after catching it (his father, a mill executive, said this was only for "swanks"). When it came to matches, slip catching always seemed far easier than during those cradle sessions. At times, the cradle distorted the flight of the ball in such a dramatic fashion that it overtaught the catcher. While stochastic calculus bothers students of mathematics, the subject distracts few accountants. Slip catches in matches tended to be perfunctory, straight-lined dollies edging to land snug in one’s mitts.

Born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Sharpe went to Worksop college in Nottinghamshire, where he polished his skills during countless hours with the slip cradle, and in 1955 scored two double-centuries. Two years of national service in the army delayed his Yorkshire debut until 1958.

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The good news is that the original hand-made cradle is still available – a craftsman built treasure put together from a small workshop hidden away deep amongst the strawberry fields of Herefordshire. A slip cradle is a piece of equipment which is known, primarily, for helping slip fielders to practise their catching. However, it can also be useful for practising throwing. Stand away from the equipment and throw the ball into the cradle. Our manufacturer does the whole thing from scratch – cutting, forming and welding mild steel to make the heavy frame and working local ash into the long laths which are stretched and bent to fit the frame. As he works largely from memory in his head and his hands virtually no formal measuring is done or templates used, so each one is unique. The finished object is a fine thing to see, a far cry from imported imitations very often made from fibre – glass.