You are certainly not alone. Everyone who has played cricket wonders how good they really are.

Some people take that wonder and run with it. Doing everything right to give themselves the best chance of success. Others take that wonder and think they are doing things right.

But the chances are that you are making one of these classic mistakes and it’s railroading your efforts to become a cricketer.

1. You don’t have a plan

If your plan is to hope for a chance to become a professional cricketer then you don’t have a plan.

A plan for cricket success is a series of steps that take you from where you are to where you want to go. It’s a roadmap that helps you stay on the right path.

Sure, even the best sat-nav systems need to recalculate to get around traffic and road blocks. Your plan also needs to be flexible. But you have to have one because the alternative is to put your game in the hands of fate.

2. You’re not accountable

There is a famous cliché that ‘no man is an island’. We all need the motivation of others to get through the tough times. When training is hard and you are playing badly you want someone who understands your challenges.

Cricket is by its nature a team game played by individuals. You may find you have no one close to you in your team despite playing and training together. This leads to going through the motions.

It’s times like this that online accountability like PitchVision Academy can put you in touch with like-minded souls across the world. You can commit to just one action, tell your support system, and report back on if you did it.

3. You make failure a dead end

There is a theory that what separates those with talent from those without talent is simply the ability to keep working in the face of extreme failure.

Most people try hard, and when they fail they give up. They sell their bat and go back to playing the Nintendo.

But everyone fails. It takes players like Pietersen and Duminy to face that failure, and steel themselves to try even harder to succeed. Enrol on their courses to learn their lessons.

Failure is not a dead end, it’s just a detour. As soon as you realise you only need to adjust your route and carry on with your plan you are much more likely to succeed.