Somewhere in the world right now is a cricketer panicking.

He's panicking because his season starts in two or three weeks and he has spent the winter doing anything but cricket.

He was too busy for nets, he forgot about the gym membership he paid for in January and pressure for his time comes from all sides; family, friends and work.

Maybe that guy is even you.

If it is, you're not alone. Life gets in the way of good intentions.

While you know you can't get the time back, there is some emergency last minute prep you can do to make sure you are in some shape for the first few games and you don't end up making a fool of yourself.

You could call it the 5 minute preseason panic buster. Here is what you do:

1. Make the one net you have count

Ideally you would practice every week a couple of times. You haven't done that up until now, so chances are things are not going to change over the summer and you will have a couple of nets here and there.

Make some time to have one before the first game, then do the following:

• Catching practice. Do your catching first and catch balls in the same way as you would in a game. If you know you will fine leg to mid on, don't spend half an hour working on slip catches. DO enough so you feel a little more confident because catching is as much about confidence as it is skill.
• Skill work. There is no time to make any technical changes to your game, so spend your net focusing on getting the feel back. If you bat, hit a few easy throwdowns, if you bowl look to hit your length, then get out of there before some slogger makes you feel awful about yourself.

2. Don't do any exercise

You have missed your window for physical improvement in the preseason, and most people who try to make up the difference end up overcompensating and getting injured.

You are better off with a little bit of stretching and mobility work every day and forgetting about the gym or going for a run, at least until you can find time to build up slowly.

3. Assess your strengths

One thing you do have time to do is think about how you will play. You can't suddenly make improvements, but with a bit of thought you remind yourself what brought you success in the past so you can do it again in the future.

For example, if you bat you might have a great cover drive but a weakness off your legs. So you decide to look to score through the covers and defend balls on your legs. With just two or three shots you can do very well and avoid getting stressed or cluttering your mind by trying to improve weak areas in games.

Sit down and decide your approach for the season based on your strengths.

4. Get your thinking in order

Speaking of planning, the most important thing you can do with no preseason behind you is build up your confidence. You do that by working out:

• A routine that works for you. You may feel better with a well planned pre-match routine, or a last minute dash to the ground. Whatever works best for you, stick to it.
• A method for handling mistakes. You will make errors, the way you handle them will mark out your success for the season.
• Playing under pressure. Most people don't think about how they will play under pressure but it's an important skill to understand about yourself. Think it through and come up with ways of coping with a run chase or other pressure moment.

Do some thinking and planning like this and you can mitigate some of the damage you caused by missing preseason. There is still hope for you. Good luck!