Hi my name is Richard Elms

This story is about how the Batmaster first came into being, why and how.

I had just finished 10 years of professional cricket in England with Kent and Hampshire playing with and against some of the World icons in Cricket. So my next adventure was coaching in South Africa. I was appointed to the North West Cricket Union, ran the development side for players between 11-19 years, looked after the North West B side and Managed the A side for 10 years. On the development side, through the sponsorship from the United Cricket Board (UCB), a team of coaches and myself, went throughout the Province in the rural and township schools, coaching the teachers both men and women, most of whom hadn't played cricket at all.

So it was back to basics, and the only piece of equipment we had to hold a stationary ball was an upturned coffee cup made of polystyrene.

This didn't last more than a few shots and broke many of the bats we had. So after thinking about what I wanted to achieve with these teachers and the amount of time we had with them I had to come up with a better plan, this is when the Batmaster was born.

It worked so well that I drilled my school's Provincial sides with it when they had a problem that we had to go right back to basics. Now it has been improved even more to help develop tennis and golf.