A revolutionary half-rubber bat is helping to raise the quality of England fielding drills, drawing gasps from the public who turn up to watch and receiving envious looks from opposition coaches. If difficult catches start to be taken routinely, some of the credit will go to the instrument patented as the Skyer.

It was invented by James Cornford, a former minor counties and second XI player. Mark Garaway, the England analyst, has helped to refine it to a standard where it is now a fixture in the team kitbag. After more than a year of tests, it will go on sale next month through Fusion Sports, the company set up by Cornford, with a club market in mind.

The Skyer is chunky, bright orange, tapered at the top of the blade and weighs about one kilogram. It is made from a 25mm thick, rubber-based compound cut into the blade of a normal bat. The trade secret lies in the density of the rubber, imported from Germany, which allows balls to be hit higher, farther and more accurately.

“We tested hundreds of pieces of rubber before we were finally happy with the spring,” Garaway said. “Anything harder acts like a regular bat and anything softer makes the ball stick for too long.”

The bats are made at a factory near the Cornford family farm in Cheshire and the first batch has been pre-sold by word of mouth.

As a bit of fun, Kevin Pietersen is trying from the middle to clear the main stand of each leading ground where England practise on tour. Last summer he managed to hit a ball from the Nursery Ground at Lord's over the media centre and on to the main pitch, while a shot at Eden Park in Auckland the day before the recent Twenty20 international surprised even Garaway.

A more practical application was evident in a quiet corner of Seddon Park yesterday as England prepared for the second one-day international against New Zealand due to take place this morning. Garaway was able to hit about 20 catches in ten minutes to the exact place requested by Tim Ambrose, the wicketkeeper.

“However good you are, there is always something slightly hit and miss with normal bats,” Garaway said. “The rubber gives you that extra high performance, so if I want to make Alastair Cook run 30 yards to his left because that is an area we are working on, I can deliver the drill on a consistent basis.

“Twenty20 batsmen are hitting flatter and harder and I can now hit flat all the way to the boundary. We can simulate catching just in front of the rope, where the fielder releases the ball before he topples over and then comes back to complete the catch. That was a very hard drill to set up.

“While it is useful for the elite players, the real idea is to help with clubs. At that level the average coach is like my dad - he is 63 and cannot necessarily deliver a huge number of balls where he wants with a willow bat because he gets tired and does not have the skill. Now he will be able to do what he wants.”

At Kandy before Christmas, Muttiah Muralitharan rushed over to ask Garaway if Sri Lanka could have a Skyer, while England players are requesting them for benefit matches. Beyond that, its use is limited. “This bat would not be great for bowlers,” Garaway said. “Even defensive shots get pinged back like serious drives.”

Grand designs: Inventive ploys to sharpen training

Other clever inventions designed to improve practice sessions:

— Merlyn is a machine that its inventor, Henry Pryor, claims can “bowl any ball known to man”. It was unveiled in 2005, when England used it to prepare to face the leg spin of Shane Warne.

— During Pakistan’s tour of England in 2006, Bob Woolmer, their coach at the time, bounced the ball off a marble slab in the nets so that the batsmen could get used to the steepling bounce of Stephen Harmison. It was not successful: at Old Trafford, Harmison took 11 wickets for 76 runs as Pakistan lost heavily.

— As a child, Don Bradman honed his batting technique by using a stump to hit a golf ball against a water tank for hours on end.

— Fusion Sports, the inventors of the Skyer bat, have developed a ridged mat, which helps batsmen and wicketkeepers by simulating the effect of seam movement. It was used by England in Loughborough before they flew to New Zealand.

Words by Patrick Kidd