Online the new bodyline for England

England's cricketers are using their video iPods and PlayStations to help them to prepare for the World Cup. Michael Vaughan's squad will use the portable media players and video game consoles to analyse their opponents before each match in the Caribbean, and to provide confidence-boosting images of themselves doing well in previous matches.

Mark Garaway, England's analyst, developed the system after chatting with someone who regularly downloads material from the video-sharing website Youtube.com. All each player needs to do is attach his iPod to his computer, go online, visit the designated website and download the footage he wants.

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"The great advantage of this system is its portability," Garaway explained. "The players used to download stuff on to their computers to look at but this allows them to watch material when they want. Every team is doing a similar type of thing with computers, and a couple are looking to do it in a similar way to us.

"I put the stuff on the website and then they have the opportunity to go in and select what they want. They can download last week's game against Australia along with footage of the New Zealand team. I can also edit bits for each player, whether it be shots from innings they have played or wickets they enjoy."

Liam Plunkett, the England fast bowler, will be one of the players to benefit from the system. Plunkett bowled Adam Gilchrist with an unplayable inswinging yorker in the recent one-day series in Australia. He has watched the dismissal 25 times since on his computer and he will soon be able to view it as often as he wants.

"Watching yourself take a wicket like that is a good feeling," Plunkett said. "It gives you confidence because it takes you back to when you bowled that ball. There are many ways in which it can be used.

"We are using it to look at how New Zealand bowl. It allows someone like Ian Bell to look at how Daniel Vettori grips his different deliveries, or whether Shane Bond does anything different when he bowls his slower balls."

Plunkett also spoke about how he is having to modify his bowling to adapt to the different conditions. Plunkett is predominantly a swing bowler but is having to learn to bowl cutters to be competitive on these Caribbean pitches.

"There does not appear to be a lot of pace and bounce in the pitches here, and the ball only swings for the first five overs, so I will have to bowl with a lot of variation," he said. "We have been practising our slower balls and cutters because if you don't batsmen will just line you up."

The move makes sense but asking an inconsistent bowler to bowl with variety can lead to even greater variations in performance.