BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | England's spin secret

It is based on the premise that a batsman needs to be quicker on his feet when when facing spin, rather than seam bowling.

In his column for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Trescothick said: "The cricket coaching manuals are full of important information about how to play the cover drive, the pull, the hook and even the reverse sweep.

"But I doubt whether you'll find anything much on the forward press, a new term that will probably be meaningless to most cricketers, unless they happen to be members of the England squad."

Initial movement

Trescothick credits the technique with having made a "huge difference" to his game.

It's hard to argue with that, as two of his three Test centuries so far have come against Sri Lanka and Muralitharan has yet to dismiss him in either Test or one-day cricket.

Indeed it is more orthodox Sri Lankan spinners like captain Sanath Jayasuriya and Dinuk Hettiarachchi, who have enoyed success against the powerful left-hander.

Trescothick forces the ball through the off-side
.....and the back foot

So what does the forward press involve?

"In simple terms, it means addressing a delivery from someone like Muralitharan, by making an initial half-step onto the front foot as he bowls.

"It gives the batsman a solid base from which he can either push further forward if the ball is of a full length or back if it is short," Trescothick revealed.

Danger man

In three Tests on home soil last year and one at Edgbaston, Muralitharan has taken 19 wickets against England, but his strike rate is 94.74.

Compare that to an overall strike rate of 59.70 in a career which has so far brought him 417 victims in 74 Tests.

No-one in the England camp is under-estimating the potential threat of Muralitharan in the third Test at Old Trafford, a ground on which he knows well from his spell with Lancashire, nor the danger posed by leg-spinner Shane Warne in next winter's Ashes series.

Azharuddin cuts during the 1999 World Cup
India's Azharuddin was a master against spin

After all, if being light on your feet was all it takes to be a top-class batsman, then England would surely have picked Lionel Blair long ago.

For now, however, few could dispute the beneficial effects of the forward press.

After all, when Muralitharan last played a Test match in England in 1998, he took 16 wickets at The Oval as Sri Lanka won by an innings.

Whether skipper Nasser Hussain feels Trescothick should have given opposition bowlers such a valuable piece of information remains to be seen.