One of the real barriers to the effective globalisation of cricket is the disparity in the quality of the teams. Australia have been the best for ages, England, Pakistan and India are close behind, with South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka bringing up the rest of the best. Zimbabwe, the West Indies and Bangladesh are struggling further down.
But therein lies one of the problem – there are only 10 “International” teams and the real disparity is between these 10 test playing nations and all other cricket playing nations. Those unaccredited nations are known as “associates” and include the likes …read more

If you’ve been watching International cricket, you’ll no doubt be aware of the popular figures amongst the commentary teams. In recent years, certain voices have become synonymous with watching cricket, Richie Benaud, Tony Grieg and Bill Laurie to name but a few.
So if you haven’t heard of Billy Birmingham, aka “The 12th Man“, you really ought to grab yourself a CD of his. He’s the Rory Bremner of the sporting world, doing some spectacular impersonations of some of the great sporting commentators. It really is bloody funny, and if you’re a cricket fan, you should listen.