Rumour, Gossip and Innuendo!

There may be a different musician playing the tune, but its the same old sound in one country where a change of administration had brought hope of progress.

The long term absence overseas of a leading official in this country has incited acrimony from fellow administrators keen to accelerate the reform and development processes.

Such is the dismay, one official gave his resignation only to have it rejected.

Europe is the success story of the ICC's Development Programme and a lot of that can be attributed to the work of current Development Officer, Nigel Laughton.

In a big loss for European cricket, Nigel has decided to move on and finishes up in his position in August.

Cricket now has solid foundations in all but a few western European countries and has a presence in nine Eastern European nations, unthinkable not so long ago.

European newspapers have recently been featuring advertisements attempting to lure Nigel's successor.

If you're into useless trivia then this item is full of it (some say that about all of BTTW!):

There have been 88 countries featured in BTTW in its 27 editions - 30 from Europe, 14 from Africa, 20 from Asia, 8 from the Pacific region and 16 from the Americas.

This tally only includes countries featured and not fleeting references.

I'll be making a greater effort in the future to bring you more news of cricket outposts so stay tuned.

If you are thirsting for more info on the Chiang Mai Sixes you can visit its website on https://chiangmaitrade.com/cricket/