Village club ... and village ... for sale

The idea of owning your own cricket club might not cost you as much as the many millions of dollars paid for IPL franchises. For a mere £20 million or so, you can buy not only a quintessentially English village club but the entire village as well.

Linkenholt, near Andover in Hampshire, is going under the hammer later this week, and included in the sale are 22 cottages, a shop, a commercial shoot as well as almost 2000 acres of land.

The cricket pitch and pavilion, which doubles as the village hall, is one of the main attractions and is described as being “set in an idyllic ground in the north Hampshire downs, the club combines beautiful countryside with good, competitive cricket”.

Texan billionaires need not apply.