Club cricket

The main nations that club cricket is played in include Pakistan, England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Netherlands, Hong Kong and in some of the major cities in India.

Club cricket is also now played in the United States and Canada, as both countries have large communities of immigrants from mainstream cricket-playing regions such as the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia.

These games tend to follow the more traditional format of declaration cricket in which a time limit or number of overs - typically 80 to 120 - is set for the whole match.

It is then up to the team batting first to declare their innings early enough to give themselves time to bowl the opposition out and force victory.

It tends to follow the 20-20 version of the game, with additional time saving measures such as using 15 8-ball overs and not re-bowling wides or no-balls (which then count as 2 runs each rather than the standard 1).

The umpires are expected to remain impartial and unbiased in their judgements, and although a small degree of bias is occasionally perceived, this arrangement functions remarkably well.

Some teams may have an official scorer who attends all of their home games, but often it is simply left to the batting side to keep score.

One means for the fielding side to prevent cheating is to ensure that the scoreboard is updated at the end of each over.

A traditional grass pitch is compulsory in the UK for entry into the higher divisions of club competitions.