Trivia

If table tennis can be a rage, why not table cricket? Tickets aren’t quite soldout for the World Cup Table Cricket matches now underway, but the game is certainly here.Thirty-five teams are playing in the competition organised by the English Cricket Board atHeadingly, Old Trafford, Edgbaston and the like. The final will, obviously, be atLord’s on May 4. Table cricket actually uses a table tennis table as a cricket field.A launcher bowls plastic balls and the batsman handles them with a wooden bat. Sidecontrols send fielders sliding about the field. The teams have six players each, with twoseventh men. Each team begins with a score, which decreases every time you lose a wicket.But the batsmen also score—in twos, fours, and if  they dare, sixes.

Cricket and fashion have come together for the World Cup. British models Caprice andTim Vincent have been modelling cricket couture in the build-up to the tournament, withEngland captain Alec Stewart catwalking to promote the new look. It’s easy to see whyEngland picked those two. A columnist’s theory to explain England’s bad form:English players have the world’s biggest backsides. Hinders quick movement, that sortof thing. Those changes cannot be made at this stage, but with national flags designed onto colourful costumes, they’ll certainly look good parading them-selves out there. Itmight not look very nice, though, if they’re made to trudge out after an early exit.