VENEZUELA

With no domestic tournament and just one ground, at the Caracas Sports Club, Venezuela’s cricketers look to visiting teams to give their games some spice. They are not short of cricket, just variety: after all, they play every other week throughout the year. Tourist Sports Club of Miami and a side from Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, made appearances in 2001 – the latter as part of Trinidad’s Independence Day celebrations – and both were expected to return in January 2002 to celebrate the Caracas club’s 50th anniversary. Other opponents included teams from Belize, Colombia and Panama. In December 2000, Venezuela competed in the South American Championship in Buenos Aires. All three games, although close, were lost, partly because several leading Venezuelan players could not afford to travel. For the game against eventual winners Argentina A, Venezuela were loaned three boys aged 10, 12 and 14. Basil Mathura, Wisden 2002

VIETNAM

The Sri Lankan Nalliah Sallathurai was reported to have become the first batsman to score a century in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, making 106 for an Indian subcontinent team against an Australian-English side on a matting pitch. Wisden 1995