LINKS

www.cricketspecialist.co.uk

Cricket Specialist specialise in bringing you the very best cricket equipment. They have hand selected the best brands for the specific disciplines, selling cricket equipment which is used by the best players in the game. Their range of cricket bats come from the games leading manufacturers including Gray-Nicholls, Gunn and Moore, Slazenger, Woodworm, MRF and Hunts County. These are supported by a great selection of cricket pads and cricket gloves. Specific areas such as cricket helmets, cricket boots, cricket bags, cricket clothing & accessories are well servied within these brands and specific manufacturers including Asics, C&D Albion, Under Armour and Canterbury. Cricket Specialist has looked carefully at the junior game, bringing you a fantastic range of junior cricket equipment.

www.arcadianscc.co.uk

Arcadians Cricket Club have developed an interactive and informative website providing information over the last 70 years since the club was formed in 1932.

www.cricinfo.com

CricInfo is justifiably the most popular cricket website, and now hosts the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and MCC sites, along with those of the world's leading Test nations. The depth of information and breadth of service here is only hinted at by the option- packed home page. Live text and audio commentary, comprehensive stats, a useful coaching section with video clips and two player diaries, as well as a section devoted to county cricket - CricInfo sponsors the Championship - make this a first-class site.

www.cricket4.com

Channel 4's Test coverage has been a revelation, and its absorbing website keeps up the good work. A live pop-up scorecard heads a strong line-up that includes comprehensive news coverage, features, the Forum - which promises regular responses from television commentators - and diaries written by the England players Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan. The Stats section is worrying - its "Bogeyman" facility reveals that Australia's Glenn McGrath has bagged Michael Atherton's wicket more times than any other bowler.

www.wisden.com

Wisden has been cricket's bible for more than 100 years, and its staid sister site is to get a £4m Neville Brody- designed relaunch in time for the Ashes. The site editor, Tim de Lisle, has promised to mine the Almanack's extensive archives, combining video clips and stills of the all-time great players with quality writing, to tackle contemporary issues (the magazine has campaigned vociferously against match-fixing) and to report in depth on current matches. Three new columnists, including two former players, have signed up.

www.barmy-army.com

The Barmy Army are England's beery, rowdy but good-natured band of travelling fans. Their site, now hosted by Rivals.net, has lost some of its fanzine-like quality, but retains a laddish cheeriness - useful if you want to be armed with the latest songs to taunt the Aussies this summer. When England is on tour, the site offers regular bulletins, a message board and a weekly chat room. If you fancy following the England team abroad, the site is already preparing for the Ashes in 2002-3, with Australian city guides and travel tips.

www.cricketline.com

Billing itself as "the world's ultimate cricket resource", CricketLine, part of the 365 Network, is a serious rival to CricInfo. Though its website is packed with features, it focuses on the international scene. Its busy home page offers live "matchtracker" scoreboards, global news coverage, pictures, features and magazine elements, such as On This Day and Media Watch. But the site is too cluttered with pop-up ads, and its most promising feature - a celebrity chat room - only attracted the former South Africa coach Bob Woolmer.

www.334notout.com

The title alludes to Sir Don Bradman's famous 1930 innings against England, revealing a site dedicated to the greatest cricketer and the history of the Ashes series. There are profiles, reminiscences and quotes, as well as an obituary of the late Aussie batsman. The main focus is a match-by-match roundup of the sport's fiercest contest, starting before its official birth with the barbecuing of the bails in 1882. The confusing text colours, lack of illustrations and occasional typos betray its amateur roots, but 334notout is worth a visit.

www.jackrussell.co.uk

Jack Russell's site is a genuine curio. The former England wicketkeeper is a true eccentric, and a talented painter whose website acts as a showcase for his work. The site is neatly divided into Jack the Artist and Jack the Cricketer. The latter section contains a newspaper profile, his career record and a painting commemorating the greatest moment of his career - the day he accompanied Michael Atherton at the wicket during his epic match-saving innings against South Africa in 1995.

laban.vr9.com

Cricket's arcane laws flummox even the game's most seasoned commentators, but anyone in need of rule clarification should drop in here for a rundown of the MCC's Official Laws of Cricket. The DIY site design is drab, but if a dispute needs resolving, this is the place to come. There is also a glossary of terms that covers most expressions, including "wrong'un" (a bamboozling spin ball) and "nelson" (111, cricket's unluckiest number).

www.play-cricket.com

This rather simple website is actually a nice resource aimed at the grass-roots game. It is a good contact network, with regular information about national events and competitions, message boards putting people in contact with games, and tips on playing. Most usefully, it gives people without web-building skills the opportunity to easily set up club sites. For £25, and a £50 annual subscription, Play-Cricket will provide the software platform and host the sites.