The Asian Cricket Council has confirmed Malaysia as the venue for the 2008 ACC Trophy Elite Division. The 10-team tournament will be held from July 25 to August 3, with all matches likely to be staged in Kuala Lumpur.

It was also confirmed the ACC Trophy will be held as two separate tournaments for the first time.

The ACC Trophy Elite tournament will be contested by the top 10 ranked ACC members: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the holders, the United Arab Emirates.

The ACC Trophy Challenge for the remaining ACC members is likely to be staged in Kuwait from January 11-17, 2009. Among the invitees are Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, China, Iran, the Maldives, Oman and Thailand, although it remains to be seen whether China fields a team.
Tony Munro

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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Brunei's Under-15 side is heading off to Bangkok to take part in the Asian Cricket Council U-15 Challenge Cup. They are in the same group as Maldives and Qatar. The Borneo Bulletin has the full story.