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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	The Costa Rica and El Salvador teams line up © Richard Illingworth

El Salvador have just returned from their first ever foray into international cricket when they took part in the second Central American Championship, hosted by Mexico. Belize, the reigning champions, pulled out at the last minute to hand El Salvador an opportunity.

“We left for this tournament brimming with excitement and determination but a little short of experience in the conditions we would play in,” Andrew Murgatroyd, the founder of El Salvadorian cricket told Cricinfo.

“The end result was a fantastic tournament with great performances and a steep learning curve. We played markedly better in our second game against a team [Mexico] who proved to be the eventual winners. By the second game most of us had doubled our total cricket-playing experience at this level.”

Results
Costa Rica 256 for 6 beat El Salvador 81 by 176 runs

Mexico 252 for 9 beat El Salvador 101 by 152 runs

Mexico 159 beat Costa Rica 95 by 65 runs

Murgatroyd said that although his side had high hopes, they also had “little knowledge of what we were going into”. Consequently they set themselves a number of tournament objectives which included: scoring at least 80 runs against Costa Rica (achieved); taking at least eight wickets against Costa Rica (failed); taking at least five wickets against Mexico (achieved), not to mention wearing the national colours “with price, competitiveness and dignity” (achieved).

“We have enthusiasm and some kind donations with which nets and an artificial pitch can be purchased,” Murgatroyd said. “With better training facilities and more experience we hope to improve and get to the standard where we are in a position to win some games.”