Table Mountain in Cape Town is one of a host of familiar striking landscapes from big venues around the ground. But few grounds are in the vicinity of one of the seven wonders of the world. Yet the Daily Star from Egypt carries a report from a match which is played with the Cheops Pyramid as a dramatic backdrop.

Children in Beijing into cricket? 'Are they heck!' © ACC

"The ballooning of the World Cup derives from one fact alone: the delusion of expansion. From well-intentioned beginnings, this has now become an outright menace. The error is right up there at the start of the ICC's mission statement. It will lead, it says, 'by promoting the game as a global sport'. It should change its mission statement."

Tony Munro's latest column has been published - Cricket comes to Paramaribo. Read it here.