Play-cricket's demo features "Chalky"

Team sheets, match reports, batting and bowling averages can now all be accessed with the click of a mouse.

However, an amateur cricket side is unlikely to have a web technician among its numbers, which is where an idea launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) comes into play.

In fact, Play-Cricket (www.play-cricket.com) was launched last year, but because there was a fee involved, hardly anyone was interested in signing up.

But in March it was re-launched and miraculously there was no charge involved. The response has obviously been a lot better, and now an impressive 435 clubs are on board, plus 87 leagues and 25 County Boards.

The Kent Premier League has decided to put every division and club on the site and several thousand players' details are now registered online.

Julian Goode, the ECB website manager, explains: "What we offer is a series of free administration tools which allow clubs to run their teams better and make cost savings.

Interactive

"They can then interact with each other. Individual players can notify team captains of their availability and captains can pick their teams accordingly.

"As more and more clubs in a a particular league sign on, it builds a sense of community, and allows individual clubs to see how they are doing as a season progresses."

Another clip from the online video

There are other features too, Goode adds. "The cricket exchange allows people to advertise if they are looking for a club to play for - or if you're a club looking for players or fixtures.

"Or let's say you're trying to organise a tour to Cornwall or something, and need to add a few fixtures, it's the ideal way to do that sort of thing.

"There are also clubs coming from overseas to England, looking for games."

He says Play-Cricket has the potential to work well with schools and the junior sections of clubs - largely due to the internet know-how of youngsters.

The simplest way to get started is to add your own club's colours and badges on a simple template which can be downloaded from the Play-Cricket home page.

If you have your own website already, you can simply show a link to your own club's page from the Play-Cricket database.

But perhaps the best reason to get involved is that the Holy Grail for every club side, the ECB National Club Cricket Championship - with a final at Lord's - is also being conducted on the website.