The Lashings World XI is a famous cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 team, founded by David Folb. It was originally formed in 1984 as a scratch team

Scratch team

A scratch team is a team, usually in sport, brought together on a temporary basis, composed of players who normally play for different sides. A game played between two scratch teams may be called a scratch match....

, and grew from an unremarkable English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 local club cricket

Club cricket

Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are always observed...

 team into, as it bills itself, the "World’s greatest cricket club".

Based in Maidstone

Maidstone

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, the team has attracted a number of famous international cricketers and other celebrities to its ranks, starting with Richie Richardson

Richie Richardson

Richard Benjamin Richardson is a retired West Indies cricketer and a former captain of the West Indian cricket team.Richardson was born in Five Islands Village, Antigua. He began his career with the Leewards Islands in 1982 as an opener and after his second season he was called up by the West...

, and including Brian Lara

Brian Lara

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM is a former West Indian international cricket player. Lara is generally regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time...

, Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan , often referred to as Murali, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2002...

, Aravinda De Silva

Aravinda de Silva

Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who is considered one of the finest batsmen produced by the country.He is also regarded as one of the most elegant batsman in his generation, and to date is the only player to make a hundred and take 3 or more wickets in a world cup...

, Tatenda Taibu

Tatenda Taibu

Tatenda Taibu is a Zimbabwean cricketer. He is a wicketkeeper and batsman, and can also bowl right arm off spin. On 6 May 2004, he became the youngest Test captain in history, when he captained his team against Sri Lanka....

, Chris Cairns, Gordon Greenidge

Gordon Greenidge

Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge MBE is a former member of the West Indies cricket team.Greenidge was an opening batsman for the West Indies. He began his Test career against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore in 1974 and continued playing internationally until 1991. He was half of the West...

, Jimmy Adams

Jimmy Adams

James Clive "Jimmy" Adams is a former Jamaican cricketer, who represented the West Indies as player and captain during his career. He was a steady left-handed batsman, useful left-arm orthodox spin bowler and good fielder, especially in the gully position...

, Henry Olonga

Henry Olonga

Henry Khaaba Olonga is a former Zambian-born cricketer for Zimbabwe.- Cricket career :He made his international debut in a Test match against Pakistan at Harare in 1995, at age 18 years, 212 days, becoming the youngest player to represent Zimbabwe. He helped Zimbabwe to its first ever Test victory...

, Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath is a former Indian cricketer. He was a frontline fast bowler for the Indian cricket team until his retirement, being the second Indian pace bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets. One ball that he bowled during the 1996 tour of South Africa measured...

, Courtney Walsh

Courtney Walsh

Courtney Andrew Walsh is a former international cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches...

, Allan Donald

Allan Donald

Allan Anthony Donald is a former South African cricketer and one of their most successful pace bowlers.In his prime, he was one of the best fast bowlers ever seen in Test cricket, reaching the top of the ICC Test rankings in 1998 and peaked with a top ICC ranking of 895 points the next year, the...

, Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar is a former Pakistani right arm fast bowler in cricket, who is regarded as the fastest bowler in the history of cricket. He set an official world record by achieving the fastest delivery, when he clocked in at 161.3 km/h in his bowling speed, twice at a cricket match against...

 and Sir Viv Richards. Its most unusual "capture" was former English women's cricket team

English women's cricket team

The England women's cricket team played their first Test match in 1934–35, when they beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series. Their current captain is Charlotte Edwards, replacing Clare Connor after her five-year tenure, which she finished by leading England to their first Ashes series win since...

 captain, Clare Connor

Clare Connor

Clare Joanne Connor OBE, is an English all-round cricketer who bats right-handed and bowls slow left arm spin. She made her England One Day International debut in 1995 and played her first Test match that winter. She took a hat-trick against India in 1999 and captained England from 2000 until her...

. Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket...

, Brendan Taylor

Brendan Taylor

Brendan Taylor is a Zimbabwean cricketer, who is mainly a batsman, but occasionally keeps wicket or bowls off-spin as well. He is currently the captain of the Zimbabwean cricket team, having taken over the reins from Elton Chigumbura after the 2011 Cricket World Cup...

, Inzamam Ul Haq, and Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar is an Indian international cricketer, who has been on the fringes of the Indian side in both tests and one day matches since his debut in 1998...

 are its recent high-profile players http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/jul/07ten.htm. They travel across the country playing in a variety of venues against schools and club teams to promote the game of cricket. Their current manager is West Indian Alvin Kallicharran

Alvin Kallicharran

Alvin Isaac Kallicharran is a former West Indian batsman of Indo-Guyanese ethnicity who played from 1972 to 1981. His elegant, watchful batting style produced some substantial innings for a West Indian team very much in its formative years in the seventies...

.