If you are unregistered you will see a Welcome message directing you to register. The default message for all vBulletin forums is:

Welcome to the World A-Team Cricket Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I have expanded that to include an explanation of why there is a separate forum for each country involved in cricket.

Welcome to the World A-Team Cricket Forums. We promote friendly, good-natured discussion.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post to all forums: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Unregistered users and users awaiting email confirmation (to complete their registration) can post to the Help and Feedback and New Members Lounge forums.

Why are there so many forums?

When you register you are asked to choose which teams you support. Your teams will appear with every message you post. For example, if you choose England you will be deemed to be an England supporter - and so on. You may choose multiple teams or no teams. When you have chosen your team the forum associated with that team becomes your home forum. In that forum you can discuss issues relating to that team with other supporters of that team. Your home forum is also a sanctuary from provocatve comments made by opposition supporters or neutral members.

If you choose multiple teams then your allegiance must be equally divided between those teams. For example, if you choose England and Australia then it would be inappropriate to say on the Australia forum "I hope England beats Australia." This obviously suggests your true allegiance is to England and not equally divided between both teams as you indicated.

If you choose not to nominate a team to support you are considered a non-supporter or neutral member. International Test Cricket and Members & Guests Lounge are neutral forums where supporters of any team or neutral member can discuss issues in a more frank and robust exchange.

Sanctuary Rule

When discussing other teams, that you haven't nominated as "My Team/s", you should observe the rules of courtesy on opposition forums. For example, if an England supporter passed a comment on their own forum like, "I hope New Zealand beat Australia", it will not be treated as discourteous or insulting. However, if that England supporter posted the same comment on the Australia forum it may be considered provocative or insulting and that poster may be banned from posting to the Australia forum again if an Australian supporter is offended or annoyed and reports that post to the forum administrator. However, the same comment is acceptable if posted on a neutral forum like International Test Cricket.

The lesson here is: if you wish to post to the forum of a team you don't support then you must be courteous at all times. If your comments annoy any members of that forum you are likely to be banned from posting to that forum again. These rules are designed to maintain peace and harmony on this board and provide a more enjoyable experience interacting with cricket fans from around the world.

Do you wish to advertise your website or service?

This board is for people with a genuine interest in participating in cricket discussions. Therefore, most forums are for cricket discussion only. However, if you want to advertise a cricket-related site we have provided a sub-forum to the Help and Feedback forum called Advertised Links. You will need to join to post your URL there. If you join and spam the board with your URL your posts will be deleted and you may be banned. I hope you'll be understanding in this matter.

Use of religious names

Due to religious sensitivity certain words which get posted will be replaced by ***** so as not to offend anyone.

Participation on the board

You may notice that some of the forums are relatively quiet. This is not due to a lack of supporters in that forum. In most cases, too many members are not generating new threads. If each member posted a new thread each day those quiet forums would be buzzing with interest. Of course, not all threadstarters are going to spark a great discussion. In fact, some threadstarters may not get a response. Don't let that discourage you. There is always some sort of controversy happening in cricket such as the moral dilemma of touring Zimbabwe or changes to the "throwing" laws, just to mention a couple of examples. If you follow cricket you'd be aware of these issues. We'd like to hear your stance on these issues. We'd also like to hear your views on how your team is performing. Are they dominating, improving or re-building? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How will they perform in the up-coming series? There are many issues that we'd like to hear your views on. So, please don't join and become another "quiet" member. We respect everyone's views here and if you post in a polite and friendly manner you are sure to win many admirers and encourage others to reply to your threads and posts. Happy posting!

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Administrator

New members and Guests: I would like to add my welcome to admin's message above.

Please feel free to post your thoughts on any cricket related issue in the "New Members Lounge". That forum is also ideal for exchanging friendly banter, or staring trivia quizzes for both our existing members and Guests. If you are new here and have any questions about the forum, do post them in this Help and Feedback forum, and we will try and help

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A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain