A CRICKET club is in the middle of challenging members to walk around the world during lockdown - virtually.

Members from Norton Cricket Club decided to walk around the world and stay over at international cricket clubs virtually.

Male, female and children members of the club have been counting up their steps every day then calculating how far they have walked - on Wednesday they had reached Dubai.

Nigel Smith, one of the committee members said: “The idea was bouncing around my head for a few days before I suggested it to the Club’s Committee. My first thoughts was to keep members of the cricket club in contact with one another, during the lockdown period, especially as the Cricket Season had been put on hold.

"I thought this challenge would not only help us keep in touch but also help with physical fitness and mental wellbeing. An added bonus was to charge a small fee as a donation to the Cricket Club to help in these uncertain times.”

Once the club reaches cricket clubs around the world they have contacted them by email thanking them for their hospitality and they have had some interesting responses.

Imran Khan, from Exiles Cricket club in Dubai emailed Norton Cricket Club back saying: “With some notice we would have made more of an effort with organising a virtual welcome. Glad you stumbled upon us though. Here are some notes that may make your virtual stay with us a little better. The bar has been run dry by the Rugby lot, after winning the league, so that’s just bad luck. As it is, we’re also out of milk - the tea lady has suddenly started the life of a hermit. There is a box of Green tea for those who want to risk the high life. Alternatively the petrol station next to the camel farm sells coffee and a cracking Karak tea. We would advise you stay away from the sand areas though. We haven’t performed a health and safety report to assess the danger of sand snakes, oryx and camel stampedes.

“Some house rules: Turn the lights off before you sleep, maintain a 2m distance between yourselves, don’t give the security a hard time, don’t disturb the camels, Toon supporters will need to wear a shirt.”

Around 47 local people are now involved in the round-the-world walk with the youngest being seven-years-old and oldest member in their 70s.

A friendly rivalry has also been struck up between the women and men’s teams, with each trying to walk as many steps on their daily exercise trips as possible - beating the other.

Awards are also offered for, walker of the day and week and adventurer of the day and week.

The top walker in a single day so far has covered 43,537 steps and a weekly total of 183,981 steps.

The cricket club has visited, Coventry, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Dubai.

Anita Smith, the Norton Ladies Team captain won an OSCA (Outstanding Service to Cricket Award) for Women’s and Girl’s Cricket Development last year.