The 14th Chiang Mai Sixes are now only a matter of days away, and this year's renewal of one of the most popular events on the amateurs' international cricketing calendar promises to be the biggest and best in its now well-established history.

For those who are in the dark, every April Thailand's second city plays host to cricketing enthusiasts from round the world for a week of hectic activity - on and off the field - and is transformed into the "party capital of the world".

This year 27 men's and 2 ladies' teams will be slugging it out for one of the five trophies on offer - not including the annual "Star's Challenge". Fourteen matches a day make it one of the busiest tournaments of its kind, and any team drawn to open the day's proceedings at 8.30 in the morning can be sure of many sympathy votes - though several in this unenviable slot prefer to come straight from their chosen nightspot rather than bother with unnecessary extras like sleep.

This year, though we have rather lost count, we think we have teams heralding from 12 countries - England, Wales, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Greece, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. No doubt there will be individuals from many more - one such devotee being Cyrus Maybud, a Swiss lawyer who last year led the first ever team from Switzerland, Cern-Zuoz. The team can't make it this year, but Cyrus is not going to let that minor problem let him miss the party.

Some teams, like the famous Wombats (though they did rather spoil their record in 2000 by winning their second game in 14 years), are ever-presents. Others will be new to the tournament - Hampton Hound Dogs and Alma Marist from S.A., Jack Frost and B.A.Dragons from the UK, the Thai-based Pectels 69, and Awali Taverners from Bahrain, which is a great source of pride to the tournament as, since Bahrain sent only 4 competitors to Sydney 2000, Chiang Mai can now justifiably claim to be "bigger than the Olympics".

These teams and the old faithfuls will all be lining up with greater or lesser degrees of determination to wrest the prize from the MCC, whose 2 teams finished 1st and 2nd last year. This year they return in perhaps even more formidable strength, led by the former Surrey batsman David Ward.

But among the aspirant amateurs will be a host of star players seeking to inspire their teammates on to unimagined feats of cricketing heroism - Mike Gatting the former England captain will make his tournament debut, and will be joined by ex-Australia spinner Tom Hogan, South Africans Kenny Jackson, HD Ackerman, Alan Dawson and Jonny Commins and a number of former Sri Lankan internationals including Rumesh Ratnayeke and Alistair Jordon of New Zealand.

Now all this cricket does tend to demand a proportionate amount of social activity and Chiang Mai is just the place. The Pornping Tower Hotel hosts a spectacular opening night cocktail party, while at the Gymkhana Club itself there are two major official functions - a pig-picking barbecue with disco, fancy-dress and team revues, and the final night's gala prize-giving dinner. In addition to this, the huge Anglo-Australian Postels group host a "pre-opening night" bash at the Sugar Shack Bar in the city centre, and the Irish Pub is hosting an informal "meet the Stars night" later in the week.

The tournament is however perhaps proudest of its links with the local community and with charity. Last year saw the inauguration of a Kanga Cricket Tournament for local schools, which was a huge success and will be repeated this year but on a much larger scale. It is the dream of tournament chairman Maurice Bromley to get cricket established in Thai schools, and this year's take-up, featuring almost exclusively Thai children, shows that major progress is being made towards the realisation of that dream. On a similar theme, the Chiang Mai Sixes are honoured to be associated with UNICEF, which does such invaluable work to aid disadvantaged children throughout the world and not least in Thailand.

From March 31st to April 7th, Chiang Mai will once again not know what's hit it!

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd