Seven Wolverhampton cricketers earn England Call

The tournament takes place in Birmingham and Zulf Fazal, Bari Sultan, Shokat Nisir, Naeem Iqbal, Tariq Ali, Shafiq Ahmed and Nadeem Akram have all earned an England call-up.

The magnificent seven play for various clubs in the indoor league at Racecourse Road venue and also play the more traditional form of the game with Ali, Sultan, Nisir and Iqbal turning out for Wolverhampton, Ahmed for Penkridge, Fazal for Wightwick & Finchfield and Akram for C&R Hawks.

The Masters tournament is split into categories for over-35s, over-40s, over-45s and over-50s with England taking on sides from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanak and Singapore.

Ali and Sultan will be bidding for glory in the over-45 event with Iqbal competiting in the over-40s and Nisir, Ahmed and Akram joining forces for England's over-35s.

WICS manager Dharam Jagpal is delighted to see quality of indoor cricket at the centre recognised by the call-ups.

"We are delighted that the standard played by our teams at WICS is now considered world class," he said. " We can now boast about our magnificent seven. The lads had to go for a series of trials and to have seven selected from the same centre is brilliant news.

"I have been running the centre for over 14 years and all of the lads have been playing here since I arrived.

"They are a good bunch and I hope they do really well.

"Quite a few people who play here will be heading over to Birmingham to cheer them on."

The action at Marsh Hill in Erdington takes place from October 21-29 and as well as the men's tournaments there will also be a ladies' over-35 competition.

Australia will be the team to beat as they are reigning champions in all of the age categories.