Life's a beach in Fife as Windies cricket stars test water in Elie

Here skipper Richie Richardson and celebrated cohorts Henry Olonga and Jimmy Adams will seek to beat the home team at their own rather idiosyncratic game in a match dubbed the International Beach Cricket Challenge.

The all-conquering Elie XI, who make their pavilion the historic Ship Inn pub which overlooks a beach recently voted as one of the cleanest in Scotland, have no such star names. Instead they have become adept at a form of cricket dependent not only on the weather, but also the tide. Matches last 60 overs, and each player other than the two wicketkeepers must bowl three overs each with what is described as a "cross between a tennis and cricket ball".

Such democratic rules are supposed to ensure that those less gifted can still claim an involvement in the proceedings, although this need not be a consideration when it comes to Lashings. The side, formed as a scratch team in 1979, can three decades later boast of having enjoyed the patronage of such high calibre Test players as Brian Lara, Wasim Akram, Herschelle Gibbs and Shoaib Akhtar.

Confirmed to play at Elie are Richardson, Adams, Sherwin Campbell, Junior Murray, Stuart Williams, all of the West Indies, and New Zealand pair Craig MacMillan and Chris Harris. Olonga, who recently fled Zimbabwe having protested against President Mugabe’s regime during the cricket World Cup, faces a fitness test before being able to look out his beach shorts.

Elie, on the other hand, are made up of a collection of local worthies. Joining Lashings on this season’s fixture list are the Fat Beardies and the Cousins Carnegie, teams who measure out their qualities in pints rather than Test appearances.

The usual collection of holiday makers and heavy-duty socialisers who line the harbour wall during such matches is bound to be swollen by the arrival in Fife of the side who recently celebrated the signing of former Australia Test batsman Mark Waugh. Further boosting the local economy is the news that the Lashings party will stay in the Ship Inn on the night before the match, where they will be encouraged to try all manner of ales eagerly declared by pub owner and cricket club captain Richard Philip to be "on the house".

The match is the first time Lashings have played a pub team, and the first time they have ventured north of the border. "We actually originated as a pub team," said David Folb, the Lashings club chairman. "There is a pub in Maidstone called Lashing’s, so really it is a challenge between England’s best pub team and Scotland’s best pub team. Richie Richardson and I own a hotel in Antigua so we play beach cricket all the time, and were happy to accept the Elie invitation.

"I have heard all about Elie, and the players are really excited. The concerns about the tide shortening the boundary as the game progresses is not something many of them will have experienced in their Test careers before."