A sporting contest with a difference….

A Pants Ashes Select XI has been invited to play the West Indies. In order to avoid comparisons with other one-day competitions there are a few rule changes to be aware of.

The match is to be played over 25 overs per side.

Each side must use 5 and only 5 bowlers. Each bowler takes an over in turn so that all five bowlers bowl an over in sequence, then the sequence starts again until each bowler has bowled 5 overs (or the batting side is all out).

The second team to bat does not stop when the first team's score has been passed; they will carry on until all 25 overs have been bowled or they are all out.

There are no extras.

Follow the link below to go to the game. To start the Pants Ashes innings press 'Start'. As the innings progresses the scoreboard will be updated until either all the overs have been bowled or the team is all out. At this point 'End of Innings' will be shown under the batting score sheet.

Once the innings is over press '->' to move to the West Indies innings. Once there, press 'Start' to start the West Indies innings and again the scoreboard will be updated as the innings progresses until all the overs have been bowled or the team is all out. Again at this point 'End of Innings' will appear under the batting scoresheet.

Once the West Indies innings is over press '->' to move to the match summary page to see the result.

I haven't tested this for certain but you may well need either Internet Explorer version 4 or Netscape Navigator version 4. This is because prior versions to these do not support the required version of the Java virtual machine needed to run this code.

There is a slight delay once you move to the game page while the code is downloaded from the web server.

Nothing is saved to you computer and there is no permanent effect.

There is no replay mechanism built in to the game; the only way to replay is to leave the web page and return.

If you press '->' or '<-' while and innings is in progress (i.e. between pressing 'Start' and ''End of Innings' appearing, everything goes wrong. Try not to do this.

The text and graphics are deliberately primitive so as to reduce the code size.

For some reason returning to the Pants Ashes innings after the West Indies innings causes the page layout to go wonky.

If all this hasn't put you off - Play Fantasy Pants Ashes