Dear Tony,

It has come to my attention through your 'Beyond the Test World' articles that both the Malaysian and Singaporean national teams are struggling to perform up to their own expectations.

I know that the Malaysia especially is desperate to obtain test status or one day status, but fall short on the field.

My question is: what are the reasons preventing these neighbouring nations from entering a West Indies type arrangement, whereby they combine their resources and talent pool and thus become a stronger cricket union? As it currently stands, with the population of Singapore being only 3 million, they are always going to struggle to inprove to this level, and it seems that incorporating their best players into the Malaysian side would result in a more competitive team to challenge future ICC Trophies and Asia Cups.

Who knows? One day in the next decade we might even see a 'Malayan Conference' team competing in the World Cup.

Just some thoughts,

Jake Anson
Victoria, Australia

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