Cricket Team Picker
Which board does it hit?
Which nations are in?
Tap a team to keep its board on the rope — all 12 fit at once, and you can add your own.
All 12 Test-playing nations, one boundary board each. Choose which teams are in, set how many balls the over takes, then bat — a few are fielded short, and the boundary that beats them is your team.
- Pick a nation to support
- Cricket game & fantasy saves
- Backyard games & forfeits
A random cricket nation, decided by a boundary
The Cricket Team Picker draws one of the 12 Test-playing nations at random — but instead of a wheel, you have to middle one. Every country is an LED board: some sit on the boundary rope, some up in the stands. The bowler runs in, the ball pitches, the batsman plays a shot; a few are fielded short, and then one beats the field — racing flat along the ground into a board for four, or lofted high into the stands for six. Whichever board it hits is your team.
How it works
Choose the teams
All 12 nations have a board by default. Tap teams off to cut it down to the ones you would actually accept.
Set the over
One ball is driven away immediately; five means four are fielded first. Drama, never odds.
Bat
The bowler bowls, the ball pitches on the wicket, and the batsman plays a shot — a grounded drive or a big swing.
Four or six
The ball beats the field for four along the ground or six into the stands; that board lights up with the full name — no popup unless you ask.
Why a boundary, not a wheel
A wheel cannot miss. A pointer slides to a stop and the result was never in doubt — there is no instant where it could have gone another way. A shot can be cut off by a fielder, which is the whole difference: every ball is a real question, and the answer only lands when the ball actually beats the field and reaches a board.
The fielded shots are properly random too. One can be stopped anywhere on the ground, and the same board can come up twice across an over — because a sequence that always plays out the same way is a script rather than a random one.
Four along the ground, or six into the stands
Some boards sit on the boundary rope and some stand up in the crowd, and the boards are reshuffled every over — so which is which changes each time. When the winning team's board is on the rope, the ball is driven flat along the ground and crashes into it for four; when it is up in the stands, the batsman gets under one and lofts it high for six. Either way the same team is picked; only the drama differs.
Where a fielded shot ends up
A shot that is not a boundary has to stop somewhere short of the rope, or it is a boundary being called a single. So a miss is fielded on the outfield — cut off in the covers, stopped in the deep, or driven straight to a fielder — and the over carries on. Only a ball that actually beats the field and reaches a board scores, and that is the one that picks your team. You can see at a glance which shots were stopped and which one got away.
The twelve Test nations
This is where the international game differs from a franchise league. A club league can add and drop teams every few years, so its list is always in flux. Test cricket is a closed club.
The twelve teams here are the full members of the International Cricket Council — the only nations entitled to play Test matches, the five-day format that is still cricket's most demanding. Earning that status is rare and hard-won: Ireland and Afghanistan became the eleventh and twelfth full members in 2017, and before that no nation had been added since Bangladesh in 2000. So unlike the IPL, this list is not a snapshot of one season — it is a stable set you can rely on.
Full members, not a top 12. This is not "the 12 best teams" cut from a longer list. Associate nations such as the Netherlands, Scotland, Nepal and the USA play one-day and T20 internationals and can reach a World Cup — but only a full member plays Tests. If you want a wider net, add them with the "add your own team" box.
All 12 nations
Each board carries the country name on its colour, with its region and the year it played its first men's Test on the result. Between them they span every inhabited continent that plays the game — from the 1877 originals to the newest arrivals in 2018.
| Nation | Region | First Test |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Oceania | 1877 |
| England | Europe | 1877 |
| South Africa | Africa | 1889 |
| West Indies | Caribbean | 1928 |
| New Zealand | Oceania | 1930 |
| India | Asia | 1932 |
| Pakistan | Asia | 1952 |
| Sri Lanka | Asia | 1982 |
| Zimbabwe | Africa | 1992 |
| Bangladesh | Asia | 2000 |
| Ireland | Europe | 2018 |
| Afghanistan | Asia | 2018 |
Three formats, the same twelve nations
Worth knowing before you commit to a team, because a nation you back plays in three very different ways.
Test cricket
The five-day format, in whites with a red ball. It is the oldest and the one that defines a full member. A match can last thirty hours and still end in a draw.
One-day internationals
Fifty overs a side, coloured kit, a white ball, a guaranteed result in a day. This is the format of the men's and women's Cricket World Cup.
T20 internationals
Twenty overs a side, done in three hours — the fast, boundary-heavy format that leagues like the IPL are built on and the one most new fans meet first.
Why it matters here
A team that dominates one format can struggle in another. Backing a nation means backing all three — so the draw is a bigger commitment than picking a league franchise.
Picking a nation to support
This is the most common reason people land here. A randomly drawn team is only a good idea if you actually commit to it — so it is worth narrowing the field before you let the boundary decide between what is left.
- By heritage. If your family or your passport ties you to one of the twelve, leave that board on. Following a side from a place you know turns a match into something personal.
- By difficulty. India, Australia and England are the game's heavyweights. Leave them off for a genuine underdog run behind Ireland, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan; leave only them on for the easy version.
- By story. The 1877 originals carry a century and a half of Ashes and rivalries; Afghanistan and Ireland, full members only since 2017, let you back a team whose Test story is still being written.
- By region. Want an Asian side, an African one, or the Caribbean's West Indies? Turn off the rest and let the boundary choose within the region you fancy.
Then back it properly. International cricket runs in series, not single games. Whatever the boundary finds, follow it through a whole tour or a World Cup and judge it then, not after one bad session.
How international cricket is organised
Unlike a club league with a fixed season, the nations play each other in touring series and in global events run by the ICC.
The full members meet in the World Test Championship, a two-year league of series that ends in a one-off final, and in the 50-over and T20 World Cups. Between those, one nation tours another for a series of Tests, one-day and T20 matches — the fixtures that fill most of the calendar. There is no promotion or relegation between full and associate members in the way a football league works; full membership is granted by the ICC, and it has only grown, never shrunk.
That is what makes this a good list to draw from: the twelve are not going anywhere. Whoever the boundary hands you today will still be a Test nation next year.
Ways to use it
Picking a team to follow
New to cricket, or want a nation for a World Cup? Let the boundary decide and back it through the whole tournament.
Cricket games and fantasy
Draw a nation for a career save or a fantasy league. Narrowing to the sides outside the big three makes for a harder run.
Backyard and net games
Assign everyone a random country before a garden match or a bit of French cricket, and play as your drawn side.
Settling an argument
Two boards left is a straight coin flip you can watch happen, with a boundary at the end of it.
About the artwork
There are no national flags, board logos or emblems anywhere on this page. Those are protected marks, and everything on this site is original. Each nation appears as its name on its own colour, the way a real LED boundary board carries a sponsor — a colour is a fact, not a protected mark, and nothing here reproduces or imitates a real logo.
More sports pickers
After a different kind of cricket, or another sport? Try these:
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- Pick a national side on the FIFA National Team Picker, a discipline on the Random Sport Picker, or browse all random pickers.