Maybe the extra sun in the southern hemisphere and the West Indies allows more time to practise.

ECONOMIST: Sport: Hearts of oak | The

Note, too, that most of the western hemisphere is not in the West, or in the East either.

ECONOMIST: Political geography needs some new terms

Aside from the West Indies, who tend to play international matches from March to May, England are the only Northern Hemisphere Test nation.

BBC: Duncan Fletcher

In spite of this rejection, these places do not mind being put in the Middle East, though viewed from, say, the Far East they are really in the Middle West, which everyone knows is in America, or rather the United States, as others in the western hemisphere like to call it.

ECONOMIST: Political geography needs some new terms