A CRICKET-LOVING businessman regularly makes a 2,000-mile round trip to play for a village team, even though it has no ground and no league to play in.

Foreign exchange trader Luen Man travels from his offices in Switzerland to North Yorkshire every month to turn out for his team in the tiny village of Kirkby Overblow, near Harrogate.

He stumps up £180 for the three-hour flight from Switzerland to Leeds-Bradford Airport, and even has the team's fixtures e-mailed to him at his office in Geneva.

But Mr Man, who has a house in Knaresborough, said his dedication to the sport he loves still fails to bowl over his girlfriend, Diane.

"She is not overly impressed with me jetting in from Switzerland for the weekend and then spending most of Sunday playing cricket with the lads," he said.

Team captain Lindsay McKenzie said Mr Man's bizarre circumstances had generated a huge amount of publicity for the club, which has only recently reformed and is looking for new players and new challenges.

"We are still getting known on the circuit, but this certainly helps when we speak to people and it should help to get us a few fixtures this year."

Mr Man, who had schoolboy trials for Surrey, has also flown in from places such as Frankfurt and Paris to join the Kirkby Overblow line-up.

He said: "Some people think I'm bonkers, but I just love cricket."