the countries where cricket is most popular compete in international matches (games between countries) that last up to 5 days, which are called test matches. those countries are england, australia, west indies, south africa, new zealand, india, bangladesh, zimbabwe, ireland, afghanistan and sri lanka. the west indies are a group of caribbean countries that play together as a team. several other countries have more junior status. the test match idea was invented by teams from england and australia in the 19th century.ireland and afghanistan are the new teams which can play test cricket.