It's a warm welcome to Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey. One of the more sensible outcomes from this week's ICC meetings in The Home Of Cricket, Dubai, was the expansion of the governing body's membership by three, to now encompass a total of 104 countries.

This represents cricket's biggest incursion into eastern Europe to date. Estonia is the first state of the former Soviet Union to attain ICC membership, while neighbours Bulgaria and Turkey join Croatia and Greece as south-eastern Europe's representatives in the cricketing community.

Cricketeurope.net's analysis of the ICC decision shows just how quickly the game has moved along in those countries. How long before we see Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Moldova, Latvia, Montenegro, or even Russia enter the cricketing spectrum, just as the vibrancy of east European balladeering has transformed the Eurovision Song Contest forever?

Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey have all been admitted to the ICC's bottom level of membership, the Affiliate. Guernsey got a guernsey in the second level, Associate Membership, from the ICC this week, though Vanuatu's application for promotion was rejected, and Mozambique withdrew it's bid for Associate status. Both the latter countries retain their Affiliate membership.

There were no relegations. Zimbabwe is still a Full Member. But that's a story for another time...