It may look like an odd place for a cricket match but these players are taking part in the most prestigious event on the Swiss cricketing calendar, held on the frozen surface of a lake.

The 30th Cricket on Ice tournament saw two teams, Old Cholmeleians XI and Lyceum Alpinum Cricket Club, batting it out on Lake St Moritz in Switzerland last Saturday.

The pitch is made of artificial grass laid onto the packed snow that covers the frozen lake. The boundary is marked with the same dye used to mark ski runs.

Unlike traditional cricket, the matches use a low-impact cricket ball instead of a leather ball, which would get wet, heavy and unpredictable on snow.

Players need to adjust to playing at a high altitude as air resistance is less and the ball travels farther in the air. They also need to tread more carefully as the ice on the pitch cracks sometimes.

The tournament started in 1988 when a group of Britons challenged the students of international boarding school Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Switzerland to a game.