The increasing popularity of cricket has inspired a publishing company to launch a new magazine dedicated to the sport, aiming it particularly at British Asians with a focus on the sub-continent.

The glossy Spin magazine will go head to head against the 140 year old title Wisden Cricketer, with former Pakistani captain Imran Khan and Indian batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu as regular columnists. It launches around the UK this week with a £1.50 cover price.

The publisher, Highbury House, evidently hasn't passed by the popularity of the sport with Asians in the UK. The launch issue covers the upcoming India-Pakistan clash extensively, in addition to interviews with key figures from the sub-continent.

Editor Duncan Steer says: "2005 is a very exciting time to be launching a new cricket title. Enthusiasm for the game is at a new high, with England playing Australia for the Ashes this summer, the Twenty20 Cup going from strength to strength and the excitement of India taking on Pakistan again."

A former editor of Channel 4's cricket magazine, Steer told the Times of India last week that the magazine will provide a less 'Anglo-centric' view of the sport. "When England have played India or India have played Pakistan here, I noticed that there was nothing for the young British Asian fan to read as he left the grounds."

"Distributors suggested that if you put a white English player on [the] magazine cover, British Asians would not buy it. But you could put Tendulkar on the cover and white cricket fans would still buy it."

He admitted the possibility that the future of sport lied with India and Pakistan, not England.

"Spin is not just about English cricket, it’s about world cricket. It is a completely new voice in the game and a genuinely independent one. Spin is a fresh, modern magazine of the kind that followers of other sports – football, golf, tennis – have long taken for granted. We believe it is just what cricket fans have been waiting for," Steer adds.

Wisden Cricketer has a monthly circulation of 34,000 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Spin's bosses claim the magazine, which is being supported by a marketing campaign, will "do for cricket magazines what Channel 4 and Sky have done for cricket on television."