A cricket fan has begun a charity cycle trek from Lord’s cricket ground in north-west London to Australia.

Oli Broom, 29, from Cookham, Maidenhead, hopes to reach Brisbane’s Gabba cricket ground in 14 months, in time for the first Ashes Test of 2010.

He aims to raise £100,000 for sports charity the Lord’s Taverners and the British Neurological Research Trust.

He said: “I set myself a target which I didn’t know whether I could achieve or not and it snowballed from there.”

Mr Broom aims to cycle 15,600 miles across 20 countries, aiming to arrive in Brisbane by November 2010.

He will carry a tent on his bike but will also stay with dozens of cricket players and fans along the way.

“I’m excited about going through the Middle East, Syria and Sudan – they’re some of the more challenging areas but it’ll be very exciting,” Mr Broom said as he set off on Saturday.

He said he expected the toughest part of his “massive adventure” to be “keeping myself sane for 14 months in the saddle on my own”.

Like all long-distance cyclists of note, apart from his blog he has a Flickr site and is on Twitter….