Two weeks ago I moved house. I write this still partially surrounded by boxes that I will definitely get around to unpacking at some point. It's been quite the upheaval as I'm sure anyone who has done the same will appreciate.

Speaking of upheaval, two organisations independent of the ICC are currently, in their own way, tearing up the established order in women's cricket and associate cricket. They're doing so in different ways and I think it's worth comparing the two.

These two organisations are FairBreak Global and the European Cricket Network.

The goal of FairBreak, according to their mission statement, is "To create opportunities that progress gender equality on a truly global scale, using cricket as our primary vehicle." Developed out of plans for a Women's International Cricket League back in 2013, a FairBreak XI has played a number of matches, including a tour of England in 2019.

They are currently in the news for the FairBreak Invitational, a six-team T20 league currently being played in Dubai. It was initially planned for Hong Kong but Covid restrictions prevented it. Players from 36 different countries are involved, with players from locations as diverse as Austria, Rwanda and Thailand mixing it with some of the best women's cricketers around the world with players from the likes of England, Australia, West Indies and Bangladesh. All are being paid handsomely for their participation and, true to their word, they are being paid at parity with some men's leagues.

The European Cricket Network's goals are perhaps not as ambitious as global gender equality. Their website states that they are "focussed on growing the sport by developing great events, while using cutting edge technology to create entertainment, promotion and digital fan engagement of cricket being played all over Europe, then taking it to a global audience via ECN media partners.".

They were developed out of former Germany international Daniel Weston's German Cricket TV project who is on the board along with luminaries from the worlds of sports broadcasting and marketing, including two people involved in the marketing of the UEFA Champions League.

It was through a "Champions League for cricket" that they first came to the attention of the wider cricketing public. The 2019 European Cricket League featured eight teams from around Europe. It was won by VOC Rotterdam but it was through Cluj player Pavel Florin and his unorthodox bowling technique that they went viral.

After footage of his action attracted mockery on social media, the ECN twitter account posted footage of an interview with the Romanian international in which he said that he didn't care if people thought his bowling wasn't beautiful because he loved cricket. He became something of a cult figure, was interviewed on Test Match Special and received invitations to play club cricket in England and Australia.

They have since developed the European Cricket Series (ECS), a seemingly never ending series of club tournaments across Europe and the European Cricket Championship, the first ever international T10 tournament that took place last autumn in Spain with an England XI (the national counties representative team to be precise) being crowned champions. They have also shown several T20I series involving European associate members, most recently last weekend's tri-series involving Spain, Guernsey and Norway.

So how are the two organisations doing?

It's early days in the FairBreak Invitational but so far it has been an undoubted success, especially when it comes to the profile of the tournament's associate players.

Rwanda's 19 year-old Henriette Ishimwe made waves by bowling Australian World Cup winner Nicola Carey on Thursday, whilst 41 year-old Japanese left-arm spinner Shizuka Miyaji took 4-18 yesterday, with two wickets caught by England's Sophie Ecclestone who Miyaji describes as her hero. Miyaji's story - she only took up cricket aged 20 when at university. She wanted to play baseball as a young girl, but her local teams didn't allow girls to play. She chose cricket because of its similarity to baseball.

There are other examples but the message has been clear - the best players from associate members can compete with the best players from full members. The teams may not always be able to, often being decried as "minnows" or as one person I saw on Twitter the other day put it "park cricketers", but there is talent in the associate world that just needs nurturing. Male players in associate members are no doubt rather jealous right now.

Perhaps the tournament's main legacy will prove to be in franchise T20 leagues realising that associate cricket provides a largely untapped reservoir of players for them to sign up. I've written before about how I've felt associate cricketers are undervalued on the franchise circuit. Hopefully this league will change some minds.

It has also shown up the BCCI's short sightedness in not developing a women's IPL sooner. Indian players are not involved in the event with the BCCI instead keeping them for their three-team four match Women's Challenge. Once can't imagine those players are particularly happy with their lot, even if they're unlikely to say so in public.

All in all, I think it's doing a great job.

So what about the European Cricket Network? Here, I'm a little more cynical.

T10, initially set to be a stop-gap measure for the first year of the ECL, has become permanent. The sheer volume of cricket in the ECS makes it impossible to follow, not to mention the fact that they have seemingly no context - they aren't qualifiers for the ECL. The standard isn't fantastic, which is largely to be expected given where some of the countries are in their cricket development, but the approach definitely seems to be one that values sheer quantity over quality.

The boundaries are brought in to almost comically short distances, leading scores in a T10 to be similar to those in T20. The amount of sixes were so high during the ECC that by the final even the rather exuberant commentary team seemed to lose interest. The England XI hitting four sixes in an over barely attracted comment.

The first ball of the England XI's innings against Finland saw Finnish captain Jonathan Scammans set a field featuring eight slips and a leg gully. This year's Wisden Almanack suggests that it may have been a protest. Footage of the field went viral, which seems to be one of the main aims of the ECN.

In contrast to their reaction to people making fun of Florin in 2019, the ECN twitter account now seems more likely to be engaging in the mirth-making, often tweeting footage of comical moments in the ECS at twitter accounts dedicated to making fun of low level cricketers. It's evidently a fine line between standing up to bullying and becoming a bully.

The second ECL, much delayed by Covid, ended up as a 30-team behemoth and was played over six weeks. It made me long for the days of the seemingly never ending 2007 men's World Cup in the West Indies - and that was a 50-over tournament. A T10 event should not feel like it drags. I pretty much gave up less than half-way through. Playing it in the European winter seems to stand in direct opposition to what Weston has said is one of his goals - making cricket Europe's number one summer sport.

The main aim of the various tournaments now seems to be providing content for fantasy cricket. It may end up growing cricket in Europe, but that will happen by accident, not by design.

Obviously it's early days and the jury is very much still out. Weston does seem to have his heart in the right place when it comes to growing cricket, but so far for me the project seems to be out of control and has majorly over-reached. The organisers would, in my opinion, be well advised to reign themselves in and concentrate on what they do well.

As I said at the start of this column, both organisations are causing an upheaval. Upheavals can be good, or they can be bad. So far at least, the FairBreak project seems to be a good upheaval. The European Cricket Network? I'm far from convinced.