Pears line up alternative venues

Worcestershire's match against Lancashire looks unlikely to go ahead at New Road.

Worcestershire have informed Lancashire that the chances of their LV County Championship Division One match going ahead are looking slim.

The Royals attempted to stage their four-day game against Kent at New Road just days after it was submerged by the recent floods but the decision backfired with the game abandoned.

With further rain preventing any possible clean-up operation, Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes will lead a Red Rose delegation on Monday in order to assess the state of the pitch.

The England and Wales Cricket Board have also instructed Worcestershire to line-up alternative venues, with Kidderminster, Himley or Worcester Grammar School looking the most likely.

Lancashire manager Mike Watkinson admitted the match now looks unlikely to take place at New Road, saying: "I am aware that the chances of us playing at Worcester are pretty limited."

Watkinson also revealed how Lancashire have joined Hampshire in fully backing Yorkshire's complaint to the ECB to allow the Worcestershire's Championship game with Kent to be replayed.

Watkinson said: "Lancashire County Cricket Club's chairman Jack Simmons has signed the Yorkshire document on the basis the club believe it was a flawed decision and creates a precedent, opening the floodgates for future situation that are deemed 'extreme circumstances'.

"Whilst Lancashire County Cricket Club sympathise with Worcestershire CCC and Kent in these circumstances we are of the view that the Board has made an incorrect decision in this instance and we therefore urge the ECB to reconsider the decision.

"I personally feel once a date has been set for a game you turn up with the intention of playing.

"If conditions aren't fit then you turn up the next day still looking forward to playing and if the conditions still aren't fit then that is it - you have had your chance of playing."