new worcestershire ceo matt rawnsley said the county will “do everything possible” to play the opening specsavers county championship clash at New Road in three weeks time after this week’s flooding.
but rawnsley also stressed that worcestershire have contingency plans “in place” if the fixture with nottinghamshire beginning on april 27 has to be moved from the county’s headquarters.
the floods were due to peak in worcester today and then it will be a case of seeing how long it takes for the waters to recede at New Road.
rawnsley said: “at the moment, we are going to do everything we possibly can to play here for the first home game in three weeks time.
“we normally leave three weeks after the water has receded to get the pitch prepared. it is going to be tight so we have got some contingency plans in place if we can’t play here.
“the royal grammar school, which is a partner of ours, is an option for us and there are some other grounds as well we could play at.
“we are going to watch how quickly the water goes off New Road and play it by ear.
“apparently there are ‘dirty’ floods and ‘clean’ floods and this one has been a relatively clean one so hopefully it won’t be too messy when the water goes away and the guys will do a great job in turning it around.”
rawnsley said the county have been in contact with the ecb over the current situation.
he said: “we have a very good relationship. they have been very understanding with us in setting out the schedule for the season.
“our home first class game with leeds-bradford mccu was scheduled for rgs worcester and our first two county championship matches are scheduled to take place away.
“we are in close contact with them on what is happening here in april.”
rawnsley said past experiences of such floods meant the county were well equipped to deal with the challenges they present.
he said: “people have asked me ‘how are you coping with the challenge.’ i’ve got to say we are prepared for the floods.
“the whole team across the whole club has reacted really well. we know what we’ve got to do.
“we have contingency plans in place for when this happens.
“obviously we don’t want it to happen but we have those plans in place and everyone pulled out the stops to ensure the chairman’s lunch went ahead as scheduled on friday to give one example.”
