Worcestershire: Pears ready to switch games to Kidderminster again after New Road flood

Worcestershire's New Road home has spent over 60 days under water this winter

Worcestershire are already preparing to switch their first County Championship home game to Kidderminster following their latest severe flood at New Road.

The Pears' first home match with Sussex on 25 April is now highly likely to move to Chester Road, but that decision can be delayed until early April.

And Sussex have already turned down the option of swapping home fixtures.

"We hope it's only one game that we'll have to play at Kidderminster," said Worcestershire chairman Fanos Hira.

"The main problem is that the water is higher than we've previously seen. There will be significant repair costs.

"We would still prefer to play games here if we can. Our Championship gates were severely impacted by the move last summer. But, if we can't, then we want to play at Kidderminster.

"We've just signed an extended contract with them to be our second home. They've done a brilliant job for us."

Worcestershire's ground at New Road, home to County Championship cricket there since 1899, is situated right next to the flooded River Severn

Sussex happy to come back to Kiddy

Chester Road used to be a regular haunt for Worcestershire in Championship cricket before counties opted to make more use of their headquarters and less use of outgrounds.

But since Kidderminster lost its annual fixture in 2002, the county have only staged five four-day games there - two following the great summer flood of 2007, another in 2008 and then two more in June 2019 when Worcester suffered another bad summer flood.

The first of those two games in 2019 was against Sussex - and the visitors were sufficiently happy with the quality of the pitch and the facilities to be happy to return there.

"We did look at the option of swapping with Sussex, who we are due to play at Hove in August," Hira added to BBC Hereford & Worcester. "But we totally understand their rationale for not doing so.

"They are more than happy to come to Kidderminster again. Their coach Jason Gillespie was very positive about how Kidderminster coped.

"But it's still an 'if' at the moment. We won't know until early April."

Chester Road, Kidderminster is now officially acknowledged as Worcestershire's second home

Hira's latest concern is counting the cost of yet another New Road flood - but points out that it does not compare to the damage inflicted on some local residents.

"We've become quite adept at dealing with this. A lot of the costs are mitigated," he said. "But there are close to 500 homes impacted in the county. That's where our first thoughts lie.

"The least we can do is to offer those families impacted a chance to come and watch some cricket here this summer. There's lots we can do to help.

"As far as our square is concerned, we reseed, we repair and we go again. But most of our facilities are above the flood plain. We're warm and dry and most of the function rooms are in use so the impact there is slight.

"Some machinery is under water. One blotter we may have lost was an old one.

"We're slightly concerned about the Ladies Pavilion, as to whether there might be structural repair damage.

"And it sadly appears to be a dirty flood. We've already estimated 120 labour days to clean up the whole stadium."

Fanos Hira was talking to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Sally Bentley-Read.