Newton confident of New Road future

Worcestershire are confident they have a long-term future at New Road after meetings with the Environment Agency. While the club realise they are not a top priority Mark Newton, the chief executive, was positive about the discussions.

"As you would expect, it was a constructive meeting. We totally understand where we are in the list of priorities but the meeting did help us on a number of fronts," he said. "We are committed to staying at New Road and short term contingency plans are in place if there is another summer flood.

"It would be a huge boost if government were to invest hundreds of millions of pounds into flood prevention measures along the River Severn but the reality is people's homes and personal safety are far more important than a cricket ground. As we do on a regular basis, we will continue our dialogue with the Environment Agency to keep up with future climate change trends."

Cricket returned to New Road earlier this week when Worcestershire took on Warwickshire in a pre-season friendly. It was the first action at the ground since the mid-summer floods last year and the recovery process wasn't helped when there were further floods during the winter.