Hampshire's Rose Bowl gets provisional test status

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) Hampshire's Rose Bowl could host test matches after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) awarded it provisional Category A status.

The Southampton venue was inspected in October and the ECB's Major Match Group subsequently recommended to the Board that it should gain provisional status.

Full Category A status, the highest for cricket grounds in England, will depend on further improvements being completed to the facilities and the pitch one year before staging any future test match.

''The Rose Bowl is an exciting new venue with international quality floodlights and impressive development plans which seek to create a truly world class cricket facility,'' ECB chief executive David Collier said in a statement today.

''The ECB hopes that the Board's decision provides the incentive for the Rose Bowl plc to attract further investment in order to complete these plans in the near future.'' Rose Bowl chairman Rod Bransgrove said that they plan to invest a further 35 million pounds (67 million dollar) on the venue to make it one of the ''leading test match venues in world cricket''.

London's Lord's and the Oval, Edgbaston (Birmingham), Headingley (Leeds), Old Trafford (Manchester) and Trent Bridge (Nottingham) are the traditional venues for England's home tests, although the Riverside near Durham was granted test status in 2003.

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