Pavilion honour for Graeme Hick

(GETTY IMAGES)

Worcestershire will honour Graeme Hick by naming the new £2m pavilion at New Road after the veteran batsman.

The first phase of the club's ground development scheme gets under way later this month.

Hick, 42, who is to retire from county cricket at the end of the summer, has played for the Royals for 25 seasons and scored 41,112 first-class runs at an average of just over 52.

The current members' pavilion has been in existence since 1899 and has needed renovation work on several occasions in recent years.

The new complex will be housed on its current site with the original building eventually being rebuilt on the site of the existing ladies' pavilion.

Crucially the new two-floor complex will be built above flood level after the problems the club have experienced in recent years.

It will incorporate new dressing rooms, a cricket office, the umpires' room, the players' dining room and a new physio-rehab facility.

Tom Graveney, who like Hick also scored more than 100 first-class hundreds, will have the members' lounge named after him in the same building.

Worcestershire anticipate that the project will be completed by late April to early May 2009.