Cricket: pounds 2.38m boost for English cricket

England's international future yesterday received a pounds 2.38m boost. A scheme designed to produce quality Test players for coming years was unveiled at Lord's by the Cricket Foundation, and its ideal is to set up 38 centres of excellence, one for each of the new County Boards.

"It is an important first brick in the structure of the English Cricket Board which will be up and running on 1 October," said Ossie Wheatley, the chairman of the Cricket Foundation.

A major objective of Wheatley's is for the 17-year-old finished products to emerge from the centres as good as those who graduate from the highly- successful Australian Academy.

A cash injection of pounds 2.2m from the Test and County Cricket Board plus a guarantee of pounds 1.9m over the next three years has handsomely backed a development project which will cost pounds 2.38m overall.

The first centre of excellence for young hopefuls in the Under-12 to Under-17 age group is to be set up at Durham University, which has produced 30 county players.

Wheatley added: "The long-promised restructuring of cricket in England and Wales is underway. Every county in the country - 38 County Boards - will benefit from this investment. The emphasis is on developing better quality young cricketers, particularly 11-16-year-olds."

All 38 County Boards have received grants, six amounting to six figures, plus pounds 135,000 to Durham University in three annual awards of pounds 45,000.

Australia's cricketers left yesterday for a short tour of Sri Lanka, where they face a volatile reception after refusing to set foot on the island six months ago due to security fears. It is their first visit since boycotting a World Cup fixture in February, they will be without their captain, Mark Taylor, as well as Shane Warne because of injury.

India's new captain, Sachin Tendulkar, has admitted he is worried about ethnic violence in Sri Lanka a week before the start of the Singer World Series tournament - but he seems reassured the Sri Lankans have done all they can to protect the three visiting sides, India, Zimbabwe and Australia.

"It does worry us a bit," Tendulkar said. "We hear so many things. It is difficult to put them out of your mind and so there is some pressure. But I am confident about the security cover."

The Test and County Cricket Board's disciplinary hearing into the positive drug test by the Sussex bowler Ed Giddins was suspended after four and a half hours yesterday, and will resume this morning.