WORCESTERSHIRE'S difficult start to the cricket season has highlighted the need to establish a conveyor belt of young talent coming through.

That's why news today that the county club has decided to put on hold its plans for the Basil D'Oliveira cricket school at the New Road ground is such a blow.

The idea behind the scheme - besides being a tribute to one of the greatest figures to bestride the cricket scene - was to fill a crucial gap in training facilities.

Worcestershire has been for years the only one of the First Class counties without its own indoor cricket school.

That has meant there has been a missing link in its missionary work among school pupils across the county.

Of course, now, more than ever, our youngsters need to be persuaded that applying willow to leather is a better way of spending summer days than sitting goggle-eyed before some dull computer game.

However, it's perfectly understandable that Worcestershire has had to take such a decision.

The difficulties of trying to deal with the horrendous flooding problems that have plagued the New Road ground have added to costs which - as anyone who has been involved with a building project of any kind will know - escalate all the time.

Nonetheless, in this tale of troubles, there are still rays of hope to be seen.

Worcestershire's chairman John Elliott has told us that the club is looking at going into partnership with a "leisure provider" to create an alternative site in the county for an indoor school.

It may be that such a facility will have only two or three lanes, rather than the five or six which were initially in the club's mind. But we're sure that any level of provision will do nothing but good for both the club and the young people of Worcestershire.