FIRST it was football pitches, now it looks like the future of cricket in Southampton could be under threat.

Hundreds of city centre cricketers could see their evening league bowled out after city bosses decided to extend car parking charges until 10.30pm.

Organisers of the Southampton Evening Cricket League say the decision, which was taken by the council's Lib Dem Cabinet last week, threatens to be the "nail in the coffin" for more than a hundred years of city centre cricket.

League chairman Doug Perry said it would be the culmination of years of neglect of the cricket pitches in Hoglands Park by the council.

Mr Perry, 71, said: "We already pay to hire the pitches. We've got Victorian dressing rooms, which are a disgrace, and we've got people regularly breaking in and vandalising them.

"We had 72 teams eight years ago and nine divisions but because of the state of the pitches we've lost youngsters. We've now got 31 teams.

"This council said they wanted to make the clubbers pay for parking in the evenings but they don't come in until about nine or 10pm and they don't drive. Cricketers often need to drive because of all the kit they have to carry. The council is destroying grass-roots cricket."

Last November, a council budget proposal to save £58,000 by axing five football pitches across the city caused outrage among Echo readers.

Despite being given the go-ahead by the Cabinet, the car parking decision, which would see evening charges of 50p per hour, has been called-in, meaning it will be debated before full council on Wednesday.

League co-vice-president David Creedon, from Bitterne added: "There are lots of parking spaces round here so why are they charging?"

Environment and transport boss Councillor Jill Baston, said: "It would be a great shame and I very much hope that the charges are not at such a level to make it detrimental."