THE Hampshire cricket League are allowing their clubs the chance to switch matches scheduled for Saints' FA Cup final day.

The league, which contains well over 200 clubs, have taken the step because of the huge interest in the final against Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium on May 17.

Chairman Chris James will be writing to all clubs later this week outlining the options available to them.

The league's action comes in the wake of the Daily Echo story last week which revealed that Southern Cricket League clubs were being given the chance to postpone their matches for 24 hours to May 18.

Hampshire League clubs have two choices:

They can either switch their match, given both clubs agree to such a move, to Saturday May 3 - a week before the full league programme is due to start.

Or they can start their match on May 17 earlier, take a long tea interval to accommodate the Cup final, and then finish their game afterwards.

In the event of any Southern League games played on May 18, clubs are reminded that no players involved in those games can appear in Hampshire League games the day before.

James said: "The management committee considered allowing the playing of matches on May 18 but decided that Rule 2 stating that all matches should be played on a Saturday should still take priority.

"Whilst we would like to show more flexibility, we feel that there are genuine circumstances when clubs would like to transfer matches to a Sunday and the league does not want to set a precedent that could lead to problems in the future.

"We also believe that although Sunday cricket is in decline, many clubs and players still have Sunday commitments that we feel should not be cancelled through no fault of their own."

The Hampshire League allowed clubs to start matches earlier than normal for one of England's football World Cup games last summer.

Divisional results secretary Nigel Gravells said: "We think we are being fair to the clubs. We are not a rigid committee and we want to get away from the image which there used to be that cricket committees can be uncaring.

"There is obviously a great deal of interest in the final and we want to give players and officials the chance to watch the game.

All Hampshire League clubs wanting to switch their May 18 fixtures to May 3 must notify their divisional results secretary by Monday, April 28.