HAMPSHIRE chairman Brian Ford has pledged the club's new HQ will be ready on time - and that spells the death knell for first-class cricket at Portsmouth and Basingstoke.

The club confirmed today that when their £17 million headquarters at West End is complete in April, 2001, they will concentrate all their efforts there and cease to play at any other grounds in the county after the end of the 2000 season.

It's a move that isn't totally unexpected but one which might not please county members, who got sympathy from Ford: "I think they will be about as happy as I was, being from Bournemouth, when the decision was taken to stop playing cricket there. I know it will upset some people but it makes economic sense for us.

"We have had undertaken a full financial evaluation of playing cricket at out grounds and it makes financial sense to play all our cricket at Southampton."

It will mark the finish of more than 100 years of cricket at United Services ground in Portsmouth while Hampshire will also end their presence in the north of the county when they cease to play at May's Bounty. But the consolation is that supporters in both areas will at least get to see the likes of Shane Warne and Alan Mullally next season.

Ford says the traditional corporate support is tailing off at Basingstoke. The financial advantages of playing thereare not what they were and it costs the club money to play at these grounds.

"A lot of people have invested in the new ground, taking out millennium memberships, membership of the executive club, and we think it makes sense to concentrate our efforts in one place," he added.

Full report inside tonight's Daily Echo.

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