Cricket Board of Control announced yesterday.

Unsatisfactory conditions of several club grounds, brought on by heavy use during the just completed soccer season, was cited as one of the reasons.

A switch of home fields by Cleveland County and Hamilton Parish also forced the BCBC to revise their original schedule. The new schedule will be released by the BCBC tomorrow.

Cleveland have switched their home ground from Sea Breeze Oval to Wellington Oval, while Parish, who are returning to the league this season, have made a late switch from Wellington Oval to Sea Breeze Oval.

The extra week will give club groundsmen more time to prepare their wickets, a common problem for them at the start of the season.

Once the season does begin with four rounds of Open play, it will be a busy first month. Teams will start their season next weekend with matches on Saturday and Sunday before another round of Open games on May 11 -- the day after the second match of the India tour.

Further Open games are scheduled for May 18 and 25 before Over competition begins on June 1. May 3 and 4 remain as dates for the Camel Cup semi-finals and final before the Indians arrive for their two-match tour, straight from their tour of the West Indies. Their opening match will be on May 8 and the second on May 10, both against the Bermuda team.

St. George's will no doubt be happy to see changes to the schedule as the original one had them playing powerhouse teams Bailey's Bay and Western Stars in Overs play on Saturday and Sunday of the opening weekend.

The east enders have lost the services of opening batsman Dexter Smith, who is returning to one of his former clubs, Devonshire Rec., a year after losing his place in the Cup Match team. But Jason Lewis of Nationals will be an adequate replacement.

Still, the club will have a new opening pair as Wendell Smith, who will still be coaching, may not be available until June. If the former captain does not play at all this season then he will take up a place on the selection committee.

The other St. George's selections are Allan Caisey, Gregory Foggo, Wellington (Buster) Smith and Clay Smith, who returns as captain for a second season.

"In regards to numbers and quality we should be okay,'' said president Mansfield Smith who noted that some 25 players have registered. "Jason Lewis is a good pick-up.'' Places in the team's new ball attack will be contested by the likes of Herbie Bascome, Kenny Phillip, Greg Foggo and Troy Harford, who has been living abroad for a few years. Lewis Foggo, who missed last season, is also back in training.

Stars captain Arnold Manders admitted it will be difficult to defend both the Open and Overs Division title they won last summer when they confirmed themselves as the Island's top team.

"We'll be contenders,'' assured Manders yesterday, without making any bold predictions. "It's going to be difficult to repeat, but we've got the same nucleus of players as before.'' Stars will be without Hasan Durham, who is studying for his Masters degree at university, until the end of May.

If Stars were the best team in the league last season, then Southampton Rangers can lay claim to being the best team in the First Division in 1996.

Rangers move up That was reflected by the club gaining promotion to the Premier Division in both the Open and Overs competitions.

Devonshire Rec. joined them in the top flight in the Overs while PHC, who continue to make great strides in their short time in the league, will play among the big boys in the Open competition. Both Devonshire Rec. and Southampton Rangers are former league champions and will be hoping to return to their glory days of the 1970s and '80s.

Rec. will be captained this season by Anthony Amory while Olin Jones will lead Rangers. St. David's and Nationals were relegated from the Premier Division Overs and Cleveland and Nationals from the Open Division.

There is one new team in the leauge with Hamilton Parish returning to fill the void left by Nationals, who have dropped out again. Some of their players are considering moves to new clubs.

A couple of players who left Parish to join Nationals, Quinn Outerbridge, Roderick Masters and Dennis Trott, have returned.