Bermuda Cricket Board of Control may be forced to delay the start of the cricket season for two weeks because of the unavailability of several grounds.

Original plans called for the league season to officially get underway on the weekend of April 26, but it now appears that May 10 will be a more likely starting date.

Many of the grounds have been played on regularly throughout the winter soccer season and this combined with heavy rainfall means that most will require more attention than usual in order to get both the outfield and the wickets in proper condition.

The grounds believed to be most affected are St. John's Field, Devonshire Rec. and Somerset Cricket Club.

St. George's Cricket Club find themselves in a similar position of not having Wellington Oval ready for the season start but their problems stem from another cause - the Bermuda motocross extravaganza last November which left their field in poor shape and has caused the club sufficient concern to seek legal action.

The BCBC said yesterday they were upset by the news that several fields would not be ready for the intended season start.

They said letters were circulated to all field operators requesting dates that their respective grounds would be ready but only Somerset officially responded - telling the governing body that their earliest 'opening' date would be May 10.

"Due to the complications caused by ground-sharing, until the Board receive notice of home field and field availability the fixture schedule cannot be generated. Obviously the Board would like to publish this sooner rather than later," said a BCBC spokesman.

"An additional concern is the potential effect on a number of proposed tours and/or competitions and special events that may be impacted by either a late start to the season or the unavailability of all grounds throughout the year.

"Bermuda enjoys a busy domestic season that is logistically difficult to coordinate and the Board is keen to see that the grounds are ready to allow for all cricket games, particularly in a year when our senior squad play in a World Cup qualifying event in September."

The grounds that are expected to be ready for possible tour matches early in the season are White Hill, Southampton Oval, Sea Breeze Oval and Lord's in St. David's.