NELSON will earn a place on the national sporting stage if a school's plans to build a cricketing centre of excellence succeed.

Test match stars of the future could soon be honing their skills at a state-of-the-art coaching centre at Edge End High School.

The school is bidding for National Lottery money to help fund the £2 million scheme to build a sports hall equipped with hi-tech nets and sophisticated machinery, and staffed by county-standard coaches.

The centre will serve the whole of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire, and could even stage a televised indoor competition.

"This project is already gaining an inexorable momentum which will culminate in a successful bid and the building of a genuine asset for the local community," the school's proposal says.

"Throughout the country lovers of Cricket are worried at our lack of success internationally and at the decline in the game among young people. This facility will become part of a network of regional centres of excellence."

The school, which has a reputation for fielding excellent cricket teams in local leagues, has gathered support from sports clubs, the English Cricket Board and Lancashire Cricket Club.

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