Bradford University has submitted an application to become one of six university centres of cricketing excellence which are to be set up by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

If their bid succeeds, it will revitalise Park Avenue cricket ground and could lead to the University staging first class matches at the famous venue.

The ECB have received bids from 18 universities and are expected to announce which six have been chosen as centres of excellence by the end of the month.

Although no precise details have been disclosed of the bids, Bradford must stand a good chance in view of the close liaison over the past three years between the ECB and the Management Centre in Keighley Road.

In each of those years, the ECB have sent 18 of the country's top senior players and management staff - including Yorkshire's Martyn Moxon, Michael Vaughan and Steve Oldham - to courses at the centre.

Oxford, Cambridge and Durham Universities look certain to fill three of the places with Bradford well placed to take one of the remaining three. Leeds and Hull Universities have also applied.

Robert McClements, chairman of the University Management Centre's executive development programme, confirmed that Bradford's application was among those in front of the ECB but said that precise details could not be revealed at this stage.

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