FED-UP cricketers say their club has become a magnet for vandals in the town.

A spate of crime at the Deane and Derby Cricket Club has seen a roller machine damaged, sight screens pulled on to the pitch and this week an arson attack on the scoreboard.

Tuesday night's fire caused damage estimated at more than £1,000. Fire crews had to rip off a badly damaged door and scoreboard number plates have been ruined.

Club members say they want to hit the trouble-makers for six as they try to prepare their pavilion and grounds on Chelsea Road, Great Lever, for the new season.

Mr Moosa Raja, a founder member of the cricket club which was created in 1969, said: "We don't know exactly who has done this but we think it's probably teenagers who have got nothing else to do.

"It's taken a lot of hard work to get this club to the position we are in now."

Mr Raja, who also acts as the groundsman, will be forced to make repairs to the pitch after two sight screens were pulled on to the square, tearing the turf.

The screens have now been chained to heavy rollers as a security measure. A diesel roller has also been vandalised, after a pipe running between the tank and engine was broken.

But Mr Raja, who works as a driving instructor, says members at the Manchester Association League club are confident recent attacks were not racially motivated.

He added: "The majority of our players are Asians but not all of them. We do encourage all the young people to play and we don't think the vandalism is in anyway racial."

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