QUESTION: What do New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Herefordshire have in common?

ANSWER: They are all part of a varied selection of opponents Worcestershire will be facing this season.

New Zealand are the visitors to New Road for a four-day match starting on Friday, May 7, and could be back again the following month.

Whether the County will take them on in a limited-over game on Wednesday, June 16, however, will depend on their exploits in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.

If New Road skipper Ben Smith and his men reach the quarter-finals then it will be Derbyshire who entertain the Kiwis.

The County will launch their Trophy campaign with a short trip to Luctonians to take on Herefordshire in a second round game on Wednesday, May 5.

The winners will then play Derbyshire or Somerset in the next round on Saturday, May 29.

The County's other international opposition this season will be Sri Lanka 'A' who visit New Road for a one-day match on Wednesday, July 7.

Worcestershire chief executive Mark Newton said: "We've got New Zealand for the four-day game starting on a Friday in early May, so it's not a prime time of the season.

"But I make no bones about it we've said over the last three or four years that we'll accommodate the scheduling of the ECB but 'please, please look after us when Australia are over in 2005'. To get that early game against Australia is so important to this club, both traditionally and financially."

Regarding the County's visit to Luctonians, Newton said: "It's funny, in my short time here we've already played Herefordshire and the Worcestershire Cricket Board and suddenly we get Herefordshire again!"