APPLICATIONS from 17 Pennine Cricket League clubs to join the Greater Manchester Cricket League next season have been accepted, the GMCL has confirmed.

The move was revealed at a recent meeting of the GMCL board and confirmed via a statement on the league website.

Steps are now being taken to inspect each club to decide what level of the league they should enter at before decisions are made on how the expanded GMCL will be structured next season.

The GMCL statement read: "The Pennine Cricket League representative has confirmed that there are 17 clubs wishing to join the league.

"Those applications have been accepted and we look forward to welcoming them into the competition for the start of the 2018 season.

"The work to visit each ground is well underway, with nine completed already and the team will move quickly to visit the remainder.

"This work will ensure we are able to place clubs on facilities and merit, just as we did when the league was formed in 2016.

"An interim statement with key points will be issued in the coming days and we are on course to deliver the plan for the revised divisional structure to add up to 34 Saturday teams on or before July 31, as we said we would.

"The actual placement of the new clubs will follow later when all determinations have been made."

A total of 12 clubs from the Bury area take part in the GMCL across five divisions, including three in the Premier Division (Woodbank, Walshaw and Bury), two in Division One (Greenmount and Unsworth), three in Division Two (Elton, Brooksbottom and Edenfield), two in Division Three (Radcliffe and Elton Vale) and two in Division Four West (ELPM and Tottington St Johns).