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John Crawley has set his sights high for his first season as Lancashire captain - an improvement on 1998.

That will take some doing, as in Wasim Akram's first and only summer in charge, the county won the NatWest Trophy and AXA League, in addition to finishing second in the Championship.

And this year Lancashire will be without not only Wasim but also their new overseas player Muttiah Muralitharan and the England trio Andy Flintoff, Ian Austin and Neil Fairbrother until after the World Cup - with Mike Atherton also facing a long lay-off to recover from his back problem.

But Crawley, a key figure in last year's success as Wasim's vice captain with 2,500 runs, is undaunted.

``I think it's certainly possible to do as well as last year - if not better,'' he said on the eve of today's opening match, a three-day friendly against Cambridge University.

``The change-around may well be slightly unsettling, but it's just a matter of the 11 players picked for each game playing as well as they can.

``It will certainly be a challenge, but I don't think it's a desperate situation and that we're not going to do well because of it. I'm pretty confident we can do well.''

It's a crucial season for Lancashire, with the Championship splitting into two divisions at the end - which means that despite the absence of so many key players for up to six matches, they need to finish in the top nine.

``That would be the first priority, although hopefully we can finish a bit higher than that,'' added Crawley, who supports the radical changes being made by the English game.

``It's good because it keeps the season going all the way through. The ideal scenario in my opinion would be to have a one-division Championship and cut down the number of teams, but that's just impossible to do.

``It's just a matter of stringing a run together where you win a lot of games back to back, that's how Championships are won - that's what Leicester did last year, and we did too to come second.''

On his captaincy style and the effect the extra responsibility might have on his batting, Crawley says: ``We can only wait and see. You'll have to ask one of the other lads halfway through the season what sort of captain I am, and I can't really predict what sort of season I will have.

``Whether I was captain or not it would take some doing to have another season like last year, to score runs like that for a whole season was something I was pleased about. But I don't think the captaincy should affect me too much.''

Crawley is also looking forward to captaining Muralitharan later in the season. ``He's a high class bowler, easily the best off-spinner in the world, and I'll probably let him get on with it and set his own fields to start with,'' said the 27-year-old, who scored a century against Murali before the Sri Lankin spin wizard destroyed the rest of the England batting at The Oval last summer.

``I spoke to him a bit there, and a bit more in Australia in the winter. He's certainly enthusiastic and passionate about his cricket, and he should be good to have around.''

With exciting young leg-spinner Chris Schofield set to team up with Murali in the second half of the season, Lancashire members should be in for a treat. Maybe Crawley's optimism is well-founded.