CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Chorley's Roland Horridge will again lead the Lancashire Cricket Board's three-pronged assault for honours this season.

And Horridge believes that the board side goes into the new season with an increasingly important role to play on the county scene.

The former Chorley skipper will head a side made up of the best players from the Lancashire leagues - including three of his Chorley team-mates, two players from the Lancashire League and four from the Ribblesdale League - and some of Lancashire's professional staff.

Horridge believes the LCB side is fostering greater links between club and county cricket but is also looking for success for the team in its own right.

Lancashire are in the MCC Trophy along with the Minor Counties and other board XIs, a two-day knock-out competition involving the First-Class county board sides and the NatWest Trophy for the first time.

``That's a fantastic opportunity for players at my time of life,'' said Horridge whose side will take on either Cambridgeshire or Holland on May 19 with the prospect of a second round clash with Durham for the winners.

Lancashire are in a group with Shropshire, Cumbria, Cheshire and Derbyshire in the MCC Trophy and take on Roses rivals Yorkshire in the England and Wales Cricket Board's two-day competition in which they lost to Warwickshire in last season's final.

With Lancashire putting coaching resources towards the board set-up and the ECB blueprint favouring the development of board cricket in tandem with smaller county staffs, Horridge believes the future is bright.

``There was no vehicle for 25 and 26-year-olds who have perhaps been to university and are professional people with a career to step up and play a higher grade of cricket,'' said the Chorley batsman, who cited his club-mate and former Combined Universities skipper Russell Cake as a prime example. ``It also gives the chance for people of around that age who still harbour ambitions of getting on a county staff. They will relish playing at this level. It's a great challenge and representing Lancashire is an honour.

``That's one of the reasons I gave up the Chorley captaincy - to give 100 per cent to it.''

The LCB training squad is currently about 30-strong which will be whittled down ahead of a pre-season friendly against Lancashire 2nds at Old Trafford on April 10.

Included at the moment are Cake, Peter Deakin, Nigel Heaton (Chorley), Russell Edmonds (Enfield), Mark Stewart (Ramsbottom), Mark Fallon (Whalley), Jonathan Harvey (Earby), John Hughes (Cherry Tree) and Mark Lomas (Blackburn Northern).

The LCB fixtures are:

May 5, Cheshire (at Middleton) MCC Trophy
May 11,12, Yorkshire (Stamford Bridge) ECB Trophy
May 19, NatWest Trophy
May 27, Cumbria (Askham) MCC Trophy
June 9, Shropshire (Blackpool) MCC Trophy
June 17, Derbyshire (Derby) MCC Trophy