The sun appeared for a brief period causing problems for photographers after one of the wettest winters ever as Lancashire welcomed members of the press for a pre season event
The cricket season begins this Friday and the Red Rose take on last year’s champions and favourites for the title Surrey at the Emirates Old Trafford with a new coach in charge Dale Benkenstein after a disappointing season in 2023 which saw the departure of club stalwart Glenn Chapple
Benkenstein’s appointment announced just before Christmas was somewhat of a surprise amongst the cricketing fraternity and the members at Old Trafford
Benkenstein said how excited that he was coming to the club with a great squad and opportunities for young players to push through with IPL call ups and injuries
He described this as being the honeymoon period with Lancashire’s first three games in the Championship against the strongest three teams in the league which he says will be a good barometer on the strength or otherwise of the squad
The Austrailan Test star Nathan Lyon was flying in that very day and Benkenstein made no secret of the fact that he would be starting against Surrey on Friday-
It is disappointing that he is now no longer going to be here for the full season but as the coach says to have that quality for a block of the season is going to be great value from the team’s point of view and the learning that goes around that especially for Tom Hartley freshh from his England experiences out in India.
After a season of very flat pitches and draws at Old Trafford Benkenstein did at least recognise that the club should be making better use of home advantage and within the strict guidelines of the ECB, the pitches would suit their strengths
The team also needs to be more aggressive in persuing results, the coach added saying that if the wicket is flat then they should be more determined to knock the runs off in a fourth innings chase and that the team would be doing a lot more forward planning
It was a point echoed by club captain Keaton Jennings who told us that “we let ourselves down in one or two bits last year, we could have been a little bit braver and done things slightly differently
Jennings is no stranger to winning the County Championship, he did it with Durham back in 2013, Dale Benkenstein was a player in that team as well, and the title will be the pinnicle for him.
Batsman Josh Bohannon has spent part of the winter out in India as part of the England Lions tour
Bohannon believes that Lancashire will be more of an attacking force this season.Asked whether a draw or a loss in the Championship, he told us that he could foresee the team declaring earlier in order to give more time to bowl the opposition out in the second innings
One member of the squad who is hoping to come back with a bang is Sadiq Mahmood who told us that he can’t believe two years have passed with injuries.He told us that it was last year’s Championship game against Somerset when Jimmy Anderson broke down and he took on extra workload which effectively brought his season to an end
He has been bowling out in Dubai and hopes that he will be back to red ball cricket come May and back to full speed.
As for England caps, he has that as an aspiration but his main concern will be to return full fitness and hit that 90mph target
There is also a new coach for the women’s team Chris Read former Notts and England wicket keeper who told us that there was some baggage from previous seasons to get rid of which started with getting the girls to believe that they could compete toe to toe with the best in the country
Finishing seventh in fifty over cricket in consecutive seasons means that there is a feeling that positions one and two are far away but we can change that perception that we can compete at the top” adding
“We have a good a squad as anybody in the country and we need to get that message across to the players”
