Lancashire: A season Review

12 months on from lifting the County Championship trophy, Lancashire have suffered relegation to division two after a disastrous season. Winning only one of their four day games all season has proved costly, and factoring in the weather the nine draws have been nearly as bad.

The team has a whole just hasn't performed well enough, only Ashwell Prince averaged over 35 with the bat, while the dependable Paul Horton and Steven Moore averaged 29 and 17 respectively. The batting unit just never got going, only four hundreds where scored, while plenty of players got 50s (22 between the team) nobody went on to make that big score that is so vital to ensure respectable targets are posted.

The bowling was slightly better, however not by much. Taking James Anderson out of the equation due to being on England duty most of the summer, only three players had an average of under 28, Steven Croft (23), Glenn Chapple (24) and Luke Proctor (27). Experienced players like Gary Keedy, Saj Mahmood and Ajmal Shahzad all under performed, Keedy must be thinking if he still has a future at the club with the emergence of young spinner Simon Kerrigan and could contemplate retirement, however Saj Mahmood who was loaned out to Surrey, who avoided relegation at Lancashires expense, must be wondering if he still has a place in the side at Old Trafford, his contact will undoubtedly be reviewed. While Shahzad will be sent back to Yorkshire, and await their decision on his future.

At the start of this season I claimed that Peter Moores was the right man to lead Lancashire to further success after last season, and I still believe this to be true. It is likely a few of the older players will look to retirement, making way for younger, possibly hungrier players to come through and grab the opportunity presented to them. Moores has done well in bonding a largely home grown squad and he can not let this be undone by relegation. He will have to convince players to stay at the club, otherwise Lancashires stay in the second tier will be extended.

Away from the four day game Lancashire had a much better experience, reaching the semi finals of the CB40 before losing to a fired up Warickshire side. Steven Croft, who is largely ignored when it comes to International recognition until his inclusion in the provisional T20 world cup squad, was often the anchor of the side, allowing players Karl Brown, Steven Moore and Tom Smith to play their typical aggressive style of cricket around him. The bowers all so found the shorter form of the game more to their liking, Oliver Newby had a fantastic season, finishing with an average of 17 and a strike rate of 18.7. Chapple, Keedy and Shahzad all had averages of 20.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:They do in the county section

guildfordbat wrote:Good to see a county review, particularly for one that normally doesn't get a lot of mention on this forum.

However, the reference to Saj Mahmood going on loan to Surrey with the suggestion that they avoided relegation as a consequence is wrong and needs to be corrected. Mahmood is on loan to Somerset.

guildfordbat wrote:
Thanks for putting me right, Peter. I obviously need to look there a bit more.

guildfordbat wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:They do in the county section

Thanks for putting me right, Peter. I obviously need to look there a bit more.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:I can't say that I am all that surprised at Lancs' relegation. Winning the championship last season was a wonderful achievement for then - and arguably was a considerable over-achievement against reasonable expectations. It really did depend on everything coming right. It's not surprising that psychologically they have found it hard to maintain anything like that form. And several of their key players are, shall we say, getting on a bit!

The county championship can be very unforgiving - a few players lose form, get a raw deal from the weather and you can easily lose a few matches on trot. Noteworthy that at the start of the season not many 606v2 posters were predicting great things for them. Shelsey's pre season review suggested they might come 7th; Guildford was making observations about the weakness of the bowling.