It has been a tumultuous season so far for my club Lancashire.
Last week, we were branded the worst team in England after going bottom of Division Two of the County Championship – and there was a reaction.
Keaton Jennings stepped down as captain, while John Abrahams, chair of the cricket development committee, and Mark Chilton, director of cricket performance, released an unprecedented apology.
After drawing with Derbyshire on Monday, we climbed once place off the bottom. Yet despite being favourites for promotion, we remain winless after six games this campaign. So what is going wrong at Emirates Old Trafford?
Well, this is my cricket club, I have spent a lifetime there and I feel like I can have an opinion. And it seems to me that there is a real disconnect between the cricket side and the business side of the club.
There is a feeling, from both within and outside the club, that cricket isn’t the main priority. Rather the balance sheet is. That is a real concern. We must get back to being a cricket club.
Lancashire have endured a dismal start to the season and sit second bottom in Division Two
Keaton Jennings stood down as Lancashire captain after defeat away at Northamptonshire
Director of cricket performance Mark Chilton released an apology to fans after the loss
From my experience of being involved at Lancashire since the 1960s, every chairman has always been hands-on. But now we have a chairman in Andy Anson who seems a thoroughly decent bloke but is very busy doing lots of other things, so he can’t be hands-on.
John Abrahams is the only one with any cricket knowledge at senior level. That has not gone unnoticed with many other clubs.
Meanwhile, most of the criticism has been aimed at head coach Dale Benkenstein. But I would be a voice in favour of him.
If I didn’t think this bloke was right, I would say so. But I have had long chats with him and he knows what he is doing. He has a long-term plan. I am just not sure that he is getting the backing of the club at the highest level.
The apology that was released by the club last week baffled me. We were only 24 points off second – one win – and not even halfway through the bloody fixtures.
Who said we’ve got to apologise? Who instigated that? I thought that was an own goal. It was wrong.
At times like this, you’ve just got to batten down the hatches, suck it up and regroup. Shut that noise out and get on with what you are doing.
I would have said: ‘Come on boys, roll your sleeves up, get your chest out and let’s get up this league’. I would get a bit of togetherness and try to steady the ship. The apology has only served to unsteady the ship.
Jimmy Anderson returned to action against Derbyshire in a major boost and took five wickets
Anderson is 42 but ready to play a big role for his county after retiring from international cricket
Head coach Dale Benkenstein is under pressure after relegation and a bad start to this season
It was probably inevitable that Jennings would step down as captain given all the noise around. But if he didn’t feel that he was getting the full backing of the club, he was right to get out of the kitchen and let somebody else have a go.
It might change the mentality of the team a little bit. But one thing it doesn’t do is change the pitch – and that is one of the other big problems Lancashire have got.
Emirates Old Trafford is a Test-match pitch and we are trying to get a four-day result from a five-day wicket.
Having been to all the home games this summer, I know the ground staff are trying to leave a little bit more grass on and perhaps not roll it as much. But in dry weather like this, the pitch just bakes unbelievably hard. In reality, you can play on these pitches for 10 or 12 days and they will not change.
So, what do you need on that sort of pitch? You need searing pace, which we haven’t got, and wrist spin, which we haven’t got. That is why all four of our home matches so far have resulted in draws. We haven’t got the tools to play on it.
One player Lancs do have is Jimmy Anderson, who is 42 now but still looks about 24. He must be on elixir or something. The way he bowled against Derbyshire, he could still be playing for England this week.
Lancs have never finished bottom of the County Championship and I don’t think we will. I am still backing us to come up with something to move up the league.
Really, we need to get out of this division this year. We are still only 22 points behind second so we have still got a chance. But it will be a hell of scramble now after our sorry start to the season.
