alib said:you could pick a really good team of young local players Lancashire have let go to other counties over recent years (most of whom played in the Lancashire League as kids)...........
M. Brown (Sur)
J. Simpson wk (Mid)
V. Tripathi (Nor)
S. Mullaney (Not)
D. Brown (Gla)
C.Schofield (Sur)
J. Clare (Der)
K. Barker (War)
S. Kirby (Glo)
L. Daggett (Nor)
To be fair to the decision makers at Lancs you could argue that in most cases it was the right choice to let these players move on. Clare, D Brown and Tripathi for example are struggling to get a start for Division 2 counties so were unlikely to force their way through at Lancs. I also accept that on occasion a mistake will be made and a player will come back to haunt us (i.e Mullaney), that's just life.
My gripe is that currently we have a 2ndxi full of players in their mid twenties -Shanker, Montogomery, Cross, Newby, Hogg, etc. This season our batting in the CC in particular has been poor (Horton, Moore, Smith and Chilton all average under 30) and yet the line up has remained virtually unchanged. That says to me that the coach doesn't believe that the players in the two's are good enough, in which case why are we retaining them? Wouldn't we be better trying to give experience to promising teenagers instead? On the flip side if these players in the 2's are good enough, where is the incentive for them to perform if the 1st team is a closed shop?
Last year we signed Lungley on loan and this year we've brought in the terrible Powell, again that indicates that Moores doesn't consider Cheetham or Montogmery good enough so why keep them on the staff? It doesn't add up.
I look around the county scene and see lots of other counties producing and encouraging very promising young players. Lancs have more resources to call on than most, so somewhere along the line something isn't right.