Irani aims to catch his Lancashire chums cold (24 April 1999)

24 April 1999

Essex Eagles v Lancashire Lightning: Irani aims to catch his Lancashire chums cold

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

LANCASHIRE old boy Ronnie Irani hopes to catch his former team-mates cold at Chelmsford tomorrow.

The Bolton-born all-rounder is now a key figure in the Essex Eagles team who face Lancashire Lighting in the CGU National League Division One.

"Lancashire are top dogs in limited overs cricket but maybe they haven't had enough cricket to get into their full stride yet," said Irani. "Hopefully we can catch them cold."

Lancashire's first game as the Lightning at Kent last week was a complete washout, and Iran's Eagles will also be making their National League debut.

"It will be our first one-dayer of the season too but we have been working hard and are determined to get off to a flyer," added the 27-year-old, who left Lancashire for Chelmsford in 1994 and has since played two Tests and ten one-day internationals.

"We may have struggled in the Championship last year but we have more than held our own in one day cricket. We have got to three Lord's finals and finished third in the AXA League last year, and we intend to make things difficult for Lancashire." Irani did just that at Chelmsford last year, taking four for 32 and hammering an unbeaten 95 as Essex beat Lancashire by three wickets despite a battling 70 from Mike Atherton.

This year he is Essex's vice captain, but he won't be tossing up with John Crawley as Nasser Hussain is back on county duty trying to find form ahead of the World Cup.

Lancashire should be picking from full strength apart from the injured Atherton.

They will just be hoping for a change in the weather after the Championship game against Middlesex was abandoned as a draw without a ball being bowled yesterday afternoon.

It was the first four-day Championship match Lancashire have ever had completely washed out. The last time they suffered so badly was in a match against a Rest of the World XI in 1987, and surprisingly they have only been involved in 24 total washouts in Championship cricket this century - the last against Hampshire at Southampton in 1986.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)