Lancashire promise to go all-out for win

It's becoming a familiar story, although an unwelcome one - as rain washed out all of the county program on Tuesday. The three crunch games will now be three-dayers, at best.

Lancashire's captain Mark Chilton spoke of his disappointment that their vital game with Hampshire, who are also in the mix, was unable to take place because of a wet outfield. "It's very disappointing not to be able to take the field in such a crucial game. I've never seen it rain so much and I've never seen the crowds suffer so much."

He promised, though, that Lancashire would go all-out for the win. "The pitch should hopefully be playable in the morning. We will play quite aggressively and try to force a result."

Lancashire lie sixth, with 127 points, though they have a game in hand on the leaders Sussex, who have 149 points from 12 matches. Hampshire have played 11 matches.

The club chairman Jim Cumbes defended the decision to hold two Arctic Monkeys concerts at Old Trafford at the end of July. There are suggestions that the gigs are the reason for some grass-less patches of outfield.

"I think it is fair to say that it hasn't helped," he told the Lancashire CCC website. "If we hadn't have had the pop concerts you wouldn't see the bare patches but given that we have had so much rain then it would still have been quite iffy to start on time anyway."

Sussex, meanwhile, had to watch the rain fall at The Oval, where there was similar frustration for Surrey, who are in the bottom two. But Kent and Worcestershire, who join them in the basement, could not get underway either at Canterbury.