Whatmore orders extra nets (6 June 1997)

6 Jun 1997

Whatmore orders extra nets

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

LANCASHIRE's players were ordered back to the County Ground in Taunton today after collapsing to a humiliating Championship defeat by Somerset inside two days.

Coach Dav Whatmore insisted they were not "naughty boy nets."

But harsh words were said behind the closed dressing room doors after Lancashire's second dismal batting capitulation in as many days.

Skipper Mike Watkinson sat disconsolate on the Taunton balcony as Whatmore said: "Losing inside two days is never pleasant. But the difference between the two sides wasn't as great as it seems. If we could have got another 100 runs, it would have been interesting."

Maybe, but Lancashire did not show the application needed to score those 100 runs.

It was kamikaze cricket as nightwatchman Glen Chapple, Graham Lloyd, Warren Hegg, Peter Martin, Ian Austin and even Watkinson himself all came in, blasted a couple of boundaries, then got themselves out playing attacking shots.

Whatmore blamed the pitch and Lancashire's decision to bat first on Wednesday, saying: "I thought it was definitely sub-standard. The advantage was with the team that bowled first, but we misunderstood the amount of surface moisture on the first morning.

"It was the sort of wicket where everyone agreed they never really felt in, there was the potential of getting out any ball. So personally I thought let's get as many runs as we can before the pitch gets you out."

Yet the only decent partnership of the match, 79 for Somerset's second wicket between captain Peter Bowler and Piran Holloway, came from grafting cricket, not the sort of hit-an-hope approach adopted by Lancashire. Whatmore conceded that Lancashire are continuing to suffer from the same old problem - transferring their one-day form, which has taken them to the top of the Sunday League, into the bread and butter of the Championship.

"I'm convinced about the quality of the people in the side in terms of ability," he added.

"But I'm not convinced about the way in which we understand our roles in the longer game.

"So it's not a case of unloading players and bringing in a heap more. It's more a case of rethinking and applying things in certain situations in the longer game."

It's back to the shorter game on Sunday, when Lancashire will be without the injured Jason Gallian as well as Test stars Mike Atherton and John Crawley, with Wasim Akram facing a fitness test later today.

Then they return to Old Trafford in the Championship to face title-challenging Kent on Wednesday - when they could well be back at the bottom of the table, depending on the results of those strugglers who managed to take their games into a third day today.

With talk of restructuring county cricket into two divisions, it's crucial that Lancashire begin to climb the table - especially after last year's bottom four finish. Otherwise, as one respected columnist put it today, instead of playing in the cricketing Premiership, "they would be lucky to get into the third division north."

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