Allott backs Chapple
NO COACHING CHANGE AT LANCASHIRE
PAUL Allott says he is not expecting any major changes to the coaching staff at Lancashire – despite the club’s relegation to Division One of the County Championship.
The club’s director of cricket, whose own position has been questioned by some members, says he is ‘totally confident’ in head coach Glen Chapple and believes they can lead the Red Rose back to the top flight next season.
But he also says the club need to invest in their young players to build for the future.
“It is all very well saying you want change, people say things about change without thinking about the alternatives and without thinking about recommendations that would improve what we have here,” he said.
“I am totally confident in the coaching staff we have got, in the players that we have got.
“We have to have a little bit of a shift towards encouraging our younger players.
“One of the things that struck me over the 12 months I’ve been doing this job is that we continue to produce quality players through our age groups – and we have done it again this summer.
“We have a hugely successive age group summer, winning trophies, winning festivals, getting to finals.
“The second team has won the T20, yet for some reason we don’t have that consistency of approach and going through that level to cement their places at first-team level. But saying that, you look at Liam Livingstone, Alex Davies, Tom Bailey – they are just three I can name off the top of my head who have come through, Matty Parkinson another one at 21. So we do produce and bring through young players.
“But just like all sportsmen, they are prone to fluctuations in form and this year we have had some of those fluctuations.
“With senior players too – Shivnarine Chanderpaul hasn’t scored any runs. Some might say you could see that coming, but he scored 800 runs last year.
“What we have had this year is a combination of a collective loss of form with the batsmen, some injuries and some Test calls, which you are always going to get. That’s no excuse.
“You need to slot in then your next group of young players who have come through the system – your Josh Bohannon and your Rob Jones – who come into the side and will hopefully succeed.
“But you can’t click your fingers and give these lads experience and expect them to be at peak first-class performance levels in their early years and early careers. It just doesn’t happen collectively.
“It takes time for these lads to get into the rhythm and groove of first-class cricket.
“I am not a magician, I can’t click my fingers and make these lads into top-notch cricketers in the space of a very short time.
“But we will have to encourage these young players to play more in the first-team.”