Vilas: The hard work starts now
UNBEATEN Lancashire may have breezed to the Specsavers County Championship Division Two title, but they are fully aware plenty of hard work lies ahead this winter.
The Red Rose won eight of their 14 games and claimed the title by 45 points, bouncing back from the disappointment of relegation this time last year.
“We’ve ticked the box of being Division Two champions, and we’ve played some good cricket,” said captain Dane Vilas, who was the big winner at Friday’s Player of the Year gala dinner at Emirates Old Trafford.
“We wanted to go into Division One with a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence. But we have a lot of preparation to do.
“We need to reassess and come back from the highs we’ve had this summer. We need to reflect on where we can improve and where we were the last time we were in Division One.”
“It’s a stepping stone. Hopefully we can now push for a title in Division One. That’s where everyone wants to be.
“Building a good squad and big squad will be key to longevity for a team. You have to do well the whole time. There won’t be any easy games.
“There are some great teams in Division One. It’s going to be a long hard slog, and I’m looking forward to it.”
That last comment sums Vilas up perfectly. When the going gets tough, he gets going. This season he has scored 1,734 runs across all three formats, including 1,036 in the Championship with one hundred and a double ton.
He has batted at No.6, kept wicket – 47 catches and a stumping – and skippered the side brilliantly.
That his Red Rose team-mates nicknamed him, ‘Second to (Steve) Smith,’ tells you everything you need to know about the 34-year-old who was one of only seven players across either division to top 1,000 Championship runs.
He was named Lancashire’s Championship player of the year, the Red Rose executive members’ player of the year and the club’s overall player of the year.
Josh Bohannon was named young player, while Glenn Maxwell and Saqib Mahmood scooped the T20 and one-day awards.
“As a squad we have been fantastic this year,” said batsman Keaton Jennings. “Josh Bohannon has gone from batting at number seven to going at number three, and that’s always hard work. Everyone has put their hand up at one time or another and, hopefully, we can carry that on into next year.
“From a batting point of view, we have five guys averaging over 40 and two or three more not far behind. And that’s resulted in us putting pressure on sides because we had runs on the board.
“Then, from the bowling point of view, we’ve been outstanding.
“When we move into Division One, the job will be to replicate that sort of form for long periods of time.”
Vilas, meanwhile, is set to play a much greater part in Lancashire’s pre-season programme this winter given he is not playing a full season of domestic cricket in South Africa.
He will play in the Mzansi T20 Super League in November and December for Durban Heat, but his wife Pippa, working on an ancestral visa, and their two young children are settled in the UK.