Lancashire likely to play at Liverpool says Allott
LANCASHIRE director of cricket Paul Allott is “almost certain” the county will play some games at Liverpool CC this summer.
The ECB earlier this week gave the green light for the professional domestic season to begin on August 1.
With the county’s Emirates Old Trafford headquarters out of bounds for much of the summer thanks to its role hosting bio-secure Test matches, it seems inevitable that Aigburth will play its part as Lancashire’s first-change venue.
Allott said: “Liverpool is our second ground. And with Emirates Old Trafford being out of commission due to international cricket... you can put two and two together and make four, can’t you?
“It’s almost certain that Liverpool will stage some Lancashire cricket.
“I can’t say definitively because there’s still some hoops to jump through, and they’re not necessarily of Liverpool’s or Lancashire’s making – there are rules and regulations we have to follow now with trying to make grounds as safe and secure as they can be.
“But it’s 95% certain that we’ll play at Liverpool at some point.”
Exactly when that may be, and what form the games will take, has yet to be thrashed out between the counties.
Allott says some counties are not keen on having red-ball cricket as part of the mix – but Lancashire is emphatically not one of them.
“This crisis has affected everybody up and down the country, in all walks of life,” he said.
“We’ve been very careful and cautious in our return to training, which occurred a couple of weeks ago – maintaining all the protocols and practices – and we have always been keen to start playing as soon as we were given the nod by the Government and the ECB.
“We’re very keen to play all forms of the game – I think it sends the right message out to the cricket-watching public.
“I’ll be deeply disappointed if we’re prevented from playing red-ball cricket.
“I think it’s vital to play both forms, especially in such a truncated season.”
While the former Lancashire and England seamer stressed nothing is definitive yet, he was able to give an outline of what the season might look like.
He said: “There’ll be a T20 competition, which I think will run through the end of August right through to the end of September.
“I think that will be positioned in the schedule to perhaps allow a limited number of spectators into grounds and also for the latter part of the tournament to be covered on Sky.
“As far as I can see, the only points of contention are whether we should play fourday cricket from August 1 – four games in August, one in September and then a final in October – or if there will be a white-ball 50-over tournament, which runs in August, with a final sometime in September.”
Whatever the formats, the 18 first-class counties will be split into three regional groups of six, allowing for local rivalries such as the Roses to be given a brief revival.
Working on the sound principle that any cricket is always better than no cricket, the outlook is a lot brighter than it looked at the start of lockdown.
Allott said: “Two or three weeks ago, I was thinking that we’re not going to get much cricket this year, if any.
“But I think the ECB concentrating on international cricket has been good, because it’s allowed various practices and protocols to be put in place – and it seemed to work.”