LANCS ACE SAYS IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE
Red Rose skipper Croft is urging a rethink for the Royal London one-day Cup
STEVEN Croft would like to see the ECB alter the 10.30am start times in the Royal London one-day Cup.
The Lancashire captain has bemoaned the fact that the toss has proved crucial to the outcome of two of the three matches which Lancashire played that started early.
The toss was also the deciding factor in the floodlit match against Essex at Chelmsford at the start of last week.
Croft has lost three of four tosses in 50-over cricket this summer.
Lancashire lost the toss and batted first against Essex and lost, then they won the toss and bowled against Middlesex at Blackpool and won – both of which were low-scoring fixtures.
They also lost the toss against Nottinghamshire at Liverpool on Tuesday and were invited to bat in bowler-friendly conditions and lost, although Lancashire’s batting was not blameless.
A fortnight of wet weather has not enabled groundsmen enough time to get the covers off and prepare pitches.
“It’s disappointing when there’s so much relying on the toss,” said Croft. “It’s a tough one.
“Coming into the competition, I think everyone thought there were going to be runs everywhere and you’ll struggle to stop the ball flying over the boundary.
“It’s been the complete opposite in our games, and there’s been a few others around the country as well.
“The 10.30am starts, it’s tough if it’s doing a bit with two new balls.
“There’s a few ways around it, but it’s something we’ve got to crack on with and start winning some tosses.
“They’ve tried to put it in the peak of the summer, but we’ve had the wettest spell of the summer, which hasn’t helped in terms of preparing pitches.
“It could be done at county grounds where they’ve got floodlights and you turn them into day/ night games.”
One simple solution is for the administrators to cut down the time allocated to bowl the overs in each innings. At the moment, the fielding team are allowed three-and-ahalf hours to complete their 50 overs, but they are regularly finishing them 15 or 20 minutes early.
That would be enough to start the matches at least half-an-hour later, something which could make a big difference.
Lancashire are back in 50-over action against Kent at Canterbury tomorrow, the first of three remaining group matches they have to win to have any hope of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
LIAM Livingstone hit a blistering 162 off just 111 balls to continue his redhot form as he helped Lancashire Second XI to a 115-run win over Worcestershire.
Jordan Clark scored 56 and Paul Horton 42 as the Red Rose made 363 in 49.4 overs.
Simon Kerrigan then took 4-28 and Tom Bailey 3-48 as Worcestershire were bowled out for 248.