Lancashire's woes

Another county cricket season is over and yet again Lancashire failed to live up to their high expectations. By being relegated to division 2 of the Pro 40 Leaugue and narrowly avoiding the drop in the all important County Championship this has to be seen as a huge failure, especially for a county that considers only winning silverware a success.

Considering the expectations of the club these last few trophyless seasons must grate quite bad but at least in previous seasons they've come relatively close, and on some occasions extremely close, particularly to that elusive County Championship title which has escaped them now for an amazing 74 years.

So what questions can be posed as to why one of the richest and most historical counties in the country has failed to deliver on so many occasions and in particular last season?

Any Lancastrian would tell you the weather in Lancashire probably puts Lancs on the back foot, as probably as often as not, a game at Old Trafford is settled as a draw without the full quota of four days being played, leaving Lancs with too many draws in games they've often been on top in.

Of course the whole of the north and the midlands for that matter may argue that their counties bare a similar brunt and that didn't stop Durham from snatching the title away from Notts this season on the final day of a particularly wet summer nationwide.

An interesting statistic from the 2007 season when south coast minnows Sussex were the champions (for the 3rd time in 5 years) was that Lancashire lost over a thousand overs to rain at Old Trafford alone compared to some 400 odd overs that Sussex had lost that year at Hove. To put that in perspective that's around two and a half games lost for Lancs compared to Sussex's one, this in a season where Sussex bettered lancs' point total by 5 or so points, and this was just the overs lost from home games.

Though quite telling and a topic that comes up over and over again, short of moving Lancashire to the south coast a resolution to this matter seems quite impossible, and given the rain that every county suffered this season, the argument doesn't hold as much weight as it has in previous years.

So what else has burdoned Lancashire in their most fruitless season in donkey's years? What about missing their two best bowlers for the vast majority of the season thanks to England call ups. Is this just reward for producing two of the finest pace bowlers in the country? Of course the men in question, Flintoff & Anderson have been tied to England for years now, as have many others from several other counties. So a burdon it may be but unfair, probably not, especially considering the financial benefits a county receives from the ECB for producing an International player.

In addition to this point Sussex, who have now won the title 3 times in the last 6 years, have scaresley suffered the loss of a player gaining England recognition, certainly not to the extent of Lancashire or Durham. Is it just coinsidence that Durham, usually pegged back by the loss of at least Steve Harmison to the England team, won the first title in their history in a season when Harmison was available for virtually the whole year?

Durham of course have been competing with the big guns for a few seasons now and although the newest team, are themselves recognised as a big team who are able to lure some of the biggest names in world cricket to ply their trade at the Riverside, which these days is also a ground of test status.

So while Sussex and Durham are getting it right (with Sussex punching well above their weight) Lancs continue to toil and underachieve. Like Sussex and Durham they have a good amount of young players coming through the ranks, as they should given the size of the county, but since Flintoff, Anderson and Mahmood none of these young players have really pushed on and cemented a place in the team.

Given Lancashire's power they have always been a county able to sign the best non test playing English players on the circuit. Loye and Cork spring to mind, although whether they were past their best or still in their prime is another matter. Add to this a whole host of top class overseas players, sometimes as many as 4 or 5 a season, the ingredients for success should surely be there.

For the coming season Lancs have once again found a top quality overseas performer in VVS Laxman but after once again changing their captain, and losing an ageing but great batsmen in the process, while handing the responsibility to another good but ageing player, Lancs look set to stuggle on. As ever not only against the likes of Sussex and Durham, but the elements, an unfamiliar lack of rising stars, increasingly high expectations and the ever growing pressure to win the county championship for the first time in 74 years.