Talking cricket column: Another year of misery (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Talking cricket column: Another year of misery

4:30pm Wednesday 18th August 2010 in Talking Cricket column By Matt Donlan, Sports reporter

SO here we go yet again, another competition that Lancashire will not be winning this season after the capitulation at Somerset the other night in the CB40.

At the start of this season there was great confidence among the Lancashire camp; the players believed, the coach believed and, more importantly, the fans were excited about the surely trophy-laden summer ahead.

Oh for false dawns. The T20 ended in abject failure, the CB40 ended in more televised embarrassment.

Now it is the all eggs in one basket of the County Championship, the trophy every true cricket fan in Lancashire wants to win.

Thirty points behind leaders Nottinghamshire with five games to go, starting with today’s clash with Kent, is not a bad place to be...until you take a look at the table and realise than the Red Rose stands just 10 points above the drop zone.

That is not the place the county should be, given the resources, players and set-up at Old Trafford.

Maybe it is about time that attitudes at HQ were changed. We do not have a divine right to win anything, we have to work just as hard as every other club.

For a start, maybe the scouting system needs addressing.

Former Lancashire League men Michael Brown, his brother David, Lee Daggert, Jon Clare, Jack Simpson and Keith Barker are all earning good livings in the county game – but not with Lancashire.

And Burnley star Vishal Tripathi has also had a dabble this season with Northamptonshire.

And while the Red Rose likes to invest in overseas stars you wonder how people like Wayne Madsen, who was a headline act in the Central Lancashire League last season, ended up at Derbyshire rather than with Lancashire.

And you also wonder how Test men like Brendan Nash don’t get the call from Old Trafford when Lancashire go out looking for overseas men yet bowlers like Daren Powell do.

But what do we know? When the 2010 season has drifted away into another damp squib of an ending, excuses will be made about the weather hampering their bid.

And come the start of next season everyone will sing from the same songsheet and say how good Lancashire is and how the season is going to be a procession towards unbridled joy and glory.

And this time next year we will have the same familiar feeling of depression.

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