BACUP were always going to be the team to beat in the Lancashire League this season, and Sunday's opening game confirmed that.

It is the only game I will be playing in the league this season and it went very well as I took five wickets, and we dismissed Enfield for 123.

But it was a team performance on the day and the whole side has that aura about them, as if they are saying to their opponents, 'you are going to have to do something special to beat us'. I always got that impression when I played against them, that they expect to win, and being in the dressing room among that on Sunday showed that's exactly what they have.

Elsewhere in the Lancashire League, I was also interested to see in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that Haslingden are playing a 14-year-old wicket keeper this season. I've always been a massive believer that if you're good enough, you're old enough. In fact, I was only 15 myself when I first played in the league for Haslingden.

It was a double header weekend and I made my debut against Colne and made 27 not out. Then on the Sunday we played Ramsbottom away in the cup and I made 50 not out, so from then I was really up for it to prove I could play senior cricket.

Of course, with young lads you have to make sure you're not playing them for the sake of it but I'm all for people chucking them in.

In India, they didn't worry too much about putting Sachin Tendulkar into the test team when he was only 15 and he didn't turn out too badly, did he?

It just seems to be an English way of doing things. People don't want to throw youngsters in because they haven't got experience but when you've got the experience people then say you're getting past your best, so it's worth giving them a chance. And they need to be given a real chance, like being put in the first five or six if they are batting, to show what they can do.

So in fairness to Haslingden, they have a few youngsters coming through and I hope they give them a chance and stick with them.