LANCASHIRE chairman Jack Simmons today denied that John Crawley has been sacked as captain.

But he confirmed that the captaincy is top of the agenda for the next committee meeting on Monday week, and it still looks inevitable that the club will have a new skipper next year.

Great Harwood-based Simmons said he was "shocked" when he heard yesterday that Crawley's three-year spell in charge of the county was to end, as reported in later editions of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

"I'd been playing golf, and I heard it on the radio," he said. "It hasn't been decided. The captaincy is on the agenda for our next committee meeting on the first of October. But to me it would be for John himself to decide.

"I've mentioned before that if he thinks to be selfish for himself to get back to the form he was showing when he was playing for England, before he took on the captaincy, we would understand that.

"We've done this before, we did it for Neil Fairbrother and it's not done him any harm, and there's no reason that can't happen to John Crawley."

Crawley himself is saying nothing - today he was celebrating his 30th birthday.

But Lancashire could face a new battle to keep him at the club if they do not offer him the captaincy for next season.

It all adds up to a nightmare situation for Mike Watkinson, who only took over from Bob Simpson in a new position as cricket manager on Monday.

Warren Hegg, who has been Crawley's number two for the last two years, would be the obvious candidate to take over, but even that could be complicated if he earns an England contract on this winter's tours of Zimbabwe and India.