BURNLEY have warned the Lancashire League not to rest on their laurels having survived the Premier League threat.

The club recently joined Accrington, Rishton and Haslingden in ending their interest in the Lancashire Cricket Board scheme.

Cricket manager Peter Brown said the Turf Moor club supported many Premiership initiatives and objectives in principle.

And he said a return to a "lethargic and stagnant" Lancashire League would prompt a Burnley rethink.

He said: "In particular we support the type of cricket to be played.

"But the cricket and management committees believed that the risks of entry at this stage, given that we would possibly be the only club from the Lancashire League to confirm an application, were too great.

"We do, however, expect that the recent initiatives shortly to be proposed by the Lancashire League working party, will receive justified support for innovative change. "Since the working party came into effect as a direct result of the pressure brought to bear by the threat of clubs leaving the league, we would be completely disillusioned if the need for change was ignored because the threat was now perceived to have passed.

"The Lancashire League must learn from this and not drift back into the lethargic and stagnant approach which has been prevalent for many years.

"If this were to happen then the development of cricket outside the Lancashire League would once again be a consideration for the club."

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