Lancashire's Mike Wat-kinson has backed England coach Peter Moores' plan to give international players the chance to play as much county cricket as possible.

Burnley bowler James Anderson flew to London and back yesterday after he was initially wanted by England, and then told to rejoin his county for the home clash against Worcestershire.

And that move has been backed by Lancashire coach Watkinson.

He said: "You have to look at the positives of what England are trying to do.

"If Jimmy Anderson had been put in the England squad and not been allowed to play for us, that would have been a week with no cricket, and with no match next week, that's another week with no cricket.

"These are the things people have criticised England and the system for, carrying certain cricketers around during the summer and not giving them enough cricket.

"I can see Peter Moores making a positive move by addressing that, and also we hope in doing it, he can bring himself closer to the counties, who have had a few gripes about the better players not being available enough when there is no international cricket.

"Having Test players in the squad always has its problems. It is up to us to be accustomed to it. We have to plan for this as best we can at the start of the season.

"We have become a victim of our own success in many ways because we produced good homegrown cricketers who have gone on to Test cricket and we are proud of that.

"I certainly back the principle of what Peter is doing. He doesn't want to have fringe international players starved of cricket."

On the field, Lancashire gave themselves a great chance of salvaging a draw after a decent third day of this four-day LV County Championship Division One match against Worcestershire at Old Trafford - despite dropping several catches.

With the visitors 164-4, a lead of three runs after Lancashire were bowled out for 161 on Tuesday, Lancashire needed to make quick inroads.

Instead, they found Graham Hick in supreme form whereas their catching wasn't.

But thanks to the magical Muttiah Muralitharan, Lancashire still have a foothold in this game and closed the day on 63-0 - still 103 behind.

Tom Smith bowled the first over as they day as he filled in for James Anderson, who was hot-footing it back from Lord's on the train after being released from the England Test side that morning, and he almost made an immediate impact.

Graham Hick, resuming on 29, elegantly pulled Smith's second ball for four, but the former Chorley pro almost had his revenge when Hick tried to cut a rising delivery, got an edge, but Dominic Cork was unable to hang onto a sharp chance at the first or second attempt on the last ball of his one and only over as he was immediately replaced by Muttiah Muralithran at the Brian Statham End.

The bad case of dropsy was spreading among the Lancashire slip cordon as Paul Horton dropped Steven Davies for the second time a couple of overs later off the bowling of Cork.

Hick continued onto a well-made half-century off 92 balls and things went from bad to worse for the hosts as Luke Sutton dropped another tough chance offered by Davies to give him his third life.

The sparce Old Trafford crowd were given something to cheer when Burnley bowler Anderson re-took the field for Lancashire at 2.25pm but his return lasted all of two minutes as almost immediately the players were taken off for bad light.

And, finally, Murali struck with the score on 244. He had had a couple loud appeals turned down in his previous over but he finally trapped Davies LBW with a ball that straightened on the young wicketkeeper and bring to an end a 114-run partnership for the fifth wicket.

It was a breakthrough Lancashire so badly needed and that opened up one end for Murali to work on.

He soon snared Gareth Batty for six much the same way he removed Davies the over before.

Glen Chapple replaced Mahmood and struck in his first over as he bowled Roger Sillence off his elbow and on to leg stump.

But Lancashire were still finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot. Sutton put another thin edge on the turf, this time from Hick on 87.

He was dropped again when he got a nick to Murali's doosra and the ball ended up, once again, on the floor.

Anderson was brought back midway through the session at the Stretford End and a thick outside edge brought up Hick's 133rd ton of his career and his fourth at Old Trafford. On the fifth ball of the over, he put Anderson into the car park.

Ali, who was the star with the ball as he decimated Lancashire's first innings with 8-50, set about the Red Rose bowling putting Anderson to the sword and using his feet to hit Murali back over his head on a couple of occasions.

But just when you thought Lancashire's luck was definitley out, they grabbed a huge slice of good fortune. Murali's first ball after tea interval was a long hop which Hick crashed straight at Mal Loye at short-leg and he somehow held onto the ball.

It brought to an end Hick's four-hour vigil at the crease and a superb knock of 110 from 164 balls that included 15 fours and a six, Ali's bright and breezy knock of 39 came to an end when he came Murali's fifth victim of the innings when he had the Warwickshire paceman trapped LBW - his 18th five-for in 21 matches for Lancashire.

And the Sri Lankan spin king wrapped up the Worcestershire innings with another LBW, that of Nadeem Malik, to give him figures of 6-72 as the visitors closed on 327 - 166 runs in front.

Lancashire needed a steady start and Mark Chilton and Paul Horton supplied that. The scoring rate wasn't red hot both accumulated steady.

The fielding gremlins that haunted Lancashire seemed to invade Worcestershire as Chilton, on seven, was given a life when Ben Smith couldn't cling on to a thick edge from Ali with the score on 27.

But Lancashire made it to the close without loss and hopeful of more of the same from their batsmen.