The Lancashire County Cricket squad are hoping to go one better than 2021 as they ramp up their preparations for the new season at Old Trafford.
Lancashire, who also represent the City of Salford at county level, finished runners up in last year’s County Championship, as Warwickshire took home the title.
The first team took part in their annual media day at Old Trafford on Monday and Salford Now got a chance to speak with players and staff ahead of the season.
Head coach Glen Chapple has dismissed claims that his squad are favourites ahead of the new season despite the exciting overseas arrival of Hassan Ali, as well as having England bowling legend Jimmy Anderson back from international duty.
Chapple said: “I haven’t seen that we are favourites. All we can do is play well and take it one step at a time.”
Despite a busy winter in regards to incoming talent, Chapple made it clear that he has full confidence in every one of the Lancashire players to deliver when called upon.
He stated: “I don’t like singling players out, they’ve all worked really hard.
“We’ve got young players challenging for international call-ups, and senior players who are still at the top of their game.”
Despite the heartache of the previous season, the squad are determined to use their misfortune as motivation to push even harder in 2022.
Club Captain, Dane Vilas, stressed the importance of taking the positives from the last campaign if his squad are to win the Championship this time around.
Vilas said: “Near enough is not good enough. We need to make sure we keep doing what we did well last year, and add on top of that to hopefully get the win”.
In preparation for the new season starting on Thursday, the club have enjoyed a busy pre-season which has seen the squad train in the heat of Dubai.
Lancs bowler, Tom Bailey, believes the pre-season the squad has endured puts them in a great position to hit the ground running as they travel to Kent this week.
Bailey said: “We’ve played a lot of friendlies and been to Dubai for a couple of weeks, so we’ve played a lot of cricket so far and we haven’t even started the season yet.
“It’s been one of the longest pre-seasons I’ve had, so everyone is ready to go.
“There’s no reason why we can’t go one further and win that County Championship!”
Lancashire get their season underway on April 14 in Kent, before returning to Emirates Old Trafford the following week to face Gloucestershire.
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