There was more gnashing of teeth at Old Trafford this afternoon with reports in the Manchester Evening News that John Crawley had been sacked as captain of Lancashire. Though the chairman, Jack Simmons, said that no decision could be made until a committee meeting on October 1, it will be no surprise if Crawley is asked to go. He would be paying the price for Lancashire's poor showing in the Championship this season. They clung onto the coat-tails of the first division only by their fingertips and by flying back Muttiah Muralitharan for the final game. To make things worse, Yorkshire were the runaway Championship winners. And despite reaching the semi-finals of the C&G Trophy, Lancashire's one-day form was mostly dismal. Crawley, who took over the captaincy in 1999, was saddled by an ageing team in transition and mutterings against him at committee level which resulted in a public row with Paul Allott. He suffered the death of his mother mid-season and was also troubled by patchy form - his average of 40.8 was inflated by an innings of 280 against Northamptonshire. He had been closely associated with coach Bob Simpson, who resigned last month amid talk that he might be sacked, and who flew back to Australia today. Simpson's replacement is Mike Watkinson, but it is thought that Crawley's future was decided before Watkinson took over by a committee not known to be sympathetic to the Crawley-Simpson axis. Simmons had hinted at Crawley's demise earlier in the week when he muttered: `"They had full responsibility over who was selected for the team. There was no interference from the committee."

The new captain is likely to be wicketkeeper Warren Hegg, who is touring India and New Zealand with England this winter. He will be Lancashire's sixth captain since 1991 following Crawley, Wasim Akram, Watkinson, Neil Fairbrother and David Hughes.

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