LANCASHIRE captain John Crawley apologised after his team's latest Championship mauling by Yorkshire while former coach David Lloyd raised questions about the administration of the club.
Needing to bat all day to avoid a fourth defeat in five matches, Lancashire slid miserably to 188 all out, losing their last five wickets for 15 runs to go down by a humiliating margin of an innings and 37 runs.
"We've got some apologies to make to the fans," said Crawley. "We're not performing to the standard that we expect of ourselves. We're simply not doing the job we're paid to do."
Meanwhile Lloyd, in his role as a Sky Sports pundit, slammed the performance but suggested that the players were not entirely to blame.
"Lancashire will look back and there will be repercussions as to the team's performance," he said.
"But these are troubled times at the club. Inevitably if things are not right at the very top, either in the administration of the club or the committee, it always comes through to the dressing room.
"And looking from a distance that's what I've seen in this game. A Roses Match should be a lot more hard-fought than that."
Lloyd resigned his Lancashire membership earlier this year, and has virtually ruled himself out as a candidate to succeed Bob Simpson as coach after his decision to quit at the end of the season. Both he and Crawley admitted that relegation to the Second Division is now a real possibility. "It's a big fight towards the end of the season to stay in the First Division," added Crawley. "Relegation would be a huge disaster for the club."
Lloyd said: "They've got to sit down and analyse their own individual performances and give far better performances in effort and commitment and attitude in the matches that are coming up. But it won't be easy."
Mark Chilton and Warren Hegg were the only Lancashire batsmen to hold up Yorkshire's Championship charge for long yesterday, sharing a fifth wicket stand of 50 in 17 overs after Andy Flintoff, Joe Scuderi and Graham Lloyd had all gone quickly - and tamely - to Gavin Hamilton.
Chilton made a patient 74 and Hegg 26 but young Yorkshire off-spinner Richard Dawson then destroyed Lancashire with four wickets, helped by another inept batting performance.
As Lloyd said, it was "an embarrassing reversal". The big question now, with a crunch match against relegation rivals Northants at Old Trafford next week, is do Lancashire have the spirit to stop the rot?
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