LANCASHIRE have looked to a student to help solve their mounting Championship crisis.
They have called up Mark Chilton, a 20-year-old who has just returned to Old Trafford from Durham University, for a shock first team debut against Glamorgan at Liverpool tomorrow.
It will be a seriously depleted team as Lancashire again search for their first win of the season following yesterday's 58-run defeat by Kent.
They are without Test pair Mike Atherton and John Crawley, injured Jason Gallian, and also skipper Mike Watkinson, who has suffered yet another recurrence of his arm injury.
So Wasim Akram is set to return as captain - even though he is not fit to bowl, after aggravating his should problem in Sunday's Axa Life League victory over Kent.
And that has paved the way for Chilton's debut.
He is the latest batsman off the Manchester Grammar School production line but also bowls medium pace, and won a Benson and Hedges Cup Gold Award after taking a bagful of wickets for Combined Universities earlier this season.
So he gets the nod ahead of Scouser Paddy McKeown, desperately disappointed to miss out on a Championship appearance on home territory.
Warren Hegg and Peter Martin should be fit to return after missing the Kent game with back injuries.
Lancashire missed them both yesterday for their batting after they had been set a tough victory target of 306 in 58 overs by Kent.
John Crawley provided a solid platform with a classy 91 but Lancashire's batting line-up was missing its usual depth and, after reluctantly calling off the chase with eight wickets down, youngsters Jamie Haynes and Darren Shadford were just unable to hang on for a draw.
They resisted doggedly for seven overs but Zimbabwe leg-spin wizard Paul Strang finally had Shadford caught at silly point to complete 11 wickets in the match, then Haynes lost his off stump to a superb delivery from Martin McCague with just seven balls to go.
Kent took 24 points to move top of the table while Lancashire claimed six and slipped to second bottom.
But Glamorgan enter tomorrow's game on the back of a much worse defeat - bowled out for 31 in 16 overs by Middlesex at Cardiff on Saturday.
Ironically their lowest ever total was 22 against Lancashire at Liverpool in 1924.
For the sake of their flagging season, Lancashire could do with a repeat of that tomorrow.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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