Lancashire CCC Takes Measures To Ensure Old Trafford Is Fit To Host Test

Lancashire County Cricket Club has employed a pitch consultant, used heat lamps and changed the venue of a second XI game to ensure that Old Trafford is "fit to host" the fourth Test against South Africa, starting on Friday, "amid concerns" about its pitch, according to Paul Edwards of the LONDON TIMES. The club "acted to avoid a repeat" of the second day of the '14 Test against India, "when heavy rain left parts of the outfield waterlogged." This summer, Old Trafford has hosted three concerts, including a Radiohead gig attended by 50,000 fans on July 4. After that event, there was "disquiet about an area in front of The Point hospitality and event centre where the ground was worryingly soft under foot." That concern has "deepened in subsequent weeks" as Manchester has been hit by "further downpours" (LONDON TIMES, 8/2).