County Championship Division One cricket side Lancashire's new double-tiered stands at Emirates Old Trafford "will have to be restructured next winter," according to Chris Ostick of the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS. The top level of both 3,500-seater stands "will be lifted off to allow alterations to the support structures following problems encountered by builders Morgan Sindall during the initial build." They will then be replaced, with all the work "set to be complete" in time for the start of the '14 season. When a steel provider went into administration last summer, Morgan Sindall "had to install support columns" so the stand could be used for the one-day and Twenty20 internationals in '12. They were always seen as a temporary measure, and now the stands "will be restructured to the cantilever design which the club had always planned" (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS, 3/19).
NO ASHES IMPACT: In London, Andy Wilson wrote the new stands were completed last year as part of the £32M ($48M) redevelopment of Old Trafford. The club has stressed that "there will be no impact" on the Ashes Test it is to stage this summer to celebrate Old Trafford's return as an int'l venue. The ground is already "virtually sold out" for the first four days of the event. But this will be seen as the latest in a series of "blows that have dogged the redevelopment since it was first mooted almost a decade ago" (GUARDIAN, 3/19).
