Championship promotion also
enters a critical juncture now, with
their next three games at home.
Huw Turbervill
LANCASHIRE
Keaton Jennings
has challenged his
Lancashire team-mates to keep
the PCA player of the month at
Old Trafford after following Tom
Bailey’s early-season accolade by
winning the gong for May.
Jennings, whose switch from
Durham has coincided with a return
to the England Test team, took 47
per cent of the vote for the second
prize of the season following seamer
Bailey’s success in April.
“I said to Jimmy Anderson when
I found out I had won that hopefully
we can have somebody up for
PCA player of the month every
month. If we can keep the award in
Lancashire it would be awesome,”
Jennings said.
The South Africa-raised batsman
beat off competition from Sussex
allrounder Ollie Robinson and
Kent pair Matt Henry and Joe
Denly in the votes cast on the PCA
website and Sky Sports platforms.
The shortlist is produced via
the players’s organisation’s
MVP rankings.
“Especially moving to a new club,
you want to make an immediate
impact with that group so to do so
in May was lovely,” the 25-year-old
added.
Meanwhile, the club are confi dent
that Saqib Mahmood will play a
prominent part in their Vitality
Blast campaign after an early
season side strain. Mahmood
bagged nine wickets in the North v
South series in the spring leading
to Paul Collingwood, the England
coach seconded to run the northern
team, to claim he is already the best
death bowler in the country.LEICESTERSHIRE
Mohammad Nabi, one of the
Foxes’ two overseas signings
for this year’s Twenty20 campaign,
is to return to Melbourne Renegades
after a successful fi rst stint at theBig Bash League.
Afghanistan allrounder Nabi was
recruited by the Renegades to split
the role of second import, alongside
Kieron Pollard, after Pollard’s fellow
Trinidadian Sunil Narine withdrew
from the 2017/18 competition due to
personal reasons.
The 33-year-old impressed
suffi ciently with both bat and ball,
however, to become the franchise’s
fi rst choice for 2018/19. ThatMIDDLESEX
While Middlesex’s form in the Royal
London Cup was bang average (four
wins, four defeats), there was nothing ordinary
about Paul Stirling’s batting.
The 27-year-old Irishman did not set the world
alight at Malahide in his Test debut against
Pakistan, falling cheaply twice, a poor shot to
blame in the fi rst innings.
Anyone doubting his class should clock
his 515 runs at 73 in the Royal London Cup,
though, with centuries against Kent, Sussex and
Gloucestershire (that match also saw his fellow
Irishman Eoin Morgan return to form with 100).
The defeat that must have stung the most was
to Surrey at Lord’s. London bragging rights lost
and all that, despite Stirling’s 67.
Morgan recovered swiftly from a chipped bone
in his fi nger but could not help fi re Middlesex to
the knockout stages. England’s white-ball captain
su ered the injury fi elding against Somerset, and
it kept him out of one Royal London Cup fi xture
and the Hurricane Relief T20 at Lord’s in which
he was due to captain the World XI.
Nick Gubbins and Tom Helm were named in
a 13-man England Lions squad for the tri-series
against India A and West Indies A. The series,
which begins on June 22 will be played at Derby,
Leicester, Northampton and The Oval.
Meanwhile, Middlesex Women were relegated
to Division Two of the Championship after
su ering a 66-run defeat to title-winners
Hampshire.
MCC unveiled designs for the new Compton
and Edrich stands as part of the ongoing
redevelopment of Lord’s. The stands – which
are due to be developed between 2019 and
2021 – will be three-tier, have a capacity in the
region of 11,500 and are to be linked by a walkway
overlooking the Nursery Ground.
Seating is pencilled in for use during the
2020 season with the full range of facilities to
be opened the following summer. The cost is
anticipated to be in the region of £50m.
Two-time Stirling Prize winners WilkinsonEyre –
the architects responsible for the refurbishment
of the Grade II*-listed Battersea Power Station –
are responsible for the designs.MCC chief executive and secretary Guy
Lavender said: “MCC is committed to ensuring
Lord’s remains the best place in the world at
which to watch and play cricket. These new
stands will transform the Nursery End, providing
world-class facilities, opening up views both
to the Pavilion and back towards the Nursery
Ground, and adding another architectural
enhancement to Lord’s.
“We are very aware of the responsibility we
have to protect everything that makes Lord’s so
special, and we are delighted with the positive
feedback we’ve already received from our
membership.”
Sam MorsheadPaul Stirling found form
in the Royal London CupBELOW
Mohammad Nabi
in Big Bash action| thecricketer.com