It used to be impossible to do on a Commodore 64: if you played a video game badly, you couldn't just quit and start again because the whole puberty process had started and finished by the time the cassette had reloaded the game. The Friends Provident Trophy campaign for Lancashire reminded me of those days playing on the early console as a kid: I wanted to rewind and start again but sadly, couldn't. It started with rain, offered occasional brilliance interspersed with nonchalant collapses and any realistic hope of a repeat outing at NW8 had all but evaporated by the time the Red Rose was wilting at 62/6 against Warwickshire in the second game. On the day of the final game against Notts, it was announced that Sanath Jayasuriya would be a short-term locum replacement for Muttiah Muralitharan for the forthcoming Twenty20 Cup campaign but if Lancashire are to challenge in that, they must learn the integral lessons of the ill-fated Friends Provident efforts. Because the 37 year-old is a magician in short-form cricket but there are only so many rabbits that can be plucked from the proverbial cap. He needs in-form batsmen around him: a balance of strokemakers and anchors - the recollection about how to construct limited-overs innings', as 120 balls in an innings can be a long time. If Jayasuriya does as in one-day internationals for Sri Lanka and opens - with Mal Loye - then with Hodge, Law and Croft certainties in the middle order, is there a place in the side for the captain, Mark Chilton? It's an interesting debate and one not without cogent arguments on each
side. As BBC Radio Lancashire summariser Andy Hayhurst analysed in midweek, not to select Chilton would be to undermine his position as club captain. But in doing so, a man with a modest record in the fledgling format would potentially be taking the place of a more suitable performer. Cricket Manager Mike Watkinson believes Chilton's cool head and experience can help stitch an innings together in the middle but it will be an intriguing prospect to assess how things go. Like the Commodore 64 cassettes, it's pretty tough to restart once the Twenty20 juggernaut rolls into motion. But if it were possible, I'd start the rebuilding process at Trent Bridge where we have a commentary box without a view of the informative scoreboard and where you have to position yourself like Greg Louganis on the high board just to see the outfield at the Radcliffe Road End. Similarly bad was the box at Derby, now impeded with the most restricted of views by the construction of a new scoreboard. Hopefully, there'll be no need to rewind in Twenty20. | 
