Steven Croft column: Why I love coming home to Blackpool with Lancashire

How we do like to be beside the seaside, though only if the weather holds off...

Wins at Stanley Park are common for Lancashire County but so is changeable weather.

We’ve had two weeks of glorious sunshine and it would be such a shame if it does not hold for today’s Royal London One-Day Cup tie with Warwickshire in Blackpool.

For me personally, it is always good to play in my home town in front of a good crowd.

These days I play for Lytham when I am not on Lancashire duty but Blackpool will always be my home club.

We’ve come back to Blackpool for 50-over games only in the last few years but I’d still love to see four-day cricket here.

We have played four-dayers at Southport and Liverpool in recent years and it is good to get out and about because outground matches pull in the crowds and gives people the chance to watch us play without having to travel. If the game is on their doorstep, then more people will go to watchwatch.

It would be great to see Lancashire use Stanley Park in the way Yorkshire use Scarborough and make a big weekend of matches there. Blackpool would be the ideal for that.

My first taste of Lancashire cricket was at Blackpool, which is unsurprising as it is where I started playing, aged 10.

There’s a bit of a home advantage at Blackpool. Some of our lads have played here before unlike the Warickshire players, so a bit more local knowledge comes into play. I think that helps explain why we tend to do well at Blackpool.

I had a good pre-season and started the season really well but I’ve not scored many in the last few games, so it would be great to get back among the runs in Blackpool.

It was disappointing to lose to Northants on Wednesday. I thought we had a par score but our bowling let us down. We just dust ourselves down to go again.

There are eight games in this competition and all it takes are two or three wins to be up towards the top. We have reached game four and this is a crucial stage.

Ex-England players Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott could feature for Warwickshire. They are two very good players at both county and international level and were great servants for England.

It is always great to test yourself against the best players and this will be a tough test.

Jos Buttler and Jimmy Anderson will not be around to help us because they are playing for England in the first Test at Lord’s.

I didn’t get to watch the first day because I had a golf day but Pakistan have clearly done well with the ball.

But if we can emulate that and then put a big score on in the second innings, we’ll always have a chance on home soil, especially at Lord’s.