Lancashire boss believes his England stint will benefit the Red Rose

The Red Rose head coach was seconded to England for their three-Test match series against the West Indies through July, spending more than a month in the bio-secure bubble at the Ageas Bowl and Emirates Old Trafford.

Chapple aided England’s preparations along with other county coaches Richard Dawson, Chris Read and Matthew Walker, but has now returned to the day job.

“Professionally, it’s been superb over that period of time,” said Chapple.

“Whilst I’ve got a brilliant job at Lancashire, it’s also been a great experience to go and work with other players in a different environment and just gain a different perspective really.

“The chance to work with England’s best players is fantastic.

“I enjoyed seeing them go about their business.

“They are the best England have, and you can see why in the way they prepare to play and the way they train.

“That being said, our (Lancashire) players train really well as well.

“But if there’s anything I’ve learned there that I can pass on here, it’s good.”

Former seamer Chapple, now aged 46, previously had a similar specialist coaching experience with the England Lions, touring the West Indies with them in early 2018.

“It just freshens you up, and you remember it’s not just one way all of the time,” he continued.

“You can get set in your ways a little bit, and it’s nice to see other coaches and how they operate.

“Most of it reinforces how you think is the way to go, but there might be some edges of things you might want to address.”

Chapple was asked about his future ambitions should a more full-time role with England crop up but, understandably, he played a straight bat.

“As a coach, you should just want to be the best coach you can be,” he said. “That’s regardless of who you’re working with and what job you have.

“I enjoy both specialist coaching and head coaching.

“The ambition should be just to help the players you’re working with as much as you can.”

Chapple is now back with Lancashire for the remainder of the shortened domestic summer.

The Red Rose have played two Bob Willis Trophy North Group games, losing one and winning one.

With three games to play, they need to finish top of the North to have any chance of qualifying for the five-day final at Lord’s, starting on Wednesday, September 23.

The two best finishing winners of the three groups will advance.

Lancashire are currently in third place behind Yorkshire and leaders Derbyshire, the latter who are 18 points clear of the Red Rose.

Innings victors inside three days at Durham, Lancashire face Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on Saturday in a designated ‘home’ game, with Emirates Old Trafford still being used as an international bio-secure venue.

Their final two fixtures are then against Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

Returning to England matters, how did Chapple cope in a bio-secure bubble?

“It’s probably not my cup of tea, but I’m not complaining about it,” he added.

“It’s been a tough year for everybody, and everybody involved in running it worked tirelessly to make sure we were as happy as we could be.

“It was a little bit more boring than it should normally be, but we were all looked after well.

“I thought I’d read a few books, but it didn’t pan out that way. It was more the Netflix-type thing for me. I watched a few drama series.”