Lancashire Cricket Club excited to plan for return of crowds this season

Under government plans announced this week, Lancashire hope that Emirates Old Trafford will be allowed to operate with a 25 per cent capacity from May 17 and with unrestricted crowds from June 21.

The proposed timeline means that after playing their first five County Championship matches behind closed doors (three of them at home), supporters would be welcomed back to LCCC headquarters for the Roses clash against Yorkshire, starting on Thursday May 27.

It also means that all this season's limited-overs matches would be played in front of a crowd.

Lancashire Lightning would play their first seven Vitality Blast matches in front of a limited crowd but could then play their other seven in full stadiums.

The four Blast games potentially in front of a full-house at Emirates Old Trafford would start with the visit of Worcestershire Rapids on July 1 and end with the Roses Match on July 17.

Lancashire could then play allof their Royal London Cup matches in front of unrestricted crowds, including the match against Worcestershire at Blackpool on August 8.

Full houses would also be allowed for the ECB’s new competition, The Hundred, in which Emirates Old Trafford will stage the Manchester Originals' four home games in July and August.

These are double-header matches featuring the men's and women's teams, starting with fixtures against Birmingham Phoenix on July 25.

Emirates Old Trafford also welcomes Pakistan for an International T20 on July 20 and India for a Test on September 10-14. The venue expects these England games to be complete sell-outs.

Lancashire Cricket CEO Daniel Gidney said: “We are extremely excited that life can return to normal and live events will be back at Emirates Old Trafford.

“Whilst we work to the government’s key dates of Monday May 17 and Monday June 21, we hope to be able to host members at Emirates Old Trafford sooner as part of a government pilot programme to provide the data required to confirm the phased reintroduction of fans.

"Our experience of successfully hosting behind-closed-door Test matches last summer, allied to 17 acres we have on site, allows us to safely run large-scale volume testing in April and we are hopeful that we can support the government with pilots."

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