Lancashire Cricket Announce Pre-Season Tour of India During Mayoral Visit

7 October 2019

Categories: India

Lancashire Cricket Club announced Glen Chapple’s squad will tour India ahead of their domestic season next spring.

The announcement was made by the club’s senior independent director, James Sheridan, at a Manchester India Partnership event in Mumbai today, which formed part of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s inaugural six-day visit to India.

James joined the 30-strong delegation from Greater Manchester to India to explore potential commercial and cricket partnership opportunities, primarily around pre-season as Glen Chapple’s squad finalise their red ball preparation before the start of the domestic season in April 2020.

Both Mumbai and Bangalore offer top level training and match environments, and the club will assess the options for a pre-season in India. The opportunity to explore fixtures against first-class opposition at international grounds is at the top of James’ India agenda following the success of India’s three ICC Cricket World Cup games at Emirates Old Trafford.

India’s ICC Cricket World Cup match against rivals Pakistan at Emirates Old Trafford had 273 million unique viewers, the highest of any game during the tournament, while the semi-final against New Zealand at Emirates Old Trafford broke the global streaming record audience, raking in 25.3 million viewers. Lancashire’s Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone have also starred in the Indian Premier League in recent years.

The club’s under-13 and Academy sides visited India earlier in the year for a development programme as well as undertaking charitable projects and building valuable links for the Club in Mumbai’s cricket community.