Trial or error? Lancashire bear brunt as county game adjusts to new substitute rules | Ali Martin

The sport should seriously be asking itself whether this should be replicated in Test cricket after some notable problems with the new regulations

Lancashire are not the most popular county at the moment. From next week the live-streamed coverage of their matches at Old Trafford will go behind a paywall – free to members, £20 a season if not. And so the thrill of Jimmy Anderson bowling from the end that bears his name will play out to a smaller audience.

Although beyond this, or the broader sadness at Old Trafford becoming a dystopian hotel-cum-events space where the first team feels secondary, there seems to be widespread agreement that the Red Rose have been hard done by of late: namely, in the ongoing trial of injury replacements in English cricket.