MIKE Atherton is expected to dominate "any other business" at Lancashire's Annual General Meeting at Old Trafford tomorrow morning.

And the former England captain can expect a rough ride for his widely-publicised criticism of county Cricket early this year.

Lancashire officials maintained a diplomatic silence when Athers slammed the Championship for failing to prepare English cricketers for Test Matches.

But the members are unlikely to be so polite - especially after contributing towards the opener's bumper benefit of more than £300,000 in 1997.

The thorny issue of central contracts also seems bound to crop up, with Atherton one of three Lancashire players - alongside Andy Flintoff and rising leg-spin star Chris Schofield - in contention for a deal from the English Cricket Board.

The ECB is expected to finalise the list of players who will be offered contracts soon after the England team return home from Zimbabwe next week. But a number of Lancashire members are known to be unhappy about the prospect of losing star players to England.

There is also the arrival of coach Bob Simpson and new overseas signing Saurav Ganguly to be discussed - as well as the departures of Dav Whatmore, Peter Sleep and Muttiah Muralitharan.

The annual report and accounts, which were published two weeks ago, should have nipped in the bud any protests about floodlit cricket.

In fact, as last year's four day-night matches at Old Trafford attracted an average crowd of almost 10,000, a more relevant question might be why Lancashire aren't looking to play all their home CGU National League matches under lights.

Four members of the committee - Keith Hayhurst, Dave Hodgkiss, Paul Allott and Murray Birnie - are up for re-election, with three members - Rory Davis, Brian Fitzgerald and Barry Rickson - standing against them.

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