LANCASHIRE coach Dav Whatmore today backed John Crawley to regain his England place in the West Indies this winter.
Crawley was dropped from the squad for the Sixth Test at the Oval announced yesterday despite hitting a superb 133 at Derby on Saturday.
It came too late to save himself or Lancashire, who collapsed twice in a day in a dismal innings defeat.
But Whatmore said: "John has taken it pretty well. Obviously he is disappointed, but he is still one of the best batsmen in the competition here, as he showed again on Saturday.
"He batted so well then I thought he would be safe, but that wasn't to be. He should still go to the West Indies."
There was better news for Peter Martin, called into the squad for the first time since early last season to replace the injured Darren Gough.
"I am very happy for Digger," added Whatmore. "He has been working very hard on getting a bit more aggression into his bowling which has been great to see." Martin, who is enjoying his best-ever season for Lancashire with 51 first class wickets already, revealed: "I got the phone call from David Graveney in the morning.
"It's good to be back and if I do play the Oval pitch suits me because there is usually a bit of pace and bounce."
It was at the Oval that Martin made his stunning international debut in 1995 with four West Indies wickets in a Texaco Trophy game, including Brian Lara.
And his recall must give him a great chance of joining Crawley and Mike Atherton in the West Indies this winter.
But Atherton had an especially bad day on Saturday. He was out twice in the space of three hours to Devon Malcolm, the second time to a dodgy lbw decision prompting shouts of "rubbish, Atherton" and "get a move on" as he trudged slowly back to the pavilion.
It continued his recent miserable form with 79 runs in his last six championship innings and only 295, including a century at Leicester, all season.
Apart from Crawley, who cruised to his third century of the summer in just 102 balls with 20 sweetly timed boundaries, the rest of the Lancashire batting was almost as bad.
It was back to the problems of May and June when they suffered similar collapses against Somerset and Glamorgan, with Malcolm claiming 6-23 in the first innings and 10 wickets in the match.
"It did remind you a little bit of that," agreed Whatmore. "Malcolm bowled extremely well, but it was a mixture with some bad shots.
"But we have been playing some fairly good stuff over the last six weeks and hopefully this was a one-off hiccup."
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