LOWERHOUSE skipper Matt Hope has defended his players after professional Corrie Jordaan's decision to cancel his contract for next season.

"The players felt that we wouldn't win the title if Corrie were to come back," said Hope, who left the door open for the South African bowling sensation to return.

"He sat the players down in the dressing room and asked us all one by one if we wanted him back.

"We didn't want to do things that way but that's what Corrie wanted.

"And 11 out of 12 of the first team squad said that they felt we needed a batting professional.

"The thing is. our amateur batting isn't strong enough on its own for us to win the title.

"If our batting was stronger I'm sure we would have won the league already. "But there is too much pressure on the amateur lads to perform week in, week out.

"And we felt that if Corrie returned we would be in exactly the same situation in 12 months time.

"It might be a dream but we need a pro who can dominate with both bat and ball.

"Someone who can get 60 or so wickets and 1,000 runs would give us a chance of winning the title and that's what we all want. But it was Corrie's decision at the end of the day, not ours.

"If Corrie were to come back next summer then the players would back him 100 per cent.

"The last thing we want is people falling out at the club."

An extraordinary general meeting has been called for Monday, August 18 when Hope feels the full story should be aired.

In the meantime, he said he is concentrating on Lowerhouse's title bid. They lie third behind Haslingden and East Lancs.

Previous sport story

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.