LANCASHIRE have not ruled out Wasim Akram for the rest of the season - or even from the NatWest Trophy.

They stepped up their defence of the 60-over competition against struggling Sussex at Hove today with several reports suggesting that Wasim will definitely not play again.

But although his shoulder injury is not responding to treatment and he will definitely be out for another month, Wasim is staying in Manchester and could even recover for September's NatWest Final.

First Lancashire have to get there, of course, and although they were red-hot favourites today, Sussex were quietly optimistic of springing a huge upset.

They welcomed back Neil Lenham to strengthen the batting and Macclesfield-born captain Pete Moores said: "We are only three wins from Lord's and we really think we can go all the way.

"Everybody is saying we have no chance and I hope Lancashire think that too. They do have a formidable batting line-up which is very dangerous, but sometimes it can go the other way."

Lancashire welcomed back Glen Chapple after missing the games at Middlesex last week with a stomach muscle injury. Chapple teamed up with Peter Martin and Ian Austin, who both recovered from injuries they picked up at Uxbridge, which meant no place for Darren Shadford.

Mike Watkinson and Jason Gallian were also back in the team after injury with Mike Atherton and John Crawley returning from Test duty.

But Neil Fairbrother was ruled out with his thigh strain, handing a NatWest debut to Andrew Flintoff. Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat.

And Lancashire slumped to 34-3 from 12 overs, Atherton falling for two, Gallian for one and Lloyd for four, leaving Crawley (220 and Flintoff (1) unbeaten.

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