Chapple honoured by captaincy

Glen Chapple is excited about assuming the role

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New Lancashire captain Glen Chapple believes he is ready to step up to the challenge of leading the Red Rose county after replacing Stuart Law in the Old Trafford hot seat.

The former England all-rounder, 34, was officially unveiled this afternoon and revealed that he has not always seen himself as captaincy material.

"There have been years gone by when I didn't consider myself the right man for the job and quite right," he explained. "But the club deems that I am now and that is superb news.

"In days gone by I wasn't a senior player and we had a lot of senior players around with good captaincy potential. I suppose now is the right time."

Chapple has been with Lancashire for 18 years and is one of a select band of Red Rose players to have taken 500 first-class wickets and scored 5,000 first-class runs.

Chapple, who made his first-class debut in 1992, played a solitary one-day international for England against Ireland in Belfast two summers ago.

He stood in for Law for two NatWest Pro40 games in the most recent season, against Worcestershire and Sussex, and Lancashire lost them both.

Now he has the chance to be the first Lancashire captain since 1934 to lift the County Championship title outright.

"It is a massive job and a privilege to be asked to do it," he continued. "It is something I am going to take very seriously and hopefully achieve some success.

"Everyone who gets the job as Lancashire captain has the potential to be the first person to win the championship for a considerable amount of time and I am no different.

"It is something the right person will get at the right time."