Horton aiming high

Paul Horton in action for Lancashire in last year's LV= County Championship

Paul Horton has been one of Lancashire’s leading lights in the past two seasons, but the Australian-born batsman has no intention of resting on his laurels in 2009.

Following several years on the fringes of first-team action at Old Trafford, Horton came to prominence in 2007, scoring 1,034 runs at an average of almost 50 in the LV= County Championship and winning the Red Rose county’s player of the year award.

The 26-year-old followed this up by accumulating another 966 championship runs the following summer to take his total to exactly 2,000 in two impressive seasons.

Now Horton is targeting an even bigger total as he seeks to help Lancashire end their long-awaited hunt for silverware.

“I’m full of excitement really,” he told ecb.co.uk. “I feel as if I’m getting better as I’m getting older and playing more cricket, so hopefully I can score more runs this year and contribute towards us winning the County Championship.

“One thousand runs is certainly a benchmark that people talk about, but I want to look beyond that this year.

“I’ve scored around 1,000 runs in the last couple of years so it would be nice to go a little bit further and score 1,200 runs, or have a real breakthrough year and score even more than that.

“I had five months away in Perth over the winter. I went out there and captained and coached a grade side called Gosnells and I really enjoyed the challenge.

“I believe I’ve come back a better player and I only had a week between that and our pre-season games in Dubai so I’ve had plenty of cricket which is good for me.

“I seemed to finish well in Perth and find some good form and I kept that going in Dubai so hopefully I can take that into the new season here.

“But it’s tough cricket in Division One and the bowling is getting better, so who knows. To be honest I’d take 500 runs if we were to win the championship.”

Horton’s recent success has naturally led to talk of a possible international call-up.

Although he was born and raised in Sydney, the opener qualifies for England having moved to Liverpool as a teenager.

The opening batsman boasts an impressive tally of 2,000 championship runs over the last two years

However, while he is understandably keen to play at the highest level, Horton is wary of becoming distracted from his primary focus - scoring runs for his county.

“International cricket is definitely something I’m looking towards,” he said. “Every cricketer wants to play at the highest level and I’m no different.

“It has been talked about a little bit and I probably got sucked in by all the talking last year.

“I got away from what I was doing well and started to worry about things I couldn’t control. I’ve learned a lot about how I handled the pressure of that.

“As far as I’m concerned, if I’m scoring enough runs the doors will open in due course. I can only look after what I can control and that’s scoring runs and winning games of cricket for Lancashire.

“If I can do that and I get chosen to play for England then that’s fantastic.”

For the time being then, Horton is concentrating fully on Lancashire’s opening games of the season.

They begin their domestic campaign with a Friends Provident Trophy game at home to Glamorgan on April 19, before kicking off their LV= County Championship challenge with a trip to Sussex two days later.

All eyes will be on the Old Trafford club following the arrival of former England coach Peter Moores in the winter and Horton is confident they can enjoy a successful season.

“It’s been great for the club with Mooresy coming in,” he said. “And we’ve still got Mike Watkinson (who has taken up the role of cricket director) here to give advice and he knows the players inside-out.

“With the new ideas comes a fresh approach and everyone steps up their game a little bit.

“I certainly think we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of talent and it’s just whether we can step up now and take the opportunities that are there for us.”