Cricket: Lancs Made to Rue Missed Cricket

It was with the richest slice of irony that news of Sussex's triumph at Trent Bridge should come as the rain sluiced down at the Rose Bowl. Only five overs had been possible at start of play in which time Lancashire lost their opener Iain Sutcliffe, bowled by James Bruce, before the umpires Barry Dudleston and Neil Mallender abandoned play for the day just after lunch.

Lancashire's loss of more than a thousand overs to the weather, in comparison to a Sussex total of less than 200, has been a garrulous talking point in recent weeks. But their captain Mark Chilton conceded that Sussex deserved their title. "You have to say that the best team has won the championship," he said. "During the course of 16 games things level themselves out and all credit to Sussex. They have played really solid cricket. They are a tough team - whenever you go to Hove you know you are in for a battle. They have some outstanding individuals and it is a huge bonus having someone of Mushtaq's quality in your side. But he's still got to get the wickets. They deserve their victory."

Nevertheless, Chilton could not hide the sombre mood pervading his side: "The dressing room is very disappointed," he said. "It's always a long season and a lot of preparation goes into it. To come second after seven or eight months of hard work is very disappointing. You can look at many situations in the last six months where we might have edged one or two more points but we mustn't make excuses. But overall there haven't been too many sessions when we've played poor cricket. There has not been a whole lot we could have done differently."

Lancashire are now confirmed as runners-up and recipients of the £40,000 prize money, but when play resumes this morning motivation will not be easy. "It will be flat but we've got personal pride and some win-bonus money still to play for," said Chilton.

With the benefit of hindsight he also rued his decision not to enforce the follow-on here. "The thinking was that there were some tired legs - [Dominic] Cork and [Glen] Chapple are running on empty - and I thought it was still a good pitch. We thought we were set for fair weather and it might be worse in Nottingham, but it turned out the other way round."