Lancashire remain committed to producing home-grown talent, says Paul Allott

When the news broke on Friday that Lancashire had signed Shivnarine Chanderpaul, it caused quite the stir among the cricketing community.

Perhaps that should come as no surprise given that he has scored 11,867 runs, including 30 centuries, at 51.37 in Test cricket with a further 8,778 runs and 11 hundreds in one-day internationals.

And yet the overriding reaction to the signing was one of bemusement - and even, in some cases, derision. The reason being, that the West Indies legend is now 42 and played his last international match almost two years ago.

Surely then, a signing that represents the absolute antithesis of what Lancashire - a county that has prided itself on promoting young, home-grown talent - stands for?

Not so, according to former Lancashire and England seamer Paul Allott, who now serves on the board of the Red Rose county.

"I'm not surprised by the reaction because you expect that sort of comment to come out," he told Sky Sports. "But when you look at it and explore the logic behind it, then I think that tempers some of the criticism and the comments."

Allott is excited by Chanderpaul what can bring to the side and not only on the pitch, where Lancashire are in need of experience in the top order having lost Ashwell Prince, Alviro Petersen and Tom Smith since the end of the 2015 season, while Haseeb Hameed is also likely to be missing for much of the season with England.

"He'll bring huge experience and top quality batsmanship," Allott said. "He's right up there with the best who have ever played the game in terms of runs scored, he's played 164 Test matches - it doesn't come more experienced than that.

"There are three glaring holes that needed filling, we felt that we had to fill them with some experience, and Chanderpaul fits the bill.

"He's still scoring many runs in the Caribbean, he's made hundreds in their first class competition, a hundred in the 50-over competition the other day and, over and above the fact that he is going to play for us, he is going to be instrumental in mentoring the younger batsmen.

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"We've got plenty of those coming through: Rob Jones, Liam Livingstone, Danny Lamb - these guys will be pushing for places. I don't see that signing Chanderpaul is anything but a good and positive move."

A deal to bring in South African wicketkeeper Dane Vilas on a two-year non-overseas deal was announced alongside the signing of Chanderpaul, bringing the topic of Kolpak players in county cricket to the fore once more.

The fear is that influx of players, from South Africa in particular, will block the path of young English players but Allott believes that if the situation is managed correctly then there is no reason why that should be the case.

"The primary objective at Lancashire is to try and produce home-grown cricketers who will eventually play for England - that's what we're there for," he added. "I think there is plenty of scope for that, as long as you try and balance it.

"Even if you have two or three who are either overseas, Kolpak or non-qualified, and balance it out nicely and play eight then that's pretty good.

"Going back to the 70s and 80s when every county had two overseas players, I thought it was a great thing. I think it helps players develop, whether it's batsmen or bowlers.

"If you put a guy out to bowl against Viv Richards, for example, or Gordon Greenidge, Barry Richards, Richard Hadlee, you're going to know how good you are and whether you're up to standard by performing against these guys. I see it as a very similar sort of thing."

The Kolpak issue is exacerbated, Allott argues, by the new County Championship structure with the two up, two down promotion-relegation system staying in place despite Division One being reduced to only eight teams.

"There is an awful lot of pressure on counties to stay in the first division, at the top table of the County Championship, and you have a ridiculous situation where two out of eight teams are relegated - it just doesn't add up to me," Allott said.

"One out of eight would be a far better representation and a fairer tournament."

Despite a quarter of top-flight clubs facing the drop in 2017 and remarks that the signings of Chanderpaul and Vilas suggest otherwise, Lancashire remain committed to their policy of promoting from within and are looking for ways they can improve as they look to develop Lancashire's stars of the future.

"We've got a whole raft of English players coming through," Allott added. "I think we should perhaps have even more, and one of the things (head coach) Glen Chapple and (assistant coach) Mark Chilton will do is survey where we are in terms of our playing strength and try and focus on producing and finding even more local talent around the north-west of England.

"But I'm more than happy with what we've got at the moment. We've got a real good, solid core of players under 22 in terms of Hameed, Livingstone, Matthew Parkinson, Alex Davies, Saqib Mahmood - so I'm happy."

Whether this emphasis on youth leads to the emergence of the next Hameed or Jimmy Anderson at Old Trafford remains to be seen but, if not, it will not be for lack of willing or opportunity at Lancashire.

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And, with Chanderpaul on hand to offer guidance, it could yet be a young Lancastrian batsman next getting the cricketing cohorts talking.