FORMER Lancashire batsman Graham Lloyd is set to make his debut for Cumberland when they open their Minor Counties Championship campaign for 2003 in a three-day match against Bedfordshire, starting at Dunstable CC next Sunday.

Lloyd replaces his former Lancaster team-mate all-rounder Ian Austin, who was controversially released after one season with the county.

Cumberland also have a new skipper in Steven O'Shaughnessy, a regular in the side who had announced his retirmenet from playing for the county, but comes back with a new role in place of Martin Lewis, who has stepped down.

There is plenty of work upon after Cumberland finished bottom in the Eastern Division of the Minor Counties Championship last season and failed to qualify for the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy's latter stages when English first-class counties join the shake-up.

Cumberland: S J O'Shaughnessy (capt), A A Metcalfe, G Lloyd, M A Sharp, A Twigg, P Lawson, R. Bell, J M Fielding D Rooney, C Pink (wkt), S Woolf.

May 26, 2003 10:30