Stand to be named after Lancashire 1970s county cricket heroes

Two men who were key figures in Lancashire County Cricket Club’s dominance of the one-day match format in the 1970s will have sections of the ground named after them at Old Trafford later.

Sir Clive Lloyd and Farokh Engineer are to be honoured during the test match between England and India, who Engineer won 46 caps for.

Future West Indies captain Lloyd and wicket keeper batsman Engineer joined the club in the 1960s shortly after English counties were allowed to sign overseas players.

The batting panache and verve of both men dovetailed perfectly with the new fast-scoring limited overs format of the game.

A stand next to the club’s media centre, known informally as the B Stand, will have its upper tier named after Lloyd with the lower named after Engineer.

Lloyd, 80, and Engineer, 87, became folk heroes in Lancashire in the 1970s side that became known as the “kings of one day cricket”.

The same crowds who cheered the likes of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton at Manchester United in the winter brought football-style chants to cricket when Lloyd and Engineer batted at the other Old Trafford in the summer.

The team won three successive Gillette Cup finals and two successive Sunday league titles with Lloyd scoring a memorable 126 in the 1972 Gillette final against Warwickshire.

Engineer was an experienced test player when he joined Lancashire in the same season the Old Trafford committee had nearly agreed terms with West Indian legend Sir Gary Sobers.

Lloyd was also a test player and had spent a year as a professional with Haslingden in 1967 and 1968.

Engineer played 175 matches in nine seasons for Lancashire, scoring 5,942 runs. Behind the stumps, he took 429 catches and recorded 35 stumpings.

For Lloyd, 30 of his career first class centuries were amassed for the Red Rose county in his haul of 12,764 runs in 219 matches over 18 seasons.

Two other parts of the ground are named after fast bowlers.

The former pavilion end was renamed after the county’s pace-bowling great and England’s leading test wicket taker James Anderson in 2017 while the former Stretford End of the ground was renamed after ex-Lancashire and England fast bowler Brian Statham in 2011.