John Crawley plays against his former Lancashire teammates for the first time tomorrow, 14 months after completing his acrimonious departure from Old Trafford.

Hampshire captain Crawley's England recall last year helped ensure that he missed both championship matches and both National League floodlit defeats against the Red Rose county.

Crawley was named in the England squad for last June's third Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford but was left out of the final XI so tomorrow's visit will be his first return to the ground he called home for more than a decade.

Last season he was able to resurrect his career on the south coast after Hampshire helped him buy out the remainder of his contract.

And after struggling in the National League so far this season, there is no better time for Crawley to rediscover his one day form, having captained Lancashire from 1999 until the end of the 2001 season, which turned out to be his last for the club.

The 31-year-old said: "It would be very nice to get some runs there, I've been looking forward to this game for a while after missing out both home and away last season.

"I don't know what sort of reception I'll get to be honest but when I left I got a lot of letters of support and very few negative ones."

Former Manchester Grammar school pupil Crawley also received a letter from Lancashire CCC, congratulating him on his recall to the England side, when he played his first Test in more than three years against Sri Lanka at Lord's exactly one year ago.

That letter was pinned on the pavilion noticeboard at Old Trafford by club officials anxious to take the sting out of a possible Crawley return.

Crawley made his Lancashire debut in 1990, two years after Wasim Akram's first season at Old Trafford, so the fact that he and Wasim, vice captain and captain at Old Trafford in 1998, are back together will make it a nostalgic day for the county's members.

Wasim returns from a break in Lahore in time to play his first game at Old Trafford since his last match there, a championship clash against Hampshire, in September 1998.

Crawley added: "I speak to some of the Lancashire players reasonably regularly, players like Warren Hegg, Glenn Chapple, Mark Chilton and Freddie Flintoff and I know that 'Was' is looking forward to this game as well.

Crawley has already scored four championship fifties this season but he has an aggregate of just 23 runs from his three one-day innings.

His team have had little luck since winning the National League opener against Sussex Sharks, losing off the last ball against Middlesex Crusaders two days before Sussex's dramatic last over victory in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy. Crawley added: "We're playing pretty good stuff. Things haven't gone our way in the last couple of games but hopefully that will change."