Lancashire Pre-season schedule

Lancashire will take part in the annual Emirates Airline T20 tournament as part of their pre-season tour to Dubai this March.

The reigning Twenty20 champions will take on Yorkshire, United Arab Emirates or the MCC in the semi-final at The Sevens Stadium.

Lancashire will play rivals Yorkshire in a two-day match, before potentially facing the White Rose county in the T20 tournament a few days later.

After completing the double over Yorkshire in the Natwest T20 Blast, Lancashire will be hoping for a better performance in the Airline tournament than last year. The Lightning were beaten by 21 runs in the semi-final last year when Jonny Bairstow guided the Vikings to a comfortable victory.

Lancashire have decided not to travel to Sri Lanka, as they did last year, but instead to challenge UAE in a two-day match to complete their tour preparations. The Red Rose county will then fly back to Manchester to take part in two pre-season friendlies against Somerset and Cambridge MCCU respectively.

This is the first of four years in which Lancashire will make Dubai their permanent pre-season home, after agreeing to a deal to deal in October. Yorkshire and the MCC will open the tour to Abu Dhabi, with Ian Bell set to captain the MCC side in the annual champion county match.

Tour fixture list:

• March 14/15 - Yorkshire v Lancashire, two-day match at ICC Academy Grounds
• March 17 - Emirates Airline T20 v Lancashire, warm-up match at The Sevens Stadium
• March 18 - Emirates Airline T20 tournament at The Sevens Stadium
• March 21/22 - UAE v Lancashire, two-day match at ICC Academy Grounds

Lancashire have named a 22-man squad for the tour of Dubai:

Tom Bailey, Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Glen Chapple, Jordan Clark, Steven Croft, Alex Davies, George Edwards, Gavin Griffiths, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Rob Jones, Simon Kerrigan, Toby Lester, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Stephen Parry, Luke Procter, Luis Reece and Tom Smith.

All information from Lancashire's matches will be available on my Twitter profile with match information, including reports and images, being posted on this blog. 

Hameed signs four-year contract with Lancashire

Lancashire opening batsman Haseeb Hameed is the latest member of the team to extend their stay at Emirates Old Trafford, agreeing to a four-year contract with the Red Rose county. 

The England Under-19 joint captain featured in four Championship matches last season, as Lancashire achieved promotion to the first division. The talented young batsman recorded 257 runs in six innings, scoring 91 against Division Two champions Surrey on home soil.

"When Ash [Ashley Giles] came up and offered me the deal, I was delighted to accept it and commit my future to this club," said Hameed.

"Lancashire have shown great faith in me throughout my development and have been crucial to my progress as a cricketer. I'm still learning the game and there is no other place I would rather play my cricket than Lancashire, my home county.

"I've been at the club since being a little boy - I think I was nine when I joined - I've come through the age groups and got a taste of playing for the first team last year."

Hameed is one of many Lancashire players to commit their future to the club this winter, with Steven Croft, Alex Davies, Stephen Parry, Kyle Jarvis, Tom Bailey and Gavin Griffiths all signing new deals since the end of the 2015 season.

Hameed during his innings of 91 against Surrey at Emirates Old Trafford

Hameed, who made his Lancashire first-class debut against Glamorgan in August, seized his opportunity at the top of the order alongside Karl Brown after the club revealed that they would not be renewing Paul Horton's contract.

The talented batsman, born in Bolton, averaged 42.83 in four-day cricket, but he is yet to make an appearance in white-ball cricket. Hameed may only have played a handful of matches for Lancashire last season, but he has already impressed the Old Trafford faithful.

His determination at the crease makes him a dependable opening batsman and he overcame his tender age against Surrey at Old Trafford with a defiant innings of 91 from 234 deliveries, although this only delayed the inevitable, as Surrey lifted the Division Two title.

Lancashire's Director of Cricket, Ashley Giles, believes that his resilience at the crease will allow him to compete in the first division this summer and expressed his desire to retain young cricketers in the future.

Giles said: "He really impressed me in the four first-class games he played last year and he showed that he has an experienced head on young shoulders.

"We have now been able to retain a number of our young, home-grown cricketers on long-term contracts. This is hugely important to us as a club as they represent the future of Lancashire cricket."