Cork back to fitness and ready to rumble

Dominic Cork has been cleared to make his Lancashire debut on the pre-season trip to South Africa. The county leave for the Cape next week.

Cork, who finally quit Derbyshire at the end of last summer, underwent surgery on a troublesome ankle in the close season and Mike Watkinson, Lancashire's coach, said that he was now back to full fitness.

"To be honest, we've been having to hold him back for a few weeks now," Watkinson told the Manchester Evening News. "He had some sort of fracture in his ankle last year with Derbyshire and because it was still causing him a few problems when he joined us, he had a minor operation to clear it up. He had his final check with his specialist and got the okay. So now it's just a question of getting him up to full speed as gradually as we can."

Lancashire have scaled down the number of matches on the trip. They will play three one-dayers, two Twenty20-format games, and a two-dayer against a Western Province XI.