Steven Croft is not only the youngest head coach in men’s county cricket. He is also the only head coach younger than his captain.Croft turned 41 shortly before Lancashire turned his interim role into a permanent one in October, and soon afterwards he appointed James Anderson – two years his senior – as captain on a full-time basis for their County Championship season. They first played together as teenagers for Lancashire’s second XI, and Croft says Anderson has hardly changed.
“He was quite an angry youth on the field,” Croft tells ESPNcricinfo with a smile. “We all feel privileged that he’s still playing for us and that he’s leading the lads. He’d never led a side before last year, but he led some of the great team talks I’ve heard, and having someone like that who is so dedicated to the team has been great.”
Two days before the start of the T20 Blast, Croft was put in temporary charge by director of cricket Mark Chilton. “It was great timing,” he says. “We’d had a pretty bad start in the County Championship, and to change formats made it a little bit easier for me to come in. We know our T20 record, especially in the group games, is excellent, and I think the lads needed it.”
Croft had only retired from playing the previous season. “I’d been around probably every T20 game for the last 20 years in Lancs colours,” he says. “If I’m being honest, there were a couple of games at half-time where I thought, ‘I’m going to have to field in a second.’ I had to take a step back: ‘I’m actually coaching.’ It was surreal… Luckily, we hit the ground running.”
They won each of Croft’s first three games as head coach and ultimately finished top of the North Group in the Blast before losing their semi-final to Somerset. Championship results improved too. Anderson took over as stand-in captain, leading a team for the first time in his professional game, and oversaw an innings win over Derbyshire in his second match.
“We always thought that he’d be great, but would he want to do it?” Croft says. “[I was] even just nervous about asking him, but as soon as we did, there was no looking back and that set it up really well for 2026. He really wanted to do it and has a passion to do it. From our side, it’s a no-brainer really. To have someone of that stature to lead the lads is brilliant.”
He was particularly impressed by Anderson’s ability to address his players: “Jimmy probably wouldn’t mind me saying, he’s not one to outwardly go and have chats in a group and stand up, so he was probably a little bit out of his comfort zone to do that. But when he does, obviously everyone listens, and there’s some phenomenal messaging coming out.”
Croft has been planning his post-playing career for over a decade, inspired by his old Lancashire coach Peter Moores. “I didn’t have it on my radar as a young professional. It was Mooresy, really. He said, ‘I think you’d be good at it. You’d be a good leader.’ I didn’t believe him, but the more conversations I had, I thought, ‘Actually, this might fall into place quite nicely.'”
His captaincy experience – which included leading Lancashire to the Blast title and promotion in 2015 – further underlined his desire to move into coaching, and he has spent “11 years or so” working in Lancashire’s pathway and academy. While his county team-mates travelled the world, Croft spent the winters working in the indoor school at Emirates Old Trafford.
Steven Croft and Scott Parker swapped ideas during Lancashire’s pre-season trip to Burnley•Lancashire CCC
He oversaw Lancashire’s second XI while his playing career was winding down, a job that involves far more than most: “Most of the second-team coaches around the country will vouch for it: you literally do everything in that role. You’re organising hotels, buses, coach drivers. It’s a good learning ground to know how it all works.
“It was a really good place to learn the art of county coaching. At Lancs, you could have Jos [Buttler] and Salty [Phil Salt] here one minute; the next, you’ve got a couple of academy lads in Joe Moores and Luke Hands playing first-team cricket. Like a player, as a coach, you try to be adaptable to what’s in front of you.”
Lancashire recovered to a mid-table finish in Division Two last year, and hope that three new seamers – Paul Coughlin, Ajeet Singh Dale and Victoria’s Mitch Perry – can lead a promotion push this year. They are also targeting T20 success, with former England coach Matthew Mott recruited as a consultant to assist Croft throughout the Blast.
Croft’s appointment, made permanent in October, has not ended the animosity between Lancashire’s supporters and the club’s hierarchy. Last week, while the first-team squad were on a pre-season tour in Spain, two special general meetings were called – the first by interim chair Sarah Storey, the second by a group of ex-players led by David Lloyd and Paul Allott – amid a debate over the board’s make-up.
But Croft’s focus remains firmly on the field, and he has spent the winter trying to build “camaraderie” within his squad. “County cricket is hectic, and you’re on top of each other in the summer,” he says. “Good teams lean into that. You do get tired of each other at the odd time, but you have to make the most of it and get tight as a unit.”
Their itinerary included a couple of visits to Burnley FC, where Croft – a Blackpool fan – exchanged notes on being a young head coach with manager Scott Parker. “We had a couple of hours with him, and his assistant as well,” Croft says. “He spoke quite a lot about cricket, myself, how he runs things. I was wondering how he remembers all those heroic speeches!
“I felt old as a player, but now I’m young as a coach. It’s about going with your gut and what you know, and not trying to be someone else when you’re coaching. If you’re not yourself, the lads will see through it at some point or other. In those crunch moments, there’s no hiding place.”
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98