I AM a big fan of the Greater Manchester Cricket League and what it is trying to achieve but I must admit I feared the introduction of multi-tiered cricket would create a situation like the one Brooksbottom is currently experiencing.

It was reported in the Bury Times last week the club was struggling for players after a number had left before the start of the season.

A good friend of mine (Mark Richardson) helps to run the club and my father once played for them, so I was sad to hear they had been forced to launch an appeal through the paper to boost numbers.

I'm a Summerseat lad and I think local clubs should support each other, so I was glad to see my club, Greenmount, lend them a few players.

And I would urge anyone who has recently retired or stepped back from the game to go down to Brooksbottom and give them a hand.

What is troubling me is whether Brox are alone in struggling to raise a team.

For someone who is as competitive as me, it stands to reason you play cricket because you want to win things.

My first instinct would always be that I wanted to play for the best. In GMCL, that means the Premier Division.

How many players will be happy playing for teams in Division Two, like Brox, or lower down in Division Three or Four?

Brox have come from the Ribblesdale League - a one-tier league where, in theory, every team at the start of the season had a chance of winning the championship.

To go from that set-up to playing in Division Two of the GMCL, well naturally some players will decide to go and play their cricket elsewhere.

What I fear is the best players will gravitate towards the top teams, no matter what money is on offer outside the top two tiers.

Now you will always get a one-club man, like Ian Wade at ELPM, for example, who is capable of playing at a higher level but stays because they are attached to the club.

He tore the Egerton second-team attack to pieces this week, a performance that would have not been out of place in the Premier Division.

But if clubs like Brox and ELPM struggle to keep hold of their better players in future, I really am concerned some of them might fold, and that can't be good for local cricket.