The England cricket team are in town for the Test Match starting on Friday, and City have done their bit to help the squad prepare for the game against Bangladesh.

The lads swapped sports for a penalty shoot-out on the outfield at Old Trafford using mini nets donated by City, with Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson the first one out to get some practice in ahead of his team mates.

Geoff Durbin, Lancashire County Cricket Club’s Commercial Director, used to work at City and asked the club to borrow the nets for the spot-kick session, which was filmed by the English Cricket Board and will appear on their website next week (we’ll let you know when).

“We needed the nets at short notice,” said Geoff. “We’re delighted that our friends at City could help us out. We used the old dug outs from Maine Road in the very first year of 20-20 cricket, so it’s nice to see history repeating itself!

“Lots of cricketers fancy themselves as footballers on the quiet and the England boys looked no different, so we hope it helps it them in their preparations for the Test on Friday.”

Tickets for the Test are available from Lancashire on www.lccc.co.uk, and for more information on the England squad go to www.ecb.co.uk.