GLAMORGAN batsman Adrian Dale has condemned next week's Old Trafford Test venue as currently unfit for first-class cricket.

"If they have more bad weather, I can see them having serious problems with the wicket for the Test ," he said. "I doubt that they'll be able to produce a good Test Match wicket." And the Glamorgan vice-captain is not the only one with doubts.

In private, Lancashire themselves have admitted that the wicket for the county championship game against Glamorgan was well below first-class standard. Dale made his comments having witnessed first hand the state of the pitch during his side's one-day win on Sunday.

"It was a really poor pitch. I can't believe that we were supposed to play the championship game on it," said Dale.

"Unless someone had produced an outstanding innings, I don't think the championship game would've lasted two days. It was awful.

"On Sunday, the ball spun far too much right from the start, and the pitch just wasn't up to scratch."

Lancashire have had problems with the drainage at Old Trafford this year, and despite three days of dry weather the outfield resembled a bog.

And with the Old Trafford test less than 10 days away and the weather forecast changeable the Test match could be under threat.

It had been suggested as early as last week that the Old Trafford outfit would be struggling to provide a decent Test surface and voices from some quarters had suggested that the powers that be at Lord's were considering an alternative venue. It was a suggestion that Lancashire vehemently denied, and groundsman Peter Marron went on record as saying the ground would be fine.

He did admit however that the club were planning to bring in extra covers to try and protect the pitch from rain.

The truth though is that despite there being hardly any rain during Glamorgan's washed out county championship match, the pitch was nowhere near good enough for first class cricket.

Glamorgan bowler Alex Wharf is not the quickest, but he still managed to give Neil Fairbrother a nasty blow to the head during Sunday's contest. A full-length delivery from the Glamorgan bowler rose sharply after breaking the wicket's surface.

With both Darren Gough and Andy Caddick firing on all cylinders, the chance that someone might get hurt is a real possibility.

Memories will turn to the England tour of the West Indies a couple of years ago, when the first test in Barbados was abandoned because of a dangerous wicket.