Lancashire Cricket Academy has opened its doors to the first intake of teenage hopefuls.

The academy is one of four centres of excellence due to open in Essex, Surrey and Gloucestershire this year after being granted a licence by the England and Wales Cricket Board in May.

The academy will take young people from both Lancashire's Levels of Excellence Scheme and from Cheshire's Elite Programme. The ECB will contribute £50,000 per year to help with the costs of the three-year course.

The County Cricket Academy programme forms part of the ECB's World Class Plan - a partnership with Sport England to develop cricket from the playground to the England Test side. The ECB, which awarded the first eight academy licenses to counties in 2001, aim to produce the best cricket development infrastructure in the world by 2007.