JOHN Crawley has called up Cherie Blair in his bitter battle to get away from Lancashire.

The Prime Minister's wife will represent the former Lancashire captain in the Contracts Appeal Hearing which has been set up for Lord's this Friday.

Mrs Blair, who is a partner in a law firm called Matrix, specialises in employment law, and reportedly offered advice to the Football Association in their clash with the players over TV money before Christmas.

But this is her first involvement in Cricket, and means that Crawley's dispute with Lancashire will move from the back to the front pages. The 30-year-old, who has scored more than 10,000 runs for Lancashire and won 29 England caps, has wanted a move since he was sacked as skipper at the end of last season.

Lancashire, who are struggling for batsmen following the retirement of Mike Atherton, refused to release him from the remaining three years of his four-year contract.

But after the club's official grievances procedure had failed to break the deadlock, Crawley officially submitted his resignation late last month, claiming that Lancashire had breached his contract.

Again Lancashire refused to accept that, and appealed to the England and Wales Cricket Board, who then set up Friday's hearing.

Mrs Blair will argue Crawley's case to a three-man panel chaired by Francis Neate, an eminent lawyer who has played cricket for Berkshire, with the Professional Cricketers Association also represented.

The panel are required to make their decision in a fortnight, although both sides will have the right of appeal -- and Crawley has already suggested that he is prepared to take Lancashire to an industrial tribunal.

Lancashire believe it will have damaging implications for all 18 first-class counties if they release Crawley from his contract, although chief executive Jim Cumbes said this weekend: "It might be a slight different situation if there were a transfer system in cricket."

Unlike in football, Lancashire would receive no compensation for losing Crawley -- and Hampshire are believed to be waiting in the wings to pick him up for free.

Chairman Jack Simmons refused to discuss the Crawley situation at a tense Annual General Meeting of Lancashire members at Old Trafford on Saturday.

"That's what our legal people have told us, and there's no point paying them all that money if we don't do as they say," he said.