Ashley Giles has reassured Paul Horton that he still has "an important part" to play at Lancashire Lightning, despite being overlooked for the captaincy.

The opening batsman was widely tipped to replace Glen Chapple as skipper earlier this month, although that honour instead went the way of Tom Smith.

Giles had plenty to chose from in terms of viable candidates for the role, with experienced Test batsmen Ashwell Prince and Alviro Petersen also in contention, which he claims made his decision far from easy.

"Horton will still play an important part for me as a senior member of the team," he told the Manchester Evening News. "I hope to run a players' management group and Horts will sit on that if he agrees too.

"I want to give as much ownership to the players as I can so that they run the team because when they get out on the field, there are no coaches out there.

"They need to take ownership of the responsibility out there. Choosing a captain was difficult because we had some good candidates. It is not something we fell in to overnight or a decision we made lightly."

Horton has been a part of the Lancashire set-up since 2003.