WITH the eyes of the cricketing world currently focused on Chester-le-Street, chief executive David Harker feels Durham have moved a significant step closer to cementing their place on the international calendar.

With a Test match against Bangladesh currently in progress, a day-night fixture with Australia looming large and a one-day international with Sri Lanka pencilled in for next summer, the county have already made giant strides since attaining first-class status in 1992.

But, after attending a forward-planning meeting at Lord's this week, Durham officials are confident of bringing even more international cricket to the North-East in the future.

Harker headed a Durham delegation that travelled to London to address a working group set up by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to examine how international fixtures should be allocated in the future.

And, while he accepts it will take time to wrestle a lucrative Test match away from the more established venues such as Lord's and The Oval, he is happy that the tide is gradually moving in Durham's direction.

"It's difficult to gauge exactly how things went but I thought we definitely got a fair hearing," said Harker.

"We got over all of the points that we wanted to get across and that was the main purpose of the exercise.

"The people we saw this week are charged with looking at the process of how games are allocated, rather than looking at actually allocating the games themselves.

"So we never expected to come away with any promises about the future.

"But they were interested in hearing what we had to say and we were able to put over a convincing argument.

"We just keep on badgering the powers that be, telling them they need to keep on supporting us so we can keep on moving the club and the facilities forward.

"We want to be progressive and forward-thinking but it's a two-way process and they know that.

"In terms of next summer, we're pretty much there with finalising the plans.

"But that's not the extent of our ambitions.

"We're thinking longer-term than that and we'd like to get a programme nailed down."

Durham's cause will undoubtedly have been helped by yesterday's full house at Riverside.

Almost 10,000 fans packed into the ground despite a desperately one-sided first Test having underlined Bangladesh's obvious limitations.

This month's one-day game with Australia is already sold-out and ECB officials have publicly commended Durham on the loyalty of their support.

"I think the whole set-up this week will have helped our case, confirmed Harker.

"We've shown that we're able to stage a successful Test match and the North-East fans have shown that they're willing to support one.

"We're all delighted to be hosting Bangladesh this week, but obviously the target now is to get even bigger games here in the future."