Durham Diary

There seems to be universal agreement that Twenty20 is the way forward, and after attracting full houses for two of their three recent games in that competition Durham had a crowd of only 3,000 on Wednesday. Durham stage only one floodlit match a season and in such cases the ECB contribute £15,000 to the £25,000 it costs to hire the lights. There is also the Sky TV revenue, of course, but if the entertainment is as modest as Wednesday's and the crowd is no more than 3,000 can it be a worthwhile exercise?

In the six years of floodlit cricket there has not been a good game at Riverside. Teams generally want to avoid batting second, but the only time the side batting first at Riverside has made more than Wednesday's 162 was in 2001, when Durham totalled 259 for six against Hampshire with Martin Love making 89 and Paul Collingwood 84. Sussex and Essex have installed permanent lights and Derbyshire plan to do the same, so they will all be pressing for as much floodlit cricket as possible.

Perhaps the answer is to have more Twenty20 cricket and stage it later in the season under lights, so it doesn't mess up midsummer. Durham crammed in nine championship matches by June 25 and now have five in the final month. They played only two in seven weeks inbetween, which is ludicrous.

The failure to make a start on the second day of the current game means it is now 13 weeks since they played on a Saturday.

ONE of the members who sat patiently in the afternoon sun on Saturday awaiting the next pitch inspection eventually lost his cool and decided to vent his wrath in the Press box.

It was the usual "they're killing the game" diatribe, the gist being that it was ridiculous that no cricket was taking place on the world's most modern Test ground in perfect weather.

"If Sky TV were here they'd be playing," said our vexed visitor, adding: "My mates have gone to watch Burnmoor seconds."

If first-class cricket were played at the same level of intensity as the Durham Second Teams League there might not have been a problem at Riverside on Saturday. But the fact was that the bowlers' run-ups were too wet for professionals to perform. There was an inspection at 2pm and another at 3.15, when it was decided there was no chance of sufficient improvement for play to start.

For those who had hung around expecting some cricket it was hard to accept that in such perfect weather there was to be no play, and some members asked why an alternative pitch couldn't be cut on a drier part of the square. When club matches were going ahead all around on grounds without the benefit of covering, the members were entitled to some answers.

It often seems that they are the least of anyone's considerations and there are times when there ought to be a greater urgency on the part of umpires to get the show on the road.

This was probably not one of them, but I have long advocated that umpires should be retired at 60 because too many of those beyond that age give the impression they want to spend as little time on their feet as possible.

PHIL Mustard continues to stake a strong claim for a first team recall, hitting 151 in the match against Derbyshire at Tunstall followed by an unbeaten 68 in 39 balls in the second innings of the drawn game.

Following his 193 at Feethams the week before and 150 away to Surrey seconds, he now has 742 runs in the Second X1 Championship at an average of 82.44. His strike rate is 95.25 per 100 balls.

He also made a match-winning 67 not out for Benwell Hill on Saturday against a Sunderland attack featuring Marlon Black and Simon Brown.

When Andrew Pratt was left out last season to make way for Mustard he was told he needed to make 700-800 runs a season and after seven championship matches this year he was averaging 33.5. But like several others he has suffered from the lack of continuity and his last eight innings have brought 109 runs.

MARTIN Love completed his stint of two championship games for Northants with an average of 394 after two undefeated innings of 133 and 161 against Worcestershire.

Will Durham want him back? Last year they gained nothing by rushing in to sign Herschelle Gibbs, so this time they might hang back to see who is in next summer's Australian tour squad. That way they could be left picking up the left-overs, so it's a real dilemma.

JOHN Wood always looked as though he could handle a bat, so three half-centuries is a disappointing return from 13 seasons in the first-class game. But his absence from the Lancashire side in the final year of his contract has allowed him to play in the Bradford League for Spen Victoria, for whom he has recently hit 109 and 92.

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