IT will be two years next weekend since the Durham captaincy was taken away from Nick Speak and I wrote that he had not had the backing he deserved from an inadequate management.

Replacing Norman Gifford as coach with Martyn Moxon was a step in the right direction, but it has not been enough.

Moxon has had little input into assembling the current squad, otherwise Durham would have been unlikely to go into the debacle against Glamorgan fielding two players who should not be anywhere near a first-class team.

With correct handling Jimmy Daley, Robin Weston and Darren Blenkiron would all have made better players and would now be helping to form the backbone of a reasonably experienced batting line-up.

Chairman Bill Midgley's reaction to Saturday's embarrassing capitulation is to say Durham will look elsewhere for older heads if the local youngsters they are developing do not perform.

He needs to be guided in this by Moxon because Durham have gone down this route before, with their panic buys after a disastrous 1996 season being only partially successful.

Apart from David Boon, they brought in Speak, Jon Lewis and Martin Speight, which meant there was no room for Daley, Weston and Blenkiron, while Andrew Pratt had to wait longer than necessary to become first-choice wicketkeeper.

The lesson should be that once you embark on a youth policy you should stick with it because Durham so far have a poor track record of nurturing talent to its full fruition.

They have brought Paul Collingwood and Stephen Harmison through into England squads, but given their glut of England Under 19 players over the last decade the results in terms of first team success are disappointing.

If they stick with Nicky Peng, Gordon Muchall, Gary Pratt and Michael Gough, plus Collingwood and an overseas man, in two years they should have a solid batting line-up.

All-rounder Danny Law remains an enigma.

After joining his third county at the age of 26, he did well last year but after beginning this season with an injury he is not making the most of his undoubted talent.

It would be useful to have a bowler who can bat a bit as Saturday's last four all succumbed to Robert Croft without mustering a run between them.

Not that any blame should be attached to Mark Davies as, along with Gary Pratt and Muchall, he has emerged this season as a genuine first-class cricketer.

In terms of planning for the future, that's not a bad return from a season in which results have been poor.

Perhaps three or four should go, but it's as well to remember that Saturday's shambles owed much to injuries and the lack of adequate cover.

That's not the fault of the players themselves, so any knee-jerk reaction needs to look at the management as well.