ALONG with the joy came tears. While Stephen Harmison became the leading Test wicket-taker among Durham's first-class players, Jimmy Daley has called time on a sadly unfulfilled career.

In observing last week that Harmison was only the second player - after Simon Brown - during Durham's first-class life to play in a Test for England, I forgot about the little-known Ian Botham.

The last two of Botham's 102 Tests came as a Durham player against Pakistan in 1992, but he went wicketless in those two games, while Brown took one wicket in each innings on his only England appearance in the first Test against Pakistan in 1996.

Harmison's trio of scalps in the first innings against India is therefore a Durham record, and doubtless they will be dancing in the streets of Ashington.

But to emphasise the fine line between success and frustration it is worth recalling that ten years ago similar things were predicted for Daley.

When Jimmy made 88 as an 18-year-old on his championship debut at Taunton in 1992 he looked an England player in the making.

Having learnt his cricket at Eppleton, he was the epitome of what Durham's elevation to first-class status was all about.

Yet in a career spanning 93 first-class matches, the members' favourite batsman averaged only 28 and there were only three championship hundreds, none of them on home soil.

Seven broken fingers have taken their toll, and I still believe there was an element of politics involved when he couldn't get in the team during David Boon's first season as captain in 1997.

Boon was supposed to have had carte blanche to do as he wished, but after the disasters of the previous season he was under pressure to select Nick Speak ahead of Daley.

It all adds up to the sad truth that we will never know just how good Jimmy might have been.

It can easily be argued that he didn't take his chances in recent seasons, or that he wasn't tough enough, but for those of us who have watched him for 11 years it is acutely disappointing that he hasn't blossomed as we hoped.

With his score on 57, he was on course to win the game at Derby in April when along came his seventh broken finger.

He re-emerged to face a few balls at the death in a vain attempt to secure the victory, and that was the last we saw of him.

Jimmy plans to set up some kind of fishing and hunting business with his South African girlfriend, which is more than he could have hoped for before first-class cricket widened his horizons.

Members will wish him well, but they will still shed a frustrated tear over his departure.

WITH Daley gone, there is a possibility that Durham's link with their original first-class squad from 1992 will be totally severed if Simon Brown is released at the end of the season.

At the start of this season Brown had 516 first-class wickets for Durham and the next highest was John Wood's 260.

But after two years of injury troubles, there is a danger that a bowler previously renowned for staying fit will be pensioned off at the age of 33.

It is not through lack of effort as he is said to be one of Durham's keenest trainers, but the injuries just keep cropping up and he has been out of action recently with a calf strain.

"He's fit to start bowling again now, so we'll have to see he goes for the rest of the season," said Martyn Moxon.

But in two years under Moxon's coaching Brown has played only five championship games, and it would be no surprise if he is released.

AS long-standing players, both Daley and Brown will be on more than £30,000 a year, so their removal from the wage bill would clear the way for a second overseas player.

If balancing the books on the playing side is imperative, as seems likely, a few others could be in danger as Moxon casts his net for players who are going to make Durham more competitive.

One possibility is England one-day player Jeremy Snape, who can't get into Gloucestershire's championship side and has a strong affection for the North-East after his time at Durham University.

But even more likely is that Moxon will be keeping a close eye on the potential fall-out from his native county as Yorkshire's financial crisis could force them to shed as many as nine players.

ONE player Durham will definitely not be signing, despite his renewed overtures during his visit with Lashings, is Brian Lara.

He lived up to his reputation last Wednesday as someone who is quite happy to take the money and run as he batted for seven balls and didn't field.

The stroke which brought his dismissal was an insult to the fans, although in fairness to North-East cricket lovers they are not so gullible as to have been influenced by Lara's presence.

Although Durham didn't lose money on the venture, the fact that the crowd was only half of the anticipated 5,000 shows that people in these parts take their cricket seriously. It was a bit of fun, nothing more, and suggestions that the Lashings World X1 should be allowed to join the first-class counties in the one-day league should be treated with total contempt.

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