COACH Martyn Moxon is unhappy that Durham are to lose Nicky Peng for three weeks to England Under 19s.

Peng, who hit his third one-day century of the season in Tuesday night's defeat at Worcester, was excused Under 19 duty for the one-day series against the West Indies.

Durham thought he would also be left out of at least the first two Tests as it was felt he would be better off playing regular first-class cricket.

But because of an injury to Dominic Ostler, Warwickshire have asked for Under 19 captain Ian Bell to be released after playing in the one-day series, which England lost 2-1.

"It disappoints me because Ian Bell has hardly played any first-class cricket this season yet Warwickshire can get him released because of one injury," said Moxon.

"We have had lots of injuries and now we're going to lose Nicky Peng when he has played for us all season.

"Earlier we were told he would stay with us because he was playing first-class cricket and doing well. He was going to be available for the third Test at the Riverside because it doesn't clash with one of our games, but now they want him for all three Tests.

"Now they have lost the one-day series they don't want to lose the Tests as well. Nicky's not very happy about it, but he has to do as he's told."

Peng is available for Durham's championship match against Worcestershire starting at Kidderminster today, but will have to go straight on to Leicester for the first Test on Monday.

The second Test at Nottingham starts on August 15 and the third at the Riverside on August 28. Peng will miss Durham's home matches against Derbyshire and Hampshire, plus the floodlit game against Hampshire.

Moxon was full of praise for Peng and Andrew Pratt after their century opening stand on Tuesday.

"They played brilliantly," he said. "It was a great effort, but we just could not control Worcestershire at the start of their innings. That's where we lost it - we just couldn't get the ball in the right areas in those first 15 overs. After that we bowled quite well but they had the start they wanted and they played very well."

Durham will select from an unchanged squad for their first visit to Kidderminster today.

Jimmy Daley was ruled out by a stiff back on Tuesday, but he is likely to come back in, along with Nicky Hatch.

Simon Brown's knee has swollen up again following second team action at the start of the week and with only five games left it is looking increasingly likely that he and Neil Killeen are going to play fewer than ten first-class games between them this season.

Although Killeen has tested his ankle in the last two second team games, Durham insist they have to be sure he is 100 per cent fit before he returns to championship action. After three defeats in four games, Durham plunged to second bottom when they lost at Lord's on Sunday, while Worcestershire are two places above them.