IT will be another historic day for Durham cricket today when the university's inaugural first-class match gets underway at the Riverside.

Nine years after the county team began first-class life, they have the opportunity of a derby match, with the Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence being awarded three first-class games.

They join Oxford and Cambridge in having first-class status, which has not yet been granted to the other three centres of excellence set up by the ECB - Bradford/Leeds, Loughborough and Cardiff.

Durham's other first-class games are at home to Lancashire on June 13-15 and away to Worcestershire on June 20-22.

The Lancashire match will be particularly attractive for the university coach Graeme Fowler, who hails from Accrington and spent 14 years with the Red Rose county before playing for Durham from 1993-94.

Fowler and his former Lancashire teammate Paul Allott were the first Durham students to go on to play for England since Frank Tyson in the 1950s.

They have been followed, of course, by current England captain Nasser Hussain and others such as Essex and Hampshire all-rounder John Stephenson, who won one cap.

But the successful period of Durham University cricket dates back to 1972, when the team which won the UAU championship included Tim Hughes, who is now the club's administrator.

As the father of last year's Cambridge captain Quentin Hughes, he has had some involvement with university cricket in recent years and is keen to set up a membership at Durham.

"We are contacting old players and hope to see as many of them as possible at the Lancashire match," he said.

"We have to remember that the boys in our Centre of Excellence are studying for a degree and I want to help them keep the different parts of their university life in the right balance.

"This is all part of the ECB's drive to raise standards and they are already making demands in terms of what the boys should do.

"They will want to see some performance indicators to show that the use of public money is effective."

Since university championships began in 1927, Durham have won the cricket title 17 times, including ten in the last 15 years.

Among the current members of the Durham Centre of Excellence is Essex wicketkeeper James Foster, who went on last winter's England A tour to the West Indies.

Other players contracted to counties are Matt Banes and Rob Ferley (Kent), Will Jefferson and Tim Phillips (Essex), Charles van der Gucht (Hampshire), Christopher Bagley (Worcestershire), Alex Stead (Yorkshire) and Michael Brown (Middlesex).

Former Durham student Martin Speight has edged back in front in his battle with Andrew Pratt for the wicketkeeping role with Durham County.

Skipper Jon Lewis said: "It's tough on Andrew. He had the job at the end of last season and he has done nothing wrong. The decision was made on batting form in the nets."

Lewis has named a squad of 13 for the three-day match, to which Queensland batsman Martin Love will be added for the opening Championship match against Gloucestershire, starting at the Riverside on Friday.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis, M A Gough, J A Daley, P D Coillingwood, N J Speak, N Peng, D R Law, M P Speight, N Killeen, S J E Brown, S J Harmison, N C Phillips, J E Brinkley.