HOW ironic that a third Durham player, Liam Plunkett, has been added to the Test squad to tour Pakistan only a few days after the one who five years ago looked a Test certainty left under a cloud to join Glamorgan.

The move away from Riverside pitches which don't suit him might be all it takes to propel Nicky Peng into the England ranks. But as with all talented sportsmen it depends how badly he wants it.

The suspicion with Peng, with his wealthy background, has always been that he can take it or leave it. But the fact that he has decided to uproot and move to Wales suggests that he has some desire to prove himself and it will be a dreadful waste if he fails.

If he does make runs on the banks of the Taff, people will ask why Durham couldn't get the best out of him, and why is it that in 14 years the only home-bred batsman they have brought through with a career average of over 30 is Paul Collingwood? (Gordon Muchall's is 29.64).

But no-one can dispute the success of a system which has produced three players for an England touring party. Only Warwickshire can currently match that with Ian Bell, Ashley Giles and Alex Loudon, who they signed from Kent.

Plunkett, if selected, will not be the first Middlesbrough lad to play for England.

Among the others are Chris Old, Bill Athey and Durham's Director of Cricket, Geoff Cook. As an opening batsman used to facing the new ball, perhaps Cook has more of an eye for pace bowlers as he takes much of the credit for staying on Steve Harmison's case when he might have been lost to the game, and he also spotted something in Plunkett's bowling.

He was a No 3 batsman at the time and had been to the Yorkshire nets, but they didn't pursue their interest so Cook enrolled Plunkett in the Durham Academy.

In June, 2003, just after his 18th birthday, he played against Yorkshire at Headingley and became only the third Durham bowler to take a five-wicket haul on his debut.

The others were John Wood and James Brinkley and I wrote at the time: "The difference being that Plunkett can confidently be tipped to go on to repeat the feat many times."

Harmison, Hoggard and Flintoff will provide England's pace in Pakistan, where they will be tempted to use two spinners. If a fourth seamer is required Lancashire's James Anderson is ahead of Plunkett after doing all that was asked of him by the England hierarchy in a season's graft with Lancashire.

The ups and downs of Anderson's career so far are not unusual for a young bowler and it would be folly to expect too much too soon of Plunkett. The encouraging thing is that he has the desire.

HAD CHRIS Tremlett been passed fit to go to Pakistan, Hampshire would also have had three on the tour. Now it will be left to 36-year-old Shaun Udal to become the first Hampshire-born player for over 100 years to come up through the county's ranks and play in a Test.

The third member is Kevin Pietersen, from South Africa via Trent Bridge. He increasingly threatens to become the George Best of cricket as, apart from One-Day International Player of the Year, the other recent addition to his trophy cabinet is the supermodel, Caprice.

PERHAPS Jonny Wilkinson's luck has changed. An injury to Toby Flood in the 22-20 defeat at Llanelli on Sunday forced Jonny to take the field about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, but it gave him the chance to prove he's in fine fettle.

Had he been on from the start the Falcons would surely have won because it was a missed tackle by the struggling Flood which led to a Llanelli try and prompted the substitution.

As I observed previously, the fact that the Falcons have to play two of their three Powergen Cup group games away, and Llanelli have two at home, is clearly unfair and Rob Andrew also raised a valid point about the need for neutral referees.

Newcastle would also have won had Sunday's referee not reversed a penalty he awarded them under the posts when a Llanelli player was lying on the ball. The player in question was at the same time on the receiving end of some indelicate footwork from Owen Finegan, which some would argue he deserved.

It didn't look particularly dangerous but perhaps the referee judged that Finegan didn't desist quickly enough, so he reversed the penalty. Unfortunately, it strikes me that, either because of increasing injuries or because the physicality of the game might deter mothers from letting their sons play, referees are being urged to err on the side of caution.

IT can only be the £4m salary which makes such a methodical man as Sven attractive to women. There is a story that early in his relationship with Nancy he wined and dined her at home and when she sauntered seductively up to the bedroom he went to load the dishwasher. I wonder what formation he loaded it in?

Published: 14/10/2005