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Collingwood laments ‘kick in the nuts’ as Durham go down
- Updated: October 3, 2016
The Durham captain, Paul Collingwood, has described the ECB’s decision to relegate his county, and mete out further punishment through the docking of points in all three competitions next season, as “a massive kick in the nuts” for the Durham players, who are “100% innocent” of the financial troubles that have sealed the club’s fate.
Durham had been in the top flight since the summer of 2006, making them the longest-serving Division One side since the introduction of two divisions in 2000 – a proud record for a club that did not even attain first-class status until 1992.
In that period, they won three Championship titles between 2008 and 2013 and two limited-overs competitions. This year, they reached the final of the Natwest T20 Blast and finished fourth in the Championship following their final-round victory over Hampshire, who now survive relegation at their expense despite also accruing large debts of their own (albeit manageable).
Next year, Durham start with -48 points in the Championship and -4 and -2 in the Blast and One-Day Cup respectively. Furthermore, the Riverside can no longer host Test matches and Durham have a revised salary cap until April 2020, all in exchange for a £3.8 million bailout from the governing body.
Speaking in Dhaka, where he has joined England’s coaching staff for the tour of Bangladesh, a visibly emotional Collingwood said: “To be the only team ever relegated, since two divisions came in, [to be] actually penalised because of financial reasons, there’s a lot of emotion about. The players are seriously unhappy. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of ‘whose fault is this?’
“What we want is for Durham CC to be a place where homegrown talent and first-class cricketers and international …
