ECB make Durham victims of their own success (From Durham Times)

ECB make Durham victims of their own success

12:00pm Friday 26th June 2009

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THE need for teams to build momentum has become something of a sporting truism, with form seemingly more important than class.

This often neglects the simple fact that the raw talent needs to be their in the first place, no matter how well hidden.

Durham's comprehensive victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston, a ground which had not seen a positive result produced in 20 County Championship games, was not only an excellent team display with the bat and in particular Ian Blackwell, whose signing is looking like something of a masterstroke, but it served to confirm Graham Onions as the best form bowler in the country, while continuing to convince others of his class and conveniently reminded all concerned of the experience of Steve Harmison.

Faced with an initially unhelpful pitch, it was Harmison to set the wheels of victory in motion, despite being subsequently upstaged by his heir apparent.

For many years, there'd been a school of thought that Durham quicks had benefited from a helpful Riverside pitch, but this was evidence that given an unhelpful surface, the quality was there.

All of this would of course point to England looking favourably on form ahead of the Ashes, but the announcement of the pre-Ashes squads, which put pay to that.

While this will not be the first or indeed the last column to ever criticise the ECB and their fundamental lack of common sense, it will hopefully prove a stark reminder of why for no matter how many things they do well, there's always a sense that the next act of idiocy is just around the corner.

While the Cardiff pitch for the first test looks set to one favourable to spin, Onions seems the logical bowler to step out of the attack in favour of a second spinner, even if Monty Panesar is woefully out of form and has struggled in the second division of the County Championship, never mind facing up to Ponting et al.

That taken into account, his inclusion in the Lions side to face Australia perhaps seems sensible, but why include Harmison?

Surely there is nothing that the England selectors or indeed the Australians do not know about Steve Harmison at this point in his career and it's insulting to a player who's played over 60 tests to play in such a game, especially when Ryan Sidebottom, a man hardly in sparkling form, is excused.

Not only are Durham now deprived of both players for the County Championship game against Worcestershire, but more farcically, the four Twenty20 games, where they could have expected to bowl at maximum of 16 overs each, which matches up to the stresses of one day of a county game, while for Sidebottom, this is counted as an adequate warm-up.

The selectors' indecision must be galling for Harmison, as they seem unable, as they have done with Michael Vaughan, to finally let go and move on to pastures new.

However, at the time of writing, Durham have given themselves an outside chance of qualifying for the next stage of the Twenty20 after David Warner's thrilling debut at Derbyshire.

But for all he and Mustard hit form, the lightweight nature of the bowling attack was there for all to see and it's very much a gamble to presume Ben Harmsion could be part of a frontline bowling attack.

If Durham are to get through, it would take no small degree of luck and not for the first time, the cricketing authorities have made successful clubs victims of their own success.

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