Jets need old head in a time of crisis
LEWIS HOPES NEW NO 3 PAUL CAN INSPIRE WIN
THE future can wait for Durham, which is why Paul Collingwood will be coming in at the fall of the first wicket at home to Yorkshire tonight.
This season’s Twenty20 competition has been the most sobering experience of a tough 2017 for the Riversiders.
Eight matches in, they are still on minus points, having failed to overcome the handicap they were given in return for a semi-financial bailout from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Starting on minus four points having lost key 20-over players in the winter and with a tighter wage cap than the rest to replace them, Durham were never going to match last season’s runners-up spot in the competition. Yet coach Jon Lewis (pictured
right) refuses to write the competition off purely as a learning experience, particularly with their noisy neighbours at Chester-le-Street.
Lewis, whose side’s only victory has come at Leicester, said: “Firstly it is Yorkshire and we all want to beat Yorkshire but also our least impressive performances have come at home, which is not good for the supporters.
“I think they accept the situation we find ourselves in but it is important we put on a good performance for them.”
After a poor start to the campaign Durham pushed Collingwood up to No 3 in the order - and he responded with a century at Worcester last week.
It was the first by a Durham player in the format and made Collingwood the oldest centurion in the history of Twenty20 cricket.
Lewis added: “I think after the first two games I looked at the experience of the guys around and we only had one player in there with that Big Bash/Indian Premier League experience.
“Paul is a guy who has been there, so to have him facing more balls was important to us. “I have been talking to him about it for about two years now. “It is a fresh challenge for him but he was always a bit reluctant. “After two games at three he was beginning to doubt himself again. “He is keen to give other players the opportunity but we also have a responsibility to win games of cricket. There comes a point in the tournament where you maybe have to start thinking about the future but for now our focus is on beating Yorkshire.” That said, Lewis is still looking to his inexperienced team – led by rookie captain Paul Coughlin – to show they can be important parts of the county’s future. He said: “There are a lot of individuals at a fledgling stage of their careers. “Very few places – even in the four-day side – have been nailed down for the next few years on the back of performances put in this season.
“These games offer the opportunity for these guys to say they can be our No.4 or our death bowler or whatever it is for the foreseeable future.
“Players need to feel they are not playing every single game as if it is their last, particularly in T20.
“You need to have an environment where they know chances will be given and not just single games.
“However, after a while if people are not taking them there are other players who will be saying, ‘What about me?’”
The youngsters should at least be helped by the overdue debut of New Zealand opener Tom Latham, who missed July with a stress fracture of the foot picked up at the Champions Trophy, in which he did not play.