Integrity? ECB have wrecked it anyway

THE excellent letter by Sylvia Savage on the ECB/Durham decision has brought me out in her support. She makes many good points; I would add a few.

Tom Harrison had the nerve to say Durham had to be relegated for the integrity of cricket. The ECB have been destroying that integrity for years by using the county game as a convenience for Test players dropping in for a couple of days here and there.

And now they’ve reverted to teams not playing each other an equal number of times in the main competition.

Also, the decision stunk to lean on Jonny Bairstow not to play in the last game when he was not centrally contracted and yet allow a member of that usually protected species of fast bowlers, Steven Finn, to play for Middlesex.

Even if they had a good reason for this, England director Andrew Strauss ought to have known that it brought the game into disrepute and devalued Middlesex’s win which they had thoroughly deserved having played at home on tedious pitches all season.

DES PLATT, Rainhill