Durham fear for future as key players eye the exit

TWELVE months after being rocked by a financial crisis and ECB-imposed relegation, Durham are facing another fraught end to a season as two of their leadership group consider moves elsewhere.

Although club captain Paul Collingwood has agreed to extend his playing career into 2018, England batsman Keaton Jennings and Paul Coughlin, the two men identified in the club’s succession planning to the 41-year-old, are weighing up their futures.

Jennings was handed the leadership of Durham’s Royal London Cup side while all-rounder Coughlin fronted this summer’s NatWest Blast campaign.

Both have release clauses in the contracts they signed a year ago that let them quit due to the threetime county champions languishing in the second tier of the County Championship.

Nottinghamshire are keen on Jennings, dropped by England in midsummer, and the chance to play on a Test ground and in front of the club’s director of cricket Mick Newell, one of the national selectors, has obvious appeal.

It is understood the 25-year-old is yet to make a decision on his future and that could influence the thinking of talented all-rounder Coughlin, who turned down a three-year contract offer from Warwickshire 13 months ago.

Instead, he signed the same length deal at the Emirates Riverside, with the caveat that he could talk to other clubs in the event of Durham failing to gain promotion from Division Two this year. Although it would involve a release fee, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Hampshire have all spoken to him after Durham waived the 28-day notice required for approaches.

Meanwhile, Graham Onions — who became the north-east club’s most prolific bowler this week on the eve of his 35th birthday — has only been offered a County Championship-specific deal for 2018. It is understood he is open to approaches from other counties.

Durham were relegated last October and began this season with a deficit of 48 points in the Championship.

SRI LANKA will return to Pakistan for the first time since a terror attack on their team bus curtailed a 2009 tour when they travel to Lahore for a Twenty20 international on October 29.

Only Zimbabwe and Afghanistan have toured Pakistan since the atrocity, which saw six policemen and two civilians killed by gunmen.