Durham Tossed On To the Abu Barbie

By Luke Edwards on Mar 29, 10 01:00 PM

The County season normally starts at a deserted Lord's Cricket Ground under grey, rain-threatening skies so who can blame the MCC and the ECB for deciding a change was needed?

So off we've popped to Abu Dhabi where the annual curtain raiser between last year's Champions, Durham, and an invitational MCC select side is being played in front of even fewer fans in the middle of the desert.

Oh well, at least the sun is shining. Actually, come to think of it, it's shining a little too brightly and a little too hotly, we are English after all. Abu Barbeque would be a better name for it.

Quite what this match has achieved for Abu Dhabi Cricket Club is beyond me, although at least it might mean a few more taxi drivers know where the stadium is. It took me three goes to find one this afternoon!

I suppose the idea is to raise the profile of the sport in the United Arab Emirates, but as there are no locals here to see it, it hasn't worked so far. Oh well, nice try, these things take time etc etc.

On the plus side, given the wintry weather back in England, at least Durham are going to get a good pre-season warm up out of the trip. There isn't a cloud in the sky so I can't imagine we're going to lose any overs to rain/frostbite these next four days.

As for Durham, interesting team selection. With Graham Onions, Liam Plunkett and Mark Davies all injured, leg-spinner Scott Borthwick is playing and this could be the season he nails down a first team place.

I've been hearing good things about him since he was a 14-year-old and after a flirtation with the one day stuff last season this is a chance for him to kick on. An English leg-spinner who can bat, could be exactly what the England team want to order a few years down the line.

As for the decision not to sign an overseas player, Kyle Coetzer opens alongside Michael Di Venuto and Ben Stokes - the new Paul Collingwood (copyright) - has been thrown into the middle order.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul isn't coming back to the Riverside because Geoff Cook doesn't want to hold back any of the young batsmen who are coming through the Academy and Stokes is the first cab off the rank this season.

It's up to him whether he takes the chance because Mark Stoneman and Gordon Muchall are also pushing for a place in the Championship side in the absence of an overseas star. Admirably investment in youth, but it is still a massive risk if one of them doesn't step up to the plate.

Should be a very interesting next few days and I'm going to nail my colours to the mast and confidently predict that, come September, Durham will be champions for a third successive year and Steve Harmison will be banging so loudly on the England door it will almost be off its hinges. Doesn't mean they'll open it for him though!