Ben Stokes Has The Look Of Greatness

hen again, while Durham may have been criticised for the tough call not to re-sign Shivnarine Chanderpaul - the West Indian is available from mid-July but has since signed for Lancashire - the thinking behind the decision not to look overseas this summer has been made clear over the last couple of weeks.

I was fortunate enough to see a young Kevin Pietersen play against Durham when he was still at Nottinghamshire and it was obvious he was a special talent. I can confidently say the same thing about Durham's Ben Stokes.

Had Durham signed a middle order batsman like Chanderpaul, Stokes would be stuck in the second team this summer, playing one day cricket, but not the four day stuff which really develops your technique and mental strength.

Instead, the 18-year-old has been thrown in at the deep end and after a couple of weeks treading water he is starting to show why there has been such a buzz of excitement around him.

He scored his first First Class century against Notts last week and has followed it up with an unbeaten 161 against Kent to save Durham's innings. They were still more than 200 runs behind Kent when he came out to bat on Tuesday afternoon, only to steer them to within just six runs of their total by the time that innings came to a close on Wednesday morning.

He is a devastating player, with a superb eye, no respect for reputations and a technique which has a super mixture of classic cricket shots as well as the unorthodox.

When Dale Benkenstein, Durham's former skipper and former South African international, describes him as an immense talent you know you have something special on your hands.

It is not a case of if Stokes plays for England, it is when. There is no such thing as a safe bet, but from what I've seen from him so far, he is the closest you can get to a sure thing.

Born in New Zealand, but raised in Cumbria since he was nine, the all-rounder could even go on to become one of the county's - and possibly England's- all time greats.

And I saw him score his second hundred, and also saw his celebrate it with a trip to Nando's in the centre of Canterbury. Sometimes 18-year-olds need to do what 18-year-olds always do and that's eat junk food!

With Scott Borthwick also offering plenty of promise with his leg spin - he is batting at number three here to emphasise his status as an all rounder - the future is bright for Durham, regardless of whether they manage to win that third successive title or not.

Finally, it's nice to see Sunderland's Phil Mustard appointment as captain, although it is sad to see the demise of Will Smith.

Smith is a smashing guy and a solid cricketer, but he has been unable to score enough runs while skipper and has paid the price for Durham's poor start to the season with his job.

Hopefully we haven't seen the last of him, but it could be a long, hard road back for the 27-year-old.

As well as Borthwick, Gordon Muchall and Mark Stoneman are also pushing for a first team place and have far better form behind them to boot.