All the whingeing and hand wringing that Durham did re the called off match re shortage of players etc in the rearranged match. For the match tomorrow v Glamorgan they are stronger than they would have been in the original match. Pollock, Chanderpaul and Collingwood all play. Only Pollock would have played on the original day. So the postponement has benifitted them big time.

An astute observation, Stu. You should be a cricket reporter/researcher. You always seem to come up with such timely observations.

Also, I have found out today, the match is on Sky. So they are stronger and playing a weaker side. They also get the gate reciepts again and the Sky televised match fee again. Double your money and get rich quick. Really can not see what all the original complaining was about, they have fallen on their feet on this one.

And Headingley Carnegie loses the 5th day of the test and any receipts that might have been forthcoming.

Fortune favours the shameless morally bankrupt opportunist...

"Really can not see what all the original complaining was about"

Well there was a very real possibility that things could have been very different, They could easily have had no O/S player after Morkel had to go home and if Chanderpaul hadn't come over early, Pollock couldn't have played if it had been on a test match day due to his commentary and it's only a fluke that it's now on TV because the test finished early.

With hindsight it's easy now to ask why they complained but at the time they had every justification to be unhappy (with the ECB not Yorks).

Sorry that ^^^^ was me forgot to log in

As an aside is it my imagination or do Durham have as many overseas born players than the rest of county cricket put together. Yes, I know some have English family ties etc but they were still born abroad ie:

Di Venuto
Benkenstein
Morkel
Thorp
Breese
Claydon
Pollok
Chanderpaul
McKenzie

Durham don't appear to bother turning up for matches unless they have their full overseas quota on display. They also seem to have a constant flow of overseas players..as soon as one leaves another pops up.

You've missed Garry Park, born at Empangeni, Natal and 12th man for England on Monday.
Not to be confused with Kyle Coetzer, sometime alumnus of the Western Province Academy, who was born in Aberdeen and is therefore England-qualified (sic).

Durham set out on the first class road with an influx of what you might call 'English Kolpaks' like Parker, Hughes, Graveney, Botham, Larkins etc who were past their best but would give them some solidity when they started as a first class county.

Their stated aim was to then develop local talent which to be fair they did very well (Brown, Gough, Daley, Pratt, Plunkett, Harmison (s), Onions, Mustard etc)

But now they seem to have reverted to their old ways with overseas Kolpaks - have they still got a pipeline of young players to come through and if so will they get the chance?

I hope they have looked further ahead than this season in view of the Kolpak changes likely to happen or they may go even further 'full circle' and have to become a minor county once again!