Durham Diary

Gareth Breese, an all-rounder who bowls off spin and has played in one Test for the West Indies, played in last week's Second X1 Championship match against Surrey at South Northumberland.

A 27-year-old Jamaican, he has English parents and could play county cricket without having to be registered as an overseas player. He toured England last year with West Indies A and spent one season in the Durham County League with Etherley.

Breese has best bowling figures of seven for 60 and a top score of 124, and after making a good impression last week he is likely to play again against Warwickshire at Seaton Carew on Wednesday week.

"He's a fairly short chap, but has nice flight and turned the ball," said coach Martyn Moxon. "He's a pretty mature cricketer and looked as though he knew what he was doing."

Durham will also take a look at two South Africans - batsman Mark Bruyns, who is playing in Scotland, and Anthony Botha, an all-rounder who bowls left-arm spin.

HE arrived as the Rawalpindi Express, was quickly dubbed by one member the Rawalpindi Rickshaw, but he must be the Eurostar by now.

Shoaib Akhtar has sped out of the Riverside sidings to steam to the top of the national bowling averages with 21 wickets at 14.66. The next best is Northants trundler Ben Phillips with 21 at 19.04.

As Durham contemplate the possibility of promotion - they are only 7.25 points behind third-placed Gloucestershire with a game in hand - the prospect of losing Shoaib seems just too cruel.

After the difficulties they have already endured with overseas men this season, it is almost beyond belief that the Pakistan Cricket Board should suddenly change their minds about excusing the world's fastest bowler from their three-Test home series against Bangladesh.

The only bowler to have been timed at 100mph, he made an inauspicious championship debut in the defeat at Worcester a month ago and fared little better in the home defeat by Northamptonshire which followed.

But he turned the game against Yorkshire with a blistering burst which reduced them to 40 for four in their second innings.

It was a similar story against Somerset as none for 24 in eight fairly pedestrian overs on the first day was transformed by an electrifying spell of four for five the following morning.

It seems clear that Shoaib would love to complete the summer with Durham, but in his own words: "I have to do what I have to do."

DURHAM have won several matches by an innings, but the 318 against Somerset is the most runs they have won by, beating the 231 margin in the famous match against Surrey at Riverside in 2000. That was the game in which Nicky Peng made 98 on debut and Surrey were all out for 85 in their second innings, the lowest championship total against Durham until Somerset were routed for 56.

IT WAS good to see the new seating between the Press box and the scoreboard heavily populated during the championship game against Somerset.

In the spat which caused previous chairman Bill Midgley to resign some members apparently observed that those seats would only be used during Test matches.

But a few of their number obviously felt obliged to switch from their usual seats in front of the pavilion because the pitch was so far down the square they would have needed the Jodrell Bank telescope to see the action.

THE man who covers Durham for the The Times received a call from his sports desk at 10.45pm on Wednesday to ask whether he thought the dagger which denotes the wicketkeeper in the scoreboard should go alongside Rob Turner or Michael Burns in the Somerset team.

Injury forced Turner to hand over early in the day to Burns, a former Warwickshire keeper, and while it's good to know The Times remain such sticklers for accuracy to disturb a man during his Horlicks with such a query seemed a bit over the top.

Perhaps they should have asked Colonel Mustard, the man with the dagger in the Durham team. He could have suggested they use lead piping or a candlestick alongside Burns, with an explanatory footnote, of course.

Turner, incidentally, stepped into one of the drainage holes on the edge of the square. The holes are covered with astroturf, but it didn't stop Turner suffering ankle tendon damage. In the circumstances Durham could hardly refuse Somerset's request for reserve keeper Carl Gazzard to take over the gloves on the second day.

ABOUT half an hour after play had been abandoned on Wednesday because of rain a man was still sitting in the new seats reading a book called "I Don't Know How She Does It." It must be a riveting read. Can anyone get me a copy?

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