Onions travels to Abu Dhabi (From The Northern Echo)

Onions travels to Abu Dhabi

9:36am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

DURHAM will have Graham Onions with them when they leave for Abu Dhabi next Monday, but he is not expected to play in any matches.

After returning from England’s tour of Bangladesh because of a back problem, the paceman is to have another scan today.

“His injury doesn’t seem too bad, so we hope he will have a quick recuperation,”

said coach Geoff Cook. “England have asked us to take him to Abu Dhabi to help with his rehabilitation. We will be aiming to have him ready for the first County match against Essex.”

Had Onions played a full part in Bangladesh it is likely that England would have told him to rest at the start of the domestic season, so Durham could benefit from his need to prove his fitness.

His early season wickets have helped them get off to a good start in the last two seasons and as they begin their bid for a hat-trick of titles they have three championship matches before the end of April.

The Essex match starts at Riverside on April 15 and is also the target for another seamer, Mark Davies. He had an operation to remove some floating bone from an ankle ten days ago and will also be going to Abu Dhabi for recuperation purposes.

“It creates more opportunities for people like Luke Evans and Ben Harmison, who are both bowling well,”

said Cook. “Luke has been playing in Australia this winter and Ben has been working on a few technical things at home.

“All the players have been incredibly industrious this winter in their practice and fitness regimes.”

Durham are still looking for one, or possibly two, overseas men for the Twenty20 Cup but the early headlinemaker in the Indian Premier League, Sri Lankan allrounder Angelo Matthews, will not be among them.

“The Sri Lankans are pretty well tied up in mid-season, as are a few other nationalities,”

said Cook. “Some people seem to think we have loads of money because we are champions, but for all the counties at the moment making ends meet is quite tricky.

“Some counties are forsaking pre-season tours, and we would probably have been in that boat were it not for the MCC meeting most of our costs.”

It was the MCC’s idea that their annual curtain-raiser against the champions should be staged in Abu Dhabi, with the day-night match taking place on March 29-April 1.