YOU wait for what seems like an eternity for international sporting action to return to the North-East, and then two high-profile England matches arrive at once. Less like London buses, more like the fleet of 8As that will be ferrying supporters from the cricket at Chester-le-Street to the football at the Stadium of Light in time for kick-off.

This is a landmark day for North-East sport, with England’s two biggest national teams playing in the region on the same day for the first time. An hour or so after the final ball is due to be bowled in the second Test between England and Sri Lanka at Durham Emirates, the nation’s footballers will be taking to the field in Sunderland to play the second of their three Euro 2016 warm-up matches against Australia.

We like to insist our region lies at the heart of the sporting universe, and for the next 24 hours, that claim will have substance. It is important now that the North-East puts on a show.

The football is the more positive part of that equation at the moment, with Sunderland having posted the ‘Sold Out’ signs at their ticket office first thing on Wednesday morning.

It is quite an achievement to have reached the Stadium of Light’s 49,000 capacity for a friendly, and with Sunday’s game with Turkey having been played to a backdrop of a number of empty seats at the Etihad, the FA has been provided with a powerful rebuttal to suggestions that the North-East’s football fans don’t care about the England team. We do, we just don’t much fancy the logistical challenge of trying to get in and out of Wembley on a Friday night.

The decision to take the current round of friendlies away from the national stadium was a forced one due to Wembley’s staging of the FA Cup final, non-league finals day and the three Football League play-off finals, but hopefully tonight’s scenes will help persuade the FA hierarchy that reaching out to the regions is a desirable aim no matter what the circumstances.

It was a hugely popular move when Wembley was being rebuilt, and to be fair to Roy Hodgson, the current England boss has always pushed for a fairer geographical spread of matches. The financial incentive to remain at Wembley will always exist, but sometimes the ability to inspire and excite an entire population is worth more than money in the bank.

There will be children in the crowd at Sunderland tonight who probably thought England matches were something that happened somewhere else. Tonight, they will get the chance to see the likes of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart wearing the England kit in close-up. In an era when the club-versus-country debate is becoming dangerously skewed away from the international arena, how better to create a powerful bond with the national team?

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The atmosphere will not be as spine-tingling as when England last visited Wearside for an emotionally-charged European Championships qualifier with Turkey in 2003, but there will not be the latent aggression that was apparent on that night either and that is no bad thing. With the outcome largely irrelevant, this is a night for fun.

Hopefully, enjoyment will also be in plentiful supply at Chester-le-Street. Unlike the Stadium of Light, Durham Emirates will not be sold out for England’s visit, and the number of spectators who make it through the gate over the next five days (or however many are required to reach a conclusion) could have far-reaching repercussions in terms of Durham’s finances and the future of international cricket in the North-East.

Durham officials might have played down recent reports predicting a possible financial meltdown, but there is no doubt that they have invested a huge amount of money they cannot really afford just to ensure the region continues to have a presence on the international cricketing calendar.

Reports suggest Durham are paying £923,000 in order to stage this week’s Test, with the agreement forming part of the package that brought the Ashes to Chester-le-Street in 2013.

They will be lucky to make that money back, and with the competition to stage international matches becoming increasingly intense – the number of home Tests each year is set to be cut to six, with two effectively guaranteed to London venues Lord’s and The Oval - it could soon become all but impossible for Durham to make a financial case to the ECB.

The Northern Echo: England's Alastair Cook faces the opening ball of the Fourth Ashes Test against Australia at The Riverside, Chester-le-Street in August 2013 (6085554)

Durham racked up the bulk of their current debt, understood to stand at between £5-6m, improving their facilities in order to stage the Ashes, but that merely enabled them to keep pace with other counties who boast much deeper pockets. As they continue to invest, Durham will have to make some hard decisions about whether to continue to match them.

Ultimately, if it comes down to a monetary battle, they will lose. But that is where the emotional pull of staging international cricket in the North-East comes in, with the ECB keen to continue being able to make the claim that the England team is representative of the whole nation.

Durham are regarded as of huge symbolic significance, partly because of their success in terms of developing young players for the England team, but also because they boast the only county base north of Leeds. Cut them adrift, and a huge swathe of the country effectively becomes disenfranchised.

It is a powerful argument for affording Durham special privileges, but it only really works if there are sufficient bums on seats to prove the demand is there. Hence why the attendance over the next five days will be of extra-special interest to the ECB’s key decision-makers.

“Having these international games in the North-East is important because it helps us promote the game,” said Durham chief executive David Harker. “When we’re making that argument, attendance at these games is important or they’re starting to ask why we’re having this game in the North-East. It’s all part of the bigger picture.”

Given the way they performed at Headingley, England’s players will almost certainly triumph again over the next five days. The biggest hope, however, is that Durham emerge successful too.