Scott Wilson Column: Keaton Jennings highlights the folly of the ECB's attitude towards Durham

Jennings might have been born in South Africa, to a mother who was raised in Sunderland, but the key years of his cricketing development were spent in Durham’s academy system, with a nod to North East Premier League side Stockton, who also furnished him with some valuable experience.

Yesterday, while becoming the tenth Durham academy product to represent England, he scored a century on his Test debut in India. Sadly, thanks to the short-sightedness of the ECB, it is hard to see too many more Durham players following in his footsteps in the foreseeable future.

To recap, in exchange for providing a £3.8m bail out to address a black hole in Durham’s finances, the ECB relegated the county, imposed a 48-point penalty ahead of the new County Championship season, effectively ensuring Durham cannot return to Division One next season, and stripped their Chester-le-Street ground of its Test status.

The ECB have effectively taken over the running of Durham, imposing a stringent salary cap, banning any capital redevelopment work without their agreement, assuming a major say over the make-up of a new board and parachuting in Ian Botham to act as chairman.

Yet as a group of North-East MPs, led by North Durham’s Kevan Jones, outlined in a recent Parliamentary debate, they have made no attempt to explain why October’s punishments were so excessive or outline a plan that might enable Durham to remain a viable first-class county in the future. Instead, they continue to bury their collective head in the sand as cricket in the North-East threatens to die a painful death.

Why were Durham stripped of 48 points next season and removed from the rota of Test venues? The truth is that nobody really knows.

ECB chairman Colin Graves has claimed the points deduction was laid out in the regulations that govern “penalties for financial irregularities for not being sustainable”, but that is simply not the case. The rules explain what should happen in the event of a county going bankrupt, but Durham never became insolvent. As a result, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the 48-point figure was plucked out of the air.

Similarly, the ECB’s rule book says nothing about removing the right to host Test matches, and that is where things become extremely murky. As well as being chairman of the ECB, Graves is also a former chairman of Yorkshire, whose family trust is responsible for £80m of debts racked up by the county.

If Durham aren’t staging Test matches, it’s safe to assume Headingley will be. Graves has denied there was a conflict of interest when he voted to agree to the ECB’s punishments, but his presence in such a pivotal position does not look good.

That is the past though, what of the future? When it comes to assessing the ECB’s input, that is even more of a mess. The start of the new county season is a little over four months away, and yet so much of how Durham will operate remains shrouded in mystery.

Who do the ECB want on the new Durham board? How do they envisage the county being able to generate the funds required to remain solvent if the most lucrative revenue stream of attractive Test matches is removed from the equation? If they’re going to whisk Jennings away to play for England, how are Durham going to pay to replace him if they’re operating under a restrictive salary cap?

Presumably, some of those questions will fall into Botham’s in-tray, but the scale of the new chairman’s remit remains the biggest uncertainty when it comes to assessing how Durham might rebuild.

Is Botham a genuinely independent figure able to act in Durham’s best interests? Or is he an ECB stooge who has been appointed to do the governing body’s bidding?

The answer is we simply don’t know. Botham failed to say anything beyond a cursory few sentences when he was appointed, before disappearing to India to commentate on the ongoing Test series for Sky.

He will have to be more effusive when he returns to England, but in the meantime, it would be helpful if the ECB broke their silence to explain what on earth is going on. At the moment, they’re too busy patting themselves on the back after ‘discovering’ Jennings languishing in a cricketing backwater in the North-East.

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SOME supporters have expressed disappointment at this week’s announcement that Yann M’Vila will not be joining Sunderland in January, but the Black Cats might well have dodged a bullet with the French midfielder turning down a move.

Yes, M’Vila made a decent impact in the second half of last season, but Didier Ndong is showing signs of being every bit as good and David Moyes will need every penny he can get as he looks to strengthen other areas of his squad next month. Defensive midfield is no longer a priority.

And would M’Vila really have been a major asset? He has fallen out with just about every club he has played for, had a previous loan deal terminated at Inter Milan and went missing while playing for Rubin Kazan. Sunderland are better off without him.

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SEPP BLATTER was hardly a great custodian of the World Cup, as evidenced by FIFA’s still unfathomable decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar. But at least he kept his messing about with the tournament’s format to a minimum.

His successor as FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, clearly wants to make his mark, but this week’s suggestion of a 48-team World Cup, with 16 groups of three and 80 matches instead of 64, is right up there with anything Blatter did in terms of ridiculousness.

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MONDAY sees the funeral of former Northern Echo sports writer Bob Cass, who went on to become one of Britain’s most respected journalists during his time with the Sun and Mail on Sunday.

Bob was one of the few sports writers to earn the respect of Sir Alex Ferguson, and his contacts book was like a Who’s Who of the game. He never lost his love of Darlington FC though, and spent many an hour telling tales of his time on the Echo. Our industry is a lesser one without him.