GRAHAM Onions and Chris Rushworth will accompany Durham on their flight to Dubai today but will then join up with the MCC squad for the annual season's curtain-raiser against champions Yorkshire.

It will be the third successive season that Rushworth has been involved in the match, having played for Durham last season and MCC the previous year.

With Jamie Harrison still not quite fully fit after his knee operation, Durham will be short of seam bowling options for their two games on the ten-day trip.

They have not been able to include Peter Chase, who was with the Ireland squad at the World Cup but wasn't given a game. But another Irishman, all-rounder Barry McCarthy, will be on this morning's flight from Newcastle after impressing in the second team last year.

Ben Stokes, Mark Wood, Paul Coughlin and Usman Arshad are the other seamers, with Stokes in particular awaiting news of whether he is in the England squad for the Test series in the West Indies. Wood is also likely to be under consideration after impressing for England Lions in the winter.

Callum MacLeod is taking two weeks off after his disappointing World Cup, in which he scored 48 runs in six innings for Scotland, culminating in a top score of 22 against Australia.

Durham are not involved in the Emirates Twenty20 tournament but will play the losers of the Yorkshire v Lancashire match.

They also have a two-day game against the UAE and will otherwise spend their time taking advantage of the facilities at the ICC Academy.

Skipper Paul Collingwood will meet up with his colleagues in Dubai on his way back from helping to coach Scotland at the World Cup.