SIR IAN Botham, the Durham chairman, has paid tribute to Paul Collingwood.

As Botham performed the ceremonial duties as the south west corner of the Emirates Riverside was renamed the Paul Collingwood Pavilion, the club’s longest-serving and most decorated player was saluted.

“He is a great ambassador for sport – any sportsman who gives 23 years of his life to a club and is still probably the fittest man in the dressing room deserves all the accolades he gets,’’ praised Botham.

“I’m honoured to be part of the announcement and setting this up and he richly deserves it, it’s great for him and his family.

“You need leaders in the dressing room and he is a leader, a natural leader who looks after the four-day game of us and is happy to pass the reins over for the one-day games.

“It’s a great day and one he will remember for a rest of his life and the members and supporters of Durham County Cricket Club will remember and appreciate too.’’

Botham and Collingwood, with the players family looking on, were speaking before Durham’s Royal London One-Day Cup game with Yorkshire.

Collingwood is the club’s most decorated player. He has played more First- Class games than anyone else in a Durham shirt (219) and appeared in 68 Tests for England and a record 197 One Day Internationals.

He is one of many to have progressed from Chester-le-Street to the international stage.

“You only have to look and see what Durham have done as a First Class county and they have only been a First Class county for a few years in relative terms compared to other counties,’’ added Botham.

“We have produced a lot of international cricketers here – Harmison, Colly, Wood, Stokes and more.

“The list goes on, a lot of high class players and it comes through the family atmosphere here. We have a lot of good young players coming through and they have a chance to show their abililty.

“The future is anything but bleak, it’s quite promising.’’

And, while Durham have been harshly dealt with by the ECB in recent years, Botham is confident the future if bright in the North-East.

He declared: “There’s talk of disconnection with the public and the game, but I really don’t care what the other counties do – we know what we are doing at Durham.

“We know what we want to achieve and it’s a close-knit club. It’s not like a London-based, or city-based club, it’s the North-East.

“Everyone feels it in the area when there’s success and everyone feels it when it goes wrong like last year with the points deduction.

“So I think we are a bit different to the rest of the country.’’

He added: “We were relegated (by the ECB) and we were actually competing until the last week of the season to win the championship when we were relegated.

“And then to go down was tough, but they knew it may come – but to take 48 points off the team was ridiculous, one of the most ridiculous decisions of all time.

“We move on here and I expect us to the be in the mix come the end of the summer.

“We were short of match practice because of the weather and build-up, but we will get it right next time and take the team away to warmed condition.

“The club is moving forward, we will make it happen and the dressing room here is magnificent.

“We have attracted some good players here, and some good international players who want to come back which says a lot about the club.’’

The ECB has caused controversy in recent weeks with the revelation that a unique 100-ball innings game is on the cards when the city-based short-game begins in two years time.

Durham won’t be host to one of the franchises and Botham admitted: “The game has to move on, we are in danger of diluting the red ball game too much and going down the one-day route. But that’s what the public want and we will see what happens. No-one has agreed anything yet with a new competition, so we have to see what falls in place.

“We needed a new competition in England to compete with the IPL, Big Bash, Caribbean League – others have done it and we are slow to pick up on it.

“You can learn a lot form other people’s mistakes, so take your time and we have the World Cup next year so there’s no point in clashing with that – it makes sense to do it in 2020.’’