THE days will certainly be merry and bright for the England cricketers, happily donning their whites for Christmas on the back of a record run of eight Test wins.

They are in steamy Durban, and would no doubt sing "let nothing ye dismay" to the folks back in chilly Durham, who will be wondering for how much longer English cricket can continue to prosper.

It has sold out to Sky TV, bringing extra revenue to counties who seem hell-bent on handing it to overseas mercenaries. The ECB has offered financial favours to those counties who shun such signings, but obviously the favours aren't big enough.

Durham came into first-class cricket 13 years ago with the express purpose of giving opportunities to local lads, three of whom have played for England when they almost certainly would not have done otherwise.

Next season, apart from their two official overseas men, Durham will have three others on the staff as they seek to compete with similarly-bolstered opponents who left them floundering at the foot of the table last season.

Nothing wrong with that, you might say.

But for a housebound cricket-loving pensioner unable to afford Sky TV it would make far more sense to keep Test cricket on terrestrial channels and cut the financial hand-out to the counties.

There is a grave danger of mirroring football, which since the injection of Sky cash has seen the number of non-British players in the Premiership rise to 50.57 per cent. The old argument that the cream will rise to the top anyway barely holds water when the national team fails to set the pulse racing.

Other countries don't offer first-class opportunities to cricketers from overseas, so why are the English counties so keen to accommodate every Tom, Dick and Bruce with a British parent. It smacks of an inferiority complex, which tells us that anyone from the southern hemisphere must be better than our own.

This myth should have been exploded by the Rugby World Cup triumph and the rise of Michael Vaughan's team to second in the world rankings.

These successes should be used to encourage our own talented teenagers to make the most of their gifts, which some of them will fail to do if they become disillusioned by being kept out of the team by a backdoor import.

THE Durban pitch is supposed to offer more pace and bounce than Port Elizabeth, so if Stephen Harmison gets his radar right he should be back among the wickets.

It seemed like the wrong type of leaves were cluttering the line for the Ashington Express in the first Test, and he has been toppled from his world rankings pedestal by Glenn McGrath, whose eight for 24 against Pakistan provided an ominous warning for next summer's Ashes series.

Pakistan's capitulation confirmed that the general standard of Test cricket is in decline, probably because there are too many one-day internationals.

Hopefully, England will prove next summer they are the one team capable of giving Australia a game, but we shouldn't get too carried away about the eight successive wins because the opposition has been moderate.

It is no coincidence, however, that the run has followed Andrew Strauss's fortuitous introduction to the team as he is clearly to the manor born. He is also a good advert for academies as he came through the Durham University set-up before spending a winter under Rod Marsh's tutelage.

Perhaps more importantly he proves how a batsman with a good cricketing brain can work out how to survive and play to his strengths without having the talent of a Lara or Tendulkar.

THE removal of England Test matches from the list of "crown jewel" events which must have terrestrial TV exposure seems all the more bizarre with the realisation that the Scottish FA Cup final is still on that list. This is utterly ludicrous as Scottish football is no more interesting than bog snorkelling.

TIGER Woods is 30 tomorrow, so it's happy birthday and merry Christmas to him. But what would you buy for a man who has the world's most lucrative sponsorship deal - a $125,000,000 contract with Nike?

All he really wants is another major title as he failed to add to his tally this year and now looks unlikely to match Jack Nicklaus' record of 18.

Paul Casey has switched to Nike after falling out with Titleist and is said to be walloping the ball prodigious distances with the Ignite 410 driver.

He might win a major, but I suspect the Englishman most likely to succeed in 2005 is his World Cup winning partner, Luke Donald.

GRAEME Souness said this week that his Newcastle players should stand up and be counted. He was commenting on another inept performance, not their rumpus at the Ritz. No doubt they should also roll up their sleeves and take a good look at themselves in the mirror.

Still, it's heartening to hear there is some good in them as they apparently had a whipround for the long-term sick children in the city and raised £5,300. Tidings of comfort and joy.