DURHAM County Cricket Club was plunged into disarray last Friday only weeks after realising its dream of bringing Test match cricket to the North-East.

Chairman Bill Midgley quit amid recriminations at the way his efforts to reform the club's finances had been resisted by "a small but very vocal minority who are opposed to change no matter what the consequences".

Mr Midgley said he had done everything he could to modernise the club and put it on a sound financial footing.

But he warned that, unless his successor was able to continue the work he started, the club would face a bleak future.

Durham chairman since 1999, Mr Midgley, who was unsalaried, said he had become the target of members opposed to change, despite saving the club from going into administration. He revealed how Durham's bank creditors were only weeks away from pulling the plug when he took over in 1999.

Since then the club has transformed its fortunes and it realised the dream of bringing Test cricket to region when England played Zimbabwe in May at the Riverside at Chester-le-Street.

But the growing hostility of some members and the increasingly personal nature of their attacks convinced Mr Midgley, the former managing director of Newcastle Building Society and past president of the North East Chamber of Commerce, that he should go.

"I put in 30 to 40 hours every week for no pay. Eventually I had to ask why I was doing that for people who just wanted to have a go at me." Under Mr Midgley's guidance Durham Cricket Club has refinanced its debt, which stood at almost £2m, plus annual interest repayments of £130,000.

The departing chairman said he hoped his resignation would give those who had 'hounded him out' pause for thought.

Otherwise he warned: "If they don't continue the modernisation then there are very serious problems on the horizon.

"Like it or not, Durham County Cricket Club is a business. If it is to have a future it can't be run on a break-even basis."

The stand-in chairman of Durham County Cricket Club, Bob Jackson, has taken up his post and said: "The future is extremely rosy."

He was promoted from vice-chairman and will be chairman for the forseeable future. The club's 11-man board will appoint a permanent replacement.