THE award of Test match status to Durham truly is the realisation of a dream, and it is remarkable that it has taken only 12 years to achieve.

It was in 1989 that Durham made a promotional video to attract sponsorship in their bid for first-class status. It featured footage of a Durham boy walking out to bat on what was then an open space used mainly for dog-walking, and the voice of Tom Graveney speculated that one day a Durham boy would walk out to bat for England on that same piece of ground.

Hundreds of people signed a petition opposing the creation of the Riverside ground, and they even enlisted the support of David Bellamy, arguing that several species of flora and fauna would be endangered.

There are no complaints now that the ground has achieved international recognition. Test cricket at Chester-le-Street - whoever would have believed it?

The achievement is a source of great pride to the men who originally drove forward the dream - men like Matty Roseberry, Tom Moffat, Ian Caller, Bob Jackson and particularly Don Robson, who as chairman of Durham, the county council and what was then the National Cricket Association carried the necessary clout to get things done.

Credit is also due to Durham's first groundsman, Tom Flintoft, who laid down the square and the outfield, and to the current chairman Bill Midgley, who has led the fight for Test match status, initially in the face of some hostility from other counties.

The existing Test match counties wanted to hang on to what they already had, while others saw Durham as upstarts.

But Midgley resisted all that, arguing that if cricket wanted to attract a new audience, Durham could tap further into the North and into Scotland.

He also stressed that the success of the one-day internationals at the Riverside proved North-East people would turn out in large numbers, while crowds at Old Trafford, for example, have been dwindling.

Having said all that, Durham have been fortunate with their timing. Soon after they began their first-class life in 1992 it was realised that it would benefit the England team if first-class players were concentrated into fewer counties.

The Riverside has also come to fruition at the right time, just as the number of Tests is being increased and nipping in ahead of Hampshire's impressive new ground by the M27 at Southampton.

Durham have planning applications in for more building, the initial priority being an indoor school, which it is hoped will be ready by next winter.

It is also now a matter of greater urgency that they get the permanent seating up to 10,000 as the long-term guarantee of international cricket makes it a financially sensible move.

There will still be room for temporary seating to take the capacity up to 20,000, and there is every chance the first Test at a new English venue for almost 100 years will attract that many.

The stuff of dreams is about to become reality