DURHAM have denied last season's skipper Nick Speak the chance to erase the nightmare of Derby from his memory banks.

They have preferred Martin Speight as Paul Collingwood's deputy for the championship match against division two's bottom club starting today.

Speight came into the team after Speak pulled a hamstring in the third Benson & Hedges group game against Nottinghamshire a month ago.

He made 17 and seven in two B & H knocks, then retained his place for the championship match at Edgbaston, when he looked out of his depth batting at three in the absence of Martin Love, making four and nought.

With Collingwood joining up with the England one-day squad for tomorrow's triangular series opener against Pakistan at Edgbaston, Durham had to choose between Speight, Speak and Gary Pratt.

Collingwood's three-match absence badly disrupts the side as they try to build on Saturday's win against Nottinghamshire. The victory took them into fourth place and they are away to second-bottom Gloucestershire next week.

It was after the defeat at Derby last year that Speak was relieved of the captaincy. Durham had high hopes of victory, and possible division one survival, when the hosts were 121 for six in their second innings.

There then followed a stand of 258 between Dominic Cork (200 not out) and Matthew Dowman (140) and Derbyshire won by 232 runs.

This was the start of an extraordinary passage, spanning three championship games, in which Durham took six wickets while conceding 1,075 runs, culminating in the opening stand of 359 between Mark Butcher and Ian Ward at the Oval.

Cork is with the England squad today, while Derbyshire are also without left-arm seamer Kevin Dean, who took nine wickets in last season's clash.

But Durham's left-armer, Simon Brown, will be back for his first game of the season following his side strain.

"I feel 100 per cent fit," he said yesterday. "It has been one of the most frustrating periods of my career, especially coming at the start of the season.

"I'm not a good spectator, but at least I've been able to help the other bowlers by pointing out one or two things.

"I've had to be patient because I could have been out for six weeks if I'd come back too soon."

As the pitch will be dry and has developed a reputation over the past year for taking spin, Durham will definitely play Nicky Phillips and must decide whether to leave out Ian Hunter or James Brinkley.

Derbyshire will include two spinners in former Worcestershire left-armer Richard Illingworth and 20-year-old local lad Nathan Dumelow, who has made a big impact in recent weeks as an off-spinning all-rounder.

They also include Hetton-born all-rounder Graeme Welch, signed from Warwickshire in the winter after he had also spoken to Durham.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), M A Gough, M L Love, M P Speight, N Peng, D R Law, A Pratt, I D Hunter, N C Phillips, S J E Brown, S J Harmison, J E Brinkley

Derbyshire (from): S D Stubbings, L D Sutton, M J Di Venuto, M P Dowman, R J Bailey, G Welch, K M Krikken, N R C Dumelow, R K Illingworth, T Lungley, T A Munton, T Smith, P Aldred.

l England want technology from other sports to be used to help umpires and prevent a repeat of the controversial scenes that marred Pakistan's Test victory at Old Trafford on Monday.

Umpires David Shepherd and Eddie Nicholls both missed a succession of no-balls from Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq as England tumbled to a 108-run defeat.

Television replays later proved that Nick Knight, Ian Ward, Andrew Caddick and Dominic Cork were all dismissed with deliveries when Wasim and Saqlain had over-stepped the crease during a devastating spell of ten overs.

It has prompted left-hander Graham Thorpe and chairman of selectors David Graveney to urge the International Cricket Council, the sport's world governing body, to look at the use of other technology to avoid a recurrence of yesterday's events.

The pair have both suggested that cricket should look at tennis to solve its no-ball problem, and implement the same 'magic-eye' technology which measures line-calls and serves.

''The ICC have to have a look at the no-ball problem and the use of television technology after our Test match against Pakistan at Old Trafford,'' said Thorpe.

''We lost four batsmen to no-balls because the umpires did not spot them as they were rightly concentrating on the business end of things. They were looking for bat-pad catches and sometimes it's not humanly possible to keep an eye open for everything.

''However, when you analyse the game at Old Trafford you notice that we lost four batsmen that we shouldn't have done and it cost us the game. Some will say that is just tough luck but maybe we should be looking at the whole way we use technology in cricket.''

Thorpe believes by not introducing the technology which is available, umpires are hindered rather than helped in their decisions because every error is highlighted by television.

''Pakistan were bowling no-ball after no-ball and maybe that is something the third umpire could help to police,'' he said. '

'He could surely get on the radio and tell the umpire that a player is not out because the bowler has over-stepped the mark. In tennis the cyclops machine bleeps when a player overhits a serve."