WHEN Durham were afforded first-class status in 1992, chairman Don Robson had two over-riding ambitions. Firstly, he wanted the county to establish itself as a viable and competitive force in domestic English cricket. Secondly, and just as significantly, he hoped to establish an Academy system which would transform talented North-Eastern youngsters into the England side of the future.

Fittingly, in a sporting year dominated by bat and ball, the last 12 months have seen both dreams realised in thrilling fashion.

While England's Ashes winners were named Team of the Year in last weekend's BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, Durham's cricketers deserve the regional crown. Which ever way you look at it, 2005 has been a season of unparalleled success at the Riverside.

From a playing perspective, Durham's double promotion exceeded even the most optimistic of predictions following last year's struggles.

From the moment skipper Mike Hussey blasted a sensational 253 in the opening match of the season at Leicester, Martyn Moxon's men rarely looked back as a succession of club records went tumbling: winning their first four games, equalling their best-ever haul of six County Championship wins, seeing three men pass 1,000 runs in the Championship for the first time in the club's history. While the rest of the nation was gripped by Ashes fever, the North-East's cricket fans were going Durham daft. By the end of the year, everybody else was joining them.

The current tour of Pakistan might have taken some of the lustre off the summer's success but, from a regional perspective, it has only served to enhance Durham's burgeoning reputation. In Liam Plunkett and Paul Collingwood, the county can boast two of the few success stories to have emerged from the Asian sub-continent.

Plunkett's tale is a particularly telling one. Overlooked by Yorkshire after an unsuccessful trial as a number three batsman, Durham's director of cricket, Geoff Cook, saw the potential in the Teessider's bowling.

He made his debut at Headingley a matter of weeks after his 18th birthday - taking five wickets - and, less than two-and-a-half-years later, was elevated to the England squad as a replacement for the injured Simon Jones.

The rest, as they say, is history. Plunkett won his first cap in the third and final Test, then starred in both of the opening one-dayers, taking 3-51 in the first and hammering an eye-catching 56 in the second.

His success is due in no small part to Durham. The county discovered him, developed him and even began to depend on him. That they will now have to do without him is one of the harsh realities of cricket.

Not that it will come as too much of a surprise at the Riverside though. Durham are already resigned to losing both Collingwood and Steve Harmison for huge chunks of the summer thanks to their performances with the national side.

Collingwood, who was rather too hastily dropped after struggling in the opening Test in Pakistan, returned in the final five-dayer to silence his critics with impressive knocks of 96 and 80.

Harmison, while never at his best on the batsman-friendly flat tracks, still did enough to retain his status as England's main bowling weapon.

Yet Durham's successes did not end there. In the aftermath of the Ashes, Hussey has exploded into the Australian Test team with six innings that average a sensational 120.33. As if that was not impressive enough, his 15 one-day knocks have been worth an average of 151, a world record in the one-day game.

And who can forget Gary Pratt? The youngster, who struggled to get a game with Durham, provided one of the year's enduring sporting images when he ran out Ricky Ponting during a thrilling fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

Ponting was aghast but, in reality, he should have seen it coming. When it came to Durham this year, everything came to fruition.

Sir Clive Woodward has won a World Cup, a Grand Slam and boasted a 71 per cent success rate during his time as England manager.

Dave Bassett, on the other hand, has been relegated five times and, in 1987-88, earned the dubious distinction of becoming one of the few managers to have been involved with two relegated clubs in the same season.

Yet, when it comes to discussing the managerial vacancy at Southampton, Bassett's credentials are taken as read while Woodward's are held up to ridicule.

To the likes of Alan Hansen and Harry Redknapp, the thought of a former rugby coach becoming a football manager is ridiculous. A persistent under-achiever is an acceptable choice, though, because he is a "football man through and through".

The argument is ridiculous. Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Sven Goran Eriksson all had little or no experience of top-level football, yet they have gone on to become three of the most successful managers in the world.

By belittling Woodward's achievements, the football community is displaying petty and narrow-minded parochialism. I, for one, hope Woodward succeeds, if only to demolish the 'jobs for the boys' mentality that still pervades the footballing world.

While the BBC have come under fire for Sue Barker's badly-timed bawdiness, ITV should be in similar trouble for contravening the trade descriptions act on Saturday night.

Was it just me, or did not they advertise Audley Harrison v Danny Williams as a boxing match? I think the first punch was thrown in about round eight and, by then, I was already fast asleep.

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