THE way we bend over to please the Welsh you would think they were the only people to suffer from pit closures. We allowed them their own assembly, then they secured the 2009 Ryder Cup ahead of Slaley Hall and in the same year they've now been granted an Ashes Test.

This is another stab in the back for the North-East. While I admired Durham's audacity in their impressively orchestrated bid for an Ashes Test, I expected it to fail because the established venues would prevail, not because of the Welsh upstarts.

Trent Bridge and Old Trafford have also been snubbed in what looks like a clear case of the Glamorgan mafia getting their way. We musn't forget that the ECB is actually the England and Wales Cricket Board and their chairman, David Morgan, is a Glamorgan man. Duncan Fletcher used to coach them and his England assistant, Matthew Maynard, retired last season after nearly 20 years as a Glamorgan batsman. Not forgetting that Maynard's predecessor as captain, Hugh Morris, is the ECB's performance director. Perhaps former England captain Tony Lewis also still has some clout.

Just as Newport's Celtic Manor is not as good a golf course as Slaley Hall, the Sophia Gardens cricket ground cannot hold a candle to Chester-le-Street. Celtic Manor's owner, Terry Matthews, has pledged millions to upgrade the course and clubhouse and there will be grants galore to bring Sophia Gardens up to scratch. It also seems that Cardiff City Council are under-writing the staging of the Test. Isn't there some furore at the moment about buying honours?

Durham have been handed the sop of a Test next year against the sadly declining West Indies, but they wanted the Australians and the shock elevation of Cardiff does not help Riverside's chances of staging a really big Test.

Durham had a slight fear that they might be leapfrogged in the pecking order by the Rose Bowl, the new ground near Southampton. But Hampshire's chairman, Rod Bransgrove, said they had pulled out of the bidding for an Ashes Test because they felt Durham were more deserving. No-one on this side of Offa's Dyke seems to have anticipated Cardiff coming through on the outside rails.

OTHER than the sapling which has replaced the famous old lime tree, which was blown from its roots just inside the boundary, little has changed at the Canterbury cricket ground since Durham's last visit eight years ago.

There's a Colin Cowdrey Stand now to go with those named after Frank Woolley and Leslie Ames, prompting thoughts about who will be the first Durham player to have a stand named after him at Riverside.

The game has changed since Cowdrey's day and when Gary Pratt slipped on his backside in mid-pitch and still managed to scramble back to avoid being run out I observed that Cowdrey would never have made it. The response was that he wouldn't have set off in the first place.

The portly gentleman was slightly more nimble, of course, than Colin Milburn, the Burnopfield Basher, who would be immensely proud of what the Durham boys have achieved in recent years even if he wouldn't have fancied their lifestyle.

The curfews and early morning stretching and fielding routines would have been a huge shock to the Milburn frame, but equally he would not have expected a rest after playing for England.

The combination of England men putting up their feet - or Fletchered out - and overseas players not being available because of the expanding international calendar is forcing counties to field much-weakened sides at the start of the season.

Is this a bad thing? One of the delights of arriving on the first day of a season is to see the usual eccentrics walking to the ground with their folding chairs and plastic bags containing the day's provisions. They'd turn up whoever was in the team, but to attract the younger generation it's necessary to field the big names.

There are other conflicting sides to this argument. Weakened teams give opportunities to up-and-coming youngsters and the County Championship has to be seen as a breeding ground for England players.

The recent Test successes of players like Liam Plunkett, Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar suggest it is serving that purpose better than a decade ago, but that won't continue if youngsters like Kent's Neil Dexter are asked to bowl to ridiculously defensive fields, as happened by mid-afternoon on the first day at Canterbury. Even the eccentrics would object to that.

WHEN Durham signed Mike Hussey as captain last season they thought a Test career had eluded him, but this week he passed 1,000 runs in his 11th Test. He was overshadowed, however, by Jason Gillespie's extraordinary feat of scoring a double century as a nightwatchman.

This is good and bad news for Yorkshire, who signed Gillespie in the hope that his Test career was over following his Ashes flop last summer. At least they know they're getting an all-rounder when he arrives, but will the Australian Board decide to wrap him in cotton wool, as they have with Hussey.

Published: 21/04/2006