Durham County Cricket Club has been relegated from division one of the championship, docked 48 points for next season and "stripped of Test match status after the England & Wales Cricket Board attached draconian conditions" to a £3.8M ($5M) bailout for the "troubled" county, according to Nick Hoult of the London TELEGRAPH. Hampshire, which finished second to the bottom, of division one has been "reprieved and Durham will now be relegated" in its place. The club "will be reeling from the sanctions imposed by the ECB but desperately need the financial help and without it would have gone out of business last summer." As well as the relegation and 48 point penalty in championship cricket the club has "also been punished in one-day competitions." It will start the 2017 Natwest Blast minus four points and has been docked two points in the Royal London one-day Cup (TELEGRAPH, 10/3).
'A KICK IN THE TEETH': In London, Ali Martin wrote that Durham captain Paul Collingwood expressed "shock and anger" after the decision was handed down. after the club were relegated to Division Two of the County Championship, hit with a 48-point deduction for next season and stripped of their Test status following a £3.8m bailout from the England and Wales Cricket Board. Collingwood: “The players are seriously unhappy. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of ‘Who’s fault is this?’ The fact is that the players are 100% innocent here. In the background it hasn’t been run as efficiently as it should have been. Unfortunately, we are the ones who have to take the brunt of the decision. That’s why it’s such a kick in the teeth because we know how hard it’s been to continue our first division status with all the strains that have been on our team in the last few years” (GUARDIAN, 10/3).
DOCKED POINTS: SKY SPORTS' Paul Vinnell reported the sanction also means Durham is "no longer eligible to host Test matches," although it will be able to continue hosting ODI's and T20 internationals. The north-east county finished fourth in '16, 30 points behind champions Middlesex and 45 points clear of relegation, but has "struggled to manage a debt estimated to be in the region" of £7.5M ($9.7M). The ECB said that the money "will allow the club to meet on-going salary, HMRC and operating costs, settle a substantial debt to a secured creditor and focus on the restructuring and future sustainability of the County Cricket Club" (SKY SPORTS, 10/3).
REVISED SALARY CAP: The BBC reported additionally, the club "will be subject to a revised salary cap" from April '17-20, with the level determined annually by the ECB board. All prize money from ECB competitions, except for player awards, "will be withheld until the club's debt to the national governing body is cleared." ECB CEO Tom Harrison said, "The financial package and associated conditions approved by the ECB board reflect the unprecedented seriousness of Durham County Cricket Club's financial situation." A Durham spokesperson said that the club's board welcomed the ECB's "long-term commitment to safeguarding first-class cricket in the North East." The BBC's Jonathan Agnew commented, "Durham's is a sad and salutary tale. Ambition and enviable cricketing infrastructure, that produced eight Test players, but also over-ambition in that the county had its head turned by the foolish central policy of encouraging all to stage Test cricket. By overextending financially to fulfil their dream, this was the undoing of Durham" (BBC, 10/3).
