Neil Killeen was a starry-eyed 16-year-old when Durham made their first-class debut in 1992. Now, as the county’s third beneficiary, he is monitoring the progress of a new generation of youngsters seeking to follow in his footsteps.

And Killeen likes what he sees. “Ben Harmison, James Lowe and Gary Scott are making an impact as batsmen and we seem to have young bowlers coming out of our ears,” says Killeen. “And there are plenty of younger lads coming through. Geoff Cook has done a fantastic job with the Academy.”

For the time being, however, Durham’s immediate need is to avoid a repeat of the post- Twenty20 slump that threatened to undermine last season’s promotion drive. Worries were fuelled when a big defeat by Yorkshire was followed by a draw with Middlesex, who topped 500
in their second innings.

“For some reason Twenty20 seemed to disrupt us last year but I can’t see it happening again,” says Killeen. “We should probably have won at Lord’s but it was always going to be difficult to bowl them out a second time on that wicket. In fact, Durham sides of the past might easily have crumbled on the last day. But mentally we are much stronger now.”

Wisden Cricketer, Andrew Collomosse