TEST matches must continue to be staged in Durham.
The county is around £5million in debt and this is the last Test they are due to host until 2020 at the earliest.
But the ECB have to ensure Test cricket comes to the North-East in the future.
The area is a hotbed for sport and people love watching their cricket up here.
It is a special cricket ground and, as a player, you want to play where you are made to feel welcome — England have also won every Test match they have had here.
But at the moment, the financial model of English cricket is such that staging an international game puts the counties in jeopardy. So that has to be looked at. The whole bidding process to be able to host international matches is just greed, in my opinion.
How can it be fair to penalise teams who want to help England stage games? The ECB has enough money coming its way without trying to strangle one of its own clubs.
And they should work a lot harder to help the financial problems of all counties rather than making them worse.
Why not write off Durham’s debt for a year, for example?
Or work out some sort of reward for a county if they produce an England player?
Something needs be done because the current system is just ridiculous.
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