DURHAM have secured promotion to Division One of the County Championship – despite not having been in action themselves this week.

Leicestershire’s failure to earn any batting bonus points in their ongoing game against Sussex means they can no longer finish above Durham this season. As a result, the North-Easterners are guaranteed to finish in one of the two promotion spots.

Durham still have two more matches to play this season – away to Worcestershire and at home to Leicestershire – and need to claim five more points to guarantee the Division Two title.

Their promotion ends a seven-year spell in the Second Division that began when the county was controversially relegated in 2016 in the wake of financial issues that resulted in a bail-out involving the ECB.

The three-time Division One champions finished fourth in the top-flight in the year that they were demoted, but lost the services of a number of big-name players in the following season, when they were also hit with a 48-point penalty.

They have successfully rebuilt in the last few years, and have dominated Division Two in the current campaign under new head coach Ryan Campbell and skipper Scott Borthwick.

Durham have won six of their 12 Championship matches so far this season, drawing five and losing just one. They boast the highest-scoring batsman in the country in Alex Lees, who has scored 1,281 runs in the Championship, and have also seen both Matthew Potts and Ben Raine take 51 Championship wickets.

The current round of four-day matches began with them 44 points clear of second-placed Worcestershire and 68 ahead of third-placed Leicestershire.

Leicestershire needed to claim maximum points from their ongoing match against Sussex to have any chance of finishing above Durham, but were bowled out for just 108 on day two of the game today.

Durham announced over the weekend that Sri Lanka international Vishwa Fernando will be joining them for the final two matches of the season.

Fernando has been signed as a replacement for Potts and Brydon Carse, who have been named in the England squad for the forthcoming One-Day International series against Ireland.