TODAY, Durham County Cricket Club start their last match of the season at home to Leicestershire in the full knowledge that they are promoted back to the First Division after seven years.

There are many people for whom the events of 2016 still rankle. Durham were brash northern upstarts who upset the cricketing establishment by winning the championship three times in six years but over-extended themselves financially in the process. Their bubble burst, the English Cricket Board bailed them out and then relegated them, causing an exodus of talent – a punishment that still feels harsh.

Under chief executive Tim Bostock they have rebuilt off the pitch, slowly repaying their loan to Durham County Council which itself was controversial, and evolving big plans that are leading to a 150-bedroom hotel at the ground at Chester-le-Street.

This season, under coach Ryan Campbell, they have rebuilt on the pitch, playing the fashionable supercharged brand of cricket that takes no prisoners. Once again, the county is developing exciting players that are banging on the England door.

Cricket needs Durham, for geographical and social reasons – this northern club can produce international talent from state school backgrounds.

Durham needs cricket, to put it on the map and also to give its youngsters something to aspire to – Matthew Potts, now an England bowler, comes from working class Sunderland. Thirty years ago, Durham’s dreams of becoming a first class county at last became true; now it hopes to have its own Hundred team to really create a regional cricketing identity.

Next season it will be great to see Durham back at cricket’s top table so congratulations to all concerned, and good luck with the weather over the next four days.