Durham cricket supporter Rob Dixon vents his frustration at today’s announcement that his county is being relegated and deducted points in 2017.

October is normally a quiet month on the England Domestic cricket calendar, players jetting off for well deserved breaks with their loved ones. Others preparing for a winter of grade cricket in Australia or South Africa, the fortunate ones heading on England tours around the world and the prestige that goes with that.

However, the breaking news on Durham’s demotion today sent shock waves across the sport as a whole. Following Durham’s need for ECB financial assistance earlier in the season, the true cost of that help was revealed.

• SEE ALSO: Durham relegated and receive 2017 penalties after ECB agree financial support

The ECB have demoted the club from the top flight of the County Championship and they will also start the 2017 season with a 48 point deduction in Division Two. (This punishment is effectively 94 points as they were 46 points clear of relegation at the end of the season). Further point deductions have enforced for the Royal London One Day Cup (4 pts) and the NatWest T20 Blast (2 points). There will be no more Test Matches at the Emirates Riverside for the foreseeable future (although the club will continue to be allowed to bid for One Day Internationals & Twenty20 Internationals). A Salary cap agreed by the ECB will be in force until the end of the 2020 season.

To begin this story its probably best to go back a few years to where the financial problems first begun, right back in fact to 1992 when they became the 18^th & newest first class county.

Part of the process of gaining entry was they had to build a ground capable of hosting International cricket. Durham have always been an ambitious county and the dreams were realised back in 2003 when they hosted their first Test Match against Zimbabwe.

Further improvements have followed with more permanent seating taking the capacity to 17k, a new state of the art media centre, new pitch drainage and permanent floodlights have been added all at the clubs cost to satisfy the ECB’s demands that the ground is of the standard required.

The problems have come recently though, due to the number of grounds around the country that want to host international cricket, the ECB have started to put the bids out to tender, this means that every county that wants to host an England match bids for the staging rights.

If successful you are then allocated a test match and given an amount that you are to charge fans. Durham this year bid £975,000 to host a game in 2016. The game given to them was the 2^nd Test match against Sri Lanka on May 27^th. The cost of tickets ranged from £50-£75. This is the same remit given to richer clubs based in London and other major cities with a lot higher turnover than the North-East county.

This is a process that even ECB chairman Colin Graves publicly said was outdated and would be changed prior to the next instalment of the future tours programme in 2019. However to get the North-East folk to part with that sort of money in temperatures that struggled to reach double figures all test against inferior opposition was a hiding to nothing. Durham lost a considerable amount of money on this game In fact of the six test matches held at the ground over the years, the latest calendar start has been the 15^th June, 3 months before the season ends!

So where does that leave Durham?

Well Division Two for starters after todays news. The points deduction means it will be difficult to gain promotion, the PCA are starting to organise meetings with the players regarding contracts and the whole thing has left a sour taste in the mouth. The cost-cutting has been felt on the field for a few years now with no player signed from another county since Ian Blackwell in 2009 and only one overseas player (John Hastings) in 2014.

Ive spoken to a lot of fans from other counties who feel this is a “draconian” punishment and one that doesn’t really fit the bill as a lot of the issues were caused by the ECB in the first place. The ECB in their defence have come down very strict on the club maybe as a deterrent to stop others being in the same boat. With a number of counties in far worst financial position than Durham it will be interesting to see what happens should another county suffer the same issues in the next 12 months.

As a Durham fan im disappointed that its come to this, could have accepted the demotion or even the points deduction but both seems massively unfair to a group of players who in the last two weeks of the season put in such an effort to keep us up with gutsy wins over Hampshire & Sussex. Still onwards and upwards, its been years since I’ve been to Grace Road for a county game!

Rob Dixon