Graham Onions believes both he and his boyhood county Durham are “back where we belong” as they prepare for a top-flight return eight years on from their “incredibly harsh” relegation.
Onions was a key part of the side treated with unprecedented severity by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2016, demoted to Division Two and hit with a 48-point penalty for the following season after falling into serious financial trouble.
He left for Lancashire in 2017 as the club’s record wicket-taker, part of a talent drain that also saw the likes of Scott Borthwick, Mark Stoneman and Keaton Jennings move on, but returned from Old Trafford at the start of the year as lead bowling coach.
The team he rejoins is finally back at the top table of English cricket after a stirring promotion season under Ryan Campbell, with Onions delighted to be part of Durham’s long-awaited comeback.
“The punishment was extremely harsh. A lot of people would say it was completely wrong and I get that because it wasn’t based on our performances,” he told the PA news agency.
“A lot happened – financial troubles and a lot of uncertainty – and it got messy. Did it leave a chip on the shoulder? Yeah, a little bit. The members here will feel ‘we’re going to show you’.
“There’s been years where we haven’t gone straight back up and that does surprise me but we’re in a good place now. We’re back to where we belong now and we just need to go out and show how good we are.
“I’m excited to be back home, I’ve still got the Geordie twang and the weather hasn’t changed! As a young lad I was given the opportunity to play for this amazing county and that seems a long time ago.
“But now I’ve got the chance to come back and work with some incredibly talented players and I feel very privileged again. I’m proud of where I’m from, it’s important to me being from the north-east.”
Onions was part of Durham’s impressive roll call of fast bowlers to represent England and now has responsibility for overseeing an attack containing two more, Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse.
Potts is nudging his way up the Test pecking order after excelling on the England Lions tour of India this winter and a strong start to his first Division One campaign, which begins at home to Hampshire on April 5, could make the 25-year-old an irresistible pick.
“He’s a determined lad and he wants to do well for us to force his way into that side and stay there,” said Onions.
“I don’t see any reason why he can’t do that. He’s got the work ethic, he’s got the skills. Wickets are your currency and if you keep knocking over top players, you will get recognised.”
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
Last Hurrah: Dwayne Bravo to call time on CPL career after this year's edition
Former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo says this year’s edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be his last hurrah as he announced his retirement from the tournament on Saturday.
Bravo, who represents the Trinbago Knight Riders, made the revelation on his Instagram account hours ahead of the franchise’s opening contest against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, scheduled for 7:00pm.
“It's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to playing my final professional tournament in front of my Caribbean people," Bravo said in his post.
“TKR is the place where everything started for me and will end with my team,” he added.
The 40-year-old’s post all but indicates the end of a decorated professional career, as he retired from international cricket in 2021 after the T20 World Cup and also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) a year later after being part of four title-winning Chennai Super Kings campaigns.
Bravo, known for his flair and skillful batting and bowling, is currently the CPL’s highest wicket-taker with 128 scalps in 103 games at an average of 22.40 and economy rate of 8.69.
In fact, Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in all T20s, with 630 scalps in 578 matches. He has also scored 6,970 runs with the bat.
No doubt the electrifying Trinidad and Tobago stalwart will go down as one of T20's early legends, having played seven World Cups in the format, winning two titles, as well as over 15 franchise league titles. He is the first bowler to get to 500 T20 wickets.
CWI targets domestic T20 competition in 2025 to identify Caribbean representative(s) for 2028 Olympic Games
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow says plans are already afoot to host a domestic T20 competition next year to determine the Caribbean representative(s) for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Shallow, once again welcoming cricket’s return to the Olympic Games, pointed out that his administration is already in dialogue with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hierarchy to stage the domestic competition in 2025.
Cricket, which last featured at an Olympic Games in 1900, was always set for a long-awaited return to the global multi-sport showpiece, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year confirmed it and four other sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash—for the LA Games.
“To add cricket to the agenda in the next Olympics is certainly going to be something tremendous, as we did in the Commonwealth Games a couple years ago when we had one of our teams representing the females. We at the time chose our original women’s tournament, and the winner at the time was Barbados, so they represented the region,” Shallow said.
“We anticipate something similar will be done unless they tell us all the teams can come and participate, which would be ideal, but it is unlikely for that to happen,” he added.
Shallow also explained that the CPL champions cannot represent the region at the Olympic Games given that the tournament is franchise-based and involves players from other parts of the world.
As such, he revealed that he has engaged CARICOM leaders regarding plans for a domestic T20 competition from which the winner or top finishers would secure the coveted Olympic Games spot(s).
“We have been in discussion with CPL for them to fund a domestic T20 tournament starting next year. I think Miles Bascombe and his team have already scheduled a window for that next year in 2025. Once we are able to have that tournament, then we can use that to determine which team or teams will participate in the Olympics on behalf of CWI,” Shallow shared.
“We can’t use the CPL as it is now because it’s franchises. But in the domestic tournament that we’re having, which will still have a commercial model to it but not to the extent of CPL, but that will more than likely be territories instead of franchises, so we will be able to identify teams,” he noted.
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