SaintPowelly wrote:From the outside looking in, there seems to be some weirdness about this current Durham side.
1. You sign an International opener and then don’t open with him, which is fine if you are trying to bed in an opening pair ( Hants did the same thing with Markram and then opened with Vince), but it looks 4 different openers have been used and no clear plans.
2. Raine and Eckersley, as good as they potentially could be, is signing 2 players from Leicestershire who at one stage went 2 years without winning a game really going to solve the issues you have? Particularly when you have Will Smith sat on the sidelines.
Yep, it is strange. I thought Bancroft at 3 was because, as he's overseas so probably just here for a short time, they wanted Lees & Steel to try and establish themselves as an opening partnership. But Steel ditched after 2 games with Pringle in as opener is very odd.
I think the two Leicestershire players might have been released because the club has financial problems and couldn't afford to keep them. Both good players but not outstanding.
Durham must still be strapped for cash, the changes to the coaching set up meant that Franklin came in just before the start of the season with little time to bring in new players so Marcus North was the one who would have been looking to strengthen this squad - his failure to do so must have been down to finances. North & Franklin will obviously never say they don't think this squad is remotely good enough but I'm sure they know it isn't.