Mustard checks expectations

Phil Mustard hopes Durham can reproduce last season's form in the first-class game

Durham are strong contenders to lift the LV County Championship title this year but England wicketkeeper Phil Mustard is refusing to get carried away.

Mustard, who made his senior international debut this winter during England’s tour of New Zealand, was part of the Durham side that finished runners-up in 2007 - four-and-a-half points behind champions Sussex.

Last season was a landmark one for Durham who lifted their first silverware of their brief history as a first-class county, beating Hampshire in the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord’s.

Mustard is keen to build on that progress but understands the importance of not crumbling under the weight of their enhanced reputation.

“It’s a very big season coming up. Obviously we’ve got to consolidate what we did last year,” he told ecb.co.uk.

“Last year there were a lot of people writing us off but this year people will go ‘we’ve got Durham this week’. How are we going to beat them?

“After the success we had last year there will be a lot of counties coming up here and saying this is not going to be an easy game.”

Head coach Geoff Cook with the Friends Provident Trophy which Durham won in 2007

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Head coach Geoff Cook will be able to field one of the strongest seam bowling attacks on the county circuit despite the retirement of Ottis Gibson, who took 80 Championship wickets last season.

England paceman Steve Harmison is available at least for the start of the season along with promising seamers Liam Plunkett and Graham Onions who both toured India with England Lions during the winter.

“Obviously we’re losing Ottis Gibson but when we’ve got (Steve) Harmison, Plunkett, Onions,” Mustard added.

“Harmy only played three or four games at the start of last season but he 35 or 40 wickets. So when you play 16 games, how many wickets is he going to get? He’ll get 100.

“We’ve got one of the best (bowling attacks). I wouldn’t say the best. The likes of Nottinghamshire have got (Ryan) Sidebottom and (Stuart) Broad but they could be on England duty. Looking at that we’ll have probably one of the best bowling line-ups in the country.”

Durham’s batting order again looks dangerous led by the experienced Michael Di Venuto and captain Dale Benkenstein.

South Africa batsman Neil McKenzie is the county’s overseas player before the arrival of Twenty20 specialist Albie Morkel and West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the second half of the summer.

Steve Harmison could well be available to Durham for much of the season © Getty Images

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But Mustard believes Durham also have greater strength in depth this year with many of the county’s youngsters showing greater maturity.

“We’ve got lots of bowling and lots of batting. That’s what’s been good. All the young guys are starting to come through and learn their trade now.

“We’ve got the likes of Kyle Coetzer, Ben Harmison, Will Gidman. Young Scotty Borthwick is coming though. We’ve got myself, Onions, Plunkett.

“All these young guys are coming through. Over the past few years at Durham they’ve just been learning about the game but now they understand where they need to be and I think that will pay dividends.”

Mustard is aware Durham can ill-afford any blips in form if they are to maintain a title challenge again this season.

He pinpointed back-to-back Championship defeats in July last season to Surrey at The Brit Oval and Sussex at Horsham that eventually proved costly.

“We had a rough patch last year. We had two or three weeks where we went down to Horsham, we went down to Surrey. That killed us really because we lost both games.

“But if we can cut out the two-week periods where we had a bit of a tough patch, who knows? We could be up there at the end of the season challenging again.”