Campbell pledges Durham 'standards won't slip' as runaway leaders gear up for Northants clash
Durham may be on the brink of clinching the Rothesay County Championship Division Two title, but head coach Ryan Campbell insists his side's 'standards won't slip' as they prepare to take on Northants at Wantage Road this week.
The north east county are looking nailed on to finish top and secure promotion back to the top flight of English cricket at the first time of asking.
With just four matches of the season remaining, they are a whopping 40 points clear of both second-placed Kent and third-placed Northants.
But with the memory of last season's dramatic relegation from division one fresh in the memory of everyone at Chester-Le-Street, they will not be taking anything for granted.
Durham needed to bat out 89 overs on the final day of last season against Yorkshire at Headingley to ensure their survival - but were instead rushed out for just 85 in 45 overs to suffer the drop.
It was a painful experience, and one that Campbell will be using to ensure there will be no taking the foot off the gas in the remaining matches - starting with Wednesday's date with Northants at cinch County Ground.
"You only have to look back not even 12 months and understand what we went through there, and we don't want to slide back," Campbell told durhamcricket.co.uk
"At this time of the year it gets hard for everyone, but it's about how can we lift our standards even further, and we are going to try and go through the roof.
"Winning the second division was our number one goal, and getting promotion obviously. The whole club geared everything up for that, and that is getting closer.
"We are hoping that we can be promoted, but then we have to look to next year because playing in division one is hard.
"We want our players to prepare themselves for that, so the standards can't slip.
"One bad hour in four-day cricket can cost you a season, which it did last year. So I don't think it will be too hard to keep the boys rallying."
Campbell has hinted he may rest the likes of Brydon Carse for the trip to Northampton, but and former England skipper Ben Stokes is expected to feature.
Durham have also announced the signing of India Test batter Mayank Agarwal for the final four games of the season, after they lost South African David Bedingham – the leading runscorer in division two this summer.
Looking ahead to the game against Northants, Campbell said: "The facts are that some of our fast bowlers are starting to ache and creak a little bit.
"It will be interesting to see what Northampton prepares as a pitch, because it looks from the vision that we've seen that they actually haven't cut a wicket for Wednesday.
"So if the theory is to play on the same wicket as they did against Kent that will be interesting.
"We may bring in (spinner) Shafiq Ghafari to come with us to cover that sort of base, but at the end of the day we are going to pick what we think is out strongest 11 for the fixture."
Play is scheduled to start at 10.30am at Wantage Road on Wednesday.