Durham Cricket’s Scott Borthwick has stepped down as captain of the club, and will become a player-coach from 2025 onwards. Daniel Wales reports.
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00:00Lifting the County Championship Division 2 trophy was one of the great honours of Scott
00:08Borthwick's cricket career. The North East lad has enjoyed both good times and bad at
00:13his local club and now he is to move into the next stage of his career at Durham as
00:19a player coach at the club that he has captained since he returned from a spell at Surrey in
00:252021. Borthwick will stand down from his role as captain to focus on his new role,
00:31a job he has said he is delighted to be given. He added his thanks to all of the staff at
00:36the club and made clear that Durham has given him so much and that he now cannot wait to
00:41get started in his new position at the club, working on the development of players both
00:45professionally and in the academy. Following the trophy lift in 2023, Borthwick reflected
00:52on the achievement and what it meant to all involved, as well as mentioning the celebrations
00:56and the future of Durham.
00:58Oh look, it's pretty special. Like I touched on early on, this is my third County Championship
01:04win for the club, two Division 1s and today is a Division 2. But I think this one feels
01:09a bit more special. I think obviously being captain as well, but also getting us back
01:13where we belong and back into Division 1. It feels that extra special and look, we've
01:18been outstanding all season and to get that trophy today was amazing.
01:21I was there in 2016 when we got relegated and I left and went down to Surrey. I knew
01:27how much that meant to the club and how much it meant to the fans in the North East. To
01:32get us back to Division 1 today, you can see how much it means to the fans and the members
01:37here today because they've turned up in numbers and it really is special. I was a little bit
01:42emotional actually lifting that trophy because it's a really special club.
01:47We'll sit in the dressing room, we'll enjoy each other's company, we'll have a few beers,
01:50we'll enjoy it. We've got a day planned tomorrow with everybody, all the squad and the staff
01:55which should be pretty amazing. And then, yeah, we'll enjoy each other's company.
02:00Brian Campbell's first team meeting in January, he said, look, we want to be the best team
02:05in the country and we stand to that. We're not going up to Division 1 to make numbers
02:10up, we want to compete, we want to challenge and we're really excited for it. But that
02:15hard work will start in January. Right now we'll enjoy this moment.
02:19As well as Borthwick, Durham's director of cricket, Marcus North, also spoke on the news,
02:24highlighting Borthwick's contribution to Durham in his time as captain of the club and helping
02:28to take them back to Division 1 of the county championship. North then described Borthwick
02:33as the perfect fit for this new role, stating that he will add real value to everyone associated
02:39with the club. During his career, Borthwick has won three county championships, including
02:44two with Durham, as well as the One Day Cup with his home club in 2014 before winning
02:49Division 2, as mentioned, in 2023. During his time with Surrey, he won the other of
02:54his county championship titles in 2018.