A rain-soaked season dominated by the dash for Twenty20 cash ended with a story to uplift anybody moved to cynicism by the shenanigans of the past six months. Sixteen years on from their first struggles as the eighteenth county, Durham are the most popular winners of the LV County Championship in recent memory. To put their rise into context, project forward 17 years and imagine Berkshire, the leading Minor County this summer, heading the first division in 2025. Impossible? Well, Durham were not even best among their peers in their final season at the lower level in 1991.

There is a little more to it than that, of course. Durham were elevated as a way to build on a strong club game in the North East. While six of the team who beat Kent on Saturday were born outside England, the other five were either from the region or, in the case of Will Smith, a student at Durham University. When Leicestershire justify acquiring Kolpak players and British passport-holders from overseas by citing their influence on young, home-grown talent, they must now expect to be judged alongside Durham, who are not only winning trophies but producing England cricketers.

A championship title dresses the shop window, but shelves are stacked inside. Durham also won the second XI title and have plans for a £45million redevelopment of the Riverside to incorporate a 150-room hotel and raise capacity to 20,000. They built towards success with the Friends Provident Trophy and second place in the championship last year. Few in the game have bad words for Geoff Cook, the director of cricket now as in 1992, and David Harker, the chief executive, is respected by the players because he is on their side, not a penny-pincher.

The temporary eclipse of Stephen Harmison as an England bowler proved a blessing for Durham. In his 12 matches he took 60 championship wickets and is now re-established in the Test and one-day sides. Callum Thorp, with a low, slingy action, became a perfect swing-bowling foil while Mark Davies did more than chip in with support. Michael Di Venuto led the batting and while only two others, Dale Benkenstein and Smith, passed 500 runs, those aggregates hide the hours lost to the weather.

Rain hit Durham harder than it did their rivals, yet they won more games than any other side and twice as many as Somerset, who were above them in second place before the final round of matches. Things were so tight in the denouement that Somerset, still potential champions in theory two days ago, finished only four points ahead of Lancashire, who went into the game at Taunton battling against relegation.

The strong Somerset opening partnership of Justin Langer and Marcus Trescothick did not click in the final matches and the bowling attack lacked a spearhead with Andrew

Caddick injured much of the time. Nottinghamshire must rue lost opportunities at home earlier in the season, notably against Kent, and will have to ask whether Chris Read's passive style of captaincy meets requirements.

Hampshire, winners at Trent Bridge, staged an unexpected recovery after the departure of Paul Terry as coach, with Nic Pothas becoming a leading figure on and off the field and Imran Tahir reiterating the value of wrist spin in a country where batsmen twitch at its mere sight. Little wonder that expectations of 20-year-old Adil Rashid are so high and another promising season for him at Yorkshire suggests that they are justified.

The biggest losers are Kent, which may sound odd of a side that reached the Twenty20 Cup and Friends Provident finals. But they lost both, missed promotion on the final Saturday of the Pro40 League, and will play in the second division of the championship for the first time in 2009.

On the wider stage - occasional drama such as Michael Vaughan's resignation as the England captain and anything to do with Kevin Pietersen notwithstanding - news has been dominated by the growth of Twenty20 fuelled by the Indian market. Nothing was as tacky as the ECB hierarchy posing with Allen Stanford and his $20million at the launch of the Super Series, which may prove to be as divisive as it will be lucrative.

An English Premier League with 20 clubs to rival the IPL from 2010 will struggle to match its hype unless India come onside. For that, relationships need to thaw. The decision of Australia and South Africa to support the Indian version of the Champions League ahead of the ECB alternative may cost millions to our game. And, given their own deal with Stanford, effectively a loan of the England team, the board cannot claim any moral high ground.

First-class programme

1992 First championship season ends unhappily in bottom spot with two wins in 22 matches

1995 Move to the new Riverside ground built on the site of former football pitches

1999 David Boon ends his influential period as captain by leading Durham into the first division when the championship splits into two

2004 Change in structure to become a limited company under chairmanship of Clive Leach, a former player and chief executive of Tyne Tees Television

2007 Beat Hampshire at Lord's to win the Friends Provident Trophy

2008 Go one better than second place in the previous season by lifting the championship title

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