AS Paul Collingwood prepares to bring down the curtain on his glittering 20-year career he hopes to help other home-bred Durham lads to follow in his footsteps.

Durham embark on their tenth successive season in division one next week and their four-day captain would love to bow out by helping them add to their collection of five trophies in the last eight years.

But as he approaches his 39th birthday he also has a strong desire to bring on the next generation and has no misgivings about being without the services of Ben Stokes and Mark Wood because of England duty.

“I wouldn't mind if Durham supplied 11 players to England,” he said. “That's what it's all about.”

Wood's selection for the West Indies tour will have come as a shock to many people around the country because he has played only 23 first-class games.

Not to Collingwood, however, as he said: “He has improved again over the winter. I was really impressed with him on our pre-season trip to Dubai. He has serious pace, swings it both ways and has a good bouncer. He's also an athlete who is very quick in the field and he can bat.”

Collingwood feels one-day captain Mark Stoneman was unlucky not to get an England Lions call-up in the winter, while he would not rule out Scott Borthwick adding to his solitary Test cap and another Sunderland lad, all-rounder Paul Coughlin, is felt to have the potential to attract interest.

Other full staff members who are young and talented enough to offer plenty of scope for development include Keaton Jennings, Usman Arshad, Ryan Pringle and Jamie Harrison.

There are also high hopes for Cumbrian batsman Graham Clark and off-spinner Ryan Buckley, who are joined on development contracts by Irish pair Peter Chase and all-rounder Barry McCarthy.

Durham took McCarthy, in preference to Buckley, to Dubai, with coach Jon Lewis explaining: “We are conscious of being without Stokes and Wood in early season, when seam plays a bigger part than spin. So we needed to give opportunities to all our seamers.

“We were seriously stretched in that department through injuries at the end of last season. Chris Rushworth has been brilliant for the last two years, but we can't keep expecting him to bear such a heavy workload.

“One thing we have done differently in pre-season is to make more use of a Pilates instructor in an effort to minimise injuries, although we hope it will also enhance performance. With a smallish squad we need to keep people fit.”

Left-arm spinner Max Morley and opening batsman Rammy Singh were released from their development contracts last season, at the end of which Durham waved a tearful farewell to Gareth Breese after he hit the match-winning boundary in the Royal London Cup final at Lord's.

The off-spinner is still around, having taken on a role as club and coach development officer for the Durham Cricket Board, but Lewis admits that his absence from the playing staff has left a big one-day hole.

“There's a huge opportunity for one of our young spinners to stick his hand up,” he said. “Scott Borthwick has been in Sri Lanka in the winter, which is a tough environment for spinners, and Ryan Pringle bowled with good economy in T20 cricket in Melbourne. Ryan Buckley stalled a bit last summer but should benefit from a good winter in India.”

Buckley, who enjoyed a five-wicket haul on his debut at the Oval the previous year, bowled only two overs in the championship last summer. That was in the one-wicket defeat at Old Trafford, which left Durham next to the bottom with four games left.

They had just scrambled into the last eight of the Royal London Cup after losing three of the first four matches and victory in the quarter-final at Headingley provided the impetus for three successive championship wins, ensuring fifth place.

It would be folly to expect anything better, based on the fact that the wage bill has been almost halved since peaking at around £1.9m. But the same might have been said when the pruning began in 2013, when Durham won the title.

Graham Onions is anxious to get back to form and fitness in his benefit year, while Harrison and Arshad will also want to make an impact after they also spent much of last season on the casualty list.

Rushworth stayed fit throughout and observed that giving up drink for 12 months was the best thing he had ever done after producing a sprint finish to his marathon. His 15 wickets in half a day against Northamptonshire were just reward for a season’s toil which was often without luck.

He finished with 64 championship wickets and raised more than £5,000 for charity through his abstinence.

John Hastings arrived from Australia yesterday and Durham are delighted to have him available for the full campaign after the impact he made in half a season last year. He arrived on the last day of May and departed in mid-September, missing the cup final as he resumed his seat on the bench for IPL outfit Chennai Superkings.

Home pitches became more batsman-friendly last season and it will be interesting to see if there is any change under a new head groundsman.

Dave Measor, from Hartlepool, was assistant to the original Riverside groundsman Tom Flintoff before taking charge but has left after 23 years to work for a turf care business.

His replacement is Vic Demain, a former painter and decorater who moved into groundsmanship in 1996 and has been the No 2 at Trent Bridge for the last few years.

Chief executive David Harker described him as “the outstanding candidate” and he is already proving popular with the players. The batsmen will not want to see any old-fashioned Trent Bridge green tops, but a modicum of assistance for the seamers would help Durham to play to their traditional strength and enjoy another productive season.