Durham head coach Jon Lewis expressed his delight after pace bowler Mark Wood signed a new three-year deal at Emirates Riverside.
The 26-year-old penned a new deal with his home county, taking him through until at least the end of the 2019 season as a Durham player.
As the former 2nd XI coach at the club, Lewis has overseen large parts of Wood’s development from the youth stages through to the present day.
And he stated that while negotiations were not difficult, it was still “really pleasing” to secure the England man’s services for at least another three seasons and praised his impact on the dressing room.
“He’s very popular and very good for the dressing room,” he said. “Mark’s wanted for some time to get this sorted, it was just about getting the right people, in the right place, at the right time. It wasn’t tricky but great to finally get it sorted.
“Both of our England players at the moment, both Ben and Mark, are both invaluable when they come in to the dressing room, not just because of their skills but because of their personalities, they really do lift the place.
“Mark’s had a tough year, a couple of operations with a third one just now, but hopefully that’s the end of it and he’s managed to keep his spirits up through that; if he can keep his spirits up through that, he will get through anything I think.”
Wood’s 2016 season was interrupted by injuries and he is currently recovering from a third ankle operation which should eliminate the problem once and for all.
But when he did take to the field his performances were magnificent and underlined his status as one of the world’s quickest bowlers, with nine NatWest T20 Blast inspiring a late surge all the way to the final.
Lewis was quick to recognise Wood’s substantial qualities and thinks he will come back better than ever – even if it means Durham see less of him during the upcoming years.
“It has been tricky to get him on the park, unfortunately for him, but when he has been there it’s been special,” Lewis said.
“He made a real difference to the end of our T20 competition, it made a difference to all the bowlers to have a guy in the attack who can really make that sort of impact bowling 90+ mph.
“There aren’t many of those around the world and I think at one stage towards the back end of the T20 competition, he could have arguably been the fastest bowler in the world. The problem with him being in his prime is we might not see him too much!
“He’ll be working his way back in to fitness probably at the start of next season so hopefully we’ll get him early on, and then depending on how well he goes will depend on how much we see of him.”
Wood, born in Ashington, has been with Durham since academy level and progressed through the levels to reach the first team before going on to make his England debut in 2015.
He is another product of the Academy’s fine record of producing domestic & England players and Lewis believes Wood epitomises the Durham ethos – and the best is yet to come.
“He’s really what we’re about. We’ve been around 25 years and one of the pre-requisities of being a first-class county was to produce players from the North East who can play for England; he’s gone through that path and it’s been great to see,” he said.
“He’s definitely got his best years ahead of him and he can go from strength to strength.”