Four Durham youngsters sign contract extensions

Jonathan Bushnell, Tom Mackintosh, and Oliver Gibson have signed their first professional deals while George Drissell has put pen to paper on a one-year extension

A quartet of Durham youngsters have signed contract extensions ahead of the 2023 season.

Academy graduates Jonathan Bushnell, Tom Mackintosh and Oliver Gibson have all signed their first professional deals, which will keep them all at Chester-le-Street until at least the end of 2024.

George Drissell, meanwhile, who joined the club from Somerset in winter 2021, has put pen-to-paper on a one-year extension.

Bushnell, a batter, made nine appearances for Durham across all formats in 2022 and scored his maiden first-class half-century on his LV= Insurance County Championship debut against Worcestershire.

Mackintosh replaced Ned Eckersley with the gloves in July and also scored a half-century on his first-class debut. The 19-year-old wicketkeeper, who recently earned his first call-up to Scotland's senior squad, featured in four County Championship matches and eight Royal London Cup matches.

^{George Drissell and Tom Mackintosh [Stu Forster/Getty Images]}

Gibson chalked up 14 first-team appearances in 2022, taking eight first-class wickets and a further 11 in the Royal London Cup, while Drissell featured in all formats, taking three wickets in nine outings.

Director of cricket, Marcus North, said: "We are really pleased these talented young players have committed their future with us at Durham.

"I have been very impressed with the progress of all four of these cricketers who have all made their first team debuts this summer. I look forward to watching them continue to develop and perform in 2023."

Speaking to The Cricketer earlier in 2022, Mackintosh said: "I was playing a lot of second team cricket so my goal was to do as well as I could in that. I wasn't expecting to be given a chance [in the first team] at all. I was lucky to get a couple of games which was fantastic.

"There's a lot of competition [in the squad] and it's so healthy for the club having all these young guys pushing themselves to get better and pushing the whole squad to keep improving."

As for his ambitions for 2023, the teenager plans to spend plenty of time picking the brains of Ollie Robinson, who has moved to the north-east from Kent: "Ollie is a fantastic player as everyone in Durham has seen.

"I'll learn a lot of him, and it will be really to observe how he goes about things and his insights into the game. It's exactly what I need."