DURHAM’S year of transformation was not limited to the field of play, or even the cricket season.

For 2012 had almost run its course when it was announced they will be looking for a new chief executive.

On Friday, David Harker revealed he will move on to pastures new in May.

Harker played a big part in Durham’s golden years.

The challenge for his successor will be ensuring it does not end with him.

These are difficult times for the Riversiders.

Paul Collingwood’s appointment as captain might have reinvigorated the team for the second half of the season, but the transition is far from complete.

Durham are still wrestling with a salary cap which got the better of them in 2011 and will find it difficult in 2013.

As big earners, Stephen Harmison and Ian Blackwell are of little use to the club when they are not playing.

Both were loaned out last year, but it is unlikely to happen again.

Collingwood has decided his best route to success is frustrating batsmen out with tight bowling.

Even Harmison knows that is not his forté but, with a benefit year starting a fortnight today, he is unlikely to play for anyone else in it.

Concerns over Blackwell’s fitness were a factor in his fall from grace.

Another shoulder operation will rule him out of the first half of next season and will hardly help him improve his general conditioning, as Durham demanded in 2012.

The Riversiders were transformed in 2005 when Harker and chairman Clive Leach supported coach Martyn Moxon’s attempts to take the team up a level.

Double promotion came that year, a first trophy in 2007, and back-to-back County Championships in 2008-9.

Until then Durham had been largely dependent on their academy but Moxon realised, for all the talent in it, experienced players were needed to guide them.

Dale Benkenstein, Mike Hussey, Callum Thorp, Michael Di Venuto and Shivnarine Chanderpaul joined with stunning success, others less so.

Now, with that generation running its course, the emphasis is back on youth.

With funds tight, it looks unlikely a much-needed overseas player – Chanderpaul in 2009 was their last in the Championship – will be forthcoming. They will be asking a lot of youngsters still to prove themselves.