Durham face period of soul-searching admits head coach James Franklin

The six-wicket loss to Sussex sees the county prop up the County Championship after successive defeats

Durham will hold an inquest in an attempt to diagnose their problems after a second successive defeat sees them prop up the County Championship.

The six-wicket reverse to Sussex on day four at Chester-le-Street follows up the 125-run loss to Derbyshire during the opening round of matches.

Controversial Australia Test opener Cameron Bancroft was making his debut as Durham captain but was unable to inspire his side, whose recent history has been dominated by off-the-field problems.

"We've had our chances there's no two ways about it," said head coach James Franklin, who joined the county in January.

"The game against Derbyshire we had them five down in the first session, and here we had Sussex 70 for 7. 

"To end up on the losing side in both of those games is disappointing. The guys are hurting about that. 

^{Franklin arrived as head coach in the off-season}

"We've had batting collapses as well, which is not great fun either. We've got plenty of scope to improve. 

"It has been evident in our four innings this season that when we lose one, we can lose two or three quite quickly. 

After winning the Division One title three times between 2008 and 2013, Durham were relegated from the top flight in 2016 due to financial irregularities.

Multiple points deductions followed, as well as a ban on hosting future Test matches. Last season, they finished two off the bottom in pursuit of a return to Division One.

And Franklin believes that run of misfortune has had a dramatic knock-on effect.

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"Whether or not that is a little bit of reminiscence of what has been happening the last couple of years and we're suffering a hangover of that," he added. "I'm not too sure. 

"What we can do now is reflect on how we want to go about our Championship cricket. 

"We've got a nice break now into our one-day cricket. We've got a whole campaign there to quickly get our minds focused on in the next couple of days. 

"When we get back to Championship cricket in May, we've got to be very clear on what we're about because these first two games aren't good enough."