You might wonder what’s going on here given I’m – for better or worse – one of the UK’s more well-known football hacks. I confess, I was so struck by Ashes fever that the start of the Premiership season left me a bit cold. Given the empty seats at football grounds around the country, I wasn’t the only one, either.

I won’t join the brigade of sudden converts who declare (pardon the pun) cricket the new football. No it’s not. It never will be. That’s just one of those poseur phrases, like ‘brown is the new black’. Without the cash generated by the international side, county cricket could not exist as a professional sport.