READING this year’s Wisden is a bit like listening to The Archers: both are oblivious to the coronavirus, the single factor dominating social life. Jon Hotten got it right in his homage to county cricket: “There’s a glinting uncertainty to the summer of 2020.”

He was referring, though, to cricket’s latest limited-overs incarnation. You fear that The Hundred could be the sport’s equivalent of the pandemic, stirring impassioned resistance to constitutional changes that not only reduce the influence of the counties but also threaten to widen the gulf between rich and poor.

To many this is shameless profiteering. Nick Hoult points out that the English Cricket Board (ECB) could have gone down the franchise route using 20 overs cricket. Surrey had debunked the notion of a shrinking audience for T20, pointing out that 52 per cent of ticket purchasers last year came to watch for the first time, while most of their games sold out.