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Of the fallout from the dreadful events of late November, where Phil Hughes tragically lost his life, there was a surprising element among the reactions.
It was wasn’t the outpouring of emotion from the cricketing fraternity, which was as heartfelt as it was expected.
It wasn’t the sheer scope of the #putoutyourbats tribute, which was both understated and emotionally moving in equal measure.
Nor was it the immediate focus on the standard of batting helmets, an area that represented an available scapegoat and missed the point to a large degree.
And while I have no doubt that it must have been extremely difficult for the various state teams around Australia, and the national side of course, to resume their playing schedule, attempting to resume normality, or at least something approaching it, was a sensible course of action.
What was a surprise at the time, and worthy of a double take, was the number of commentators in the media who expected the game to have changed as a result of the awful accident.
The thoughts I saw, from respected writers on the game, suggested that the sport could never be the same and that if nothing else, the increasing air of bad feeling in the sport across all levels being doused would be a fitting tribute.
All written with admirable intent, of a new-found respect growing from tragedy, yet all in hope rather than expectation.
The memory will never fade for those in the immediate vicinity and for a large portion of outsiders, but the game, and certainly if the ongoing series in Australia is anything to go by, looks no different from where I’m sitting.
Bad-tempered exchanges, ill-feeling, overt aggression and to cap it off an inflammatory press conference from one of the principal agents provocateur.
If that is the sport being played in a new enlightened atmosphere then it must have really been bad.
While not condoning all that has gone on, it is tricky to muster any real criticism. Competitive sportsmen in pressurised situations will act, and have always done so, in such a manner. Why was it ever going to be any different?
Put on your idealistic hat if you so wish and say that I’m wrong but you can’t take the essence of a sportsman out just like that, however much you desire for it to be the case.
The aforementioned opinions had the look of saying the right thing at the right time but without any real substance, a take on a politician’s hollow rhetoric if you like.
It’s heartening to see two sides going hell for leather at each other, and while some of the shenanigans have been slightly excessive – Virat Kholi, I mean you – they have been instinctive, in character and entirely predictable.
A case could be argued for the need to clean up parts of the game but that has been the case for decades and not just for a few short years.
Cricket hasn’t altered in the past month and it won’t in the next.