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Normality, or traditional normality more like, returns to the scene this week as the Sheffield Shield takes centre stage.
It’s so long to fireworks, commentators with vested interests, the ageless Brad Hogg and continued Perth Scorchers pacesetting for another year and nice to see you again to the Australian game’s flagship competition.
The Big Bash, with expansion on the cards, shows no signs of waning in interest and it would be difficult to argue a case against it being the standard bearer for short-form leagues across the globe.
Each have their own plus points but the level of competition, the marketing and the attendances in the BBL are in a league of their own. Whoever is in charge can take a satisfied swig of whatever beer they prefer.
However, it’s four-day cricket for the next few weeks as the fight for relevance in a dollar-driven world gears up for another push.
There is a slight twist to the next five rounds of matches with the English Dukes ball being used in place of the usual Kookaburra. Not in lower level competition, as has previously been the case in the Futures League and the Under-17 and Under-19 National Championships, but in the marquee event.
Without an Ashes victory overseas since Steve Waugh led his side to an emphatic success in 2001 – four series if you’re counting – Cricket Australia have taken something of a large leap of faith in a bid to stem the bleeding.
It is a proactive approach and could well prove to be a case of thinking outside the box being exactly what is, or was if it bears fruit, required but it smells strongly of trying to solve a crossword with only half the clues.
The Duke ball, adapted to last in Australian conditions, could behave as anticipated or it may well do nothing of the sort. When it all boils down, a trial is a trial after all.
But for all the talk and hypothetical talk of mirroring a foreign product, the one, critical, alien element that will never be present in the Shield test in the one that is most necessary.
The ball may swing for a longer time than its Kookaburra counterpart, it might offer more off the seam and it could well encourage reverse swing but that is only half the battle. In very basic terms, the conditions are not, and can not, be replicated at the Gabba, WACA or MCG.
Slight similarities underfoot on occasion, yes, but that’s as far as it goes.
The powers that be should be applauded for trying, as to do nothing in the hope of achieving something is a recipe, inevitably, with a poor end result.
Yet there is an easy solution to the Australians’ Old Dart batting woes, and that is to play more cricket in England.
If Cricket Australia want, and I mean really want, to improve their lot with the bat at Edgbaston, Trent Bridge et al, then they should be packing their charges off to these shores.
More would be achieved in a couple of months in the county game than could be hoped four in a handful of Shield outings against a different projectile.
Hacking it around the Indian Premier League or attending a training camp somewhere both have their respective merits but, to use a favoured expression, what can’t you buy? Experience.
Matt Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb (actually, he’s going to be here this summer) and even Steve Smith and David Warner would lose nothing by sampling what an early season English summer has to offer.
It goes against the grain to a large degree and many would scoff at such a suggestion, yet to spurn such an opportunity could easily be described as unnecessary wastage.
And there wouldn’t be a lack of takers if, all of a sudden, a glut of international-class Australian batsmen became available. The counties generally have no qualms about aiding the opposition if it suits their own ends and a few chief executives would be on their email like a shot.
You don’t improve your links golf by playing on inland courses and the principle is the same in this instance.
It’s there if you’re prepared to take the plunge and it’ll soon be closing in on 20 years of barren travelling.
That’s a long time, isn’t it?