There’s some real cricket on.
Cameron Green has asserted his right to re-entry into the Test team with a pair of sweet County Championship centuries, Marnus Labuschagne’s English preparations are not going so well, but friend-of-the-pod, Kurtis Patterson, has started his fill-in stint at Surrey in style, while Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb press on positively.
Harris, some believe, is a chance to achieve the rare feat of 1000 County Championship runs before May’s end, but his early summer form was not enough for him to be included in the squads for next month’s WTC Final or the West Indies series that follows.
Then there’s the Indian Premier League/Pakistan Super League post-conflict reboot.
Here, since the ceasefire, the sounds of sabre rattling have joined the cacophony of sixes, pyrotechnics and amplified frivolities that usually accompany franchise cricket.