They say the more things change, the more they stay the same, and as the new county season began here in the drizzle at Lord’s, with a 41-year-old Tim Murtagh at the top of his mark and a 38-year-old Alastair Cook at the non-striker’s end, it was easy to forget that the months since the last have been dominated by talk of a landscape that will never look the same.
County cricket has never had a busier offseason and seldom can resumption have felt, for so many, like continuation. More than 70 domestic players were at various points employed in franchise leagues around the world during the winter months, in Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and the UAE. The cream of them are still missing now, tied up at the IPL.
