With Australian summer's first Test set to start in Brisbane today, there has never been a greater disconnect with cricket than there is now.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cricket Australia in the past few years has done its finest work making the sport extremely complex to follow.
Forget the discontent from sandpaper-gate, trying to follow the domestic season is like doing a puzzle with no box to reference. The fixture is a shemozzle with one-day fixtures intertwining with Sheffield Shield and WBBL matches.
The ostracising of fans began when administrators walked away from a traditional home and away 50-over competition in 2015-16 and started playing matches on a handful of regional venues to give the BBL greater prominence. When you take the game away from your supporter base it can only end one way - badly.
The start of this rot has only been compounded by poor fixturing and the fact very little cricket is shown on free-to-air television.
Scheduling a WBBL match in Launceston on a Wednesday morning is one example. Another is the fact that international one-dayers and T20s on Australian soil can only be viewed on pay-TV, while Tests and some Big Bash League matches are broadcast on Channel 7.
Common sense will tell you that sports that thrive are accessible and in full view.
And Cricket Australia should not only be worried by the low crowd numbers that turned up to watch Australia's T20s against Pakistan and Sri Lanka last month, but it should also be extremely concerned by the number of clubs struggling to find players and maintain youth.
Most local sports clubs struggle to compete with technology, but it is only those that children can connect with that will remain at the top. And the BBL is not the answer to everything.
One solution would be to saturate the summer with cricket content on the open market, while another would be returning first-class and domestic one-day cricket to the states and regions such as Launceston.
Money isn't everything.