The County Championship begins this week, ridiculously early, some may say. It will conclude in the first days of October; ridiculously late. The middle of what should be high summer will see cricketing days devoted to The Hundred, otherwise known to aged and ageing devotees of the first-class game as “the ECB’s latest abomination”. Still, we better not to complain too loudly, and instead recognise that ever since what is recognised as first-class cricket came into being, not long after Napoleon was dispatched to St Helena, the one thing constant in cricket has been change. Naturally, there have always been many dolefully denouncing any innovation as likely to sound the death-knell of the game they loved. Cricket conservative though I am, I have come to recognise the extraordinary skills developed in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and T20 cricket in general.