It's up to county cricket to fill the Ashes void

Moaning about the intrusive expansion of sporting seasons is up there with policemen getting younger and exams getting easier as one of Middle England's favourite hobbyhorses.

Football season never ends ... cricket season starts in mid-winter ... world to end shortly, if not before. You know the drill.

The curtain goes up on the 2005 English domestic season a fortnight tomorrow [Friday] with MCC taking on the county champions Warwickshire. It will be the earliest first-class match at Lord's, though not -­ by 24 hours -­ the earliest start to a season. That came in 2000 when Cambridge University locked mortar-boards with Lancashire.

But 2005 will be the longest domestic season, ending as it does with the final totesport League one-dayers on Sunday, September 25 - the same day as the final of the Champions Trophy last year.

There is always a sense of anticipation about the start of the season, though the proliferation of international matches round the world means that the English cricket junkie need not wait until April for a fix. But this is the summer when followers in the UK will need some sort of artificial stimulants to sustain them through the endless pre-Ashes hype.

Ah, the Ashes. The most eagerly-awaited Anglo-Aussie confrontation since ... the last one. Can't wait? Well, you're going to have to, because it's not for another three-and-a-half months, by which time England will have played Australia once over 20 overs and seven times over 50 overs in two separate competitions.

Whoopee! So, unless the limited-overs rubber stands at a tantalising three-all with one to play, the chances are that familiarity may already have bred, if not contempt, then indifference.

It is harsh, of course, on Bangladesh who tour England for the first time in May and June, but it is hard to avoid the feeling that, at least for the casual punter, the English season doesn¹t really start in earnest until Thursday, July 21 when, in the Poms' worst nightmares, Matthew Hayden dispatches the first ball of the Ashes series through midwicket.

And that's no good at all. English cricket's primetime is that small window in June and early July when football actually sleeps. But the only beneficiaries of this year's hiatus - with no major international football tournament ­- will be NatWest (sponsors of the one-day tournaments) and Sky TV, who broadcast the one-dayers.

By the time the Ashes kicks off, Premiership teams will be back in training and preparing for another campaign. Transfer tittle-tattle and groin-strain lowdowns will be tabloid currency once more.

But in the meantime, what of the much-maligned county game? There are times when it seems such an antiquated, anachronistic institution. Even the concept of identifying with counties at all is anathema to many people. And then there are all those second-rate southern Africans about whom everyone moans until they top their side's batting averages. So what's right about it?

Well, there's still plenty of quality cricket for those with the time or inclination to go and see it. And there are some top-drawer attractions as well: Warne at Hampshire; Harbhajan (dodgy doosra and all) at Surrey; Murali at Lancashire; Graeme Smith at Somerset.

April 8 is the day when the best of British inefficiencies and faded Victorian grandeur come bubbling to the surface once again ... but enough about Charles' and Camilla's wedding. The County Championship is still the best-supported domestic cricket in the world. That's something to shout about, isn't it?