There is also the question of the endless interruptions. Even if one is effectively playing a sort of injury time, with a minimum number of overs demanded in a day, the public are being short-changed by sitting in a stadium, having usually paid handsomely for the privilege, and being repeatedly compelled not to watch cricket. Administrators bang on about poor over rates, and possibly cutting Tests to four days, but little progress can be made on either while this frequent intrusion exists. The real measure must be gauged by answering this question: has it improved Test cricket? It has not.

Some will argue that the clock cannot be turned back: that the technology exists and therefore must be used. If you prefer vinyl to a CD or a download, you will know this is not the cut-and-dried case it might seem. The logical conclusion, I am afraid, is to stop having umpires altogether, and to put robots at the bowler’s end and at square leg (I am not joking, for the avoidance of doubt). In an instant the robot, or rather the technology inside it, could tell whether a no ball or a wide had been bowled; whether a catch had been off the pad, an edge or the glove; whether a ball provoking an lbw appeal would have hit the stumps; whether a batsman was out of his ground when stumped or run out; whether a ball had gone out of shape or been tampered with; and a drone could feed it information about boundaries or catches in the deep, in response to which a green light would flash for a four, or a red light for a six.