It is Friday evening. The big moment of the week for domestic T20. The time when cricket in Britain appears healthiest. Crowds are pouring down Nevil Road for the 6pm start. Seldom in the century and a half of their existence have Gloucestershire seen a sell-out, but they have for this derby against Somerset. The cry of touts – “Anyone for tickets, anybody want tickets?” – is as rare in these parts as the nightingale.

When Colin Graves, the England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, branded this season’s NatWest T20 Blast as “mediocre”, he did not deter 11,000 spectators from watching this match.