THE SUREST WAY TO END THE DROUGHT

They say that in the north it will snow this week, and that we will see sleet, strong winds and wintry showers everywhere else. Naturally. The County Championship starts on Thursday, and the surest fix for the drought that is afflicting much of England is to pitch a wicket and play cricket; it's our own indigenous rain dance. This column really need only run to a single word – "hooray" – county cricket is back, and after a long grey winter that's reason enough to rejoice. Sadly, even for a free weekly cricket column, one word seems rather short change. So we must meander on.

They say too that warm weather has bamboozled the cuckoos, who are arriving back from Africa too late to lay their eggs in the nests of the meadow pipits and reed warblers and other birds. The unseasonable sunshine means those chicks have already hatched. The early spring is discombobulating for cricket fans too. On Sunday afternoon the Spin was at The Oval, dozing, with one eye on the match between Surrey and the students of Leeds/Bradford MCCU. In the row in front of me one man was sitting, topless, sweating over a scorecard that he was diligently filling in, and in the row behind were a couple in sunhats and sunglasses, the woman asleep on the man's shoulder. It was April Fools' Day.

Once upon a time statisticians would record who had scored the most runs before the end of May. Essex batsman Greg Smith has just set the mark for the most runs before the end of March, with 160. Sam Robson's 117 for Middlesex against Durham MCCU was the earliest first-class hundred ever scored. And on that same day Graham Napier walloped a hundred off 48 balls at Fenner's. There was only one faster hundred last year. The Walter Lawrence Trophy could have been won on the very first day of the season.

For fans – at least those not dodging and ducking sixes at Fenner's – county grounds are a kind of sanctuary, allowing peace, space and time to ponder life's more important questions – shall we have another pint? Should they put a short-leg in? Is it too early to eat that sausage roll? Can Somerset finally win the title this year? Who would you rather pick to bat for your life, Geoffrey Boycott or Steve Waugh? It is good therapy for overloaded minds.

Traditionally the start of the season is supposed to be accompanied by articles fretting about the future of the county game, as sure a sign of spring's arrival as the return of those confused cuckoos. This piece should provide a solemn examination of the finances of the clubs – perilous; information about the attendances – around half a million over the season, including repeat customers, a 10% increase; and a dissection of the latest plans of the county game's administrators – bonkers. But I can't quite bring myself to do that. Like most other fans, now the season is here I simply want to sit back and enjoy the cricket.

Gordon Hollins, the new managing director of the professional game, told the Daily Telegraph in a recent interview: "There are three camps really. You have got people who love cricket and will watch it any time anywhere, people who hate it and will never watch it under any circumstances and the vast majority are in the middle where they could be persuaded." On a sunny April day, when you are part of a surprisingly sizeable crowd of those same people "who love cricket and will watch it any time anywhere", it is hard to believe that the situation is as dire and doom-laden as the headlines would have us believe. Among the faithful, the idea that things are not as good as they once were is firmly entrenched, cherished even. Cricket fans are excessively prone to nostalgia, and such thoughts and conversations are all part of the ritual. Has cricket ever existed in anything other than a state of mild crisis?

Even the Indian Premier League, which starts on Wednesday, is catching on to the perverse pleasures of pessimism. Viewer numbers dropped by a third last year. Advertising has gone unsold, and sponsors have been harder to find.

Hollins said the third group, those who could be persuaded, are the ones the ECB and the counties need to concentrate on attracting to the Championship. He singled out what he called the "Saga market" – "retired people with time on their hands who other companies would give their eye teeth for". It is not, it has to be said, the sexiest sports marketing campaign ever conceived. The IPL, presumably, is plotting a more exotic solution for its own financial struggles.

If you're not part of that demographic, you have to take the chances to get to the grounds when you can. For much of the season I'll be following the cricket online. Internet coverage has been good for the county game, allowing all those office-bound workers who don't have the luxury of being able to idle away days among the Saga readers to follow the games. Coverage has been squeezed out of print, but has found a new home. The Guardian's own county cricket live blog has led the way, gathering together a community of devotees who while away working hours in conversations about cricket, cooking, ale and other life and death matters. Expect more imitations to spring up on rival sites this summer. Cricinfo, too, says it is going to put more emphasis on its county coverage this year. The BBC has committed to covering county matches live online and on digital radio.

Now that I've reached the end of this piece, I'm really not too sure what my point was, except to say that the county season starts this week and that makes me happy. The rest of what I've written seems to be little more than a long meander through some unconnected thoughts, ideas and observations. Too much time sitting in the stands at a county ground will do that to you.

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