It feels like a very long time since Ben Stokes was being acclaimed as the winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award at the P&J Live last December.
At the time, there was much talk about cricket’s ability to break down barriers if people worked together and pulled in the same direction.
These were fine words, precious sentiments, and the whole-hearted Stokes displayed his compassionate side by visiting the stricken Aberdeenshire professional, Solo Nqweni, in hospital during his brief visit to the Granite City.
But, a few months later, and particularly in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been no signs that the sport’s elite countries are interested in anything beyond helping themselves plan for the future after the easing of lockdown.
Nobody should have been suprised by Wednesday’s news that Scotland’s planned T20 meeting with Australia later this month in Edinburgh has been cancelled.
There was never any realistic prospect of the contest going ahead after Cricket Scotland suspended all activity across the country until at least July 1.
But now, there is nothing on the schedule for the whole of the summer for the likes of north-east stars Kyle Coetzer, Matt Cross, Michael Leask and their compatriots.
And while it isn’t the highest priority in the grand scheme, the cancellation of fixtures against Australia and New Zealand and – if we’re being honest – the inevitable postponement of the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, has cast a cloud over Associate nations such as Scotland with limited resources and playing budgets.
Governing bodies everywhere are grappiling with the ‘new normal’ and the rules are being rewritten in the process. But while England are preparing to take on the West Indies in a Test series next minth, starting in July 8, as the prelude to a hectic programme of activities, the cupboard is bare for their northern neighbours, who are starting at having no meaningful matches at all in 2020.
Surely, in these circumstances, there should be greater flexibility from the established teams and a willingness to engage in some missionary work.
The former Scotland captain, George Salmond, is not alone in wondering why the English authorities can’t arrange an ODI or a T20 tussle in the next few months.
After all, it should be easier to organise these sort of fixtures, considering there will be no tickets, no spectators and no need for police or stewarding costs…and the knowledge that we are talking about a match which will only last around three hours.
How much inconvenience would that cause? And yet, how much goodwill would be generated by such a scheme being brought to fruition?
Cricket’s admonistrators often make grand statements about spreading the gospel and expanding into new territory. But too often, it seems that the “Big Three” – England, Australia and India – are merely concerned with dreaming up ways to make themselves richer and immersing themselves in balance sheets and budgets.
The ICC has already reduced the number of participants in the main ODI World Cup and appears disinclined to implement a u-turn on that policy.
And now, an increasing focus is being placed on the IPL, which is a licence to print money for superstars, but a glitzy irrelevance to the global future of the game.
It is only two years since the Scots triumphed over England at the Grange. But only two years since they were denied the chance of World Cup qualification by some dodgy decisions, on and off the pitch, against the West Indies in Zimbabwe.
But if the coming months do turn into a wasteland for Coetzer & Co, it will be another indication that the ICC has a terrible lack of 2020 vision!