But – kerching! – we’ve seen the light. Or at least the dollar signs. Clearly the noble goal of flogging crisps to schoolchildren is also an extremely valuable one, after the far-sighted impresarios funding cricket’s march into a glorious future of year-round T20 league action agreed to line the ECB’s coffers to the tune of half a billion quid, essentially for the right to rename Northern Popchips as Sunrisers Headingley (an ironic name if ever there was one).

Truly we live in remarkable times, where even the calm and reasonable advice of Lalit Modi isn’t enough to steer the IPL’s finest away from another T20 investment honeypot. English cricket’s controversial start-up has successfully lured in the venture capitalists, and the game is now richer than Croesus – aka almost as valuable as a single IPL franchise. If that means Derbyshire can afford to renovate the toilet blocks at the County Ground, so much the better.

Sure, there could be a downside. And not just because Trent Rockets’ player roster is now in the hands of Todd Boehly. When private equity drops fat stacks, it usually does so with a nose for return on investment. How do you drive up the value of a product that has already been priced beyond most observers’ wildest estimations? It probably won’t come through selling a truckload of MI Oval merch on its own.

In the wake of a bunch of Silicon Valley fanboys splurging nearly £150 million for one of the least-winningest (men’s) teams in the Hundred, Lord’s-based London Spirit – which is certainly one way to jump the queue for an MCC membership – Mike Atherton described the ECB’s sudden windfall as “a bet on the sport of cricket”. Which, given the game’s long and colourful association with the gambling industry, is certainly appropriate – if not altogether encouraging.

Still, the direction of travel was clear, and English cricket needed to get on board. But it reminds the Light Roller, if you’ll permit a slight retreat into our former pessimism, of an old New Yorker cartoon in which a businessman in a tatty-looking suit addresses some children huddled around a fire in an apocalyptic wasteland: “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

For those worrying that the Hundred sell-off has taken us a step closer to T20-leagues-mageddon and the end of international cricket as we know it – relax, bro, the ICC has got you. Not only did the governing body create the World Test Championship after a mere decade of prevaricating, they are actually planning on improving it. Y’know, so that generations to come can enjoy the gift to humanity that is Test cricket. At least we assume that’s what ECB chair Richard Thompson was saying when he spoke on the subject earlier this month. “It is fully understood that the current structure does not work in the way it should,” he said. “The World Test Championship should be fairer and more competitive. It is going to change to ensure it always encourages the best teams to reach the final and encourages other nations that want to play Tests to play Tests.” Yes, it definitely sounds like they have only good intentions – and aren’t just planning to rig it so the Big Three get to play each other more and upstarts like South Africa don’t reach the final at the expense of wholly more deserving teams (example: India). Right? Right???

Such is the clash between red- and white-ball cricket nowadays that some players are taking radical steps to fit both into the schedule – see Dasun Shanaka’s much-publicised feat of playing a first-class match and a T20 in the same day. The fact that one was in Colombo and the other in Dubai might have presented a problem for some but not Shanaka, who whizzed off early from SSC’s fixture against Moors. “SLC and the club knew I had to leave,” Shanaka said, explaining how he had coincidentally also sustained a concussion, but one that wasn’t so bad he couldn’t get on a flight and turn out in the ILT20 later in the day. And the doctor was practically on the way to the airport. And his Dubai Capitals kit was already in the car. Plus, he also had a lot of air miles that were about to expire. See, it all makes complete sense. You’d have to have been hit on the head to think otherwise.