Totally accept that the disciplines required and different formats between red and white ball cricket, and that these dictate team selection, hence omission of Porter Cook, Little Chef. Is he fit now?
However I might be fanciful here, but I would like to think that professional pride still accounts for much, and is an important value of this wonderful game.
In successive home matches we have suffered horrendous collapses, last night 8-36 and dismissed in under 13 overs. Not much professional pride here.
An increasing worry is that losing continually, becomes a habit, as self confidence declines, anxiety magnifies and an ever deepening rut from which to escape is ever more difficult.
Is this form going to affect our Championship performance. I would like to think not, as the team will be significantly different, but if we do go to the last match in contention with Somerset, they will have derived a big confidence boost, even if a different format.
Some members of this board seem worryingly complacent if we fail to attract decent crowds.
It is hard enough for cricket to attract decent crowds, even to our small ground. Crowds represent income, whether through membership, casual attendance, families and commodity sales from beer, ice cream to burgers.
We are not the wealthiest County, not by a long way, and the more finance we can generate from whatever source, the better the players we can afford, especially overseas players, and thus turn our fortunes around.
Whether purists like it or not, T20 is now an integral part of our game, and with The Hundred arriving next year with its franchise bases far from Chelmsford, retaining support, financial and attendant, will become even harder.
Even the most loyal of supporters can turn away if results continue to be abysmal, let alone the likelihood of attracting a new generation of fans.
Wake up Essex, the future is now.
I would hope some really serious dialogue is now happening at senior management and ownership level, and that heads are not burying themselves in the sand.
I have my doubts.
