So … are you excited about the big England match tonight? What do you mean which England match? Hold on, there’s a vital World Cup qualifier for the England footy team tonight? But there’s an England ODI as well – and it’s a day/nighter. Surely the ECB wouldn’t have done anything so silly as schedule an England cricket match on the same night as an England football match?

Of course they have. They could have scheduled it for yesterday or tomorrow, but then what’s the point of that when there’s no major sporting event to clash with?

The schedules may well be planned months in advance, but that’s no excuse. England v Croatia was always going to be a big game, whatever the situation in the qualifying group. Even in the unlikely scenario that the footy was moved after the cricket schedules were made public, it would have been sensible to move today’s match at the Rose Bowl.

Any momentum built from England’s Ashes win needs to be continued by the ECB. This only helps to derail it.

Daniel Brigham is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer