Day 32: The evenings are getting lighter

The days are getting longer. That is enough to fill the heart with joy. It may be warmer to crawl into the freezers in Aldi next to the frozen peas than sitting outside for six hours in early April. Those of us who would watch county cricket on the moon, cheer the lighter evenings. The hope makes us feel better about our day. The days on a calendar starts to be crossed off, and suddenly we are daydreaming of a day when we can be under several layers at Derby.

When Bernie Sanders's image at Joe Biden's inauguration with his snazzy mittens, county cricket fans were thinking 'see, we have always been cool.' If Sanders had a thermos flask and a copy of this year's Playfair Annual, we would all have felt we were in a better place.

As a group, the county cricket supporter is often misunderstood. We support a competition that we have been told has been dying since the 1950s. We may not have the time to be at every game like the supporters of teams in other sports, but don't tell us we are any less committed.

We had Ceefax for years, just waiting for the page on the television to refresh so we could see that the two balls had been scoreless. We wouldn't know if it was stoic blocking or wild swishes that failed to contact the bat.

In an age of Twitter and instant streams, we are closer to the action when not at the ground. We can consume more cricket than ever before, yet somehow more distant from it at the same time.

It doesn't help that we don't know when we can get our next cricket fix alongside our natural absorption vitamin d.

I hope it is sooner rather than later. There is nothing better than being able to see familiar faces, even if we never speak to them. There is a Sussex supporter who I think spoke with more at a football match at Burton Albion than I ever have at any cricket game.

So in the meantime keep dreaming of that trip to Northampton or an amble down to Taunton, and hopefully, I will see you soon.