November is rushing to a conclusion with all the pace of a Mitchell Johnson throat ball, albeit with little of the heart palpitations or physical damage.
The major cricket season started locally way back in the first week of October and the domestic 50-over competition has come and gone; Western Australia beat NSW in the final if you missed the result. Australia have completed a Zimbabwean tour, a one-day whitewash of, and five-day thrashing by Pakistan in the Arabian heat. Today the ODI series with South Africa winds up and the Test series with India follows quickly beyond.
I can't remember a busier summer, ever.
The fourth Sheffield Shield game of the season starts early next week and five of the premier domestic competition matches will be played out before the Big Bash League starts in mid-December.
After the four Tests against India come some more ODIs and then the World Cup starts.
Cricket authorities have learnt much from the football codes. If league, union and AFL want to keep encroaching into the summer, then cricket should fight back by playing the World Cup final at the MCG during round four of the AFL and do the team warm-ups across the road on AAMI Park during half-time in a Storm or Rebels fixture. Give me a concussion test now.
Australia have played all three forms of the game in the past month, and since the Zimbabwe-South Africa tri-series have suited up 44 different players. That's not bad for a nation with six domestic teams; the 22 who haven't got a game yet must be terribly disappointed or hanging by the phone for the selectors' call.
This one-day series against South Africa should be a testing ground for the World Cup, but so many different players are being used that it is difficult to get a grasp of the selectors' thinking. The omission of Steve Smith from game one in Perth seemed ludicrous at the time and has not become any less so in the intervening nine days.
One assumes that a player who scores better than a run a ball, is among your best fieldsmen and bowls some handy, often wicket-taking overs and is a candidate for captaincy in Michael Clarke's enforced absence would be one of the first names on the team sheet.
His inventive and match-winning performance in Canberra put the exclamation point on the response. If Michael Clarke had not been injured, Smith may still be getting splinters in his backside.
He is in for the long haul in both 50-over and Test cricket. It may be a little early in his career to be thinking about Test captaincy, but judging by his credentials when captaining NSW in Shield cricket, he has the tactical nous and the inner bravado to succeed.
The captaincy issue has jumped from medium-term succession planning to appointments at the tailor for a blazer fitting since Clarke's hamstring has decided to become recidivist .
Athletes do not like to have "recurring" in front of any of their attributes apart from winning and Pup's hammie is a candidate for transportation to the colonies.
The latest news from Cricket Australia's sports medicine people hasn't thrown any meaningful light on the degree of the most recent strain or the certainty of a return to the field. Time could be a useful healer, followed by a club or state game to prove full fitness before another foray into the national team .
There is no urgency, the target should be for Clarke to be in full form and fitness for the World Cup in mid-February. An adequate replacement for the captain cum best batsman in the team is currently not playing in Australian first-class cricket. The most experienced cricketer in the Test team is Chris Rogers. Yet despite his outstanding success in the Ashes, he finds his position at the top of the order being questioned.
They don't play Test cricket with pink Kookaburras – yet, so let him continue his positive influence on David Warner for a while longer.
Warner has supporters within the team who see his cricket brain as one of the sharpest. But he, like Shane Warne, may have his off-field record count against him if the leadership was seriously tipped his way. The passage of time and continued good behaviour may mitigate the deeds of the past. Nevertheless, his run-making up front are of great importance until a leadership portfolio comes.
The man most likely to toss the coin at the 'Gabba is Brad Haddin, who should line up for the Blues in this week's Shield game if he passes a fitness test on his banged-up scapula. Haddin, the shrewd and tough wicketkeeper, has the respect of his peers and the opposition. He will wear the skipper's jacket well.
Criticism of recent results on foreign soil have been seriously off-beam.
The lack of recognition of Pakistan's fine cricket was a part of the misreading of those two results. But the failure to understand just how different the style of the game is on flat, slowly turning sub-continental pitches demonstrates the ignorance of history.
Steve Waugh's truly great teams had to battle for a solitary Test series win in India. This team does not have McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist, or the other strong cast members who enabled Waugh's tourists to handle the conditions and win narrowly.
Calling correctly at the toss helps a great deal, so does converting every single catching opportunity. Back on hard and high bouncing pitches, the Australians will bat and bowl much better than they did in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Conversely, India will struggle in the Australian environment.
India's record away from their home dirt is abysmal, only two seasons ago they went into free fall down under as Tendulkar took his curtain calls, and in the recent northern summer, they collapsed heavily after winning the first Test against England, losing three in a row by large margins.
Ryan Harris looks to be on the right track after knee surgery and a long rehabilitation. But he was a yard or two down on pace last week in Brisbane.
The jury is out until he has another couple of matches under his belt, but don't be surprised if he features in the third or fourth Test if the early adopters don't get the job done.
Peter Siddle has been asked to get his pace back around the 140km/h mark to meet coach Darren Lehmann's KPIs and he had a promising haul with the old ball in Adelaide, helping the Vics to a win. He won't concede his position without a fight.
For the veterans Siddle and Harris, they find themselves in a tussle with the tyros and that is a good thing for Australian cricket.
Josh Hazlewood has begun this season as he finished the last one; in serious wicket-taking form. Hazlewood is bowling with excellent pace and swinging the new and old ball. Likewise Mitchell Starc has been bowling fast and getting out good players. Add to these two the currently r'n'ring Mitch Johnson and you have three quick, penetrating bowlers. Perhaps Siddle will be in the 12 for Brisbane.
Nathan Lyon was among the many who received an education in the Arabian Nights; you never stand still in professional sport, it's either backwards or onwards and you learn much more from your losses than your victories.
Lyon's 112 wickets in 33 Tests suggest that he has plenty to offer.
Those first-day pitches in the UAE gave him nothing and spin bowlers are expected to be effective towards the latter stages of matches as pitches deteriorate, not on opening day strips of concrete. There will only be one spinner at the 'Gabba and that will be Lyon. If two are needed in Adelaide than Steve O'Keefe will get his second Test.
The other spinner to keep an eye on is Cameron Boyce who was unlucky not to be given some opportunities during this ODI series. Xavier Doherty's skills are known, he has been a useful contributor to the 50-over team. However, while finger spin can contain, wrist spin can disrupt.
While many in the CA offices have their focus on the World Cup, the trick for the players is to have their eyes and attention firmly fixed on the next match, and then the one after that.
The T20 series with South Africa didn't excite the public's imagination a great deal, the ODIs only slightly more. Maybe the fans are waiting for the World Cup too. But before the summer train takes us to that autumnal destination there are some serious Test matches to ferment our interest, and a chance for the players to prove that the failed desert campaign was simply an aberration.
