I dread to think how many sheets of paper and how much ink I have wasted in my lifetime. Think of the trees. If you know where ink comes from, think of that too. Pity the school kids who have gone without. And for what? Not the novel that I’d like to think I have in me (and one day hope to get out of me). No, nothing so useful or profound.

Give me a sheet of paper, a pen and the freedom to do what I like, and more often than not my first instinct will be to jot down numbers one to eleven. Some people are nitpickers. Some pick their nose or pockets or locks. I pick teams. Maybe at heart I am a frustrated selector. The collection of notepads under my bed bear testament to my habit, and the quickest way of dating them is seeing who is playing right back or batting at six.

For a few years, since Paul Collingwood retired, the question of who bats at six was pretty much the only one to address when picking an England cricket team. I had to look to football to feed my habit. No longer. The cricket team doesn’t pick itself any more, and it is anyone’s guess who will line up against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on June 12th.

Alastair Cook will open, but what else can we guarantee? Ian Bell and Jimmy Anderson will presumably play. But where will Bell bat? Who will open with Cook? Will Stuart Broad, Joe Root and Ben Stokes be fit? Who will keep wicket? Who will be the spinner? Will Jonathan Trott or Steven Finn return? Will Michael Carberry or Tim Bresnan be retained? Can Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan or Samit Patel cut it as Test cricketers? What of the next generation? Gary Ballance? Jonny Bairstow? James Taylor? Sam Robson? Moeen Ali? Scott Borthwick? Chris Jordan?

For all the doom and gloom following a truly disastrous winter, it is an exciting time to be an English (qualified) cricketer. Throw in the football World Cup squad, and it’s an exciting time, also, for amateur selectors like me – and that’s before I’ve even considered my new job as Second XI captain for Camden CC. I might have to buy a new notepad …