Anyone who has the slightest interest and respect for the traditions of cricket will not be surprised by Simon Wilde's article in the latest Sunday Times.
Wilde highlighted issues in English cricket concerning 'red-ball batting'.
For those who don't know, 'red-ball batting' is cricket played either five-day Tests or first-class games of either three or four-day duration.
As former New Zealand cricket captain and coach Glenn Turner demonstrated in his book Cricket's Global Warming, this is an issue that strikes at the heart of cricket.
If players don't have the skills to play first-class and Test cricket, how sustainable is the game?
Changes to scheduling in England's county championship mean fewer than one in five matches will be played between early June and late August.
This was a time when the county programme was traditionally in full flight during the longest days of summer. Former Test batsman and England batting coach Mark Ramprakash, now working at Harrow School, said the ECB had 'undermined' first-class cricket.
Ramprakash was most concerned that in order to have quick runs scored in shorter forms of the game, opening batsmen were not getting a chance to develop because they didn't have time to assess conditions.
"With the prioritisation of T20, and now the Hundred, our young players are practising short-format skills in front of first-class technique. Rather than having a 1500-run season in the championship, if they get a couple of quick fifties on TV they can rise to prominence quickly," he said.
Wilde said this type of thinking meant England had trouble finding batsmen at one, two or three who could score consistently in Tests.
Wilde quoted Middlesex batsman Sam Robson, an opener for England in 2014. He said: "It's an important position, and you've got to be passionate about it. If you do it reluctantly, it won't work long-term. One of the great challenges is being able to shrug off failures"."
But with the emphasis on short-forms of the game, players had to have experience of all types of bowling so they could perform against different bowling in shorter forms.
Test batsman Keaton Jennings told Wilde he had played 17 Tests, of which none were drawn. County cricket had also developed a result culture.
"The old-fashioned way of knuckling down has gone at times. Guys want to throw a counterpunch.
"The best top-order batters are incredibly tough and stubborn," he said.
However, Jennings said academy players at his Lancashire county wanted to play Test cricket, which was something.
Ramprakash said the challenge was for players to try and be good at all formats.
To do that there was no escaping the fact that hard work on the basics is inescapable for sustained achievement.