THE GOOGLY: MAKE 'EM PLAY CRICKET DICE!

FOLLOW HUW TURBERVILL @HUWZAT

Have you heard the preposterous amount of money that it apparently costs to entertain and feed a youngster this summer? It's £1,445. That's a lot of T20 Blast tickets. Or data used up chasing damned Pokemon gimlets. 

At risk of sounding like Fred Trueman, twasn't like that in my day.

Being a cricket-mad only child, and with a father who was not a fan of the game, I entertained myself on the cheap. When the weather was clement, I had a bat, a tennis ball and a wall. I used to play my own Test matches. Though I never quite worked out how to stop the tail-enders making as many runs as the top order. I think I tried to get into their mindset, so subconsciously played poor shots, but it was tricky. The other problem was annoying my dad, who was behind the wall, watching the telly. The repetitive thud of a tennis ball must have been like Chinese Water Torture.

When it rained, there was Subbuteo Cricket and its taple-top cousin, Test Match. Difficult to play that on your own, though.

The best time-filler was Cricket Dice. All you needed for that was a pencil; a dice (and a pencil would do for that if you didn't have one - my grandfather would use his penknife to cut the six edges of the pencil to act as a substitute); a pad of paper and Dad's Daily Telegraph for the latest county line-ups. That didn't cost me or my parents £1,445 (or the inflation-adjusted equivalent).

That said, I have just looked up the world's most expensive pencil, and apparently it's a Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. "At $12,800 this classic pencil is crafted with 240-year-old olive wood and 18-carat white gold, and includes a handy built-in eraser and sharpener!" Perfect for cricket dice then!

Of course another way to entertain your kids is to take them on cricket tour.

I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Suffolk with my son, who is 11. We had three lovely matches at Woodbridge School (two) and Brandeston Hall School, near Framlingham. 

Speaking to the locals, it sounds as if clubs are still struggling to raise sides. Mergers, cancellations and closures still ensue. One potential solution is to make all non 1st XI cricket T20, apparently.

My only reservation is that it's a long way to go sometimes for such a short game, but better regionalisation is part of the plan.

Shorter cricket is better than no cricket, I guess.