IF you repeat something often enough, people will believe it.

Or so the saying goes.

But will they listen and, more important than that, act?

As is custom, I have spent the past fortnight talking to as many contacts as I can find time to, what with having a ridiculously hectic finale to the football and rugby union campaigns to keep an eye on too.

Curiously, they’ve told me pretty much what they did last year.

And the spring before.

Senior cricket is approaching a crisis, or so it feels.

Fewer adults than at any moment during my time following sport in mid Cheshire are signed up to play cricket.

It’s a challenge for almost all of our clubs to get 22 players out on the square every Saturday, and that has to be a concern.

And what about Sundays? Well, that’s harder still if the entry list for both the Cheshire Cup and the Cheshire Shield is a guide.

So far, there isn’t a solution.

In fact, that stage is a way off just yet – have we even explored potential remedies with enough rigour?

I talk most often to captains, and I’d dread to see their phone bill.

A scramble to put out two teams isn’t much fun, and less so if one of them is losing every week.

And that’s a shame, because a new season ought to bring with it renewed optimism, raised expectation and even the odd delusion of grandeur.

Against a gloomy backdrop, there are splashes of colour to behold.

Oulton Park’s return to the Cheshire County League’s top-flight is a welcome one after six years away.

They will be keen in the first instance to establish themselves again and a formidable batting line-up – led by new Cheshire captain Danny Leech – should help them do that.

Davenham raised the bar with their highest-ever finish last summer, and maintain that standard will represent a successful campaign.

Kingsley are another club climbing a level, and they make their debut in the Cheshire League’s top-flight.

Momentum works both ways, and an unchanged team already has a winning mentality.

Oakmere and Winnington Park will be hoping to break free clear of mid-table to challenge for promotion from the level below, while Middlewich will be happy to stand still.

That’s not being pessimistic; after three successive demotions, a steady summer at Haddon Field would be most welcome.

All we need now is for it to stop raining…