Autumn is fast approaching in the Western world, a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, according to the English poet John Keats. It also marks the end of the cricket season in England and Wales, as the final first-class matches ended on Sept. 29.

It is a month later than it used to be in my boyhood. Then, there was a fairly clear demarcation between summer and winter sports.

Sixty years ago, the 1964 first-class cricket season began on May 6 and ended on Sept. 1. The English football league matches kicked off on Aug. 22, the last match in the 1963 to 1964 season having been played on April 27. There was a gap of almost four months.

Times have changed. Setting aside long football World Cup tournaments, regional, international, and club competitions, and extended international pre-season events, domestic fixture schedules have been elongated.

The opening 2023 to 2024 English Premier League fixture was on Aug. 11. The last one is scheduled for May 19. In the previous season, the last fixtures were played on May 28. The gap has narrowed to less than three months.

This is anathema to diehard cricket lovers. Some of them have been known to take it to extremes.

One Saturday in early September 1961, when the cricket and football seasons marginally overlapped, a team of cricketers bought an evening paper, another relic of the past.

Much to their chagrin, they had difficulty locating the cricket scores among the football coverage. Spurred on by this perceived sleight that soccer was encroaching into their season, they resolved to fight back.

The outcome was a match played on Dec. 26. Interestingly, they chose the 20-over format, long before it was introduced professionally in 2002. Soup and baked potatoes comprised lunch between innings. Spirits were provided at 10-over breaks. The event was repeated in 1962.

Given that wintry conditions were ever probable, an appropriate team name was adopted – Jack Frost XI.

The origins of Jack Frost are uncertain, but he is usually caricatured as a mischievous boy who personifies frost, formed when water vapor is deposited onto freezing surfaces. However, he failed to stop the Jack Frost XI from blossoming into a healthy club, which exists until this day.

In 1975, it played in every month of the year and has undertaken both domestic and overseas tours. Cricket has also been played on ice, as early as 1826. An international tournament, Cricket on Ice, has been played on Lake St. Moritz since 1989.

Another consequence of the closing of the gap between the end of the football season and the beginning of the cricket season – and vice versa – was to eliminate the dual professional. These were players who excelled at both a summer and winter sport to the extent that they performed at the highest levels in both. There are four categories of these talented individuals in England.

First, there are 13 who were double internationals, representing England at both cricket and football, 12 men and one woman. The last man to achieve this was Arthur Milton in 1959, but Clare Taylor made her mark in the 1990s.

Secondly, there are 22 individuals who have played cricket for England and professional football. This group includes Denis Compton, who did play football for England, but in unofficial wartime matches. Ian Botham is also in the group. The last player to achieve the feat did so in 1985.

Thirdly, there are 72 individuals who have played first-class cricket in England and have turned out for the England football team. The latest was Geoff Hurst, who played one first-class cricket match in 1962 and is most famously known for scoring a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final.

The fourth group of 64 individuals played both first-class cricket and professional football.

Since 1980, these dual arrangements have been scarce. Currently, in English first-class cricket, there is only one player who has played professional football and is performing at county level.

It should be no surprise that there are many individuals who are multi-talented in sport. Increasingly over the last 50 years, they have had to make a choice on which sport they should focus.

Gary Neville, best known as a football pundit following a trophy laden career at Manchester United, played cricket for Lancashire at under-14 level.

Jonty Rhodes, a South African cricketer and outstanding fielder, was part of his country’s hockey team in the 1992 Olympics.

A more recent South African player, AB de Villiers, who retired from cricket in 2021, is one of few players to average more than 50 in both Test and one-day international cricket. He was also a talented tennis player, but practice sessions clashed unforgivingly with cricket.

An all-time cricketing great, Vivian Richards, represented Antigua in a qualifying match for the 1974 football World Cup. Botham, his friend and foe, had to choose between football and cricket in his youth, having been offered an apprenticeship by a First Division club.

Although he did play 11 matches for a lower division club, Botham’s choice of cricket proved to be a wise one.

One of India’s most famous dual sporting personalities was Subimal “Chuni” Goswami. He captained India at football, most famously to gold in the 1962 Asian Games. In that year, he made his debut for the Bengal cricket team, playing with distinction until 1973.

Since 1980, the opportunities for multi-talented individuals to pursue a prolonged dual-sport professional career have become practically impossible.

A classic case is Ellyse Perry. At 16, in 2006, she made her debuts for both the Australian women’s cricket and football teams. Between 2012 and 2016, clashes between cricket and football demands resulted in a focus on cricket, in which she is regarded as one of the greatest ever female players.

The spread of multi-format cricket for both men and women, accompanied by increased remuneration, demands that players are full-time, single sport, professional athletes. Effectively, this renders futile any nostalgia for demarcation to exist between sporting seasons.

Sometimes a captain of a cricket team gets a decision wrong. It happened to Sri Lanka’s captain, Dasun Shanaka, in the Asia Cup Final last Sunday in Colombo. He won the toss and chose to bat under clear skies. Before play could start, rain arrived, causing a 40-minute delay.

By the time the innings opened, overcast skies created a different set of conditions to those envisaged at the toss. In 15.2 overs, India’s bowlers demolished the Sri Lankan team, which could only total 50 runs. India then raced to victory in only 6.1 overs without loss.

Expectant home supporters were left surprised and disappointed at an embarrassing performance, which was Sri Lanka’s lowest total in a home match in the ODI format. This came after the delirious scenes that greeted Sri Lanka’s victory over Pakistan the previous Thursday, one which secured a place in Sunday’s final.

Inevitably, criticism has been levelled at Shanaka. In hindsight, he should have chosen to bowl. India’s captain said that he would have chosen to bat, had he won the toss.

Irrespective of the Shanaka’s decision, it is his ODI form that has drawn the most attention. After scoring a century against India in January 2023, his subsequent 17 innings have generated only 150 runs at an average of 9.4. This fell to 5 in the Asia Cup. During his pre-final press conference, he said that his captaincy was more important than his batting. He may have a point.

Since July 2021, he has led the team in 39 ODIs, achieving a 61percent-win ratio. As captain in 48 T20Is since October 2019, his win ratio is 49 percent. While these ratios are some way short of the highest ones achieved of 70-80 percent, there has been an improvement in Sri Lanka’s results under Shanaka’s leadership. This has stabilized Sri Lanka’s fragile relationships between board, players and political forces. It even embraced victory in the 2022 Asia Cup, played in T20I format.

Another captain under pressure prior to the 2023 ICC men’s ODI World Cup is Pakistan’s Babar Azam. His place in the team is assured, given that he is regularly ranked in the top-three batters across all formats. However, by all accounts, he struggled to keep his feelings in check after his team’s defeat by Sri Lanka last week.

The match went down to the final over, from which eight runs were required. The over was entrusted to a debutant bowler, in the team because of injuries to two regular quick bowlers. It seemed as if he might be the hero, narrowing the target to six from the final two deliveries and two from the final one, Sri Lanka having only one wicket to fall, a player having been injured during the match. Amid the drama, Sri Lanka’s striker squeezed out two runs to secure a place in the final.

In the post-match press conference, Azam was gracious, remarking that Sri Lanka played better cricket and that Pakistan was not “up to the mark with its bowling and fielding.” Later, rumors emerged that he was less than gracious in the dressing room, voicing disappointment with the performance of certain senior players, one of whom took objection. Another intervened to calm the situation down. Given that the result denied Pakistan a tilt at India in the final, backlash against the result from supporters and observers would be anticipated, most of all by Azam.

Losing dressing rooms are not usually a happy place to be, particularly after semifinals. This defeat will have been especially difficult to digest and Azam’s reaction will have reflected disappointment at his own form, the loss of key players and a feeling that several players could have done more to help. In any case, such internal discussions should not be leaked and there have been subsequent denials of disharmony. In my experience, harmony within teams is difficult to achieve and, unsurprisingly, is most likely to occur when the team is winning. Even then, there are certain personalities that do not gel.

In this respect, it was revealing to listen to one of England’s most successful captains, Mike Brearley, speak this week at a talk to promote his latest book, “Turning Over the Pebbles.”

Brearley made 39 appearances for England between 1976 and 1981. He was captain for 31 matches, of which 18 were won and only four lost. Most famously, he was recalled as captain in 1981 midway through a series against Australia, after Ian Botham resigned the post.

In the third Test at Headingley, Leeds, England stared defeat in the face, five wickets down and 122 runs behind in its second innings. Encouraged by Brearley, Botham launched a ferocious counterattack culminating in Australia needing 129 runs to win. They were bowled out for 111.

This and other results have led Brearley to be labelled a “lucky” captain, something that he does not deny. However, there are many nuances and subtleties to him, someone whom an Australian player referred to as having a “degree in people.” It is an appropriate epithet.

He studied Classics at Cambridge, afterwards lecturing in philosophy. Along the way, he developed an interest in psychoanalysis, which he has practiced for 40 years. The book seeks to bring together these strands of his life, turning them over, like pebbles, to see what lies behind.

What is clear is that he relished being captain. Tactics and strategy are vital ingredients but without a proper grasp of human relations they are not enough. Empathy, truthfulness and courage are required in dealing with team members. Brearley was well versed in these attributes and was able to persuade seasoned professionals to change well-trodden paths. There are few admissions of mistakes, yet he questions if he was good enough as a player to justify his place in the team. Shanaka’s place is being questioned but he backs his leadership qualities. Azam’s playing abilities are not in question, but his leadership qualities are. One can only speculate what advice Brearley might offer the pair.