Somerset certainly have it all to do in their four remaining games, if they are to qualify for the T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday, September 14, writes Merv Colenutt.

There is no doubt, however, that Somerset have the quality and experience to reach their goal once again, the hope now has to be that despite dominating games in recent matches, they have been exposed at the death and as former Millfield coach Gerry Wilson added: “one bowler short can make all the difference and when Craig Overton is missing, they appear not to have that death finisher.”

In the meantime, the football season and pre-season friendlies are already underway, yet we are still to see a red ball bowled this summer in the test match series against the West Indies.

It certainly appears that the football season now runs for eleven months of the year, with just a one-month break in June and with cricket being played all over the world over a 12-month period, you have to ask the question, will money and the franchises start to take away our better players in the future and during our summer season in the future?

English red ball cricket, I feel, will lose its importance in the years to come, as the better players will be drawn by the white ball game and despite the brilliance of Somerset’s four-day victory over Warwickshire last week, you have to ask the question, for how long will the true cricket fans be treated to a final day as good as that victory in all formats of the game.

The same can be said of Glamorgan chasing down 592 to beat Gloucestershire with the game ending in a tie off the very last ball of their four-day fixture.

The brilliance of Tom Abell and Tom Banton was truly special and although I have been clear with my thoughts about Abell being selected for England, Gilbert Wall says: “the only way Tom Abell will be selected for England, is to play for Surrey. Dan Lawrence moved counties to play for England this season and he is already in the squad.”

Not sure I agree with that statement, but those thoughts cannot be dismissed and following two seasons where he has struggled to regain form, I still believe Tom Banton has a future with his country in both white and red ball cricket.

I, along with so many others, will be hoping that Bazball at test match level will bring back success for England, the jury is still out, but in many ways what should have been a classic series of test match cricket this summer is all being crammed into just one month in July against the West Indies with three test matches and then three more test matches against Sri Lanka in August and September.

Is test cricket eventually going to become a second class competition like the Royal One Day Cup, you would like to believe it won’t happen, but heads will be turned when financial gains take over an even bigger control of the game in the years ahead.