If the build-up to this summer’s collision between England and Australia’s cricketers appears to have gone on for ever, then it is still marginally shorter than the length of the actual contest. When the first ball of the first Test is bowled at Cardiff next Wednesday — hopefully into the same postcode district as the stumps this time — it will signal the start of a potential 34 days of head-to-head conflict between the oldest rivals in cricket.

The five, five-day Ashes Tests conclude at the end of August, and if the England team have cause to re-enact their legendary 2005 celebratory bender they will have to contend with the sobering thought of starting a two-match Twenty20 mini-series six days later. Though given the Aussies’ performance in the World Twenty20 last month even a pie-eyed Freddie Flintoff may be too much for them.

After that it’s just the seven 50-over, one-day internationals, finishing on September 20 with both sides heartily sick of the sight of one another — which is how it has been for 132 years and hopefully many more.

The domination of the Big Four in the Barclays Premier League hasn’t lasted quite that long — it just seems that way — and they will expect to resume normal service when their new football season kicks off on August 15 after what is likely to be a record-breaking round of summer transfer activity. Mark Hughes is the man most likely to disrupt the status quo, provided he can alchemise the black gold gushing into Manchester City and create a side of substance and sustainability. A team such as England, in fact, where most of the millions have been flowing into Fabio Capello’s wallet. But few will begrudge the national manager his outsize pay cheque if he delivers World Cup qualification against Croatia at Wembley on September 9, two matches early and devoid of drama.

Similarly, Jenson Button will be hoping to secure a low-angst, high-quality world motor racing championship by the end of August or early September as the Formula One circus — or, more accurately, procession — trundles through Valencia, Spa and Monza. With Bernie Ecclestone having pulled off his political high-wire act by at least keeping the show on the road, it is up to the sport to deliver the racing thrills and spills that have been conspicuously absent this season.

Golf pitches its big top at Turnberry in two weeks’ time with the Open Championship pleased to welcome back Tiger Woods as the main attraction after his absence through injury last year — though even the world No 1 will have to concede that the Claret Jug would need rebranding by Guinness if Padraig Harrington pulls off a hat-trick of wins.The Irishman’s form this year suggests that such a notion is away with the leprechauns, but then again so was the thought of Lucas Glover winning the US Open last month. Remember him? Thought not.

Those who prefer a more instant fix from their sport than an elongated cricket series should ensure that they are poised by their televisions at 8.35pm precisely on Sunday, August 16. It is possible that less than 9.69 sec later they will have seen Usain Bolt recalibrate the maths of whether a man can fly. The only question would appear to be whether the 100 metres final at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin commands his complete attention, gun to tape, in a way that the Olympic final in Beijing last year did not.

Dwain Chambers, footloose and drug-free, has initiated his own “Project Bolt” in an effort to rein in the untouchable Jamaican, but the sight of Britain’s bête noire leading home the man who eats world records for breakfast — with chicken nuggets to follow — would have the feel of a genuine hallucinogenic experience.

Beijing was hardly replete with success for the Great Britain athletics team, so the focus in Berlin will be on Christine Ohuruogu — the only gold medal-winner on the track in the Birds’ Nest stadium last year — as she defends the world 400 metres title she won two years ago in Osaka.

Rebecca Adlington is another star of last summer about to come back on to the radar. The swimming World Championships begin in Rome on July 18 and Adlington, as famous now for her penchant for posh shoes as for her Olympic success, will spearhead a resurgent GB squad. Remarkably, the biggest threat to a repeat of last year’s 400 metres/800 metres freestyle double is her team-mate, Jo Jackson, in the shorter event.

Mark Cavendish was one of the few Beijing sob stories, stomping medal-less out of the velodrome after a miserable match-up with an exhausted and distracted Bradley Wiggins in the madison. On the road, though, he remains a force of nature and is targeting the green jersey of the leading sprinter at the Tour de France, which starts its 24-day journey on Saturday. Only 24 days? Clearly cricketers have more stamina.