THERE’S something in the air, and it’s not just a nip. Cricket is back with — well, a bang would be pushing it, but a definite buzz.

It’s partly that lovers of the game have had a decent break. Last year, when England’s tour to the West Indies overlapped with a drawn-out home season, was just too much. It’s partly that the Australians are coming and it’s partly that England are now the second-best Test team in the world, so the demented optimism that traditionally bubbles up at this stage bears some relation to reality.

Cricket has a golden opportunity this summer, with three planets in alignment for possibly the last time: an Ashes series, no big football tournament to drown everything out and live coverage of all five Tests on terrestrial television — the real Tests, not the gentle warm-ups against Bangladesh. More than ever, the game needs England to go the distance in the Ashes, not roll over in the space of 11 days, as they did in 2001 and 2002-03.

Before that, the sport has another opportunity, less glitzy but almost as crucial — a chance for the county championship to shine. For the next two months the championship is the main event. There is no Benson & Hedges Cup any more to hog what passes for the limelight in cricket. Football’s Premiership has helpfully resolved itself early. There are seven rounds of four-day matches before the first Test and Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, is letting nearly all his players take part. By lunchtime yesterday, Stephen Harmison had taken more first-class wickets for Durham in 2005 (one) than 2004 (none).

This is the moment for the counties to rise to the occasion. The first division was turgid last year, with too many draws and no real battle for the title. Warwickshire led all the way from the end of May, even though they managed to win only five matches out of 16. Their line-up epitomised the whole division: they had several good batsmen, but no strike bowler.

That syndrome is in danger of being worse this year. Lancashire, who have plenty of bowlers if not always an ability to get wickets out of them, have been relegated. Worcestershire, the latest county to pin their hopes on the brittle genius of Shoaib Akhtar, have gone down with them. Harmison is destined forever to languish in the second division and Matthew Hoggard, his friend, is there, too. So are their England predecessors, Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough.

The nine counties in the first division have only two world-class bowlers between them: Shane Warne, already making things happen for Hampshire, and Harbhajan Singh, who is scheduled to join Surrey. Harbhajan, as much of a showman as Warne but more unpredictable, will be a terrific signing, if he actually plays. When he signed for Lancashire in 2003, he did not make it on to the field because of injury. This time he enters pursued by Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, trying to outlaw his “doosra”.

Assuming that he makes it, the first division will have two top-class spinners, plus Mushtaq Ahmed, a colossus at county level, and sometimes Ashley Giles, who has spent the past year inching towards excellence. But where are the quicks? Last year the leading first-division wicket-taker with a new ball in his hand was Johann Louw, of Northamptonshire — Johann who? — but they have gone down. The only bowler of real pace left is Nantie Hayward, of Middlesex and South Africa, who has been off the boil lately. The only present England fast bowler is Simon Jones, who is not as fast as he was.

The best seam bowlers in the first division are Martin Bicknell, of Surrey, in his dotage at 36, Jimmy Ormond, his partner, who is consistently excellent but often unlucky, and a clump of similarly admirable but hardly terrifying figures — Martin Saggers, James Kirtley, Jon Lewis, Heath Streak. Last year Robert Key was able to make nine centuries for Kent and England without once facing a top-class bowler who was fully fit. This year the batsmen will again be having things too much their own way.

The captains will have to make sure the game is not unwatchable as well as unwatched. That means playing to win, taking a risk on the unknown young bowler who might provide a cutting edge and not going off for bad light.

County cricket has got better, but it still has a culture of safety first. This surfaced again when Neville Scott revealed in these pages that the counties are demanding guaranteed survival as their price for finally ceding power to the ECB management board. No one ever has a guarantee of survival, whether as individuals, companies, or even species. It’s a dismal admission of weakness to ask for one.

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• Graham Spiers